Dave Trownson: 'We were all bike mad, that was all we wanted to do'

NEWS Saturday 11th July 2020, 9:00am

by PR Team

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Testimonial Monarch Dave Trownson was the special guest last Sunday as he joined John and Liam for an excellent question and answer session.

Dave spent a fantastic 11 seasons as a Monarch from 1977 to 1988 and spoke of many happy times at the Club.

Growing up as a speedway fan, getting his weekly fix at Belle Vue, it wasn't long before Dave got onto a motorbike for the first time, "Peter Collins' father started taking us in '63 and we just carried on going from there every week and we loved it more and more.

"Luckily for us his, Peter's father owned a farm. My father got me a motorbike when I was 11 years old, so, not like today, we had somewhere to ride the bike all the time. There was Peter's brothers, there was Dave and Chris Morton, Steve McDermott and there was Andy Reid.

"We were all bike mad, that was all we wanted to do. Like every other kid I had the pictures on the wall and you'd visualise yourself on the bike.

"Me and Peter Collins in those days when we were at school we had to go to the careers officer. We both walked in and we both got thrown out as when he asked us what we wanted to do when we left school we both said we wanted to do speedway. Pete went back five years later when he was world champion and said that he was glad he didn't take his advice!"

On joining the Monarchs in 1977, Dave had far from an ideal start to his time with the Club as he had a pointless first match but he soon got to grips with things, "It annoyed me because I scored nought but it never crossed my mind that I couldn't ride it or I couldn't get round. I loved Powderhall, I loved the place from day one really. The people and everything have always been fantastic to me. Bad meetings or good ones."

Looking back on his time with the Monarchs, Dave was eager to point the spotlight on those behind the scenes that do so much for the Club and for the riders, "There's one person straight off - Ian Sneddon. Without Ian Sneddon I wouldn't have been able to ride all those years I rode. He was absolutely brilliant and luckily for Edinburgh he has still been around all these years.

"He's one of the quiet people that help out at Edinburgh behind the scenes that a lot of people don't know about and there's many people like that. Those days were the best times I had in my life."

If you missed last weekend's Sunday Lunch with Dave, you can watch now over on EMTV.

John and Liam return for another live Sunday Lunch With... question and answer session tomorrow with speedway referee Willie Dishington (Sunday 12th). Ask your questions now by emailing johnandliam@edinburghmonarchs.co.uk or ask live during the session over on Monarchs Facebook page.