Rye House Rockets
| Rye House Rockets | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Club information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Track address |
Rye House Stadium Rye Road Hoddesdon Hertfordshire EN11 0EH |
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| Country | England | ||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1974, 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Team manager | Peter Schroeck | ||||||||||||||||||
| League | SGB Premiership | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www |
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| Colours | Black, Chrome and Orange | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track size | 262 metres (287 yd) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record time | 54.7 seconds | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record date | 01/08/15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record holder | Robert Lambert | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Rye House Rockets are a speedway team based at Rye House Stadium, Hoddesdon, England. They currently compete in the British SGB Premiership.
The club is promoted by Len Silver who previously ran the Hackney Hawks promotion at Hackney Wick Stadium.
The Rye House Rockets Speedway team have been racing at the Rye House Stadium next to the River Lea since 1974. Len Silver, promoter of the Rayleigh Rockets, was forced to find a new home for his team after the Rockets original home at the Rayleigh Weir Stadium was sold and redeveloped.
The Rye House track in Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire had been around since the 1934 and was regularly used by the big London clubs like the West Ham Hammers to scout for future riders. In the 1930s and 1940s young riders regularly made the trip from Liverpool Street station with their bikes to the Rye House railway station which is a 2-minute walk from the stadium. Regular training schools and the occasional season of league racing kept the track in use until Len Silver brought in his Rockets team after they were made homeless in 1974.
Midway through the 1984 season Silver sold the Rockets to Ronnie Russell (who later became the promoter of rivals – the Arena Essex Hammers) so he could concentrate on his new skiing holiday business, Silver Ski. Ronnie ran the Rockets alongside a number of other co-promoters over the years. In 1993 Ronnie shut the doors on the Rockets and the club closed down.
During the winter of 1998–99 a group of Rockets fans placed an advert in the Speedway Star magazine for a meeting to see if there was enough interest in trying to resurrect the team. Over a hundred former fans attended and many made contributions to the funds to help bring back the Rockets. With the race track at Rye House being tarmac'd over for Stock Car use, there wasn't a chance of the team returning to their spiritual home. In the end a former Rocket, Dingle Brown, came to the rescue. Dingle was the promoter of the Mildenhall Fen Tigers, he offered a track share; with the Rockets racing after the Fen Tigers meetings. The Rockets finally got back on track for the 1999 season but this time riding in the Conference League. During the initial stages of getting the Rockets back up and running, Steve Ribbons, John Stoneman and Dave Entwistle (the men behind the project), contacted former promoter Len Silver to see if he could offer any advice. Silver offered to sponsor the team which became the Rye House 'Silver Ski' Rockets.
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Wikipedia