Custom House Years

---

 

Essex County Champions 1930

Reserve League Champions 1934

National League Champions 1937

A.C.U. Cup Winners 1938

British League Champions, Knock-out Cup, Winners London Cup Winners 1965

London Cup Winners 1966

London Cup Winners 1967

 

 

 

West Ham

Reserve League Champions 1934

Team	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Points
West Ham	12	11	1	0	271	149	23
Wembley	12	7	2	3	228	189	16
Harringay	12	6	1	5	218	200	13
Wimbledon	12	6	1	5	208	212	13
Hall Green	12	4	0	8	196	221	8
Belle Vue	12	3	0	9	174	241	6
New Cross	12	2	1	9	166	249	5

 

         

 

 

 

 

                             Rol Stobart/ Wal Morton/George Saunders/Ken Brett

 

 

 

The Team

Photo thanks to Nick Wells

Eric Chittty, Tommy Croombs, Arthur Atkinson, Phil Bishop, Johnnie Hoskins (Promoter), Alec Mosley (mechanic), Broncho Dixon, Bluey Wilkinson, Charlie Spinks. On Bike Captain Harold 'Tiger' Stevenson

West Ham

National League Champions 1937

Team	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Points
West Ham	24	18	0	6	1129	859	36
Wembley	24	16	0	8	1054	943	32
New Cross	24	16	0	8	1042.5	957.5	32
Belle Vue	24	13	0	11	1094	909	26
Hackney Wick	24	10	0	14	935.5	1062.5	20
Harringay	24	9	0	15	929	1064	18
Wimbledon	24	2	0	22	799	1188	4

 

West Ham

ACU cup Champions 1938

 

Pool 1	Harringay	New Cross	West Ham		Race points	Final	Agg
Harringay		57-51	42-64
New Cross	75-32		54-54
West Ham	73-35	61-47				West Ham 64-43
							122
						Wimbledon 50-58	93
Pool 2	Belle Vue	Bristol	Wembley	Wimbledon
Belle Vue		78-30	71-36	56-52
Bristol	74-34		44-64	53-55
Wembley	67-40	61-47		54-54
Wimbledon	67-41	73-35	54-53

 

 

The Team

Ted Ede, Malcolm Simmons, Brian Leonard, Tommy Price (Promoter), Sverre Harrfeldt, Norman Hunter, Reg Trott,

K Mckinlay (Captain) on bike 

 

The British League

 

West Ham

 Inaugural British League Champions 1965

 

Team	Matches	Won	Drawn	lost	For	Against	Points
West Ham	34	23	1	10	1430	1215	47
Wimbledon	34	22	2	10	1396	1245	46
Coventry	34	20	0	14	1384	1258	40
Oxford	34	19	2	13	1308	1340	40
Halifax	33	18	3	12	1322	1240	39
Newport	34	19	0	15	1360	1288	38
Wolverhampton	34	18	1	15	1429	1216	37
Hackney	34	18	1	15	1327.5	1319.5	37
Exeter	34	18	0	16	1325.5	1323.5	36
Poole	34	17	1	16	1378	1266	35
Sheffield	34	16	2	16	1300	1346	34
Newcastle	34	16	1	17	1363	1282	33
Glasgow	34	15	1	18	1315	1329	31
Belle Vue	34	15	0	19	1328	1312	30
Swindon	34	13	2	19	1345	1300	28
Cradley Heath	33	11	1	21	1132	1438	23
Edinburgh	34	11	0	23	1173	1471	22
Long Eaton	34	7	0	27	1107	1543	14

In 1965 the National League and The Provincial League amalgamated to form the British leage! The team fo 65 consisted of Ken Mckinlay (captain), Sverre Harrfeldt, and Norman Hunter as heat leaders with back up from Malcolm Simmons' Reg Trott, Briam leonard, Dave Wills, Tony Clarke and Ted Ede . 

West Ham started off the season anything like champions and by the start of June had won only 5 of there first 13 matches on the road in May they lost consecutive matches to Hackney, Glasgow and Exeter. A bigger blow came when Hackney won at Custom House with the Hammers loosing their 100% home record. Things stated to look up when they beat Wimbledon at Plough Lane on the 12th of June and drew with Wolves on the Road. There last defeat was away to Newcastle on the 26th of July The Hammers remained unbeaten from then on, recording 12 straight wins home and away.

The Hammers strength was their three, top line heat leaders in K McKinlay with an average of 11.37, Sverre Harrefeldt average 11.08 and Norman Hunter averaged 9.67.This top end strength was backed up later in the season by the young Malcolm Simmons who seemed inspired by his exploits in the KO cup replay win over Wimbledon at Plough Lane on the 14th of August. Simmons ended the season with an average of 6.85.The remainder of the team chipped in when necessary and it was left to the London Rivals West Ham and Wimbledon to slug it out for the title.

Both Teams won 7 times on the road and both lost 1 at home. In fact significantly the only team to defeat Wimbledon at Plough Lane was the Hammers and Wimbledon dropped further points by drawing with Oxford at home. This left the league title in the balance until the 23rd of October when the Hammers needed to beat Cradley at Dudley Wood in there final league meeting of the season.

