HACKNEY SPEEDWAY HOME PAGE
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Welcome to 1983
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Waterden Road, Carpenters Road, Rothbury Road and White Post Lane in June 2015
Carpenters/Rothbury/Waterden Road E15
 
 
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Welcome to 1968: 15th March to 25th July
The Hawks season, day by day
 
 
Welcome to 1968: July 26th onwards
 
 
London Riders Champions
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DAVE LANNING: WHEN HE GOT ON HACKNEY'S WICK
 
 
A Real Miss Hackney Speedway
 
 
Hawkeye's View on the GP's
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IN MEMORY OF ZENON PLECH
 
 
In Memory of Bryn Williams
The thoughts of Birdbrain
 
 
In memory of Kathy Pope
In memory of Kathy Pope
 
 
In Memory of Jane Pavitt
 
 
Hawkeye Say's Step Forward.......Ted Sear
 
 
Hawkeye Says Step Forward Dave Erskine
 
 
Hackney Wick Wolves 1935-39
A brief pre-war history
 
 
A Tale of Two Stadiums Clapton and Hackney Stadiums
Clapton & Hackney Stadium
 
 
PRE WAR STUNTMAN PUTT MOSSMAN
 
 
PRE WAR HACKNEY HERBERT 'DUSTY' HAIGH
 
 
PRE WAR HACKNEY HERO MORIAN HANSEN
 
 
THE COST OF RUNNING HACKNEY SPEEDWAY IN 1986
 
 
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In Memory Of Billy Newland
In Memory Of Billy Newland
 
 
A tribute to Colin Pratt by Tony Hurren
 
 
In Memory Of Violet Vi Langston
In Memory Of Violet Vi Langston
 
 
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In Memory Of Violet Vi Langston


Vi and her daughter Del

Over the last few years it’s becoming an all too familiar to say farewell to our friends, we were one big family at the Waterden Road Track.
Hackney Speedway lost one of its staunchest supporters when Vi Langston died in hospital at the age of 92 on January 1. Her good friend Jackie White told me that Vi had been hospitalised for three weeks but appeared to be on the point of discharge. Alas, she took a turn for the worse and passed peacefully away.

Vi was Hackney through and through. I don't know exactly when she began following The Hawks, but her name appeared in the programme in the early 1970s when she won a prize in the weekly Riders' Equipment Fund draw which, somewhat ironically, she subsequently headed up.

In the programme covering Hackney's first meeting of the 1977 season, HSSC secretary Snowy Beattie announced in his column that chairman Robi Robins CDM had resigned during the winter on health grounds and that Vi Langston had been co-opted on to the committee. She was formally elected at the Annual General Meeting and she remained a committee member until promoter Len Silver sold out at the end of the 1983 season.


Snowy & Vi and her great friend Jacqueline White


Vi became head of draw ticket sales and also the secretary of the Bo Petersen fan club raising money for her 'Hackney Hero'. She was a regular traveller on the HSSC coaches, following The Hawks at most away venues. She also travelled abroad to watch her favourite sport.

 


She was featured regularly in Hawkeye's column and I know only too well that she loved the publicity that came her way. Hawkeye is a recluse these days, but I gritted my teeth, put in a call to him and asked if he would pen a few words in honour of Vi, which he agreed to do.

He said: “I remember Vi with a lot of affection. I always referred to her as 'Bossy' Vi Langston and she often used to have a go at me about it. She was very cool, calm and collected and went about her work very methodically. 

“She was the sort of behind-the-scenes person who would do anything for the benefit of the speedway club and she stuck at it for many seasons, while some of her contemporaries were there one minute and gone the next.

“There is only one thing I ever held against her and that was when she recruited the somewhat ferocious Punk Rocker Girl to assist her with draw ticket sales. I was absolutely terrified of her.”

God bless you Vi.

Hawkeye

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