The first bicycle racing at Edlington was at the Edlington and Warmsworth Nursing Association fete on 11th September 1920, the sports were held on a grass track in a field "kindly lent by the Yorkshire Main Colliery Company". There were two open handicap bicycle races over half and one mile, both of these were won by WH Cooke of Scunthorpe.
A circular cinder track is shown on maps of the Yorkshire Main miner's welfare ground at Edlington from the 1930s, but there seems to be no record of bicycle races there until after the Second World War.
Yorkshire Main was described in 1947 as the fastest cinder track in Yorkshire. The colliery sports were held there on 19th June 1948 and the meeting included a half mile open bicycle handicap race, which was won by J Chetwynd of Brodsworth RC in 1 min 6 sec.
The South Yorkshire Track League^^ started to hold meetings at Edlington in the early 1950s and continued for a few years until the track league folded.
At the 1953 colliery sports, the men's races were 440 and 880 yards handicaps, 600 yards scratch and the women's races were 440 and 880 yards handicaps. Roy Swinnerton** of Stoke Wheelers won the men's scratch race. The colliery Whitsun sports in 1954 was the eighth annual meeting and there were 120 riders in the cycling events, the sports included the men's and women's NCU local sprint championships.
There was a large meeting on 4th June 1955 at which Eric Thompson, the Empire Games Champion from E Midlands Clarion, won the 600 yards scratch. June Thackray, the women's National Road race champion, made her track debut in the 440 yards handicap, R Winn of Sheffield Phoenix won the South Yorkshire five miles Championship and B Roughton of Mexborough RC won the women's 550 yards South Yorkshire Championship. This was probably the last bicycle racing to be held at Edlington.
In 1968, the Yorkshire Main Miners' Welfare Scheme built a new sports pavilion with changing accommodation, showers, toilets and recreation room, with a small licensed bar and kitchen. The pit closed in 1985 and Edlington is now mainly a residential village. The abandoned track still exists at the Yorkshire Main Miners' Sports and Welfare Club.
^^ The South Yorkshire Track League was set up in 1949 and the first meeting was on the Goldthorpe cricket ground on May 10th. All the first years events were held at Goldthorpe. The following year, the League organised eighteen mid-week events, held fortnightly, at Brodsworth Miners Welfare and Goldthorpe. Later meetings of the League extended the venues to include the Askern Welfare track, Hickleton Main cricket pitch, Bentley Miners Welfare track and the Yorkshire Main welfare Ground at Edlington. The track league was very popular in the early 1950's and meetings attracted around 70 riders.
The league set up a ‘Track racing improvement fund' in 1951 to help young rider and in 1957 they gave a grant of £10 to an upcoming local rider named T Simpson. Tom, then in the Scala Wheelers, rode in his local track league and was the 1955 NCU (S Yorks & N Derby) 4,000m individual pursuit champion. Simpson went on to be World Road Race Champion and a leading Tour de France rider.
The league made a loss in 1955 and decided not to hold meetings at the tracks with the lowest gate receipts. At this time the league had 24 member clubs. The Star Green ‘un reported in August 1958 "A succession of wet Wednesday nights in June and early July has given the South Yorkshire Track League another bad season financially and their officials must be wondering whether the considerable work involved in running the League is worthwhile." This proved to be true and the League seems to have finished the following year.
** Roy Swinnerton was an excellent grass track rider, winning the National Championship half mile title in the 1950s. He ran the family firm of Swinnerton Cycles in Stoke on Trent, he was the National Team Mechanic at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and Track Team Manager at the 1974 Commonwealth Games as well as acting as team mechanic at various World Championships.
