Month: February 2025

Some of you with good vision and inquisitive minds may be wondering why there are bare naked ladies riding bicycles around a dirt track on our fantastic artwork on the site’s homepage. Of course, there will be some of you who may be able to figure out exactly what is going on.

If not, here is the story…

Back in 1978, the rock band Queen, fronted by Freddie Mercury, released a song called Bicycle Race. This was part of a “Double A” side single (the flip song was Fat Bottomed Girls) and reached the heady heights of number 11 in the music charts. The infectious melody includes the sounds of many old-fashioned bicycle bells being rung.

The music video that accompanied the song was banned in several countries for its content. Yes, those bare naked ladies were seen for real as they rode around the then Wimbledon Stadium with its greyhound track. The models improvised their race, and as over 60 of them bare all on rented cycles, the video was seen as too graphic and was censored and banned.

The history of Wimbledon Stadium has had many highlights. This one is one of its most famous that doesn’t include competitive sport being played. Being family friendly, WiSH can show you the censored version of the video. Trust Freddie to make headlines…

You will have read about the great event that happened at the Club on the weekend of February 14/15. This saw over 20 different countries represented through our overseas fanbases at Plough Lane to enjoy our fantastic facilities. Many went on a Tour and were also entertained by former player Hans Segers.

We have a selection of images from that weekend below, and if this has raised interest, we have a dedicated page on this site to our WWW (that’s World Wide Wombles), which can be found here…

A full feature will appear in the club matchday programme against Bromley and will be available here soon after.

The Batsford Boys Anniversary Dinner was a truly tremendous event that brought together the famous team from the now infamous 1975 FA Cup run, as well as other exploits on and off the pitch.

You can read more about that night in our previous article here

During the evening the players from the past took time to mix with people that attended the evening, and also signed their thoughts down, which you can see in the images below.

Some even took time to send messages of thanks after the event, such was their joy of being reunited with their colleagues from the past, and also the new generation of supporters that have learnt of their achievements.

WiSH would like to go on record by thanking all of those that helped make this event a true success, and of course to the players, and families that attended the night, and gave up so much time to make everyone reminisce on those glory days.

Our WiSH club museum was officially reopened on Friday  January 31 by Mo Batsford and club President Dickie Guy, I believe the pictures speak for themselves, an incredible effort from all the WiSH volunteers involved in rescuing items from the flood to building new cabinets and then bringing it back to life.

I’m told it has the WOW factor now and we’re very proud of the end result. I hope you all enjoy seeing our complete 130+ years of history on display, please sign and comment in the visitor’s book and leave a kind donation if you can, the museum remains free at the point of contact for all to view.

 Tours are also back in full swing now and some brand new exhibits, just for those that book, to see up on the third floor.

 

The day finished with a celebration of the famous Batsford Boys 50th Anniversary dinner, once again I’ll leave the pictures to tell the story. The evening was a great success and the first partnership heritage anniversary event between WiSH and the Club, we plan to celebrate an anniversary each season now and are already looking forward to what we can bring you in 2025/26!