DATE OF BIRTH: 25 October 1964, Hereford, Herefordshire.
BRITISH CAREER: (1984) Newcastle, Cradley Heath, Arena-Essex; (1986-87) Cradley Heath; (1988) Stoke; (1989-90) Long Eaton; (1991) King’s Lynn; (1992-96) Exeter; (1997-98) Newport; (1999) Stoke; (2000-02) Swindon; (2003) Swindon, Peterborough; (2004) Somerset, Belle Vue; (2005-06) Somerset; (2007) Mildenhall; (2008) Isle of Wight; (2009) Newport, Poole.
CAREER RECORD WITH SWINDON: Meetings: 184 (97 League; 16 Knock-Out Cup; 38 Premier Trophy; 8 Young Shield; 8 British League Cup; 1 Midland Shield; 4 M4 Trophy; 8 Challenge; 4 Four-Team Championship) Rides: 875 Points: 1,706 Bonus: 137 Total: 1,843 Average: 8.43 Maximums: 19 (7 full and 12 paid)
CLUB DEBUT: 9 June 1993 versus Long Eaton (Away) British League Division Two; 8 points (6 rides).
PAUL DAVID FRY first appeared on the grass-track scene at the age of 15, prior to linking with the Cradley Heath junior side in 1984. His big breakthrough came on 8 September that year, when he made his senior speedway debut for a short-handed Newcastle side in a British League match at Dudley Wood Stadium.
‘Fryer’ also rode in one-off meetings for Arena-Essex and the main Cradley Heath team that same year, but had to wait until 1986 for an extended run in the Heathens’ side. However, after two terms in the toughest sphere in the world, he dropped down to National League Stoke in 1988, where he continued on his learning curve.
Remaining in the National League, Paul joined Long Eaton the following season and he made real progress during a two-year spell at the Station Road circuit, ending the 1990 campaign with 222 league points and an average of exactly 6.00 to his name. Fry then had another try at top-flight racing with King’s Lynn in 1991, when he managed to achieve a useful 4.27 league average, having scored 74 points.
It was a move back into the Second Division in 1992, though, when Exeter boss Colin Hill stepped in to purchase Paul outright. He subsequently spent five seasons at the County Ground and obviously found that the sweeping 396-metre circuit suited his hard-charging approach to racing. However, despite achieving the highest average (7.37) of his career at the time in 1992, it wasn’t an enjoyable year as he was involved in four serious track accidents, sustaining several injuries including a painful broken scaphoid.
Having recovered from that setback, Paul’s thrilling style was to entertain the Exeter fans throughout his stay, which included the 1995 and 1996 seasons, when the two divisions combined to form one large Premier League. His best year with the Falcons occurred in 1994, when he garnered 249 points for a league average of 7.66, eclipsing his 1992 figure.
Moving on to Newport in 1997, Fryer became promoter Tim Stone’s first signing at his new venture. Paul’s form was tremendous for the Wasps and he thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere generated at the Queensway Meadows raceway, romping to 252 league points and an 8.75 average. Remaining at Newport in 1998, he couldn’t quite recapture the previous year’s form but, even so, still managed a creditable 8.29 league figure.
A return to Stoke followed in 1999, but it wasn’t a happy season as he spent much of it on the injured list with a broken ankle, which was sustained at the Isle of Wight while guesting for Exeter on 1 June. At the start of the year 2000, it was announced that Fry had signed for Swindon and considering that he had only attained a 6.60 league average for Stoke, many Robins’ supporters questioned the wisdom of his acquisition.
However, Blunsdon was a track that Paul had ridden well on many occasions previously and coming in on a low average was to prove very handy, indeed. Famously, he turned up for the club’s Press and Practice Day sporting a real beauty of a black eye that he tried to conceal behind a pair of sunglasses!
He was to blend in brilliantly with Neil Collins, Frank Smart and Martin Dixon, giving the side plenty of experience alongside the youthful element of Olly Allen, Mark Steel and Claus Kristensen. As such, Swindon were to enjoy their most successful term in 33 long years, winning both the Knock-Out Cup and the Young Shield, with the form of Fryer playing a major part in the glorious double success.
Quite simply, he was a revelation as he remained ever-present throughout the league programme, scorching to 272 points and heading the side’s averages with a career best figure of 8.96. It wasn’t just his spectacular brand of racing that the Robins’ supporters enthused over, for Paul also proved to be an absolute gentleman off the track whenever he came into personal contact with his very appreciative audience. It therefore came as little surprise when he deservedly scooped the club’s Rider of the Year award.
More of the same followed in 2001, although he endured a spell on the sidelines after breaking a knuckle in a home league match versus Hull on 12 July. It proved a niggling injury, taking time to heal properly and was clearly a contributory factor in his league average slipping back to 8.17. The fans remained more than happy with his efforts, though, voting him their Rider of the Year for a second successive term.
Fry seemed to have a greater level of confidence in 2002, banging in high scores right from the start of the campaign as he became one of the top heat-leaders in the entire Premier League. Regrettably, it all ended abruptly at Berwick on 15 June, when a freak heat three accident saw him crash awkwardly and suffer a double leg fracture, rendering him out of action for the remainder of the term. That was only his twelfth league match of the year and, having attained 119 points for a big 9.67 average, he was to prove a very hard man to replace.
