General NewsOfficial Media Releases

Coventry Chairman Issues Rallying Call on Eve of Biggest Ever Match

Coventry Cycle Speedway chairman Dave Foster has issued a rallying call to all sports fans in Coventry – as the biggest ever Cycle Speedway match ever to be staged in Coventry races into the city this Thursday 6th August (7.15pm start).

After months of planning and intense preparation, the greatest day in Coventry Cycle Speedway club`s history finally arrives with the first ever official International at Hearsall Common between Great Britain and Australia. Admission is free to all spectators.

Dave Foster, chairman of the booming promoting Coventry club, has appealed to the good people of Coventry to come out and support what will be a spectacular free event, held in high summer and all just a wheelspin from Coventry city centre.

Foster, a veteran official of the Coventry Cycle Speedway scene, said: “Thursday 6th August will be our greatest day, our finest hour. The stage is set for a truely wonderful evening of international sport. I can promise first time visiors a professionally staged show, full of promotional flare, that will equal the presentation of any professional sports event.

“Cycle Speedway team racing is like `Rollerball`, or Rugby Union on wheels. Its undoubtably the most exciting cycle sport by a huge distance and spectactors can be assured of 90 minutes of alarming crashes and bone-jarring racing.

“The Coventry Cycle Speedway club have worked for 6 months on the event, have raised thousands of pounds of funding and sponsorship, and carried out major facility improvements at Hearsall Common, to bring this major international sporting event to the city. It will be shown on Sky Sports four times and be broadcast globally to over 190 milion homes.

“We will be projecting the city of Coventry in the best possible way to the 50 strong Australian touring party, the expected 1,500 crowd and the worldwide TV audience. Our efforts to promote our city deserve to be supported and we appeal to the city`s sports loving followers, and family groups, to come along and cheer Great Britain to victory`, concluded Foster.

The staging of the historic 3rd and final Great Britain V Australia match at Hearsall Common will cap the remarkable resurgence of the Coventry Cycle Speedway club as one of the most active, successful and thriving sports clubs in Coventry – either amateur or professional.

After a bungled disciplinary action against the club in 2007 (for which a full apology was later issued), there was no racing at Hearsall Common between 2007 and 2010. However, a group of local Cycle Speedway stalwarts refused to let the sport die in the city.

Their hopes were rewarded in May 2011, when a challenge match against Birmingham, for which Coventry had to borrow riders to make up a team, sparked an amazing revival.

Chairman Foster takes up the story: “One of our original members from 1978, Rob McGuire, a landscape gardener by trade, completely reinstated the track, which was overgrown with weeds and repaired the perimeter fence, which was falling down, for the revival match against Birmingham. Little did we know this would lead to the astonishing revival that then took place.

“Soon, we were almost overan with former riders, newcomers and volunteers – it was miraculous. Myke Grimes, who had just finished university, got in touch. Using our Polish links, we signed Konrad Pietak and we suddenly found scores of new local riders. Local veteran riders like Dave Frith and Norman Venson helped out enormously.

“We made great efforts to find new volunteers to run the club and we hit the jackpot when new families like the Marsh, Drewett, Morris, Sawbridge and Reynolds families, all from Coventry, and with their rider offsprings like Sammi, Josh, Ollie, James, Spencer and Shaun in tow, joined to transform the administration of the club.”

Now, the Coventry Cycle Speedway club is booming on all fronts. They have scores of sponsors, have record numbers of riders and volunteers, are part of Coventry City Council`s ten year sports plan and only two weeks ago, staged a special meeting to give nine brand new youngsters their first ever taste of racing.

This Thursdays Great Britain V Australia 3rd Test match is being used by the club to celebrate their amazing revival. Be there to join-in the fun!

The mens Test is preceded by a womans Test match at 5pm.

For more information on the GB V Australia Test match, go to: www.coventrycyclespeedway.co.uk