REDCAR Bears speedway skipper and former world champion Gary Havelock reveals all in an article first published in REDSQUARE.

Where did you grow up?

I was born in Eaglescliffe but my parents moved to Yarm when I was two or three and I lived there until I moved to Marton with my wife.

At a very early age. It was just my local club so I supported them. I must admit I was more into my bikes until my teens when I started getting in to football. Then I only really got into it properly when the Riverside was built and Bryan Robson started signing the household names!

Not a lot, I know it was at Ayresome Park and it was against Leeds, I was about eight or nine-years-old.

I don't have a season ticket unfortunately. Football is supposed to be a winter sport and speedway a summer sport but the two do overlap a lot these days and it doesn't really afford me as many games as I'd like to. Hopefully, when I retire from racing I'll be able to get to a lot more.

That would have to be the 3-2 win at Manchester United, it was about four or five years ago now. A friend of mine, a United fan, offered me a ticket in the home end so it was difficult to show my emotions at half-time when we were winning 3-0! But you don't often go to Old Trafford and win so it was a brilliant day as a Boro fan.

I'd probably have to say Juninho. There's been some great players over the years but during his first spell with the club he was unbelievable.

Lee Cattermole. Without knocking foreign players, you often find they don't have the heart and commitment and I always prefer to watch committed players, who wear their heart on their sleeve. Lee shows his passion and commitment every time he plays and that's all a fan could ask for. He's a very talented player, too.

I think we have done okay. I was talking to Gareth Southgate at the Evening Gazette Sports Awards recently, I was saying how I thought moving in to management from playing at the same club must be a very difficult thing to do, you go from being one of the lads to, suddenly, telling some of them they're out the side. But I think he's adapted very well. If you'd have told me at the start of the season that we'd finish mid-table I'd have settled for that to be honest. It has been a transitional season but we've done it well so there's everything to look forward to.

Absolutely. It's definitely a sport on the up. It did hit a difficult period in the 1980s through to the mid-90s, when attendance figures dropped massively. But it's coming back, and we're getting a lot of interest. Speedway has the second-highest viewing figures on Sky Sports - second to football, of course! - and attendances are on the up. It has been a full-time profession for me and I count myself lucky that for a lot of years I've been paid to do something I really enjoy doing.

*Gary Havelock, now 38, is the Redcar Bears current captain. He had originally ridden for Middlesbrough Bears from the age of 16 at the old Cleveland Park. He then moved in to the top league with Bradford where he became world champion and won several league titles.

Gary also represented Eastbourne, Poole and Peterborough before returning to the newly-named Redcar Bears in 2005. For more details on Gary - including links to other speedway websites - visit www.garyhavelock.co.uk.