Malcolm Simmons
Born(1946-03-20)20 March 1946
Tonbridge, England
Died25 May 2014(2014-05-25) (aged 68)
NicknameSimmo
NationalityBritish (English)
Career history
1963Hackney Hawks
1964-1967West Ham Hammers
1968-1974, 1993King's Lynn Stars
1975-1980Poole Pirates
1981-1984Wimbledon Dons
1985Swindon Robins
1986-1987Hackney Kestrels
1989Arena Essex Hammers
Individual honours
1976British Champion
1974Spring Classic
1975, 1976, 1977, 1978Blue Riband
1976Internationale
1976Littlechild Trophy
1977Superama
1977Southern Masters
1982The Laurels
Team honours
1973, 1974, 1975, 1977World Team Cup Winner
1976, 1977, 1978World Pairs Champion
1965British League Champion
1965British League KO Cup Winner
1965, 1966, 1967London Cup
1973Spring Gold Cup

Malcolm Simmons (20 March 1946 – 25 May 2014) was a motorcycle speedway rider from England.[1][2] He earned 73 international caps for the England national speedway team and five caps for the Great Britain team.[3]

Career

Simmons was born in Tonbridge, Kent. After starting in second-half races at New Cross, he made his Provincial League debut at Hackney Hawks in 1963 aged seventeen but was unable to break into the Hackney team regularly so moved to the newly re-opened West Ham Hammers for the 1964 season.[4] In 1965 Simmons won a British League and British League Knockout Cup double with West Ham. In 1968 he moved to the King's Lynn Stars and stayed there for the next seven seasons. He was consistently at the top of the Stars averages and scored over 2112 points for the club.[5]

Simmons signed for the Poole Pirates in 1975 from King's Lynn. In his first season for Poole in 31 league matches he achieved 16 maximum scores (15 full and 1 paid) and he became the first Poole rider to secure a 10-point average in the British League. Simmons topped the Pirates averages for the next six years and he came to be affectionately known by the Poole fans as 'Super Simmo'. In 1979 the Pirates were taken over by new owners and Simmons became unsettled, asking for a transfer in 1980. At a pairs event at Poole that year, Simmons was accused by the Poole management of not trying and he was subsequently sacked by the club.[5]

He moved to Wimbledon in 1981, where he spent four seasons and moved to the Swindon Robins for one season in 1985. Simmons signed for former club Hackey, now renamed Hackney Kestrels, in 1986 for two years before he suffered a bad shoulder injury. He then made a couple of short come-backs at Arena Essex and King's Lynn.[5]

Malcolm captained England and Great Britain at full international level. He finished runner-up to Peter Collins in the 1976 Speedway World Championship, but became World Pairs Champion with John Louis the same year. He again became World Pairs Champion in 1977 with Peter Collins, and again in 1978 with Gordon Kennett. Simmons became British Champion in 1976.[6] He won the World Team Cup on four occasions—1973, 1974, 1975 and 1977—once with Great Britain and three times with England.

He signed as a rider for Mildenhall in 2001 to ride occasionally in the Conference League, aged 56.

World Final Appearances

Individual World Championship

World Pairs Championship

World Team Cup

* 1973 for Great Britain. All others for England.

References

  1. ↑ Lawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. ISBN 978-0-244-72538-9
  2. ↑ Montague, Trevor (2004). The A-Z of Sport. Little, Brown. p. 530. ISBN 0-316-72645-1.
  3. ↑ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  4. ↑ Rogers, Martin (1963) "Hackney Hawks Here to Stay?", Speedway Star, 1 June 1963, p. 16
  5. 1 2 3 Bamford, Robert; Shailes, Glynn (2004). 50 Poole Pirates Greats. Tempus Publishing. pp. 108–109. ISBN 0-7524-3257-5.
  6. ↑ Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). A History of the World Speedway Championship. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-2402-5
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