![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/Captains_Handshake.jpg/640px-Captains_Handshake.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Wimbledon Dons
Motorcycle speedway team / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Wimbledon Dons?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Wimbledon Dons were a professional motorcycle speedway team who operated from the Wimbledon Stadium, Plough Lane in London.[1][2]
Wimbledon Dons | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Wimbledon Dons captain Barry Briggs (centre) shaking hands with Oxford Rebels captain Gordon Kennett in 1975 | |||||||||||||||
Club information | |||||||||||||||
Track address | Wimbledon Stadium Plough Lane Wimbledon London | ||||||||||||||
Country | England | ||||||||||||||
Founded | 1928 | ||||||||||||||
Closed | 2005 | ||||||||||||||
Club facts | |||||||||||||||
Colours | Yellow Star on Red | ||||||||||||||
Track size | 355 yards (325 m) | ||||||||||||||
Major team honours | |||||||||||||||
|
The track opened in 1928 and the Dons operated there from 1929 until 1991. They were closed during the Second World War but upon their reopening in 1946 there were 42,000 people in attendance with an estimated 10,000 more locked outside. The club were very successful at the highest level of British speedway during the 1950s and 1960s, and attracted numerous famous riders.
Having been defunct for eleven years, the team was reopened again in 2002 by Steve Ribbons & David Croucher in the Conference League[3] but were forced to close in 2005, with Ian Perkin, Dingle Brown & Perry Attwood being joint owners of the club, when the stadium owners insisted on dramatically increasing the rent paid by the team to the stadium.[4]