Peter Arthur Smith (born 11 July 1942, in

Hanworth Hanworth is a district of West London, England. Historically in Middlesex, it has been part of the London Borough of Hounslow since 1965. Hanworth adjoins Feltham to the northwest, Twickenham to the northeast and Hampton to the southeast, with S ...

, England) is a former international

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

rider from England, who spent his entire career with the

Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by l ...

Career

Smith began riding speedway motorcycles at the training track at

Rye House Stadium Rye House Stadium is a former greyhound racing and speedway venue in Rye Road, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. It is situated adjacent to the River Lea Navigation. Origins The name Rye House originates from a collection of medieval buildings on an ar ...

in the early 1960s. In 1962, Smith took part in a number of second-half meetings at

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

and made his first full appearance for Poole at a challenge match at Rye House. He continued to improve at Poole and by 1968, Smith had become the Pirates third heat-leader. Poole won the

British League The British League was the main motorcycle speedway league in Britain from its formation in 1965 until 1995 when British speedway was restructured. It initially had a single division, with a second division starting in 1968 (which was renamed the ...

championship in 1969 and Smith rose to the number one position at the club with an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 9.52. Smith also made his first international appearances for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1969 against Australia, New Zealand and Scotland. He was made Poole's captain in 1971 and continued to ride for the club until his retirement from the sport in 1977. He made 620 appearances for

during his 15 years career establishing a club record.

References

1942 births Living people British speedway riders English motorcycle racers Poole Pirates riders {{England-speedway-bio-stub