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A look back at 25 years of the Hammers
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The final season of the 1980’s at Arena-Essex was all about one man - but not in the positive way that 1987 was Andrew Silver’s year and 1988 belonged to Martin Goodwin. In 1989 the dominant figure in the Hammers line-up was a 43 year-old rider returning to the saddle after 18 months retirement – Malcolm Simmons. The Hammers came to sign Simmons through the by-now familiar routine of last minute signings to complete the team on the eve of the season.
From the 1988 squad, the Hammers had lost David Smart, who returned to take up a British League role with parent club Swindon. Also on their way were Nigel Leaver and Chris Cobby, both after apparently verbally agreeing to ride for the Hammers in 1989. Leaver announced he wanted to ride for a winning team and reportedly took a pay cut to join Wimbledon, while Cobby elected to ride for hometown team Stoke. These late departures left boss Peter Thorogood with severe team-building difficulties as he still searched for a replacement for Smart.
To complete the side, the Hammers brought in young Cradley prospects Wayne Garratt and Troy Pratt. Troy was already known to Hammers fans from his second half and junior Hammers team appearances in 1988. The big hole at second heat leader was only to be filled when Simmons was talked back into action, having spent 1988 as co-promoter at Kings Lynn.
Martin Goodwin led the Hammers into their sixth season and 1988 riders Rob Tilbury, Ian Humphreys and Simon Wolstenholme made up the Arena septet. This blend of experienced heat leaders and a young supporting cast was widely written off by the terrace pundits before a wheel was turned but many were forced to eat their words in the early weeks of the season.
In the opening home meeting, the first leg of the Easter triangle three-team tournament (against Hackney and Eastbourne), the fast-gating Simmons stunned Hammers fans with three wins in four rides for a ten-point return. He went on to get double figures at Hackney the same evening. Martin Goodwin was also in sparkling form in the early season challenge fixtures but all four of the Hammers youngsters were finding the going tough.
In their first league meetings, Hammers won relatively comfortably at home but were beaten easily away. Rob Tilbury showed more consistency and looked a more reliable heat leader, while Martin Goodwin scored well and Malcolm Simmons gave good support. Troy Pratt and Simon Wolstenholme looked impressive at reserve but Ian Humphreys and Wayne Garratt faced a tougher job in the main body of the team.
However, Hammers had a very successful run in May, finishing joint winners of their National League four team tournament qualifying rounds and winning two matches on their northern tour at Middlesbrough (by one point) and at Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh victory was achieved in atrocious conditions despite losing Simmons the previous night at Middlesbrough and with Ian Humphreys distinctly below par after crashing in his first ride. At the end of the month, Hammers stood fourth in the league (equal on points with the three teams above them) and looked like surprise title challengers.
Sadly, from that high point, the Hammers’ season began to slide. Stoke visited Arena in early June and, although Chris Cobby did not score heavily for the Potters, they went away with the league points. A week later, Hammers scored a surprisingly easy win against visitors Poole, who were starting to dominate the league. Top scorer for the Pirates was their young 2.00 averaged Australian reserve, a certain teenage prodigy by the name of Leigh Adams.
Disaster struck before the Hammers' home Lonex cup challenge against Hackney as Simmons aggravated an ankle injury in the pits and withdrew from the meeting after three low-key rides. This injury was overshadowed, however, by the tragic death of Hackney’s former Hammers junior Paul Muchene after a crash in heat 2 of the return cup match at Waterden Road.
With Simmons and Tilbury absent, Hammers squeaked a 3-point home win against Newcastle the following week but, despite Tilbury’s return, they could only draw at home to Wimbledon one week later.
The slump continued as Hammers struggled with the rider replacement cover for Simmons and Middlesbrough uncannily matched the Essex men’s one point win at their track and took both league points home to Teesside. Local rivals Hackney then came and took a draw the following week – and when Martin Goodwin picked up a knock in August, the team’s difficulties were magnified. Although Goodwin scored strongly on his return from injury, Berwick won at Purfleet in early September.
The continuing absence of Simmons was becoming an embarrassment as different reasons were delivered to hoots of derision from the crowd as the weeks went by. Talk was rife on the terraces, correctly as it happened, that Simmons had gone back into retirement – indeed he was never to re-appear in Hammers colours.
In mid-September, Long Eaton visited and rode under protest when the Hammers could not produce a medical certificate to cover Simmons’ absence. The Hammers won on the track but the result was reversed when the management committee upheld Long Eaton’s complaint.
At the end of the season, Hammers finished twelfth in the eighteen-team league, a creditable position given the absence of Simmons and injuries to Tilbury, Goodwin and Garratt in the farcical second half of the season.
Goodwin was not the same force he had been in 1988 but, no doubt, a second successive season of being relied upon as the main Hammers point scorer took its toll. Rob Tilbury increased his average impressively and arrived as an undisputable heat leader for the first time in his career.
Hammers’ young tail enders did better than many expected around the tight Purfleet raceway but the challenge proved too much away from home. While Wolstenholme, Garratt and Pratt all did very well, Ian Humphreys had a disappointing year.
As the season closed, Humphreys requested a transfer and there were mutterings from Goodwin about wanting to captain a successful team. With Tilbury and Wolstenholme also reported to be unhappy, the 1989 season was a year that seemed to have left not only the fans dissatisfied.
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