Southern Rovers were a British

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 ...

team between 1956 and 1959. They were the champions of the

Southern Area League The Southern Area League was the regional third and then regional second tier of speedway racing in the United Kingdom for Southern British teams as a replacement for the defunct Southern League. The league ran for three seasons from 1954 to 195 ...

during 1957. The team were unique to speedway at the time because they completed a league season despite having no home stadium to ride from.

History

The team were created in 1956 following the demise of Brafield Flying Foxes. The

was faced with a serious problem in that only three teams would have lined up for the season, therefore the promoters got together and encouraged the formation of a team that would race at the three venues of the other league teams. Home fixtures for Southern Rovers would not be held at the team's stadium that they were riding against but away fixtures would. Rovers' team manager Les King also lost the services of their rider Vic Hall (formerly of Brafield) to injury. Therefore the team did extremely well to finish third in the table and were assisted by the consistent riding of Eric Hockaday, Colin Goddy and Eric Eadon. The following season they were based at the home of

Rayleigh Rockets The Rayleigh Rockets were a Speedway team which operated from 1949 until their closure in 1973 from the Rayleigh Weir Stadium in Rayleigh, Essex . History The Rockets inaugural league season was in 1949 Speedway National League Division Three, ...

at the

Rayleigh Weir Stadium Rayleigh Weir Stadium was a speedway, greyhound racing and stock car stadium in Weir between Rayleigh and Thundersley in England. It is not to be confused with the Rayleigh Greyhound Sports Stadium that existed in O’Tooles Meadow on Down Ha ...

, which led to some match reports as the team being called Rayleigh II. The experience of riding away must have helped as Southern Rovers won the title the following season (

1957 Southern Area League The 1957 Southern Area League was the fourth season of the Southern Area League but the first as the regional second tier of speedway racing in the United Kingdom for Southern British teams. Summary California Poppies were no longer competitors w ...

). Five players made the top ten league averages for the season; Colin Goddy,

Leo McAuliffe Leo McAuliffe (1933-2018) was an international motorcycle speedway rider from Wales. Biography McAuliffe was born in 1933 in the village of Clydach, Swansea, Clydach near Swansea. In 1948, he moved to Pontardawe and appeared in court following ...

, Stan Clark, Brian Meredith and Vic Hall. During the

1959 Southern Area League The 1959 Southern Area League was the final season of the Southern Area League as the regional second tier of speedway racing in the United Kingdom for Southern British teams. With no league in 1958, a set of 6 new teams competed in 1959. Summary ...

season the team withdrew after one fixture and had their results expunged.

Season summary

References

Defunct speedway teams in the United Kingdom {{motorcycle-speedway-team-stub