| Middlesbrough Bears | |||||||||||
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| Club information | |||||||||||
| Track address | Cleveland Park Stadium Stockton Road Middlesbrough | ||||||||||
| Country | England | ||||||||||
| Founded | 1929 | ||||||||||
| Closed | 1996 | ||||||||||
| Club facts | |||||||||||
| Colours | Red and White Quarters | ||||||||||
| Track size | 335 yards (306 m) | ||||||||||
| Major team honours | |||||||||||
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TheMiddlesbrough Bears were a Britishspeedway team which operated under various names from 1929 until their closure in 1996.[1][2]
Speedway arrived in Middlesbrough during 1928 when an attendance of 15,000 turned up for the inaugural meeting at the recently builtCleveland Park Stadium.[3] The racing was arranged by Northern Speedways and a challenge match between Middlesbrough and Manchester resulted in 8,000 attending.[4] The introduction was a success and the following season a company called Albion Auto racers of Stockport, Cheshire, took over and the team (not known as the Bears yet) were founder members of the1929 Speedway English Dirt Track League, holding their first home fixture was on 16 May 1929 againstSalford.[5][6] However, on 12 July 1929, Dennis Atkinson suffered critical injuries following an accident at Cleveland Park, riding in a Golden Helmet meeting. He died the following day.[7]
The speedway licence was taken over by the Stadium's owners (the National Greyhounds, Middlesbrough)[8] and although various meetings were held from 1930 to 1938, there was a complete absence of league racing until 1939.
Speedway returned to the stadium for the1939 Speedway National League Division Two season.[9] The club's general manager Vic Wieland signed star riderGeorge Greenwood and nicknamed the team the Bears.[10] Unfortunately events did not go to plan and Wieland withdrew the team citing poor attendances.[11]
The stadium staged a couple of open meetings in 1945, then saw competitive league speedway from 1946 until 1948. The Bears led by ridersFrank Hodgson,Kid Curtis,Wilf Plant andJack Hodgson won the Northern League in 1946 and thenDivision Two in 1947.[12][13]
At the beginning of 1949 it was announced that the team would cease and the promotion would move to Newcastle to form theNewcastle Magpies, despite efforts from fans led by Jess Halliday, to keep the team in Middlesbrough.[14]
The Bears nickname was again used when the track re-opened in 1961 under the guidance of former rider turned promoterReg Fearman, who was a multi track promoter and one of the brains behind setting up theProvincial League. RiderEric Boothroyd led the team to a disappointing 10th place finish.[15] At the end of the 1964 season the Bears team moved to Halifax and the track staged challenge matches in 1965 and under former captain Eric Boothroyd's promotion in 1966 before folding. The track was used in the 1950s for amateur / club events and midget car racing.
The track opened again in 1968 but were renamed the Teesside Teessiders by promoter Ron Wilson who also ran Leicester although some record books incorrectly called them Middlesbrough Teessiders. Ron Wilson had changed the name to Teesside because he wanted it to be a new beginning and to take in the whole area not just Middlesbrough. They competed in the newly formed British League Division 2.[16]Graham Plant won the 1968British League Division Two Riders Championship.[17]
From 1970 to 1972, theTeesside Teessiders raced in division 2 but in 1973 they were again renamed, this time as theTeesside Tigers. The Tigers were members of the inaugural National League (as it was renamed in 1975). The following season was significant despite finishing last in the league becauseSteve Wilcock rode the first of his 15 seasons for the club andPete Reading earned a testimonial in 1977.[18] The team struggled for the remainder of the decade and in 1979 were renamedMiddlesbrough Tigers, also a season which after 12 years turned out to be Ron Wilson's final one as he had opened up a new track at Milton Keynes in 1978.
In 1980Mark Courtney became British Junior Champion at Canterbury'sKingsmead Stadium, whilst he and Steve Wilcock won theBritish League Division 2 Riders Pairs Championship at Halifax the same season. The team were also losing Knockout Cup finalists to the homelessBerwick Bandits in a controversial last heat decider at Newcastle'sBrough Park, with the match result dependent on the aggregate score.[19][20] Success continued into 1981, with the Tigers becomingNational League Champions.
The 1980s was a time that the team remained prominent finishing 3rd in both 1985 and 1986 and winning back to backNational League Fours Championship in 1985[21] and 1986.[22] The team saw riders the calibre ofGary Havelock,Martin Dixon,Mark Fiora and Geoff Pusey in support of Wilcock and Courtney. Wilcock earned a testimonial in 1985 and Pusey earned a testimonial in 1988.
There were individual success for Gary Havelock, when he became British Junior Champion at Stoke in 1985. However a major arson attack on the club's main stand in June 1985 at their Cleveland Park Stadium was a catastrophe. Initially crowds were healthy but as the 1980s progressed the club's fortunes on track dwindled, the stand was never replaced by the greyhound owners and there were yearly rumours that the land on which it stood was to be sold for redevelopment.
In 1989, the club reverted once again to theMiddlesbrough Bears under a consortium led by promoter and former riderTim Swales.[23]
The 1990s started well with the Bears finishing runner-up toPoole Pirates in both the league and Knockout Cup but subsequent seasons failed to bring any silverware. Individual success was however achieved byPaul Bentley at Coventry in 1994, when he won theBritish League Division Two Riders Championship[24] andAndy Howe also won the inaugural Academy League Riders Championship at Long Eaton that same season.[25]
Permanent closure arrived in September 1996, when Cleveland Park was sold for re-development.[26] The track was demolished to make way for the Goals soccer centre football pitches and the Macmillan City Technology College extension (part of theMacmillan Academy).[27]
In 2003 the Bears were revived, riding at Hull's Craven Park albeit racing in junior events against two teams from Hull and one from Scunthorpe. They competed in the Humber League and East Riding Cup and also raced at various 'away' tracks including Belle Vue (Manchester), Buxton, Edinburgh, Glasgow, King's Lynn, Newcastle, Oxford, Scunthorpe, Sheffield & Workington. After two years using Hull as a 'home' track they then relocated to Newcastle's Brough Park when the Newcastle Gems folded.
In 2006 a new track opened at South Tees Motorsport ParkSouth Bank, Middlesbrough on the site of an old steelworks and entered thePremier League under the nameRedcar Bears.
