Roy Trigg (born 29 April 1943, in

Morden Morden is a district and town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Merton, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. It adjoins Merton Park and Wimbledon to the north, Mitcham to the east, Sutton to the south and Worcester Pa ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

)Fenn, C.(2003). ''Hackney Speedway, Friday at Eight''. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. is a former

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. He was noticed as a teenager by the

Wimbledon Dons The Wimbledon Dons were a professional motorcycle speedway team who operated from the Wimbledon Stadium, Plough Lane in London.Jacobs, N. ''Speedway in London'', The track opened in 1928 and the Dons operated there from 1929 until 1991. They w ...

management who signed him up but immediately loaned him out to lower league

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 ...

. In 1964 the new

Hackney Hawks Hackney Hawks speedway opened in 1963 at Hackney Wick Stadium, Waterden Road, London and operated until 1983. The team replaced the Hackney Wick Wolves who had raced at the stadium from 1935 to 1939. The Hawks were then themselves replaced by the ...

promoter

Len Silver Len Silver (born 2 February 1932, east London, United Kingdom) is a former speedway rider and is former promoter of the Rye House Rockets. Racing career Silver stopped racing in 1957 but returned to the Ipswich Witches in 1960 after a layoff d ...

signed him on a full transfer. He stayed with the Hawks for two seasons but was forced out of the team when

Bengt Jansson Bengt Gustaf Jansson (born 9 January 1943 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a former Swedish international speedway rider. "Banger" was runner up in the 1967 World Final to fellow countryman Ove Fundin after losing a race-off and finished third in 197 ...

was signed. After leaving the

Hawks Hawks are birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. They are widely distributed and are found on all continents except Antarctica. * The subfamily Accipitrinae includes goshawks, sparrowhawks, sharp-shinned hawks and others. This subfamily a ...

he spent a season with the

Oxford Cheetahs The Oxford Cheetahs are a British speedway teamLawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. based at Oxford Stadium, in Oxford, England. They were founded in 1939 and are five times champions of Britain, in 1964, 1985, 1986, 1989 and ...

before moving on to

Cradley Heath Cradley Heath is a town in the Rowley Regis area of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England approximately north-west of Halesowen, south of Dudley and west of central Birmingham. Cradley Heath is often confused with the ...

Foster, P. (2002) ''Heathens: Cradley Heath Speedway 1947-1976'', The History Press Ltd. where he spent the next five seasons. It was with Cradley he was threatened with a gun by

Garry Middleton Garry David Middleton (born 19 July 1948 Corowa, New South Wales - 23 November 1994) was an Australian motorcycle speedway rider. Career He first came to Britain in 1967 a rode for a short time with the Belle Vue Aces and the King's Lynn Sta ...

. Garry tried to forcefully dive under Roy but Roy saw him and slowed down, leaving Middleton to shoot straight past him into the safety fence. Middleton then went into the pits into his toolbox and pulled out a handgun. He had to be dragged from the pits to avoid further trouble. In 1970 he finished third in the

British Speedway Championship The British Speedway Championship is an annual motorcycle speedway competition open to British national speedway riders. The winner of the event becomes the British Speedway Champion. History Inaugurated in 1961 as a qualifying round of the Spe ...

final. For the last two seasons of his career Roy rode with Newport. After he retired he emigrated to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Trigg rode as a New Zealander in the inaugural Australasian Final in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

. He finished in 15th place with two points.

External links

Hackney Hawks Website

References

1943 births Living people British speedway riders English motorcycle racers Hackney Hawks riders Cradley Heathens riders Wimbledon Dons riders Poole Pirates riders Oxford Cheetahs riders Newport Wasps riders New Cross Rangers riders {{England-speedway-bio-stub