The jubilation of Exeter's huge success of the previous season was suddenly brought back down to earth for the 1949 campaign. An application to move up to Division 2 had been rejected on the grounds that crowds weren't big enough to support higher League racing, and this was followed by the news that both Bert Roger and Don Hardy were recalled by their parent club New Cross.

Vic Gent joined the Falcons from neighbouring Plymouth and was named as first reserve along with another newcomer, John Hancox. There was an early set back when Norman clay was injured and Stan Lanfear was brought back into the side. Goog Hoskins, who had been given second half rides also got into the team for a couple of matches. Things looked bleak when Stan Lanfear became another injury victim, but hope was restored when on going talks with New Cross resulted in Don Hardy's transfer being bought by Exeter and he rejoined Exeter once more and top scored in the next match at Plymouth.

The Falcon's however went through a bad spell and results became hard to come by and a tragic even was about to unfold. When Exeter travelled to Liverpool and Halifax, Stan Hodson top scored in both matches, but on his return home he collapsed and was to die in hospital shortly afterwards. He had been suffering from TB for some time and had been advised by doctors to retire from the sport but he couldn't stay away from the sport that he loved.

Exeter's season continued with mixed results and ended the season seventh in the League, but even with the season finished, tragedy had not yet finished with Exeter. Norman Clay had become something of a sensation at Exeter, but having returned to his home in Australia, Norman was tragically killed at the Sydney showground in an horrific smash that also claimed the life of Ray Duggan.

Elsewhere in 1949

1949 was certainly a good year as far as 'English speedway was concerned, 1-2-3 in the World Final, 33 teams in three divisions of the National League and excellent crowds at most of the tracks throughout the season.

The League Championship in Div I went to Wembley who were back at the Empire Stadium after the previous year away (because of the Olympic Games). They probably had the answer to the guest problem too. Although guests were unheard of in 1949, riders still managed to get injured and rode in Test matches etc, however when West Ham's captain Eric Chitty was injured, Wembley loaned George Wilks to the Hammers until Chitty was back in action, this was for, most of the season. George was one of Wembley's leading riders at the time, and contributed 219league points from 35 matches including 2 maximums for an average of 6.26 which was harder to achieve in 1949 than in 1979.

As a matter of interest, the top league average in 1949 was Vic Duggan with 10.19, together with Jack Parker 9.59 and Graham Warren 9.63 they were the only riders to exceed 9.00 in Div 1. The Lions finished 9 points clear of Belle Vue and New Cross were third. Bristol were winners of Div 2 with a 10 point margin over Sheffield, while in the 3rd Division, Hanley (Stoke) and Yarmouth tied with 71 points each, but the Potters had a much better race points average.

The three divisions were made up with 8 teams in Div l, 12 in Div 2 and 13 in Div 3. The Hull Angels pulled out after racing 35 of their 48 league matches and their remaining fixtures were completed by newcomers Swindon. The Hull team of that era did not race at the Boulevard but at Heddon which was a large D-shaped track which provided some spectacular racing particularly when leg trailer Mick Mitchell was in full cry.

The big event of the year was of course the re-introduction of the World Championship after 10 years, the British Riders' Championship having provided three very good substitute events in 1946, 1947 and 1948. The story of the 1949 final is now a proud part of English speedway history, Tommy Price became the first Englishman to win the title, Jack Parker and Louis Lawson filled the 2nd and 3rd places for an England 1-2-3. The final certainly created some interest for the capacity 93,000 crowd who found tickets as hard to obtain as F.A. Cup Final tickets, such was the popularity of speedway in 1949.

The popular England v Australia Test series was also continued and the Aussies won 3-2 even though they were without Vic Duggan after the first two Tests. He scored a maximum 18 points in each of those at Wembley and Birmingham and the powerful Australian team were too good for their English rivals, but all five matches were excellent value for money and surprisingly England had an aggregate score of 281 to the Aussies 259 yet still lost the series. This is accounted for by England's big win in the last Test at Odsal where Dent Oliver scored his second Test maximum.

The British Match Race Championship for the Golden Helmet truly became "Parker's Pension" in 1949. He defeated Ron Johnson in May, Graham Warren in June, Aub Lawson in July and Tommy Price in August. Price was the only contender to force him in to a decider but, as at the beginning of the season, Jack Parker held the helmet at the end and the £7 a week that went with it throughout the winter.

In Division 2, the Silver Helmet was declared vacant with the promotion of Birmingham (and Graham Warren) to Division 1 and in fact was not raced for until August when Billy Hole beat Ken LeBreton. September challenger Wilf Plant broke a collar bone and his challenge was taken up by Phil Clarke who went on to beat Billy Hole 0-2, 2-1, 2-0.

On the individual scene there were a number of prestige meetings. The most important was the London Riders Championship which was won by Alec Statham after a run-off with Eric French in what was a superb meeting even though Vic Duggan and Bill Kitchen were non-starters at the tiny New Cross track. Also at New Cross was the Tom Farndon Trophy which was won by Wilbur Lamoreaux. Jack Parker took the 100 Guineas Trophy at Belle Vue and the newly created Scottish Team Riders' Championship went to Jack Young. It seems incredible that this young Aussie was having his debut season in Britain. Also having their debut seasons in 1949 were Ken McKinlay at White City, Glasgow and 16-year-old Reg Fearman at West Ham.

As in previous years, the Daily Mail National Trophy was raced on a knock out basis with the Div 3 clubs starting the action. Stoke (Hanley) were the winners after defeating Yarmouth 113-101 in the final but Stoke were soon put out by Fleetwood in the Div 2 eliminators, the score was 121-94. Bristol emerged as winners of this section after beating Norwich in the final by 111-105 and Bristol went out to New Cross in the next round but the racing on these two small tracks was worth going miles to see, the final score was 115-100.

The other major competition was the London Cup which like the National Trophy, was raced on aggregate score home and away knock out formula. The winners were Wembley who beat West Ham in both legs of the final to finish with an aggregate of 124-92. One of the major upsets of 1949 was in this competition when Div 2 Walthamstow (Pictured Right) defeated Harringay and narrowly lost the tie 112-103. There were six London clubs in those far off days and the London Cup was a well-supported competition and was sponsored by the Evening News.

Leading scorers in 1949 were (NL Div 1) Jack Parker (B.Vue) 599pts, Aub Lawson (W.Ham) 590 and Tommy Price (Wembley) 536pts. In Div 2 it was Billy Hole (Bristol) 576, Alan Hunt (Cradley) 541 and Jack Mountford (Bristol) 517.5. In the third Division it was Billy Bales (Yarmouth) 616, Pete Lansdale (Plymouth) 547 and Ken Adams (Hanley,Stoke) on 543