Such was Exeter's success in 1951, that it eventually led to a break up of the team for the 1952 season. Bob Roger went the way of his two brothers previous and was recalled by New Cross. The high scoring of Ken Walsh was also recognised as he moved up to join Division one side Harringay whilst the ever improving Jack Bedkober decided to retire and returned home to Australia.

Ron Barrett came to Exeter on loan from Harringay after having been at Plymouth in 1951, and also two new Australians joined who were to play a big role with the Falcons in future years, namely Jack geran and Neil Street. Another newcomer was New Zealander Jack Hart who was involved in a smash in his first meeting and broke a leg that was to prevent him riding for the rest of the season. Of the other riders, Don Hardy, Goog Hoskin, Vic Gent and Johny Sergeant returned to ride for Exeter.

Exeter's League campaign got off on the wrong foot as they lost at Plymouth by 57-27, but they bounced back with an easy win over Wolverhampton at the County Ground and then an away win a few nights later at Wolverhampton where Goog Hoskin was in sensational form for the falcons scoring an 18 point maximum. It was Goog's night again four days later away to St Austell as he scored an unbeaten 12 to steer Exeter to an emphatic 29-55 away win.

Johny Sergeant damaged his knee early in the season as Exeter turned in some excellent results with Goog Hoskin at the forefront notching up several impressive maximums. Bill Dutton then announced he would no longer be controlling Exeter as his other venture at Cardiff seemed a better option and "Bronco" Slade, the former Falcon took over the reins.

Scares all round when Goog Hoskins suffered a wrist injury during a Bronze helmet challenge, but fortunately he was able to return after a couple of weeks. The Falcons then fell into their usual mode of winning well at home but losing away, despite some very close away scores. In June, they lost at home to Rayleigh in the S.League, and that was repeated in August, as was the home defeat by Swindon.

However, away wins at St.Austell and Ipswich helped stabalise the camp, but towards the end of the season they suffered a 65-19 drubbing at Cardiff and a 62-21 mauling at Southampton. Exeter finished the season 5th out of the ten teams, despite early calls that the team was to "weak". However, the seeds had been sown for a strong challenge in 1953 ... and one that the Falcons would seize with both hands.

Elsewhere in 1952

There were no less than 32 competing teams in the three divisions during this year. Division 1 was made up of 10 teams including newly promoted Norwich, and they raced a 36 match league programme, each team racing each other twice at home and twice away. Wembley again proved to be the strong team winning the title for the sixth time in seven seasons as they emerged 11 points clear of runners-up Birmingham.

Division 2 was much changed from the previous season with Norwich (promoted), Walthamstow, Halifax, Fleetwood and Newcastle all missing. The 1951 Division III champions Poole were promoted and promptly went on to win the Division II title in 1952, eight points clear of Coventry in the 12-team league. As in the higher division, two home and two away matches against every other club was the formula and a 44-match programme ensured some high scoring riders such as Tommy Miller of Glasgow who scored 466 points from 43 matches. Another interesting feature of Division II was that there were no less than four strong Scottish teams represented, Glasgow Ashtleld, Glasgow White City, Motherwell and Edinburgh.

Division 3 was replaced by the Southern League and started with 11 teams. Promoted Poole were replaced by neighbours Southampton who had withdrawn from Division II the previous season. However, after 20 league matches from a scheduled 40-match programme, Long Eaton withdrew because of financial instability. Fortunately they had completed their National Trophy match against Wolverhampton and their Midland Cup match versus Wolverhampton before closing down. Rayleigh went on to win the title with a 10-point lead over runners-up Cardiff.

Pictured Left, the Poole team of 1952, Back (L to R) Alan Kidd, Bill Holden, Roy Craighead, Tony Lewis
Front : Brian Crutcher, Terry Small, Ken Middleditch, Jimmy Squibb.

The National Trophy was the knock-out cup of the era and started at Long Eaton on April 17. Some 56 matches later the final was raced between Birmingham and Harringay, the London team were the winners by 124 points to 92. The surprise packets were Poole who disposed of Plymouth, Oxford and Liverpool and went into the third round. The Pirates then knocked out Norwich before going down 11-105 to New Cross over two legs. Ken Middleditch scored an incredible 141 points from these 12 matches and a very young Brian Crutcher scored 133 from the same matches.

The other major team competition during the season was the London Cup which was also won by Harringay. Major surprise in this competition was Wimbledon's defeat of the powerful Wembley Lions at home and away, they then lost both legs of the final to Harringay. The Racers managed to win all four of their matches in this competition, but West Ham's Jack Young took the scoring honours with 67 out of a possible 72 points.

Pictured Right, film star of the era Peggy Cummins presents the National Trophy to Harringay.

The premier individual event was the World Championship. For the first time since the war the continental riders held their own qualifying rounds and Bob Mark, Tony Lewis, Ken McKinlay, Reg Morgan and Jim Gregory were Britain's representatives on the continent. Only Jim Gregory qualified for the National Round from the European Grand Final and the Championship Round provided a few shocks with Bob Oakley heading the qualifiers on 28 points just one point more than Fred Williams, Jack Young and Split Waterman. Although Bert Roger qualified he was injured prior to the final and this let in Sweden's Dan Forsberg who became the first Swedish rider to ride in a World Final. Some of the non-qualifiers were Jack Parker, Tommy Miller, Tommy Price, Graham Warren, Geoff Mardon and Jack Biggs.

Nevertheless, it was one of the most competitive finals of all time with some fine racing and the title eventually going to Jack Young who became the first rider to win the title twice. jack scored 14pts to beat runner up Freddie Willams on 13 and third was Bob oakley on 12.

Other individual championships saw Ronnie Moore win the London Riders' Championship, Len Williams the Midland Riders Championship, Dick Campbell the Scottish Team Riders Championship, Ken Sharpies the 100 Guineas Trophy, Ronnie Moore the Irish Open Championship and the Stadium Cup at West Ham. The Golden Helmet Match Race Championship again provided controversy, Split Waterman beat Jack Young in May but had to relinquish the title in June because of injury. Jack Young beat Ronnie Moore after they had been nominated to race for the title and in July, Split Waterman resumed racing and was nominated but after a first leg dispute the match was declared void. Once again Young and Moore battled for the title which Young won 2-0, 2-0. In August, Young beat oft the challenge of Freddie Williams by 2-0, 0-2, 2-0 and was not called upon to defend it again during 1952. The Silver Helmet was not contested in 1952 so Tommy Miller was not called upon to defend his title.

Of the top scores of 1952, Tommy Miller managed 847 points from 71 meetings which included 123 in test matches, Derek Close was his nearest challenger with 705, but the consistent Jack Young put together 377 league points including 19 maximums in his first season in the top league. He also managed two 18-point maximums in the National Trophy matches against Bradford only to finish on the losing side. In conclusion it is as well to remember that a small lad made five appearances for Liverpool for just five points in 1952 and was mainly restricted to the second half, three years later he was World Champion ... his name Peter Craven.