Match Report: Long Eaton v Boston 1973
By Ian Gill

Report on the events from the Nottingham Evening Post, Friday 6th July 1973

Speedway fans invade track.

RANGERS ROW AS BOSTON CRASH

Scenes unprecedented at Long Eaton's Station Road speedway track took place last night as the Rangers defeated league leaders Boston by 39-37 (sic).

Halfway through the meeting, Boston protested about the state of the track and later fans invaded the riding area after a skirmish between four riders.

Racing stopped for almost 30 minutes as officials tried to sort out the position.

After seven heats, Long Eaton were winning 26-16 before the biggest crowd of the season of nearly 2000 people. And then the trouble started.

Boston called a halt to proceedings and protested that parts of the track which had been watered to keep down the dust, were too wet.

The ACU referee, Mr C E Todd, inspected the track along with the Boston officials and announced he agreed it was not suitable for a British League speedway match and the result would not count in the league. But he said the match would go on as a challenge affair.

When this was announced, there was uproar in the crowd and several hundred people went to the pits to protest.

Eventually, a second announcement was made saying the match would in fact continue as a league fixture and riding restarted after a long delay.

In heat eleven, in which Long Eaton riders Alan Molyneux and Roger Mills were matched with Carl Glover and Arthur Price, all four riders were involved in a crash in the third lap and Mills was excluded from the re-run.

But because of what Boston riders described as dangerous riding, they refused to take part in this. And Ian Teale, riding as a replacement rider, then completed the four laps on his own to give Long Eaton a 3-0 win in that heat.

Boston won the last two heats but could not pull up the deficit and Long Eaton ended 39-37 (sic) winners.

This article was first published on 9th November 2014

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