Ronnie Moore (speedway rider)

Ronnie Moore
MBE
Moore in 1973
Born(1933-03-08)8 March 1933
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Died18 August 2018(2018-08-18) (aged 85)
Christchurch, New Zealand
NationalityNew Zealander
Career history
1950–63, 1969–72Wimbledon Dons
1974Coventry Bees
Individual honours
1954, 1959World Champion
1952, 1972London Riders' Champion
1952, 1960Brandonapolis
1952, 1955, 1956, 1960The Laurels
1956, 1962, 1968, 1969New Zealand Champion
1960Tom Farndon Memorial winner
Team honours
1970World Pairs Champion
1954, 1955, 1956, 1958,
1959, 1960, 1961		National League winner
1950, 1951, 1953, 1956,
1959, 1960, 1962		National Trophy winner
1962National League KO Cup winner
1969, 1970British League KO Cup Winner
1969, 1970London Cup Winner
1954RAC Cup Winner
1959Britannia Shield Winner

Ronald Leslie Moore MBE (8 March 1933 – 18 August 2018) was a New Zealand international motorcycle speedway rider. He twice won the Individual World Speedway Championship, in 1954 and 1959.[1] He earned 13 international caps for the Australia national speedway team, 50 caps for the New Zealand national speedway team and 21 caps for the Great Britain national speedway team.[2]

Biography

Moore was born in Hobart, Tasmania in 1933. He moved with his family to New Zealand when he was still a child, and although he was born in Australia, Moore always considered himself to be a New Zealander and rode under the flag of his adopted home.[citation needed]

Moore began riding at the Aranui Speedway in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1949 at the age of 15. He moved to England and rode for the Wimbledon Dons from 1950 to 1956. In 1950 at the age of 17, Moore was the youngest rider ever to qualify for the final of the Speedway World Championship. Moore represented Australia in Test Match series in England in 1951, 1952 and 1953, although subsequently he raced for New Zealand, and Australasia (combined Australia and New Zealand), as well as representing Great Britain in the World Team Cup.

He was twice the champion of the world, winning the title in both 1954[3] and again in 1959,[4] he also finished runner up on three further occasions. His first win came when he was only 21 years of age, riding with a broken leg, and he won with a maximum score.[5]

In 1957 and 1958 he switched his attention to motor racing, but returned to ride for the Dons in late 1958 and stayed with them until 1963 when he decided to retire from racing after breaking his leg in a track crash. He began riding again in New Zealand in the mid-1960s and made a comeback with Wimbledon in 1969 and reached the World Final at the age of 36. In 1970, he won the World Pairs Championship with Ivan Mauger.

He retired from racing in the British League at the end of 1972, apart from a couple of meetings for Coventry Bees in August 1974, but continued riding speedway until 1975 when he suffered severe head injuries in a crash at Jerilderie Park Speedway in New South Wales.[6]

Moore won the New Zealand Championship in 1956, 1962, 1968 and 1969.

World final appearances

Individual World Championship

  • 1950 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 10th – 7pts
  • 1951 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 4th – 11pts
  • 1952 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 4th – 10pts
  • 1953 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 6th – 9pts
  • 1954 – England London, Wembley Stadium – Winner – 15pts
  • 1955 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 2nd – 12pts + 3pts
  • 1956 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 2nd – 12pts
  • 1958 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 6th – 9pts
  • 1959 – England London, Wembley Stadium – Winner – 15pts
  • 1960 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 2nd – 14pts + 2pts
  • 1961 – Sweden Malmö, Malmö Stadion – 6th – 10pts
  • 1962 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 5th – 9pts
  • 1969 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 11th – 6pts
  • 1970 – Poland Wroclaw, Olympic Stadium – Reserve – Did Not Ride
  • 1971 – Sweden Gothenburg, Ullevi – 10th – 5pts

World Pairs Championship

World Team Cup

Note: Moore rode for Great Britain in the World Team Cup from 1962

After speedway

Moore was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1985 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to speedway sport.[7] The Canterbury Park Motorcycle Speedway was renamed the Moore Park Motorcycle Speedway in his honour and the Ronnie Moore race school operates out of the speedway.[8]

Moore died on 18 August 2018 in Christchurch from lung cancer, aged 85.[9][10][11][12][13]

References

  1. ^ Montague, Trevor (2004). The A-Z of Sport. Little, Brown. p. 525. ISBN 0-316-72645-1.
  2. ^ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 23 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Speedway Star Confounded The Doctors". Edinburgh Evening News. 17 September 1954. Retrieved 27 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "Speedway Champion". Sunday Post. 20 September 1959. Retrieved 27 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). A History of the World Speedway Championship. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-2402-5
  6. ^ Dew, R. (1976). The Ronnie Moore Story. Christchurch: Pegasus Press. ISBN 0-908568-01-0
  7. ^ "No. 50155". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 15 June 1985. p. 2.
  8. ^ "Moorepark - Speedway Track - Speedway in Moore Park". Moorepark - Speedway Track.
  9. ^ "Motorsport world mourns former Kiwi world speedway champion Ronnie Moore".
  10. ^ "Motorsport: Kiwi speedway legend Ronnie Moore dies". 19 August 2018 – via www.nzherald.co.nz.
  11. ^ Mazur, Konrad (2018) "Nie żyje Ronnie Moore. Dwukrotny mistrz świata", sportowefakty.wp.pl, 18 August 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2018
  12. ^ "Friends farewell Ronnie Moore-the godfather of New Zealand speedways golden era". Stuff (Fairfax). 24 August 2018.
  13. ^ "Moore a legend on so many fronts". Stuff (Fairfax). 22 March 2014.