The Marine Gardens

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On 29 June 1935, over 5000 people witnessed, in delightful weather conditions, an American baseball game at the Marine Gardens.

It was the real thing, direct from the U.S.A. for the contending teams, the Arkansas Giants and the Wyoming Senators, were representative of the summer Practice Squadron of the United States navy.

While the two American warships, Arkansas and Wyoming, lay in the Firth of Forth the opportunity was taken to field two teams with excellent records in the national sport and at the same time to show the interest of the visitors in Edinburgh youth movements by assisting the funds of the local battalion of the Boys Brigade. Probably interest in the popular American sailors was as much responsible for attracting the large crowds of spectators as interest in the game.

No doubt to the great majority of those who attended at the Marine Gardens baseball was little more than a name. Those who came, however, expecting nothing more than the attraction of a novelty soon found that baseball, even to the uninitiated has its thrills. It provides remarkable batting performances and amazing exhibitions by the fielders in catching balls high and low.

Among the spectators on Saturday were many of the American navy men and they and the commentator who described the game, gave to the occasion a real American flavour. The American Consul in Edinburgh, Mr. R.D. Longyear set the game agoing by pitching the first ball in great style and he ws greeted with many shouts of “Attaboy”.

Wyoming Senators, apparently the fancied team, made a promising start, securing two runs in the first innings and in this game a run is scored only when each individual batsman has made a complete circuit of the course, touching each base in regular order before three men are out. The players showed great keeness but there seemed to be even greater enthusiasm among the American section of the spectators who all the time shouted advice and encouragement.

Before long the Scots onlookers began to appreciate at least some of the more notable features of the game and joined in cheering the batsmen who sent balls, delivered at great speed, away to the boundary, some being driven across the adjacent crowded beach.

The Wyoming Senators did not realise their early promise and gradually the Arkansas Giants drew ahead until, after two hours play, the latter were leading by 5 runs to 2. In the last innings, however, Wyoming added another to their runs. The match, therefore, ended 5-3 in favour of Arkansas.

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On 26 October Leith Athletic defeated Dumbarton by six clear goals . In spite of the result the game was by no means one sided. There was, however, no suggestion of luck about the Athletic’s victory. In the first half they had some difficult passages in defence but they managed to keep their goal reasonably well shielded. Dumbarton, on the other hand, suffered from faulty positioning by their defenders, who frequently left opponents unmarked within easy scoring distance. The latitude allowed to them was turned to profitable account by the home forwards whose shooting was very good. Dumbarton held their own in the outfield but both in attacking and defence they failed near goal. Leith led at the interval by two goals and in the second half raised the total to six. The attendance was under 1000.

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However the public support wasn’t there. At the next match, against Stenhousemuir, the attendance was only 500. Thereafter it continued to dwindle for the rest of the season.

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On 4 June the weather interfered with the meeting at the Marine Gardens Speedway when a team of riders from West Ham Speedway, London, were to have appeared. The track was so wet that Mr. Fraser, the manager, after a consultation with the SACU Steward, had no option but to cancel the meeting.

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A crowd of about 17,000 were brought to their feet with excitement on 25 June in the final of the Scottish Speedway Championship at the Marine Gardens Speedway, by the daring riding of Bluey Wilkinson, of the West Ham track london, who won the championship and the Scottish Gold Gauntlet outright in the record time of 1 min 20 and three fifth secs, the fastest time ever put up on this track.

Wilkinson, Arthur Atkinson, Tommy Croombs and Tiger Stevenson rode brilliantly in the final. Gaining a narrow lead at the first bend, Wilkinson kept ahead until the finish. The Gold Gauntlet was handed over by Wilkinson’s mother, who is at present on holiday in this country.

The eliminating process was by means of points. 3 points for a win, two for a second and one for a third, each competitor taking part in four races on the league system, in which they met all the other riders in turn. The four men with the most points then met in the final for the major prizes.

In the first race Arthur Atkinson gave the crowd a great display of racing when lowering the track record by two and two fifth seconds to 1 min 20 and four fifth secs.

