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Riders to Remember....Norman Hunter By Geoff Langley
However long we have been a speedway fan and however many favourite riders we have had there is never anyone quite like our first real speedway hero. "Norm the Storm" was my first. I first saw Norm when Hackney re-opened in the old Provincial League in 1963. The first match of the season was a challenge match against New Cross (the New Cross team included a young Bob Dugard, now promoter at Eastbourne). I had seen speedway several years earlier before West Ham closed but I was very young couldn't remember much about apart from some memories of the great Jack Young (still etched on my mind to this day). Nevertheless this limited speedway knowledge made me an expert in the eyes of my schoolmates who were seeing speedway for the first time. We watched in anticipation as the gladiators marched out on parade, all clad in black leathers and boots---well nearly all of them were. "Who is the one in the white boots?" my schoolmates asked. "Oh.er.him.ermm." I spluttered, quickly scanning the programme. At last I found the answer in Mike Parkers programme notes which informed me that "We expect young Norman Hunter, riding at No 4 to be the spearhead of our new team". I quickly slipped the programme away as I announced to my pals with an air authority, "Oh, yes, that's Norman Hunter, a really talented rider. He's the spearhead of the team, the one who is really going places." Well, despite the fact that I had never even heard of Norman Hunter before making that pronouncement Norm proved me to be dead right. My street-cred among my mates soared as he put in a fabulous season, and throughout the whole of that wonderful summer proved to be everything a young fan could wish for in a speedway star. I later learned that Norman had been a successful cycle speedway rider before taking up the motorised version. He had been through the Rye House Training School but his outstanding talent took him straight into the Leicester Team, where, in his first full season of Provincial League speedway he was Leicester's top scorer with, I think 189 points. Mike Parker then snapped him up for the Hackney team, and, it being only his second season he was started as a second string rider in the Number 4 position but almost immediately was elevated to ride at Number 1 and given the captaincy. He was still only 23. The 1963 Hackney team included some young and inexperienced riders, and although some, such as the then 17-year old Malcolm Simmons and 20-year old Trevor Hedge, were destined to achieve great things in speedway, that success was still in the future at that time and although they managed a reasonable performance at home, the away fixtures, with young riders riding some tracks for the first time, were pretty poor. Except for Norm that is. He was everything a fan wants in a captain. Almost never anything less than a double figure score and it seemed more often than not a maximum. He was a true inspiration at home while in the away matches his scores were frequently the difference between an honourable defeat and a complete thrashing. From memory I think there were at least two or possibly three away matches when his 15 point maximums including a tactical substitute ride was a point more than the rest of the team managed between them. There were several home defeats for Hackney but even then Norm gave the fans something to cheer about because none of the great P.L. stars of the day, like Ivan Mauger, Colin Pratt, Pete Jarman and Ivor Brown managed an entire meeting at Hackney without being defeated by Norm at some point. On an individual level he was unbeaten in the Provincial League World Championship Qualifying Round at Hackney, and when Mike Parker resurrected the London Riders Championship as a Provincial League event at Hackney, Norm took it on a maximum- his first major individual title. That brilliant season finished in fairytale style with a home match against Exeter, with the visitors holding a two point lead going in to the last heat. Alan Cowland and (I think) Francis Cann and made the gate and held the lead for two laps before Norm came through followed by Trevor Hedge to take a 5-1 to secure the match. What a way to end the season! When West Ham re-opened in 1964 Norm, together with Malcolm Simmons moved across to further his career in the National League (equivalent to today's Elite League) but at first found the going tough. He wasn't much of a gater at that time and found it more difficult to come from the back at the higher level. He also seemed to suffer a lot of machine failures as his J.A.P. engines struggled against the higher level of competition on the big track at Custom House. He finished his first season in the National League on an average of a little over four points a match, but things were about to change. The following season saw the National and Provincial Leagues combined into the British League. West Ham started the season as no-hopers with only two heat-leaders- Ken McKinlay and Sverre Harfeldt, but McKinlay was not only one of the greatest ever team captains of British speedway, he was Hunter's old mentor and the influence of the old maestro on his young protege was amazing. Norm's engine failures were now rare and he learned how to gate. In a single season he more than doubled his points average to over 9 and established himself as third heat-leader. It was this astonishing progress that was major factor in the Hammers historic triple of League Champions and winners of the Knockout Cup and London Cup that year. The next couple of years saw Norm's true potential starting to be realised. A test match against Sweden saw Norm defeat the great Ove Fundin for the first time, and he collected an 18-point maximum against Russia at West Ham. On an individual level he won the National League version of the London Riders Championship (at West Ham), the Jack Unstead Memorial Trophy (at Exeter), and the Midland Riders Championship (which I think from memory was at Wolverhampton). In 1968 he reached what was to be the high point of his career when he was selected for the Great Britain team that won the Speedway World Cup. A successful career at West Ham came to an end when the powers that be decided that his consistent 8/9 point average was too high for a side that included Ken McKinlay's 11+ point average and Sverre Harfeldt regaining form after injury, so he was transferred to Wolverhampton in 1969 where he immediately stepped out of McKinlay's shadow and became a 10point man. However just as he seemed to be on the point of breaking through into true world class tragedy struck in a non-speedway accident. He was riding in an experimental event at a pony-trotting track at Prestatyn, which was a sort of cross between speedway, grass-track and American-style flat-track racing when he crashed and suffered a serious hand injury. After an extensive lay-off he eventually returned to speedway but it seems his grip was never as strong and he was never quite the same rider. The international career which had beckoned had now sadly gone. By that stage I was riding in trials and moto-cross myself and I never found time to see him ride again. His career finished as competent rider with Swindon (and I think Oxford) but the hand injury had stopped him from progressing beyond a reasonable League rider. How far could he have gone if it had not been for the hand injury? Difficult to say. I never felt he was quite in the same class as Ivan Mauger but on the other hand he always seemed to have the edge on his Hackney and West Ham team-mate Malcolm Simmons and we all know how far "Super Simmo" went when he eventually put his mind to it ! But in speedway memories are as important as championships, and for me, even after all these years I find whenever I go to speedway on a warm summer evening, and the engines fall silent after warm-up with the smell of methanol drifting across the track I can't help my thoughts drifting back to that wonderful summer of 1963 and in my mind I still hear the announcers magic words; "Result of Heat1...the winner...riding in red.....NORMAN HUNTER !"
