Ian Hoskins, former Glasgow and Edinburgh promoter and son of the legendary Johnnie Hoskins is to be a guest at Ashfield this Sunday.
Johnnie Hoskins was a flamboyant wheeler-dealing showman who 'sold' speedway to the world. His son Ian is probably more responsible than anyone for the presence of speedway in Scotland. He was the promoter of Glasgow Tigers, then operating out of White City, and bequeathed them the red and white striped race jacket which he cribbed from the football shirts worn by his beloved Sunderland. He also found time to 'discover' Ashfield Stadium, the home of a Scottish Junior Football club. His father later moved the Diamonds from Newcastle to found the Ashfield Giants.
Ian Hoskins later revived Edinburgh Monarchs in 1960 at the Old Meadowbank Stadium. He admitted that it was the biggest gamble of his life and he had barely a pound to his name when he opened the stadium. He was then working in the Welfare Office at Rolls Royce and hardly earned enough to feed his family. He needed £25 to insure the riders for the first meeting. He didn't have the money!.
"I borrowed the money from my father. There we were, with next to no capital behind us, embarking on a new promotion with a team of riders who were virtually unknown in a city that had once produced a World Champion."
"We were so short of money that the team body colours, the programme, the press advertising costs and the letter heading had to be paid for on credit from the takings from the first meeting."
He need not have worried! The opening meeting against Liverpool attracted a crowd of 6,613 and the Scottish Open Championship later in the summer pulled in 7,500. Edinburgh Monarchs has eight successful seasons at Old Meadowbank with a team based on a Scottish backbone of George Hunter and the Templetons with a strong Australasian flavour. Succesful that is until they were uncerimoniously dumped out of Old Meadowbank by the City Corporation to make way for the 'white elephant' athletics stadium and sports complex built to accommodate the 1970 Commonwealth Games.
Ian Hoskins resisted the temptation to move the team to Tilehurst Stadium Reading in favour of a move to Albion Rovers' ground Cliftonhill in Coatbridge. The Monarchs continued at Coatbridge for two years until Hoskins sold the promotion rights to Trevor Remond and Bernard Cottrell who moved the franchise to Wembley.
"I worked out a sum and soon signed away my Scottish speedway inheritance. I was now a promoter without a track."
Ian remained a sleeping partner at Glasgow's White City. He accepted a job at Newcastle speedway but this only lasted a year. This was the end of an era. He sold his shares in Glasgow to Jim Beaton and never promoted speedway in Britain again.
"I had weighed up all the options. I saw no future in Scotland and after the Newcastle debacle, promoters weren't exactly falling over themselves for me to run another track in England."
Hoskins moved away from Scotland and subsequently emigrated to Rhodesia as a cinema manager in 1976. There were also unsuccessful attempts to promote in Majorca, Belgium, Canada, USA, and Rhodesia. Since then he has written radio plays, managed an ice hockey team, and founded an annual film festival.
Glasgow promoter Brian Sands is delighted that Ian Hoskins will be present for the season opener:
"The line up we have for the opening meeting is mouthwatering in itself, but to be able to have one part of probably the most recognisable name in Glasgow Speedway history in attendance is one that gives me a great thrill. Ian's name will certainly set a few pulses racing amongst some of our older supporters and after our successful first season, it represents a great start to the second."
Glasgow's opening meeting of the season is set to become an annual event and the trophy will be dedicated to the memory of another Tigers legend, Norrie Isbister, who sadly passed away during the close season at the age of 93. Norrie was involved with Johnnie Hoskins in the original Ashfield Giants promotion.
Norrie was one of the original speedway pioneers who raced at White City in 1928. His passion for the sport never diminished, marking the official opening last season of the Tigers at Ashfield, in what proved to be his last season. The meeting will be raced for annually and will be known as THE NORRIE ISBISTER MEMORIAL TROPHY, and his widow Rosalind will present the trophy to the winner of Sunday's grand opening.
Ian Hoskins has written a book "A History of the Speedway Hoskins" and this is priced at £9.95p plus £1.25 postage and packing and can be obtained from The Vintage Speedway Magazine, Drakes Cottage, West Street, Clipsham, Rutland, LE15 7SH.