T. Croombs next served up the thrills in heat two when he just gained the lead over Eric Chitty, the Canadian champion, almost on the finishing line.

Drew McQueen, the only Scottish entrant, crashed and suffered severe bruising and he was unable to take part in any further races.

During the meeting the track record was broken no fewer than eight times.

Other riders who took part were Phil Bishop, Colin Watson, Charlie Spinks, Alan Butler, Bob Lovell, Tommy Price, Dick Geary and Steve Langton.

Owing to some delay in travelling Jimmy Gibb (Canada), Morian Hansen (Denmark) and Cordy Milne (America) were unable to take part in any of the championship heats but when they arrived half way through the meeting, they staged a match race. Milne and Hansen raced neck and neck for the four laps, cornering together in brilliant style. Milne crossed the finishing line only inches ahead of Hansen.

A midget car race was also staged in which four cars took part. The drivers were Walter Mackereth (Capt. of Coventry Car Speedway), Les White (Coventry), Spike Rhiando (America and Capt. of Lee Bridge Car Speedway) and Stan Mills. Mackereth took an early lead and continued in front for the four laps to finish in 1 min. 22 and two fifth secs, faster time than many of the cycles put up. This time also beat the four laps clutch start record.

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The following week spectators at the Marine Gardens Speedway enjoyed a thrilling team race between a team of Dominion riders and the Edinburgh side, which resulted in a draw at 27 points each.

Edinburgh started well in the first heat, Oliver Hart gaining points for first place and Alan Butler, his partner being third. The Dominion riders then took matters in hand and in the next three heats gained a good lead over Edinburgh, the points at this stage being Dominions 16 points, Edinburgh 8.

In spite of this substantial lead the Edinburgh riders fought back gamely and in heat five Ernie Price put Edinburgh in the running again. Edinburgh continued to reduce the leeway and in heat eight were only two points behind.

The final heat was the most exciting of the team events. Roy Dook immediately went into the lead and looked like holding it but he ran wide at one bend and allowed Jack Gordon to slip into the lead and win, amidst great excitement, to enable Edinburgh to draw level at 27 points each.

A great improvement was noticed in the riding of the reserves when Leo Lungo gained a narrow victory over Stanley Gargan.

The captain’s race was the high light of the day. For four laps Steven Langton and Oliver Hart rode side by side, both superb in their cornering and perfect in their control over their machines. Langton, who had the inside berth, gained the decision by a decidedly narrow margin. A section of the crowd disagreed with the judge’s verdict in this race. in the Silver Gauntlet race it was something of a surprise to see Langton defeated in his heat by Jack Hyland, after his great display against Hart, who had already qualified for the final. Opposed by three visitors, Hart made a valiant attempt to gain a lead in the final but Roy Dook held on in front to win a well deserved race.

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A full year before the outbreak of the Second World War, preparations had begun. A demonstration of air raid precautions work was given at the Marine Gardens on the night of September 14, together with a display by the units manning the anti-aircraft guns.

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Edinburgh fielded the same side as did so well against the Dominion team against Bristol on 6 August and though they were defeated by two points ,26-28, they emerged from the engagement with a good deal of credit.

The spectators were roused to a pitch of excitement by the close finishes in many of the races and vocal encouragement to the local riders was more marked than on previous occasions. Edinburgh were never on the lead but were never more than four points behind and in no fewer than five of the nine heats the opposing teams equally shared the six points at stake.

Probably the most exciting finish of the afternoon concerned that in which Harold Jackson (Edinburgh) put in an amazingly fast finish to beat Harry Shepherd and Ray Duggan on the post after the two last named appeared to have the race in safe keeping.

The captain’s match race between Oliver Hart (Edinburgh) and Harry Shepherd (Bristol) was an exciting affair, the two riders racing side by side for three laps before Hart drew slightly ahead to win by a narrow margin while in the reserves race Stanley Gargan was never really seriously threatened.

The trophy event for the Scottish Gold Helmet was once again won by a visitor, Roy Dook getting away to a flying start to beat Oliver Hart in the final.

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