Rose Brothers constructed a sports ground in 1919 which was used by their employees in their sports club for football, cricket, rugby, tennis and bowls. The ground was also used, fairly infrequently, for open sports meetings with bicycle racing on a grass track.
The first open meeting on the ground was promoted by the Gainsborough Albion Works sports club and was held on August 23rd 1919. There were two half mile handicap races and a one mile open scratch race that was dominated by the White brothers from Scunthorpe, Albert White^^ taking first place with his brothers placed second and third.
The sports were held again in 1920, there were 300 entries and the attendance was 3,000. In a repeat of the previous year, the White brothers filled the first three places in the mile scratch race. Albert Theaker** who would become one of the country's top sprinters, was starting to show his potential by winning the half mile handicap race.
The sports seemed to lapsed after 1920, but were revived in 1926 with a meeting on June 18th with two bicycle handicap races. The revival only lasted another year until the sports lapsed again.
There was a sports meeting on August 1st 1942, presumably to boost morale in the Second World War, during which Rose Brothers were involved in supplying military equipment. Cycle racing formed the main attraction at the meeting with seven events and there were 2,000 spectators.
Rose Brothers became part of the Baker Perkins Group in 1961, then AMP-Rose was formed in 1990 to make confectionery packaging machines. Their machinery was used by Cadbury in 1938 when they introduced the individually wrapped miniature chocolate selection, they allegedly called the range ‘Roses' after the name on their packaging machines. AMP-Rose still operates from Somerby Way in Gainsborough. Roses sports ground is still used for football and rugby.
^^ Albert White (known as LAL) was born in Brigg in 1890, he was employed as a steel worker in Scunthorpe. Between the years 1913-26, he won 15 national titles and competed in four World track Championships and won a silver medal in the 1920 Olympics. White died in 1965.
** Albert Theaker was a specialist grass track rider in the 1920s, when Theaker and Albert White were the best grass track riders in England. Theaker won four national championships in 1926 and rode at the world championships every year from 1926 to 1930. He retired in 1932 and died in 1955, aged sixty years.