Robert J.Rogers recalls:-

It all hung on the last Saturday of the season, Saturday 23rd October 1965 and the Hammers were away to the Cradley Heath Heathens, one of the midlands’ top clubs, meanwhile the Dons were also up against another top midland club, the Coventry Bees.

I was a 12 year old Speedway mad kid, and like Max Boyce used to say, `I was there!'

The day started badly, when most of the 30 plus coaches carrying the fans got lost in the fog in Birmingham. We ended up with a Police Escort leading a parade of coaches into the Stadium.

The match started slightly late to allow all the fans time to get in, because as well as the home & away fans, there was also coaches from both Wembley (Lions) and Harringay (Racers) supporters, who no longer had a team to follow.

The first race! The tapes went up, and West Ham Captain, Robert `Ken` McKinley was disqualified for an incident at the start. He promptly protested by laying his bike across the track to stop the race. We then knew we were in for a night of high drama, as Wimbledon were also racing that night, and both teams needed to win to become champions.

The racing was both exciting and nervous as first Cradley, then West Ham, took the lead.

With three heats to go, the news came over the stadium public address system, `the Dons` had won at Coventry, this meant we needed to win to become the Champions.

The Hammers did us proud that night by winning the match by 47 points to 31.

Scorers on the night were as follows:

Cradley Heath 31 : Eric Hockady 5; Goog Allen 6; John Hart 5; Chris Julian 4; George Major 0; Leo McAuliffe 5; Ivor Hughes 6

West Ham 47 : Ken McKinlay 9; Reg Trott 2; Sverre Harrfeldt 12; Brian Leonard 5; Norman Hunter 8; Malcolm Simmons 9; Tony Clarke 2

 

 

The Knock out Cup

KO Cup Final winners 65

L to R  N Hunter, T Clarke, B Leonard, S Harrfeldt, R Trott, M Simmons, K Mckinlay (Captain), T Price (Promoter)

It could be said West Ham rode their luck in 1965, no more so than in the Knock out Cup. The Hammers received a bye in the first round this was followed by an easy home win over Newport, the draw then saw them with a home fixture against Wimbledon on August the 13th. The Hammers just scraped a draw with a huge slice of luck when needing a heat win for victory in the final race the West Ham pair of Brian Leonard & Norman Hunter where outgated by Olle Nygren (future Hammer) & Reg Luckhurst (former Hammer) at the third time of asking. It looked all over for the Hammers until Lukhurst engine blew up resulting in a 3-3 and a tied match 48-48

 

How they got there    

Tuesday 29th June 1965 West Ham beat Newport 56 /40 at Custom House in the 2nd round

Tuesday 3rd August 1965 West Ham drew with Wimbledon 48/48 at Custom House in the Quater Final

Saturday 14th August 1965 West Ham beat Wimbledon 47/49 at  Plough Lane  in the Quater Final replay

Friday 10th September 1965 West Ham beat Glasgow 43/50 at White City in the Semi Final

Tuesday 5th October 1965 West Ham beat Exeter 63/33 at Custom House in the 1st leg of the Final

Monday 11th October West Ham beat Exeter 45/51 at the County Ground in the 2nd leg of the Final

West Ham win the Final 114-78 on aggregate

 

For Match Scores and Details   Click Here

                                             

                              West Ham v Newport 2nd Rnd *                       West Ham v Wimbledon Qtr Final     

 

                                     

                     Wimbledon v West Ham Qtr Final Replay #                       Glasgow v West Ham Semi Final

 

                                    

                            West Ham v Exeter Final 1st leg *                     Exeter v West Ham Final 2nd leg                

Programme covers thanks to  *Robert Hull     #Part of the Collection

 

 

The London Cup

Run on a league basis for the first time between the london tracks. Previously the compatition was run on a K.O. Cup basis but by runing on a league format it was hoped to sustain intrest for a longer period. It certainly paid off as record crowds attended all six matches and the Hammers ran on a non-speedway night for their home clash with Hackney, attracting an above average crowd for a Saturday evening meeting. The Hammers made the London Cup the second of their three trophy wins by wining both their home fixtures and losing to Hackney away. They set up the win by Drawing with Wimbledon away and beating them at home in the last match of the compatition.

		Home					Away
Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
West Ham	4	2	0	0	104	88	0	1	1	92	100	5
Hackney	4	2	0	0	100	91	0	0	2	89	103	4
Wimbledon	4	1	1	1	101	91	0	0	2	99	102	3

 

 

 

		Home					Away
Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
West Ham	4	2	0	0	116	76	1	0	1	100	92	6
Wimbledon	4	2	0	0	101	91	1	0	1	91.5	100.5	2
Hackney	4	0	0	2	90.5	101.5	0	0	2	77	115	2

 

		Home					Away
Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
West Ham	4	2	0	0	117	75	2	0	0	113	79	8
Wimbledon	4	1	0	1	99	92	0	0	2	82	110	2
Hackney	4	1	0	1	92	100	0	0	2	72	119	2