Thankfully, he recovered to resume in the Swindon team in 2003 when, understandably, his scoring potential was slightly down, taking into account the injuries of the previous year. Even so, he still recoreded 272 points for a league average of 7.55 and helped the side to victory in the Blunsdon-staged Four-Team Championship on 27 July.
With Swindon subsequently joining the Elite League in 2004, it spelt the end of Paul’s time with the Robins. In total, he made 184 appearances for the side in all competitions, scoring 1,706 points plus 137 bonus for an average of 8.43, while also netting 7 full and 12 paid maximums. He is one of only thirty-one riders to surpass 1,000 points for the club and still holds fifteenth position in Swindon’s all-time list of scorers.
After departing from the Blunsdon scene, Fry sported the colours of Somerset from 2004 to 2006, inclusive, and in the first of those years he posted a league average of 7.42, having scored 204 points from twenty-seven matches. The year also saw him on the books of Belle Vue as one of the Aces’ squad riders.
In 2005, he assisted the Rebels in their Four-Team Championship success at Workington on 20 August, while also netting 214 points from twenty-six league matches for a slightly improved 7.66 average. Then, in 2006, Paul was unfortunately struck by the injury bug yet again, sustaining a broken leg in a home league fixture, ironically against Berwick on 2 June, which prematurely spelt the end of his season. It was only his sixth league match of the campaigh, from which he had recorded 54 points for an impressive 8.92 average.
Although he wasn’t retained by Somerset in 2007, the Oak Tree Arena still hosted a much-deserved testimonial meeting for the full-throttle speedster on 23 March, when Swindon star Leigh Adams took victory in an individual event. Subsequently, at the start of June, Fry made a belated start to the season when he was signed by Mildenhall as a replacement for Mario Jirout, who had been released following a poor showing in a fixture at Glasgow.
After seeing out the year with the Fen Tigers, he linked with the Isle of Wight in 2008; regrettably, though, the popular track ace was again in the wars whilst representing the side in a Premier League match at Berwick on 10 May. This saw the meeting come to a shocking end due to an horrific crash that also injured some fans. As the tapes went up on heat seven, Fry locked machines with home rider Scott Smith going into the first bend, leaving the duo unable to control their destiny.
With both bikes going at full-bore, the pair smashed head-long into the fencing, shattering the barrier to smithereens and sending Smith deep into the no-man’s-land. Meanwhile, Fry and the machines kept on going, flying over the remains of the fence and into the supporters’ area. The IOW speedster ended up against the stadium’s perimeter wall, some fifty feet from the track, while the flying bikes struck three very unlucky spectators who were walking past.
The long servant to British speedway sustained knee ligament damage and a couple of broken toes, and Smith, like Fry, was both shaken-up and shocked at the severity of the incident. The local police treated the incident as they would a regular accident scene and the meeting was abandoned.
Paul looked to be lost to the sport in 2009, but was signed by Newport following a serious injury to Craig Watson in their re-opening meeting. In May, he also joined Poole in a ‘doubling-up’ capacity alongside Ben Wilson, when the Pirates released Carl Stonehewer and Tomasz Piszcz. Having shown good form for the Wasps, Fry took over the club captaincy when Mark Lemon was axed at the start of July.
Paul was, at the time, the second oldest rider competing in British speedway, behind Mark Burrows. He was also delighted to have achieved his personal ambition of 25 years in the sport and with his ever-youthful looks – coupled with his trademark boyish enthusiasm – he provided bags of entertainment for the Newport faithful courtesy of his never-say-die racing style.
He was all set to embark on a full season of grass-track racing in 2010, when he tragically died on 1 April. He was 45 years-of-age. His funeral took place at St Paul’s Church in Tupsley on 20 April when, as a measure of his popularity, there were many past and present riders in attendance, as well as huge number of speedway supporters from around the country. The bearers were all former team-mates of Fryer, being Neil Collins, Scott Pegler, Mark Loram, Tommy Allen, Simon Walker and Ritchie Hawkins.
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DATE OF BIRTH: 25 October 1964, Hereford, Herefordshire.
However, Blunsdon was a track that Paul had ridden well on many occasions previously and coming in on a low average was to prove very handy, indeed. Famously, he turned up for the club’s Press and Practice Day sporting a real beauty of a black eye that he tried to conceal behind a pair of sunglasses!
With Swindon subsequently joining the Elite League in 2004, it spelt the end of Paul’s time with the Robins. In total, he made 184 appearances for the side in all competitions, scoring 1,706 points plus 137 bonus for an average of 8.43, while also netting 7 full and 12 paid maximums. He is one of only thirty-one riders to surpass 1,000 points for the club and still holds fifteenth position in Swindon’s all-time list of scorers.
Paul was, at the time, the second oldest rider competing in British speedway, behind Mark Burrows. He was also delighted to have achieved his personal ambition of 25 years in the sport and with his ever-youthful looks – coupled with his trademark boyish enthusiasm – he provided bags of entertainment for the Newport faithful courtesy of his never-say-die racing style.