We want to feature similar articles on riders from any era of the sport's rich history. If you'd like to contribute a piece then email us at speedwayplus@hotmail.com or fill out our form here.
"Thanks for the
wonderful item on one of West Ham's top riders, Norman Hunter, who, when the sport finally closed down at West Ham in 1972 was voted 14th
in the Top Twenty Hammers by the fans. Needless to say our Australian World Champions, Bluey Wilkinson and Jack Young were joint 1st. One
minor point, the item said that the `Powers that Be` decided that Norman's point average was too high, so he was transferred to Wolverhampton
in 1969. It was a bit more of a `saga` than that, and I feel Norman leaving West Ham was the start of the downfall of a once great team.
From the programme notes on the 7th April, which was Easter Monday and the first home match on the 1969 season, (40 years ago this year),
Dave Lanning in his `Behind the Hammers` page stated the following, "The Norman Hunter affair has predictably made the Headlines and no doubt
will be the Buzz around the Stadium this Afternoon, so please let us put our side of the Story". It would seem Norman failed to agree terms
with West Ham, and went to the Riders Control Committee to request a Transfer, but did not inform the West Ham Management of this.
The first they knew was when it appeared in the Speedway Press. The RCC could not agree anything and it went to the Speedway Control Board,
who said Norman must ride for West Ham. It would seem there were irresolvable differences between Norman and the West Ham Board, so Norman
said he would rather quit the sport than be forced to ride at West Ham.
As the sport could not afford to lose such a top rider who had been
capped for his Country, he was transferred to Wolverhampton. Dave Lanning went on the say "Although we announced that Norman would ride for
West Ham , it was the decided we would not hold on to a unhappy rider, and therefore there would be no team place for him, and have placed him
at the disposal of the Rider Control Committee for Reallocation". Norman was replaced at West Ham by Olle Nygren (another rider famous for
his white racing boots) who for many years had ridden for our South London Rivals, Wimbledon. I was a great fan of Norman who as well as
being known as the `Storm`, was also known as `Sailor`. The reason for this we were told was because he was a great fan of the singer
Petula Clark who had a No.1 hit 'Sailor, Stop your Roaming' (the things we get told as Fans, who knows if they were ever true, the more
frightening thing is the fact you can still remember them after forty years)!
As I said at the start, Norman leaving the Hammers, added
to the lost of Sverre Harrfeldt following a serious accident in 1968 (Sveree did partly recover, and returned, only to leave us again to go
to Wembley in 1970, again under strange circumstances), led to the Hammer down full. The two H's had been the Hammers `Double Barrel`
attack in many a match, and added to the great leadership by Ken McKinlay made the Hammers a team to fear, and between 1965
(Our Championship winning year) and 1968 were never out of the top six in the League, we also won the London Cup three times in a row.
A succession of other problems, not always under the Control of West Ham, was finally capped by the Lokern Disaster in 1970, which finally
led to the downfall of my Glorious Hammers in 1971. Hopefully if Norman reads this site, he may have a different version of the events! "
"While I was only fortunate enough to see Stormin Norman race a few times it was nevertheless a pleasure to watch him in action. He came across to me as the archetypical Brit who would reach the heights in British speedway as a high scoring heat leader who could be relied upon, without being the kind of guy who would go on and win a World Championship. Back in the days where you could be a first among equals Norman was certainly that and these days, when there is so much TV coverage on Sky Sports, he would be a permanent fixture on the box. Thanks Norman, for providing me with so much pleasure in the late 60's and early 70's! "
"RE Norman Hunter (Sailor) I thought it was because in a daily news paper the speedway results called him Norman Anchor instead of Hunter and the other riders called him sailor? I might be wrong maybe Norman can tell us?"
 
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