Indeed but they tore it down around that time. We used to play in the gravel pits (or more often on the access roads) as they were great for cycle speedway which we were into at the time. We also played in the quarry down Eppleworth Road on stripped down Honda C50s. Great fun trying to ride up the side of a quarry like some adolescent wall of death. Looking back it's a miracle everyone managed to keep themselves alive.
The times I played in the Melton Bottoms quarry pond as a kid and survived. And then there’s smoking ***s in a hollowed out haystack off Lowfield Lane. I shudder to think now!
We used to take airguns into the quarry, or chalkpit as we called it, and try to shoot rabbits. Never hit one so turned our attention onto old bottles and ****. Like you say, how did we ever survive?
Skidby chalkpit on Eppelworth it had some sort of wriggly tin construction in the middle. Then if feeling energetic biking on to Brantingham dale to race down the hill.
Spot on. I'd forgotten we called it chalk pit. I remember the ramshackled building though. It had a strange atmosphere that place. We used to ride mopeds straight up the steep sides until they basically stalled. Then had the problem of getting them down. Mainly via a semi-controlled slide/fall/tumble with chalk flying everywhere. We were a bunch of ****ing idiots to be honest.
Aye those were the days, going on your bomb bike (pre mountainbike bastardised normal bike, moby or Chopper back wheel, cow horn handlebars, probably one gear, front or no brakes s, made getting up the chalk face hard and coming down scary, no helmets or padding, didn't do any of us any harm, apart from that one kid, we just never saw them again or anyone spoke of them... Kids on mobies going up and down with their engines pffft....
Who did you compete against? I'm aware that there is/was a cycle speedway track still on Hessle foreshore.
There was a league I can remember Kingston Cyclones but **** me DMD it was in ****ing black and white then!
It’s interesting you have that programme. I use to work with a chap John Miller from Motherwell who reckoned he played in that game. Can you tell me if that was true please
Yer now you mention them. There is a web site and I am on it! Which is a real surprise. I remember that we started out on a piece of ground between St Michaels and Elizabeth playing fields, in front of 8th Ave. I was a bit of a dumpy kid then, but honed my skills (he he) riding my bike round and round our garden in 33rd, until I wore all of the grass away. I joined the Army in 72 aged 15 and didn't do many league matches. After 6 weeks basic training, I came home 2 1/2 stone lighter, fit as **** and with loads of stamina. The unit I was in had a rule that during your basic training you either marched or ran, 7 days a week for 6 weeks, certainly works. I got home and was asked to race in a cup match. I pissed my first heats, but the other team kept getting 2 and 3. In the last heat we needed a 5 point win. I held back a little and just kept the inside line, at the end of the straight, before the last corner, instead of sticking to the line, I drifted out, they went with me and John Culver, the other Black Knight came through on the inside, I cut in and passed him on the line. Maximum points and it felt as if I had been peddling for Great Britain. I went back to Norton Manor in Somerset, full of myself, cuffed to ****. One of the training staff asked us all what we had been doing and I told everyone of my win. Ten minutes after he came back into the spider billet and asked if there was anyone good at riding a bike, of course my hand nearly went through the roof. Get your tracksuit on and report to me outside in five minutes came the order. I was still beaming when I got to the camp stables, to be given a wheel barrow, shovel and broom and told to clean out the Regimental Mascot's stable. "As you are so full of ****, maybe you should shovel some lad!" There is a Cycle Speedway team in Southampton and the British champion rode there. Years after leaving the Army, I was working nearby and saw a couple of rider practicing. I asked them for a go and pissed all over the bloke I rode against. Their bikes were lower geared than what we raced and the handle bars were higher, but I had fast legs and really good balance. I went home and thought about giving it another go, but in the morning I couldn't ****ing walk!
