Hackney Hawks | |||||
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Club information | |||||
Track address | Hackney Wick Stadium Waterden Road Hackney London | ||||
Country | England | ||||
Founded | 1963 | ||||
Closed | 1983 | ||||
League | Provincial League/British League | ||||
Website | www | ||||
Club facts | |||||
Colours | Red & blue quarters with gold sash/ Yellow Hawk on Blue and White Check | ||||
Track size | 345 yards (315 m) | ||||
Major team honours | |||||
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Hackney Hawks speedway opened in 1963 at Hackney Wick Stadium, Waterden Road, London, England, and operated until 1983. The team replaced the Hackney Wick Wolves who had raced at the stadium from 1935 to 1939. The Hawks were then themselves replaced by the Hackney Kestrels. [1]
Originally opened by Mike Parker, the team joined the Provincial League in 1963. [2] The team finished 10th in their debut season in the 1963 Provincial Speedway League. [3] The promotion was then sold to Len Silver who was the club's promoter for the next twenty seasons. [4] The riders and track staff marched onto the track to the sound of the theme tune of the film The Magnificent Seven and that tune inspires more memories for Hackney Hawks fans than anything else. The Hawks were closely linked with sister track the Rayleigh Rockets and latterly the Rye House Rockets. [5]
In 1971, Hackney won their only major honour when they beat Cradley Heath Heathens to win the British League Knockout Cup. They had previously finished runner-up in the league during the 1968 British League season. [6] The team finished runner-up again durin the 1980 British League season but ceased to operate after the 1983 season. [7]
The Hackney Hawks name was revived in 2011 in the National League as a joint promotion between the promotions at Lakeside and Rye House with the Hawks home matches being divided between the two parent tracks.
In June 1979, popular Hawk Vic Harding was killed whilst racing for the team. A Vic Harding Memorial Trophy meeting was held in his memory every season after his death, and was in fact the final meeting that Len Silver ran at Waterden Road in 1983.
In 1984 the promotion was sold and the promotion from Crayford moved their Kestrels team into the stadium and became known as the Hackney Kestrels. [8]
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Hackney Wick Stadium was a greyhound racing and speedway stadium located at Waterden Road in Hackney Wick, London, England.
The Rye House Rockets were a speedway team based at Rye House Stadium, Hoddesdon, England. They competed in various British speedway leagues from 1954 to 2018.
Len Silver is a former motorcycle speedway rider and is former promoter of the Rye House Rockets.
Rye House Stadium is a former greyhound racing and speedway venue in Rye Road, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. It is situated adjacent to the River Lea Navigation.
The Rayleigh Rockets were a Speedway team which operated from 1949 until their closure in 1973 from the Rayleigh Weir Stadium in Rayleigh, Essex.
Vic Harding was a motorcycle speedway rider.
Colin George Pratt was a British motorcycle speedway rider and later promoter of the Coventry Bees who compete in the British Elite League. He was the joint manager of the Great Britain national speedway team with Eric Boocock.
Edward David Kennett is a motorcycle speedway rider. He was the British Under-21 Champion in 2005 and has appeared in two Speedway Grand Prix as a wild card. He has recently retired from the sport due to injury.
Barry John Thomas is a former motorcycle speedway rider. 'Thommo' is considered by many to be the most popular Hackney rider ever, staying with the club based at the Hackney Wick Stadium for a record-breaking 20 consecutive seasons.
The London Lions were a motorcycle speedway team that operated for one season during the 1996 Premier League speedway season from the Hackney Wick Stadium, the former home of the Hackney Hawks and the Hackney Kestrels.
The Crayford Kestrels were a Speedway team which operated from 1968 until their closure in 1983. They were based at Crayford & Bexleyheath Stadium in Crayford.
Finn Thomsen is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Denmark.
Bo Petersen is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Denmark. He was the 1980 Danish champion.
The Hackney Kestrels were a Speedway team which operated from 1984, when the Crayford Kestrels transferred the promotion to Hackney, until their closure in 1990.
The Walthamstow Wolves were a speedway team which operated from 1934 and again from 1949 until their closure in 1951.
Jens Rasmussen is a former speedway rider from Denmark, who rode in the United Kingdom.
Hackney Wick Wolves speedway opened in 1935 at Hackney Wick Stadium, Waterden Road, London, and operated until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Many years later the Hackney Hawks and Hackney Kestrels rode at Hackney Wick Stadium.
Roy George Arthur Case was an Australian international speedway rider who finished sixth in the 1936 Speedway World Championship, the first ever final.
Laurie Etheridge is a former international motorcycle speedway rider from England. He earned one international cap for the England national speedway team.
Hugh Saunders is a former speedway rider from Guernsey, who competed in the National League.