Exhibition stuff on Cliftonhill use

[Nanook]

Does anyone have any information on the following?  Dates would be good but year will do.

WW2 review of the troops



Lanarkshire Fire Brigade held their annual review there in the 1950's

Monkland Harriers have run athletic championships



Stock car racing



Pop concert there in the early seventies

[Rovergrant]

I remember going with my dad to the first stock car meeting...i would guess very early 60s...massive crowd (at least to me it seemed to be considering the numbers the Rovers were getting then...possibly two or three times today`s crowds. David Fagan (Tom Fagan`s son) won the very first race in a Ford `popular prefect` car - painted in Rovers yellow and red colours. Sorry I can`t help on dates or any of your other questions, Brian.

[alasdair1946]

Stock car racing was held at Cliftonhill in 1965. There were 9 meetings. it was a Spedeworth promotion. I got this on Google under "Defunct Stock Car Venues".

[Roy of the Rovers]

Interesting Al - didn’t know that.

[fineen]

I went to one speedway meeting and found it boring: whoever led at the first bend won every time. Smelly, too.

[Roy of the Rovers]

I did go to the speedway regularly and most aficionados remember the smell of the fumes evocative of the atmosphere of the crowd.

[shakey]

I too went to the Speedway regularly - at least in Coatbridge Monarch times - but even when I didn't I could hear the noise and smell the fuel outside my house in Kirkshaws!

Crowds were amazing in those days and one of my big dreams was to one day be able to afford to sit in the stand for a meet - I never managed that. I used to stand at the corner before the finishing line where the club shop is now and get covered in ash each time the bikes came around that bend.

Seem to remember that the corners of the football pitch were actually part of the track. In those days football definitely took a back seat at Cliftonhill.

[alasdair1946]

Quite a few photos, some in colour, online on "Defunct Speedway Tracks - Coatbridge Speedway - 1968-1977", of riders and the stadium as it was then, showing the white corrugated iron barriers which were erected when speedway was on. Programmes & badges also shown. It does mention that the photos are copyright, held by John Skinner, "not to be used for financial gain" but would this include for use in a book like this? Iain (McLean)might be able to help.

[seventhrover]

Really enjoyed the speedway first time round when the Monarchs arrived. Remember a few times going to a game in the afternoon and then back at night for speedway - crowds were sadly much larger on the Saturday nights IIRC.

Shakey is right about the corners too - I remember the corner flags being positioned in the shale a few feet off the grass so that the riders had more room as they entered the bends. Didn’t help Sammy Ferris pick out a pinpoint cross when we occasionally got a corner!

[photomclean1]

There's a nod to speedway in the forthcoming Summerlee exhibition and there will be a panel with pictures and info on the history of bike racing at Cliftonhill.
Date for the diary....Saturday 6th July at 1pm, Summerlee Museum. Spread the word!

[seventhrover]

Nanook, can you check your PMs.

Cheers

[Nanook]

PM'd you seventhrover.

[seventhrover]

Was speaking to my dad tonight about the above and although he can’t recall anything specific about the Harriers running athletics championships at Cliftonhill, he said that secondary schools in Coatbridge used Cliftonhill for their annual school sports events when he was at primary school. The event also included a relay for all primary schools and both he and his brother won the relay with Gartsherrie Academy when they were in P7, so that would have been between 1939 and 1942. He’s not sure when they stopped using Cliftonhill.

Hope this is of assistance

[shakey]

I also remember my primary school team - Kirkshaws - playing a cup final at Cliftonhill - probably around 1967-68. The first time I'd ever got to run on the hallowed turf! Not because I was playing mind - pitch invasion at the end of the game :-)

[charlestheoptimist]

I seem to recall my late dad also on about Greyhound racing being held at Cliftonhill - was the old bricked out building behind the home dug out involved in this ?