Michael Butler wrote:
>In our club we use to race at these tracks. Welwyn, Herne Hill, Paddington
>Rec, Wolverton and Wickstead Park. Cycled to them all.
I grew up near Wolverton and my Dad oftem used to tell me about the track at Wolverton. I eventually found it only to discover that it now had a football pitch in the middle of it. That didn't quite fit. The track had been dug out to fit the corners of the pitch in. Imagine taking a corner kick by running down the banking first.
This was about 20 years ago, at that time it was possible to ride around the tarmac on the rest of the track and avoid the dugout bits on the corners. I recently visited a mate in Milton Keynes and the best way to get there was to ride along the towpath of the Grand Onion Canal. I realised that it went right past the track and by slightly enlarging a hole in the fence I could have a look at the track 20 years on. Time has not been kind to it, there is little surface left to it and the dugouts at the corners have got larger. There is grass covering most of the banking and it would only be possible to ride it on a mountain bike.
Curiously I was going to see my mate about a service on one of my Sturmey Archer TC fixed/wheel/hub/gear/thing bikes. It's good to know where you can take a rare SA hub for a "while you wait" service.
The last time I saw Wickstead Park track was probably the mid eighties, it was in excellent condition with new tarmac. Unfortunately it was only used for Go cart racing. I remember thinking at the time, that it was a really cool go cart track. It was only years later that I realized that it was the old bike track resurrected. I seem to recall somewhere that both tracks started life in the 1890s. Does anybody know when they were last raced on?
cheers
Bob Knight Thame UK where it's been a cold, cold weekend
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