Wally Mawdsley and Pete Lansdale, directors of Speedway Enterprises (Rayleigh) Ltd, first considered staging speedway racing at Exeter's County Ground in May of 1960.

Their Company had just previously re-opened Rayleigh and had entered the track into the Provincial League competition. Only a couple of months old, it was obvious to all that the Provincial League was going to be a great success, and Wally and Pete were anxious to find a second track to enter into the competition. In the late 1940's and early 1950's Wally and Pete were both members of the Plymouth team, and after many late-night conferences, they plumped for a West Country track as their second business venture. But what track offered the best possibilities?

There were three tracks in the West Country, all very suitable for Provincial League racing, and the only way to find out which one was the best was to visit them all in turn. Exeter was the first track visited and after long discussions with the Stadium management Wally and Pete left to look in at Plymouth and St. Austell. On their way back to London they called at the County Ground again, this time to set the ball rolling for a lease on the Stadium. What made them plump for Exeter ? In their Plymouth days, both recalled the great enthusiasm that always prevailed at the Conty Ground. It was the kind of enthusiasm that was making Provincial League racing the success it was, and Wally and Pete hoped that at Exeter they could rekindle that enthusiasm.

A lease to promote speedway racing at the County Ground was successfully' negotiated. The tough fight to bring speedway back to Exeter had begun. Arrangements were made to re-open the track in July, 1960 but the Speedway Control Board were not prepared to grant `Open Licences' at this stage of the season, and it was not until another Company took an interest in the Plymouth track in mid-September and Bristol and St. Austell promised support for a four team Western League competition, that the Control Board approved a Track Licence for Exeter. Once the Licence had been granted the Control Board worked very hard towards the success of Exeter, and to ensure that the Falcons were represented by a good team they agreed to Rayleigh riders forming the basis of the Falcons' team for their Western League matches.

Unfortunately, at the last minute Bristol had to withdraw their offer of three matches at Knowle Stadium, and to save further embarrassment the Control Board allowed racing to continue at other member tracks, and to the classing of the matches as Challenge Matches. And so, plans were to stage the opening meeting, depite continual rain that had fallen in the preceding four days turning the track into a quagmire. Just a couple of hours before the match was due to start the rain held up, and we were all to witness the wonderful drying properties of the County Ground track. Senior Auto-Cycle Union official Mr. T. C. E. Clapp, who was acting as Referee that night had a chat with the riders of both the Exeter and Plymouth teams, and they decided to go ahead with the meeting. It wasn't the fastest of racing that night, but the boys certainly put on a great show. ..... speedway was back in Exeter !

Eric Hockaday, who was to skipper the Falcons in the first half of the 1961 season, scored a maximum and went on to win his heat and the final of the scratch races. Former Falcon Francis Cann, who was to become a great favourite at Exeter in 1961 and 1962, returned the fastest time of the night and riding was another former Falcon that night - Goog Hoskin. Goog had a few trial laps during the intervall and made such an impression that he was offered a place in the team for the following week's match. He maintained that he was not fit enough to ride, and has never been seen on the track since !

Bristoll were the visitors on Monday, September 26. Pete Lansdale topped the score chart that week, and went on to 'clean-up' the second-half, but Eric Hockaday had the honour of establishing a new track record - 77.4 seconds. This was to be Bristol's last ever match, for earlier that day it had been announced that their Stadium had been sold for development purposes. Bristol's loss was certainly Exeter's gain, for included in the Bulldog's team that night was a youngster named Eric Howe. He didn't have a very successful evening, but certainly did enough to warrant Wally and Pete offering him a contract for the 1961 season.

Exeter's team was taking shape. Francis Cann and Eric Hockaday, along with promoter Pete Lansdale, had already announced their intentions of riding for the Falcons in 1961, and when St. Austell visited the County Ground on October 3rd, four of the Falcons had already signed contracts for the following year. And so the trial season of 1960 had come to an end. Three matches, three wins, and four definite starters for the 1961 Provincial League campaign.

Elsewhere in 1960

Wimbledon captured the two main Team trophies of this year winning both the National League title and The National trophy when they beat Norwich 115-101 on aggregate. Hero of that encounter was Wimbledons reserve Gil Goldfinch who scored 12 pts in the Final home leg to help turn around a 16pt deficit from the first leg. They were denied a triple success when they were beaten by Belle Vue in the Brittania Shield trophy going down by 80-100 on aggregate.

The initial Provincial League program was dominated by the top three clubs in Rayleigh, Poole and Bristol after fears that there would simply not be enough riders to sustain such a venture. Whilst good racing was assured when these teams met, lesser teams were thrashed easily and there was concern as to wether the public would want to continue attending. Bristol went on to win the Knockout Cup despite the number of teams entering being very few. In the Final, they beat Rayleigh 100-89 on aggregate with Trevor Redmond scoring 18pt maximums in both legs. Redmond also went on to win the Provincial League Riders Championship scoring a 15pt maximum on his way to beating second placed Eric Hockaday (13pts) and T.Robinson who finished on 11pts.

Pictured Left: The Double winninig Wimbledon "Dons" Team.
Back Row - Ron How, Cyril Maidment, Ted Brine (Manager), Cyril Brine, Gerry Jackson
Front Row - Peter Moore, Ronnie Moore Bob Andrews, Jim Tebby.

Ove Fundin won the World Championship Final staged at Wembley beating Ronnie Moore into second place and Peter Craven third on after a thrilling run off, all three riders having scored 14pts after their five rides.

Sweden won the World Team Cup held in Gothenburg, the home side scored 44pts to beat Great Britain 30 points, Czechoslovakia 15pts and Poland 7pts

T.Robinson scored a maximum 15pts on his way to winning the Northern Riders Championship ahead of Reg Fearman 13pts and L.Williams on 12pts whilst Doug Templeton achieved the same score to win the Scottish Open Riders Championship ahead of Reg Luckhurst 14pts and Brian Craven on 11pts. H.Zyto won the Midland Riders Championship held at Coventry scoring 14pts to beat runner up Arnie Pander (12pts) and Jack Young who also finished on 12pts.

There was a huge roll of other trophy winners this season, some of which are listed here.
Ronnie Moore won the Surrey Championship (Wimbledon), the Supporters Championsip (Southampton) the South London Championship (New Cross), The Laurels (Wimbledon) and the Champion of Champions (New Cross). Ross Gilbertson won the easter trophy (Eastbourne, Peter Craven the Metropolitan Cup (Wimbledon), Harry Bastable the Jubilee Cup (Stoke), Eric Hockaday the Essex Championship (Rayleigh) and the Sussex Championship (Eastbourne), barry briggs the Pride of the South (Southampton), Ove Fundin the Gold Cup (Wimbledon) and the Southern Championship (New Cross) and Bjorn Knutsson the Jack Parker Trophy (Swindon) and the Pride of the East (Norwich). Surprise winner of the Midlands Championship staged at Coventry was Polish and Coventry rider Henryk Zyto who scored 14pts to beat runner up Arne Pander who in turn beat Jack Young in a run off, both having scored 12pts apiece.