PETE ’ S PEOPLE breadth of the country . This provincial league became enormous , with bus-loads of team supporters joining riders travelling to Glasgow , Eastbourne , or Exeter and the like , all without the ease of the motorways of today . Sometimes they would drive 200 miles after work to get to a meet . Hardest of all was that you had to be invited to join a club , and to do that one had to make a name for himself with top results and points on completely unknown circuits , and in whatever weather turned up – without fail - rain , hail , snow and heatwave . They would ride 4-7 races depending on how they finished , and everything was done by the rider himself , alone , without ever having a sponsor or mechanic , and they had to purchase everything personally - from leathers to food to parts , fuel , tyres , and spares and drive back home after a Sunday night meet to be at work on Monday morning . air raid ; he made optical frames by hand , an industry he never left until retiring in New Zealand in 2000 . During those early years the heroes of all the cycle racers were the Speedway riders . To join that fraternity was extremely difficult - where did you learn ? How could you afford to buy a bike and fettle it , run it , fuel it , get tyres , transport it , and keep working ? It was very hard to achieve an invitation , and harder to break in to the top motorised circuit . The National League consisted of seven teams and they made big money , and there were 8-9 riders in each competing team or club . There was also a second tier of keen riders desperate to break into this top circuit - this tier became the Provincial League and there were 15 or 16 active teams , and they had rides midweek and weekends in far flung towns the length and
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