A CAREER IN THE BOX - DR BARBARA HORLEY

At the end of last season, Dr Barbara Horley hung up her two minute stopwatch and pressed the tape release button for the last time. A familiar face at tracks around the country for over the past twenty years, Barbara gives us an insight into her refereeing career.

A secret! When I first started refereeing speedway, I thought I would give it around eighteen months and then re-assess. Over twenty years later, I can now look back on a refereeing career which has brought great ups (and some downs) but has always been exciting!

Having first gained a love of watching speedway as a child with my father and uncle at Monmore Green, it has always stayed with me. Seeing an advert for Olle Nygren’s ‘Sliding School’ at Kings Lynn, I decided to have a go. I knew then that I wanted to do something within speedway that would fit with my job as a teacher and so I decided that I would apply to be a referee…

I can still remember the very first race I started – it was at Peterborough when I was observing Tony Steele and how he ran a meeting when he said to me ‘Start the race then!”. When those tapes went up and the riders were away, it was thrilling! Refereeing is such a huge responsibility – not sure people realise just how many checks we have to do before the meeting starts – it’s not just a question of starting races, ending races and judging who may be at fault if an incident occurs (as important as those things are). Rider safety (and that of everyone else in the stadium) must always be paramount, an absolute priority, so the checks that referees have to make hours before the meeting starts are so vitally important. I am quite proud of the title that John Louis gave me at Ipswich – Queen of the Fire Extinguishers! Of course, it’s not a one-man band; so many different people are involved and contribute to making a meeting a successful one. The help and camaraderie I’ve experienced, both in the pits but especially in the referee’s box, have made refereeing so very enjoyable.

I’ve also seen a lot of riders come and go over the past twenty years – some real characters amongst them – all have contributed to speedway’s rich tapestry. Interestingly, only one rider, Simon Lambert, was riding in my very first solo meeting at Wimbledon in 2005 and at my last at Leicester in 2024. However, whether GP rider or junior rider, they are all treated with the same care and respect.

As a referee, you do have to put up with criticism and some abuse. People are often quick to criticise but less quick to apologise if they get it wrong so I guess that resilience has to be an important quality for a referee. Not always easy but you have to remember that referees are doing their best and want to get decisions right but you can see from televised meetings that it’s not always easy to determine exactly who is at fault. Nevertheless, I have loved my time as a referee and am pleased that I have been able to continue to serve speedway in researching and gaining my PhD, and talking about speedway at sports history conferences, at Silverstone and various motorcycling clubs. Would I encourage others (and particularly women) to become referees – yes I would!

Dr Barbara Horley

April 2025

One of Barbara's recent appearances, this time with BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, talking about Arthur Elvin and Wembley Stadium.