For the Tayside and Fife instalment of our club case study series, Ruth Wright, Tayside and Fife CDC, caught up with Craig Masson of Fife Cycle Speedway to hear how the club’s innovation and fresh ideas have helped in their development and growth.
Fife Cycle Speedway was formed in 2016 following the successful introduction of Cycle Speedway as an extra-curricular club at Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline. It quickly gained popularity across other local schools resulting in the establishment of the Fife and Scottish Schools Championships and the construction of an outdoor track on spare grounds within the boundaries of Queen Anne High School which is now home to Fife Cycle Speedway.
As a niche sport, publicity has been key to Fife Cycle Speedway’s development and growth and they have worked to engage with the local community, organisations and press.
“Our track lends itself to sponsorship for local organisations and we have regular articles and news stories in Dunfermline Press and KingdomFM.”
Craig explained that they also try to increase their publicity through their social media outlets (@cyclefife), aiming to post at least once a week to inform their followers of their progress and activities. This season they have been successful increasing the numbers of people they reach which has helped to attract new riders to the club.
In addition they have engaged with Craig MacLean MBE and Katie Archibald who have both become patrons for the club. Craig has found that having riders of their ability and achievements in cycling involved with the club helps to inspire and motivate their riders.
Craig talked about how cost can be a barrier to participation in cycling. Fortunately Cycle Speedway is one of the least expensive forms of cycle sport to join as the bikes and kit are very basic and therefore relatively cheap. In addition, Fife Cycle Speedway also have a loan system at the club meaning that riders do not need to have their own bikes. This has helped make the sport accessible to people within their local community and they frequently host come and try sessions especially after one of their matches to encourage people to give it a go.
“Cycle speedway is accessible, affordable, family-oriented not to mention incredibly fun!”
Cycle Speedway is a club sport, with inter-club matches within leagues the mainstay of the sport. As such Craig tells me that they also inject some competition into their club nights, with their members having created mini teams within Fife Cycle Speedway. Once training routines are over, they run a series of races to finish off their session. These points are accumulated each week with the winners being awarded at the end of the season. They have found that this has encouraged riders to attend on a more regular basis as they don’t want to miss out on their points!
Timing of club nights is something that Fife Cycle Speedway have also thought hard about and in recognition that their members are also part of other cycle clubs they alternate between a Wednesday/Thursday each week to help maximise the number of people that are able to attend.
Looking to the future Fife Cycle Speedway are looking to increase the number of female club members. Craig explained that they have quite a lot of women and girls coming to try the sport and enjoy it but seem to be drift away when it becomes more competitive. They are keen to explore the reasons for this and to find ways to make the competitive side more appealing to women and girls.
Collaboration between the three cycle speedway clubs in Scotland has been key to their success. Craig explained that Fife Cycle Speedway wouldn’t exist without the help and advice initially given by members of Edinburgh Falcons. He is keen to extend this further to include cycle clubs in other disciplines. Looking forward Fife Cycle Speedway would like to link up with other local bike clubs, invite them to come for a visit and use the track.
If you would like to find out more about Fife Cycle Speedway you can contact them at fifecyclespeedway@gmail.com or follow them on Facebook
