norbold

There is an article on speedway postcards in this month's Picture Postcard Monthly which begins, "Although it is generally accepted that motorcycle speedway was first introduced in Australia in 1923...." Here we go again!

I agree.

:oops:

Er...maybe because it closed in 1947...

As a "biking expert"...er..., allow me to answer Parsloes' question. I think Dagenham does indeed have a claim to be recognised as the "biggest hotbed of speedway talent in the UK before the War." Riders of the calibre of Frank Hodgson, Doug Wells, Jim Baylais, Nobby Stock, Malcolm Craven, Alan Smith, Eric French, Dick Harris, Crusty Pye, Aussie Powell, Ernie Pawson, Alex Gray, George Craig, Frank Lawrence and Bill Gilbert all had their grounding at Dagenham. Rye House would be the other claimant to the title but their golden period was probably just after the War, so I wouldn't dismiss Dagenham's claim. It's nice to be quoted as an expert in these matters of course, but I'd rather it was not in an article that also says, "The Dagenham track opened as speedway developed in the UK, four years after it was staged in Epping Forest, having been imported from Australia were it was first staged in 1923." As I said on another thread, aaaaaggggghhhh!!!! Incidentally, Parsloes, did you like your mention in my Speedway Star article!?

Do you mean Christer Lofqvist as i) he didn't ride for Wembley and ii) he was 26 when Wembley returned in 1970? Christer Sjosten maybe?

I was just about to say that!

I think it extremely unlikely.

Once again that's very interesting, Cyclone. Nothing like having contemporary documents. The information that Watson, Medcalf and Pugh demonstrated the art of broadsiding on 9 April come from the Motor Cycle report. I can't imagine the reporter would have just made it up. The report says: "For the first time in this country real, honest-to-goodness broadsiding was seen, no fewer than three riders demonstrated their ability to proceed round the track in the approved fashion. One of these riders is an Australian, but the other two are British. "The Australian rider, who is now connected with the King's Oak Speedway, is W.P.B. Pugh, a Silver Helmet winner. He gave several demonstrations on a 249 cc. Dunelt, and greatly delighted the crowd with his clever riding. The British riders are C. Watson (246 New Imperial) and A. Medcalf (494 Douglas), and as far as the actual races were concerned these two were undoubtedly the star turns of the day. "At the morning meeting Watson won the 250 cc event, and was second in the 350 cc race, and in the afternoon, he won both the 250 cc and 350 cc races and was winning the 500 cc event when he crashed... "Medcalf, who was, of course, only eligible for the 500 cc races won the event held in the morning after a wonderful tussle with Gus Kuhn and in the afternoon he was well on the way to victory when Nemesis, in the form of a skid, which he could not correct, overtook him, and he crashed heavily. He made the best time of the day by averaging 34.92 m.p.h. for five laps; the course is now 294 yards long." What qualifies it is that Hoskins was a supreme showman and said he invented speedway. It is a totally false claim. For one thing, the Maitland track was really a grass track. Eleven months before Maitland, the Thebarton Oval in Adelaide had held a meeting at which motor cycles raced round a cinder track (note, Rob, cinders!) under floodlights. There were similar reports of meetings from a number of places including Townsville, Rockhampton and Newcastle, all before the "famous" Maitland meeting. There was no broadsiding at Maitland.

You're not the only one...

Except I did say it is "likely" not certain.

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Droyslden was a cinder track but they were packed down hard, so it wasn't in the sense we really mean it a cinder track. Camberley's surface was sandy but at least it was loose sand. And it wasn't like sand you find on the beach. The soil was a sandy soil, so it was in effect a dirt track, much more so I would say than Droylsden or even the first meeting at High Beech.

Yes, but Rob doesn't think broadsiding is important either. Also, given all the other ingredients you don't feel are important to speedway, Rob, why do you think going anti clockwise is so important? Why would you rule out Camberley as the first meeting? It would seem to me that the direction is far less important than sliding as a definition of speedway.

As I said in the article, Rob, the reason I would discount Droylsden is because the cinders were hard packed; there was no loose dirt and nobody did - or could - broadside.In addition all the bikes had brakes. In my opinion loose dirt, broadsiding and no brakes are essential ingredients of "real" speedway. It's for the same reason that I also commit the heresy of discounting the first High Beech meeting too.

Thanks Cyclone. Very interesting. You may well be right that the first time real speedway was seen in a competitive setting may have been the 7 April, but there is no actual proof. So it's still a matter of maybe it was the 7th, maybe it was the 9th. We know for certain broadsiding took place on the 9th but not for certain that it took pace on the 7th. Given what you have said however, I would not argue with anyone who says that the first speedway meeting in Great Britain may have taken place on the 7th. I think what we can agree on is that it wasn't 19 February!

I haven't, no, Rob. It's not something I've really looked at enough to give a definitive answer. I don't know when the practice started in Australia. The races at High Beech on 19 February were usually with four riders but over three or five laps. If Cyclone has the programme for 7 April he may be able to say what the format was for that meeting. Helmet colours were certainly used at Belle Vue's first meeting on 28 July 1928 with red, white, blue, yellow, pink and green being used in the 6 man races and red, white, blue and yellow in the four man races. Something else to look into.

You may be right and the first competitive speedway may have taken place on 7 April, but I have never seen any evidence of it. There is no doubt the meeting took place, but who took part and did any of the riders broadside like Medcalf, Watson and Pugh were reported to have done at the 9 April meeting? Until I see any evidence that there was REAL speedway at the 7 April event I shall have to go along with 9 April being the first time it was seen. The Motor Cycle magazine says in its report of the 9 April meeting, "For the first time in this country real, honest-to-goodness broadsiding was seen, no fewer than three riders demonstrated their ability to proceed round the track in the approved fashion." Why would The Motor Cycle say this if there had been broadsiding only two days before? If you can point me in the right direction I will be happy to change my view. After all that is why I wrote the article in the first place - to get at the truth of the origins of speedway. As I said at the beginning of the article "All that is certain is that nothing is certain" and my article should not be taken as gospel for all time if other evidence turns up. That would be just as bad as perpetuating the Hoskins myth.

At last! Pages 26-29 of this week's Speedway Star.

I was going to put it in, but falcace wouldn't let me.....

In French? Or will it be enough just to mention Eric French?

Yes, I agree. As you can see by my avatar New Cross is my first love. I did go on to support West Ham and now Ipswich, but I know exactly what you mean.

Is Graham Miles very tall then? Why hasn't this been mentioned before?

I found this very interesting: http://www.inter-bike.co.uk/reviews-motorc...hn-chaplin.html

Thanks for that, Rob. It's certainly good to know Jimmy is still living life to the full. When I started going to speedway in 1960 at New Cross, Jimmy became my first hero.