The Wembley Lions were 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 ...

team which operated from 1929 until their closure in 1971. Their track was located at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

Wembley Park Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross. The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broades ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The original stadium which hosted speedway has been redeveloped.

Brief history

Pre-war

After opening in 1929, the Lions joined the

Southern League (1929-1931) Southern League may refer to: Professional baseball leagues in the United States *Southern League (1964–present), active since 1964 * Southern Association, known as the "Southern League", active from 1901 to 1919 *Southern League (1885–1899), ...

, winning it in 1930 and 1931. The 1932 season saw them join the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

which they won at the first attempt. The Lions continued to compete in the National League until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

1946–1957

After the war

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

continued in the National League, winning the title in the opening season in 1946. The following season they retained their title. The Lions operated until the end of the 1956 season, winning the title a further five times (successive titles between 1949 and 1953) but in 1957 they withdrew from the league before the season started due to the death of Sir Arthur Elvin, the chairman of

. Many of the Wembley "home" meetings in 1948 were staged at Wimbledon as the Empire Stadium was used for the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ...

. During this era, speedway went through the biggest crowd "boom" in its history. Wembley, who ran league meetings every Thursday, had by far the biggest crowds. The average weekly attendances were around the 60,000 mark from 1946–1951, with one meeting of note, a London Cup match between Wembley and West Ham, drawing an estimated crowd of 85,000 with 20,000 locked outside, listening to a BBC radio commentary of the match via loudspeakers set up in the car park. Towards the mid-1950s speedway crowds fell away dramatically and Wembley's last season in 1956 saw average attendances of around the 15,000 mark.

1970–1971

In 1970,

speedway returned, entering 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 ...

. Promoters

Trevor Redmond Trevor John Redmond (16 June 1927 – 17 September 1997)Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2003) ''Bristol Bulldogs: 50 Greats'', Stroud: Tempus Publishing. was a New Zealand speedway rider who mainly rode for the Aldershot Shots, and the Wembley Lio ...

and Bernard Cottrell bought their licence and the contracts of some of the riders from the

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 ...

promoter Ian Hoskins who was operating at Coatbridge. The Lions only managed to stay in operation for two seasons due to the stadium not being able to support speedway at all times due to commitments to other events being held there.Jacobs, Norman (2001). ''Speedway in London''.

Big events

staged the Speedway World Championship Final continuously from 1936 to 1938 and then when it was re-introduced after World War II from 1949 to 1960. It went on to stage the championship a further nine times before the last contest at Wembley in 1981. Lions riders won in 1936 (Lionel Van Praag), 1949 (Tommy Price), and 1950 and 1953 (Freddie Williams).

also hosted the British Riders' Championships Finals 1946 to 1948.

Notable Wembley riders

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Season summary

+3rd when season suspended and jointly declared National Trophy winner with Belle Vue

References

{{Reflist Defunct British speedway teams Speedway teams in London Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena