Bill Kitchen (speedway rider)
William Kitchen was an international speedway rider who started his career with the Belle Vue Aces in 1933.Before he started speedway Kitchen was a prominent road trials rider and had taken part in the Isle of Man TT.
His pre-war career was with Belle Vue. In 1946 he became captain of the Wembley Lions and finished second in the British Speedway Championship. He finished fifth in the Speedway World Championship in 1939.
Kitchen was a member of a National League winning team eleven times in twenty years, a feat made even more exceptional given the fact that the outbreak of World War II cost his Belle Vue team the chance of earning Kitchen a twelfth title, and the fact that the competition was suspended a further six seasons during the war.
Kitchen was also a regular England international with over forty appearances after the war as well as over thirty pre-war caps.
In 1950, Bill Kitchen won the Australian 3 Lap Championship at the Tracey's Speedway in Melbourne.
After retirement, Bill ran a motor spares shop bearing his own name, in Station Road Harrow until at least the 1980s.World Final appearances
