norbold

I have a number of photos of Eric Chitty. I can scan them in and e-mail them if you let me know where...

Well done, mate. And don't forget the Old Comrades March...

www.clactonhistory.com/history_of_norwich_speedway.htm is an old site of mine that never really got going! Jim is creating a new site.

Apparently it was the Old Comrades march.

See King's Oak thread under Speedway general Discussions...

I'm up there quite frequently. Next time...

I have Simmo's address, but I'm not sure he wants it made public knowledge. Perhaps I could pass on a message for you?

So, anyway, I was at the Newspaper Library at Colindale today doing a bit of research when I came across two interesting snippets. Well, I thought they were anyway.... 1. At 7.25 p.m. on 5 May 1928, the BBC broadcast "An eye-witness account of a motor cycle dirt track race meeting." Is this the earliest speedway related broadcast? 2. On the day I was born Wimbledon beat Belle Vue and Norman Parker scored a maximum for the Dons. Some of you will understand the significance of this for me!

You only have to say them to hear which sounds right.

I bet you're glad I started this thread, eh, Gem?

Are you implying I'm not young and beautiful, Gem?

Yes, very sorry to hear that. I met him once in a pub near Hackney speedway after a meeting. He seemed a nice bloke. Although Terry Ripo might not agree as I believe he once kicked in the door to the announcer's box at Mildenhall after a disagreement with the referee!!!

Who was I training to teach would be more appropriate! I was training to teach junior school children 7-11.

Of course, with us cockneys, what tends to happen is that the 'h' word drops the h and begins with n instead, as in a notel or a nistorian.....

Yes, I think 847084 has explained the position re-an/a before h correctly. It used to be the case that a word beginning with h was always preceeded by an, but this has now fallen out of favour and it is generally the case that an would only be used where the h is silent.

What do you mean? First of all I went to New Cross Then I tried to go to Norwich Then I went to West Ham Then I went to Hackney..... Hmmm...you could have something...

I saw them until I went off to college in early September. I then saw them again beating Cradley Heath at Dudley Wood in the match that won them the British League. So, at least I was there for that! Incidentally, the reason I chose Keswick Hall was so I could go and see Norwich. Just after I applied and was accepted, Norwich announced their closure.

6th February

Yes, it was a teacher training college. Keswick Hall, Norwich. But I didn't like teaching so I never actually took it up, preferring the academic atmosphere of The British Museum instead! Good news about the book. See you at High Beech?

Settle down, this could take some time! I was recently going through some old papers I have (I don't throw anything away, I'm a historian) when I came across a letter I had long forgotten from a friend of mine. He and I were both West Ham supporters and used to visit West Ham and Hackney regularly until I went off to college in 1965. He then went on his own and sent me regular reports. The following letter is one he wrote to me on 27 September 1965 after travelling to Belle Vue to see a league match against the Hammers. "Dear Norm Guess what? It rained every second we were in Manchester. However the sealions in the zoo seemed to enjoy it. Ken McKinlay's mind does not function in the same way as a sealion's. When we asked whether he was going to ride, he said, 'I suppose we've got to' in a voice that could only be described as sullen. Sverre on the other hand is probably related to one of the aforementioned sealions because when asked whether he would ride, he replied that he didn't mind particularly what the weather was like. The rain would make it like a home meeting. When I had a look at the track at five o'clock it was already under water. There was one solitary track grader raking the same bit of track over and over again. It looked at that time as if racing would be impossible. It continued to pour down with rain. To pass the time away we went on the bobs (or rather the brave ones and the idiots did). The murderous contraption is a monsterous type of big dipper that is supposed to be like a bobsleigh run. The thing shoots round the bends at about 120 degrees and drops at angles of about 89 degrees. We had tea and Ken, Norm [Hunter] and Sverre came in and said that the meeting was definitely on. All the fools in the party had another dice with death on the bobs. After that came the meeting. The programme [which he enclosed with the letter] should be self-explanatory. Mal [simmons] was second to Norm in heat 3 when he had engine failure and was challenging Fisher for 2nd place in heat 7 with Hunter in the lead when it went again. After the meeting we went to the bar and after about an hour Ken, Norm, Sverre and Tony [Clarke] came in. After they had a drink we tried to get them to go on the bobs. Ken and Sverre agreed. Norm said, 'Not bloody likely. I'm not going on that thing.' Tony was still drinking and I said, 'Come on Tony, have a go, it's great.' He got up but when we went out he went back to his drink. When we got to the bobs, they had shut down. Instead we went on the dodgems. I soon went off Sverre when he rammed me against the outside of the track. It made me hit my head against the rod on the back of the car and he was too clever for me to give him a good bump back. Ken, however, was easy to hit. After four rides on the dodgems we had a wander around in the rain and Ken and Sverre were very friendly and quite amusing. Going back to last Tuesday, you will forever regret missing the match with Long Eaton. You missed Mal's first full maximum and you also missed A PAID MAXIMUM BY REG TROTT. Yours John" Sadly John died a few years later from a heart attack at the young age of only 31. But I thought his letter might be of some interest to ex-West Ham fans and fans of the 60s in general.....

Be fair, moxey did add the 1947 statistics...

1948 - Exeter 43 matches 287 points 6.67 average 1949 - Exeter 47 matches 301 points 6.40 average 1950 - Exeter 34 matches 226 points 6.64 average 1951 - Cardiff 36 matches 189 points 5.25 average 1952 - Ipswich 17 matches 44 points 2.5 average

The 1949 Who's Who says: PILGRIM, ARTHUR. Born Colchester 1920. Owned a baby motor-cycle at the age of nine and first became interested in speedway when watching his brother Jack ride at West ham. Arthur began his racing career on the grass track and in 1938 had trials at Dagenham and Hall Green. He afterwards had one or two races at Norwich but settled down to it seriously after the war when he joined the Rye House training school where he was spotted by Frank Buckland the then Exeter manager. Arthur first rode for Exeter in August 1947 as reserve, and the following season was a regular member of the team scoring 55.2% of his possible points."

The review in Halliwell's Film guide says: "A fairground wall of death rider turns to crime. Glum quickie which was oddly popular." Rating: No stars.

Tom Farndon? Where's my nearest school?