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Footage Of West Ham


erasuretim

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Also on the itn site is a meeting which England lost to France in 1931! A fiercly fought battle.But looking on Brian Collins' excellent site there is no mention of a meeting between England and France in 1931.Pity there is no preview available.

And i wonder about the date of the Paris meeting in 1928.It states 1st January!!!!!But that is the same date given for the other meeting on there from 1928.Coincidence?Or could Galloway and McKay have raced in London in December 1927 and then gone on to Paris in January 1928?

Edited by iris123
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Also on the itn site is a meeting which England lost to France in 1931! A fiercly fought battle.But looking on Brian Collins' excellent site there is no mention of a meeting between England and France in 1931.Pity there is no preview available.

And i wonder about the date of the Paris meeting in 1928.It states 1st January!!!!!But that is the same date given for the other meeting on there from 1928.Coincidence?Or could Galloway and McKay have raced in London in December 1927 and then gone on to Paris in January 1928?

As I said above, Galloway and McKay did not reach England until January 1928 and as far as I know they certainly weren't in Paris then.

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This is puzzling..

You say there was dirt track racing at Stamford Bridge in 1927... That's pre-High Beech..! What's the story of this..? :unsure:

 

 

I'll be very surprised (mind the lamp post!) if there was any sort of motorcycle action at Stamford Bridge in 1927. If there was I wonder why news of it has taken 83 years to surface? I think there was an athletics track there at the time, so I suppose it's feasible.

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You may wonder what my agenda is :unsure: but I have done a google search and Stamford Bridge originally opened as an athletics track in the 1880s and was promoted by the London Athletics club. Football arrived in 1905, but the athletics track remained, so some motorcycle demos in 1927 MIGHT have taken place. Obviously the start of speedway in 1928 would have been on the base of the old athletics track. "This is a great topic but why is it still called 'Footage of West Ham'? :unsure:

Edited by speedyguy
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This is puzzling..

You say there was dirt track racing at Stamford Bridge in 1927... That's pre-High Beech..! What's the story of this..? :unsure:

1928. It was 1928. Not 1927. 1928 was the year. McKay and Galloway did not arrive in England until 1928 which makes it impossible for them to have ridden at Stamford Bridge in 1927.

 

Now that we've established it was in 1928, I can add, however, it was before the High Beech meeting.

 

All will soon be revealed in a forthcoming article in Speedway Star.

 

By the way, McKay and Galloway raced at Stamford Bridge in 1928 not 1927. Did I mention that?

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This is puzzling..

You say there was dirt track racing at Stamford Bridge in 1927... That's pre-High Beech..! What's the story of this..? :unsure:

This is from Gus Kuhn's website.Part of an article by Cyril May from 1977 Speedway Express,but there was also an article about it round the same time in the Speedway Star where it mentioned December 1927 as well.Obviously i guess dates have been confused and Norbold has evidence of the actual date

 

Illustrious broadsider

 

But previously, long before the illustrious Australian broadsiders arrived in England in April, Billy Galloway and Keith McKay had landed by boat around Christmas, 1927. They were the first-ever Australian riders in Britain and the late Jimmy Baxter arranged with "Pathe News" - the movie film people - for these two riders who had wide experience of the sport, to give an exhibition of broadsiding on the cinders running track at Stamford Bridge. Billy called on me last year [1976] and I asked him about this notable event. "Two Douglas machines were loaned to Keith and myself by the manager of the Douglas depot in London," he said, "but actually it was rather a frightening experience as the track was very hard, and we were used to a loose and heavy surface. On the outside of the circuit was a curved, spiked fence to keep the spectators back; it was anything but a Dirt-Track. The cameramen had erected a raised platform on one of the beds and the circuit being as it was we didn't have a lot of control in the slide. I didn't however fall off or knock over their platform but I well remember going very close to it once or twice!"

 

Actually it is a little-known fact, but this was the first-ever quarter-mile Dirt-Track demonstration in Britain. Billy Galloway (on holiday in England last year), is now over 70 years old but he is still sprightly and gay. [written in 1977] Sadly his pal Keith McKay was killed while racing at Sydney in the Australian Speedway season of 1929-30. These two, of course, took part in the Ilford Club's first-ever Dirt-Track meeting at King's Oak in the ensuing February, both on Douglases, the circuit being quite unique as it was in the heart of Epping Forest.

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I do have evidence of the date they arrived. You will see that Cyril May says they arrived "around Christmas, 1927". Not too specific and early January is "around Christmas". They arrived in early January 1928 and raced at Stamford Bridge for Pathe News shortly before the High Beech meeting.

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1928. It was 1928. Not 1927. 1928 was the year. McKay and Galloway did not arrive in England until 1928 which makes it impossible for them to have ridden at Stamford Bridge in 1927.

 

Now that we've established it was in 1928, I can add, however, it was before the High Beech meeting.

 

All will soon be revealed in a forthcoming article in Speedway Star.

 

By the way, McKay and Galloway raced at Stamford Bridge in 1928 not 1927. Did I mention that?

 

Hmm, well you know things confuse me easily...

