After the war, racing resumed at California on 8 August 1948, but only three further meetings are confirmed for that year. The following year, ten meetings were staged, the majority of them being team challenge matches, the first two of which were between teams calling themselves Easterners and Westerners.

The last meeting that year, held on 16 October, featured California against Chalfont & Amersham. Away from Longmoor, California also took part in a grass-track challenge match at Newbury on 22 May.

In 1950, six meetings were staged, all of them team challenge matches – including California v. Rye House; California v. High Beech (result 51-33) and an interesting sounding tussle between the Vampires and the Meteors! California also rode a single away fixture that year, at Rye House on 8 October.


By Robert Bamford, extracted from Speedway in the Thames Valley (Tempus Publishing).