It has been 12 long years in the wilderness – but fans of the legendary Cradley Heathens speedway team will be hoping this week’s announcement of a new stadium site signals the first part of what would be an incredible comeback.

Supporters, backed by the cash of developer Tony Mole, hope to build a new ground for the team on green belt land off Oldnall Road, behind the Powerleague football complex between Cradley and Lye.

A planning application has been submitted to Dudley Council – and it will be backed with a near 10,000-name petition of support. 

The team, one of the most decorated and well known names in the sport, was founded in 1947 and, apart from a spell in the 1950s, operated through to 1995 at Dudley Wood.

Names like Alan Hunt, Ivor Brown, Harry Bastable and Bernie Persson were as famous in the Black Country as Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law in Manchester and regularly turned up as guests of honour at community events and schools. 

But the club’s on-track fortunes changed in 1977 when Derek Pugh and Dan McCormick took over the reins at Dudley Wood and invested heavily in team building.

A string of domestic honours flowed. Two league championships, eight knock-out cups, three league cups and six premierships turned the once unfashionable side into the most respected speedway outfit in the country. But Dudley Wood stadium saw its last speedway race in October 1995, as the stadium owners reached an agreement to sell it to Barratts for housing.

After a hard-fought campaign against the sell-off featuring thousands of people against the plan, the developers finally persuaded an inspector to grant outline permission at the sixth attempt in 2002.

Following the loss of the stadium, the promoters took the team to Chesterton stadium in the Potteries for the 1996 season, but the 100-mile round trip for midweek meetings proved too much for many. Since then, Cradley Raise Aid Saving Heathens (CRASH) has worked constantly behind the scenes to identify more than 40 possible sites for a new stadium.

Now, after a £14,000 consultants search funded out of their own pockets, they stand on the brink of an historic and long-awaited return.