Like the Highway Code for example!!! :wink:

 

But I think what's most confused me about this Stamford Bridge story is how come the good Dr. Belton hasn't written a book about it yet...!? :P

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I do have evidence of the date they arrived. You will see that Cyril May says they arrived "around Christmas, 1927". Not too specific and early January is "around Christmas". They arrived in early January 1928 and raced at Stamford Bridge for Pathe News shortly before the High Beech meeting.

Glad you have evidence Norbold.But one would assume(wrongly in my case :wink: )that if "around Christmas 1927" was mentioned then the guys could remember celebrating Christmas in blighty or it was a matter of days before they arrived or "around the New Year" would be a better statement to make :unsure:

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Even if they did arrive at Christmas 1927 - which they didn't - the chances of arranging Pathe News to film them racing at Stamford Bridge in 1927 would be pretty slim I would think...

Oh i don't know Norbold.How long did a ship take to travel from Australia in those days?

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I'm not sure I see the relevance. However, it took about four weeks and McKay and Galloway left Australia on 10 December 1927. That's why they couldn't have arrived before January 1928.

Was just pointing out that 3 weeks even would be plenty of notice to arrange for cameras to film this exciting new sport from Australia :rolleyes:

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That wasn't quite how it happened though. It wasn't all premeditated from Australia. I would guess it only happened after they arrived through the offices of Jimmy Baxter.

 

It seems that McKay and Galloway met by chance on board ship. McKay had no real intention of racing when he arrived in Britain. He came over to promote rather than race.

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That wasn't quite how it happened though. It wasn't all premeditated from Australia. I would guess it only happened after they arrived through the offices of Jimmy Baxter.

 

It seems that McKay and Galloway met by chance on board ship. McKay had no real intention of racing when he arrived in Britain. He came over to promote rather than race.

Ok Norbold.I always assumed they were on a mission to gain some pre-publicity with a number of contacts to get in touch with when they arrived.Or were even waiting for them when they got off the ship.So some work would have been going on while they were underway.

 

It all sounds so crazy it must be true.A promoter coming over with no riders and a rider coming over with nobody else who knew anything about speedway,no meetings or competitors........ :lol:

 

So if Galloway and McKay didn't ride at Stamford Bridge in 1927.....who did? :wink: And who rode in Paris on new years day 1928?

Edited by iris123
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I dont know if its been discussed before, but I was interested in a couple of clips on the itnsource.com website - there's tons of good stuff on here including 1930s roller speedway and aircraft pylon racing.

 

Searching 'motorcycle dirtrack' previews there's two clips from 1928, one of a meeting in Paris with Australian dirt track speedists

 

Also on the itn site is a meeting which England lost to France in 1931! A fiercly fought battle.But looking on Brian Collins' excellent site there is no mention of a meeting between England and France in 1931.Pity there is no preview available.

And i wonder about the date of the Paris meeting in 1928.It states 1st January!!!!!

 

And who rode in Paris on new years day 1928?

 

The French connection's a fascinating part of this whole thing too isn't it..

Strange that back in those incredibly early days for dirt track motorcycle racing in Europe, France seemed quite a big player yet over the intervening years has been so relatively uninvolved with the sport...

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The French connection's a fascinating part of this whole thing too isn't it..

Strange that back in those incredibly early days for dirt track motorcycle racing in Europe, France seemed quite a big player yet over the intervening years has been so relatively uninvolved with the sport...

 

 

Ah yes, P1928. The great days the late 1920a and early 1930s with top French riders like Jean Landru, Fernand Meynier and Charles Bellisent - and others. They were all class riders in speedway's pioneer days.

 

I could name more but there's a lamp post blocking my view at the moment! :rolleyes:

Edited by speedyguy
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That wasn't quite how it happened though. It wasn't all premeditated from Australia. I would guess it only happened after they arrived through the offices of Jimmy Baxter.

 

It seems that McKay and Galloway met by chance on board ship. McKay had no real intention of racing when he arrived in Britain. He came over to promote rather than race.

 

Keith McKay was more interested in promoting speedway than riding. He was the man behind the first staging of speedway at the famous Wayville track in South Australia. At the time of his accident in Australia in late 1928 which resulted in his death, McKay was already planning his promotional ventures for 1929, one venture being in the USA. I have an interview he gave shortly before his accident.

 

Re the time taken for a vessel to sail from Australia to the UK in the late 1920s, that depends what one uses as a starting point. Most sailings originated in Brisbane or Sydney on the east coast. The time was then about 6 weeks. From Fremantle (the final port of call on Australia's west coast for sailings to the UK useing that route), the time was less.

 

Re Cyril May, one should question anything he wrote concerning Australians of the period we are discussing here. Sadly his errors in Ride It are still being perpetuated today. One of the most extraordinary things he wrote was a feature on Bert Spencer. Some of the content is absolute nonsense.

Edited by Ross Garrigan
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The French connection's a fascinating part of this whole thing too isn't it..

Strange that back in those incredibly early days for dirt track motorcycle racing in Europe, France seemed quite a big player yet over the intervening years has been so relatively uninvolved with the sport...

 

French rider Ives de Lathe had trials for Crystal Palace in 1929 but was handicapped by using a Triumph motorcycle and frequently fell after a couple of laps.

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