33/18 News has learnt that former Stratford Hammers rider Len Silver passed away on Sunday morning (October 13th) at the age of 92.
Len’s Cycle Speedway involvement began in 1946 when he and his Stratford Grammar School friend Roy Garnham joined others from the area to emulate their speedway heroes from the recently reopened West ham Speedway on a very bumpy bomb site track in the Grove at Stratford. The activity moved to Jenson Road in 1947 and Len & Roy set about establishing and organising what would become one of the greatest and most respected of London’s Cycle Speedway teams, the Stratford Hammers. Len was also instrumentai in the formation of the London League. In the 1950’s Stratford took part in a match against a Bradford team at Odsal Speedway stadium and as part of the entertainment the promoter Johnnie Hoskins donated a cup for the winner of a cycle speedway race on the motor speedway circuit which Len won.
After his release from the RAF in 1952 he began practising motor speedway at Rye House. The next year he joined Ipswich and was in and out of the team for the next 7 years but in 1961 he joined Exeter where he would captain the Falcons to Knock Out Cup success over Stoke in 1962 as well as winning the Provincial League Riders Championship in the same season. he joined Hackney as rider/promoter during the 1964 season but after a fall he retired from riding and concentrated on promoting. He was promoter at hackney for 20 years as well as at Rye House and at Kent Kings until he retired from that role in 2021. Len was also manager of the Great Britain/England teams for 2 spells in the 1970’s. He was also a skilled track curator and prepared the surface for the last ever World Final to take place at Wembley in 1981
Condolences to Len’s family and friends at this time. Funeral details will be published as soon as they become available
