William Muir Templeton (12 September 1930 – 15 August 2008) was a

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 Scotland.

Career

Willie Templeton and his brother

Doug Templeton Douglas Templeton (18 June 1928 – 21 December 2019) was a motorcycle speedway rider from Scotland. Career Doug Templeton began racing for Glasgow White City Tigers during the 1953 Speedway National League Division Two season. The followi ...

first raced during the 1958 season in a series of challenge matches for Lanarkshire Eagles based in Motherwell. The pair raced grass track during 1959, before joining

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish Speedway team, currently based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the Speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess. The cl ...

for the new

1960 Provincial Speedway League The 1960 Provincial Speedway League was the first season of the re-incarnated Provincial League, ten motorcycle speedway teams took part. Summary The league was dominated by Rayleigh, Poole and Bristol. Rayleigh and Poole finished on the same po ...

. They spent five seasons with Edinburgh from 1960 to 1965 before Willie finally separated from his brother by joining Glasgow Tigers during the

1965 British League season The 1965 British League season was the 31st season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom. It was also the first known as the new British League which was formed in 1965, along with the British Speedway Promoters Association (BSPA). Th ...

. He would ride of the club for seven seasons from 1965 until 1971 and during that time would ride in the same team as his two nephews Jim McMillan and Bill McMillan. For the

1970 British League season The 1970 British League season was the 36th season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the sixth season known as the British League. Summary Wembley Lions under the promotion of Trevor Redmond and Bernard Cottrel entered the Bri ...

his brother Doug also joined the club from

. All four family members were part of the team during the same season in 1970 and 1971. In 1972, along with his brother Doug, he joined Scottish rivals

Berwick Bandits The Berwick Bandits are a British speedway club, based in Berwick-upon-Tweed. They currently compete in the SGB Championship, racing at Shielfield Park, with home matches usually taking place on Saturday evenings. They also run a second team in ...

in the second division. He continued to ride for Berwick until his last season in 1978. He earned one international Scottish cap.

References

1930 births 2008 deaths British speedway riders Scottish speedway riders Berwick Bandits riders Edinburgh Monarchs riders Glasgow Tigers riders {{Speedway-stub