Exeter denied early season rumours that long serving stars Jack geran and Goog Hoskin would not be included in the team line up for the 1955 season. Goog had indeed considered not returning but was eventually persuaded to, and as it transpired, Jack ended up top of the NL Averages for Exeter having scored double figures in ALL of Exeter's 32 league matches.

However, both Hugh Geddes and Bob Meyer, who had been suspended in their homeland, decided not to return and Exeter were desperaetly short of Heat leaders as Jack Hart was going to be late arriving at the County Ground. Francis Cann and Cliff Greener were brought in, but these were Juniors with little experience and Alf Webster made a comeback after the injuries of the previous season.

The Falcon's opened the league season with a narrow win over the much fancied Bristol side and encouragingly in front of a good sized crowd, although Johnny Sargeant was injured in a second half spill. This was followed by a win over Coventry who had looked very strong during the early stages of the season. But already there were ominous dark clouds hanging over the County Ground as attendances began to dwindle and the Weymouth track folded. Soon after, Bristol also closed which at least meant Billy Hole would be joining the Falcons. But it was the end of Johnny Sargeant who made way for Billy, he retired and emigrated to Canada.

Exeter 1955 Left to Right: Francis Cann, Neil Street, Jackie Hart, Bronco Slade, Goog Hoskins, Jack Geran, Alf Webster and Don Hardy on machine.

Exeter's away results were lacking as they were on the wrong end of some heavy scorelines, and home defeats by Poole and Swindon on succesive Mondays made Exeter's position very precarious indeed. Don Hardy was then involved in a last Heat spill during that Swindon meeting from which he was concussed - and eventually led to his departure having had appeared in 258 matches for Exeter, a record that remained until the arrival of Michael Coles in later years. Exeter's fortunes improved slightly as they began a return to big home scores, but it was not enough to avoid the wooden spoon.

At the end of the season, Don Hardy was put on transfer, Goog Hoskin had retired, Jack Hart was planning on remaining in New Zealand as was Jack Geran in Australia. These factors, coupled with dwindling support meant that Exeter, like the other South West teams were to come to an end and League racing at the County Ground was finished until it's return in the 1960's.

Elsewhere in 1955

Ronnie Moore suffered a bad injury whilst driving a midget car at the Plough Lane track during trials to see if the sport could be included on Speedway Tracks. Harringay, Wimbledon and Wembley had all shown great interest in the trials being carried with a view to bring back the dwindling crowds.

Harringay then pulled out of the N.League, no suprise as manager Wal Philips had resigned and attendances had dropped to below 6,000 on average. This was followed by the news that World Champion Ronnie Moore was also leaving Wimbledon to pursue car racing, although he was of course to eventually continue racing Speedway.

Guest riders were introduced and a new 16 Heat 6 man formula devised to stem the fall of gates at Speedway. However, the demise continues with the loss of Harringay as already mentioned and a shortened Wembley season.

Wimbledon (34) win the seven team National League Div 1 ahead of B.Vue (32) and Wembley (23). In the Second Division, Poole (46) took the title beating Coventry (38) and Rayleigh (32) third. Weymouth had withdrawn from Div 2 after just seven matches and Bristol did the same after 14 which meant Exeter finished bottom of the remaining teams on 26pts.

Wimbledon 1955 Left to Right: Alf Hagon, Peter Moore, Ronnie Green, Cyril Brine, Barry Briggs, Ted Brine, Bert Dixon. Front Row: Cyril Maidment, Ronnie Moore and Ron How.

The Southern Area League only started out with 5 teams and were reduced to just 4 when Ringwood pulled out after just eight matches, the League eventually being won by Rye House

Norwich won the National Trophy for the first time in the Clubs history when they beat runners up Wembley by 109pts to 106 on aggregate. They had caused a sensation when they beat Wembley by 21pts at Wembley, but were to be stretched at Norwich and only managed to cling on to win by just three points.

Hot favourite Michael Broadbanks (Rye House) celebrated his 21st birthday in style by winning the Southern Area Championship at Rye House scoring a flawless 15pt maximum to beat runner up Vic Ridgeon (Rye Houe) on 12pts and third placed R.Sharp of California (A Reading side) on 11pts.

In the World Final staged at Wembley, Peter Craven triumphed with 13 pts, second place went to Ronnie Moore 12pts and third was Barry Briggs on 12pts.