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Speedway Stories In Boys Comics


BOBBATH

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Does anyone remember reading the above comics-they were mostly well written text and not pictures.The stories were great-often serials like "I Flew with Braddock", "Alf Tupper Tough of the Track "etc. Question does anyone recall any speedway serials-I think there may well have been as these comics were big in the late forties and thru' the fifties and I am sure many of the schoolboy readers were into speedway -which was a well supported sport.So two questions-#1does anyone recall reading the comics#2 any recollection of speedway stories in them. To Ianmartin-having discovered the delights of youtube you might be interested in a webpage dealing with these publications.If you google British comics-a website will come up that when you go to it shows covers of these four publications plus synopses of some of the stories. I was reading a few for ald times sake and my main thought was how much higher the standard of literacy was then versus now.This website is maintained by a Brit enthusiast it seems.

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A few years ago I bought a copy of "The Tip Top Book" for 1951. The front cover featured a scene from the story, "Lure of the Speedway": "It was Uncle Bill's gift of a motor-bike that set Tommy on the path to fame as a Speedway Star. You will enjoy every word of this tale of the flying cinders!"

 

The Tip Top Book was a boy's comic. Other stories in this edition included, "Flyers of the Far North", "Peter's Peculiar Party" and "The Gunman of San Parral".

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I've still got a couple of my Tiger Annuals from the early 80s, in which speedway had a regular strip. :approve:

 

All the best

Rob

 

Scoop magazine of the late 70s early 80s was always good for speedway coverage, they even had a comic strip speedway story which ran for a while, but for the life of me I cant remember what it was called, pretty sure the team was nicknamed the Cobras though :unsure: ..........I can remember This Goalie's Got Guts, though, starring Ben Lieper :approve:

 

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I can remember being amazed to find speedway books in the library during my first year at secondary school, they were in three parts, if I remember right, and although I didnt realise it at the time I think they were based loosely on the life of Barry Briggs, the female character was even named Junie. They were certainly written with schoolchildren in mind and I think they were probably the only books I ever read at school :oops::wink:

Edited by mervjankefanclub
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Read a book at school many decades ago called "Stories For Boys", or something along those lines, and it contained story of a motorcycle cop who also rode for the local speedway team. I recall Tough Of The Track too...

 

Sounds like Bruce Penhall's role in CHiPS - no, not Alf Tupper :wink:

 

Rob McCaffery.

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Don't know if any forumlanders ever go to the bookshops in Hay-on-Wye but its amazing what they have there-I always try to get there when am in UK. Anybody read Enid Blyton stories-new biography of her says she was a real dragon-nasty to her daughters-lots of affairs, had a lesbian affair and played tennis naked-not all at the same time though!!- she's really gone up in my estimation -what a gal. Just so I don't get criticised for going off topic by not mentioning speedway in this post -I will add the following-does anybody know whether Enid was a speedway fan???????

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After a search on 'Google', there was a speedway story in 'Tiger' called "Tallon of the Track", which featured a female speedway rider as the main character.

 

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Interviews/Scott...cottGoodall.asp

Edited by The Abbott
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Don't know if any forumlanders ever go to the bookshops in Hay-on-Wye but its amazing what they have there-I always try to get there when am in UK. Anybody read Enid Blyton stories-new biography of her says she was a real dragon-nasty to her daughters-lots of affairs, had a lesbian affair and played tennis naked-not all at the same time though!!- she's really gone up in my estimation -what a gal. Just so I don't get criticised for going off topic by not mentioning speedway in this post -I will add the following-does anybody know whether Enid was a speedway fan???????

 

 

I hope Enid Blyton didn't try naked Speedway. Could be painful. :unsure::wink:

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Don't know much about a naked Speedway riding Enid Blyton but as a regular reader of The Tiger 50+ years ago I do remember the weekly story of Ace Lester and the Beldon Aces.

 

Don't remember too much about the plots except that "Ace" had to join the secret service or something so he trained a look alike junior to take his place as star man in the Beldon team in just a couple of weeks!! England could do with a few like that now.

 

The junior was the real hero of the story. One of Ace's training methods was to rig uo a bucket of water above the starting gate which tipped up at the same time the gate was released. The junior either gated or got wet. :lol:

 

 

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Sounds like Bruce Penhall's role in CHiPS - no, not Alf Tupper :wink:

Rob McCaffery.

Nope not Bruce Nelson/Penhall, was in the mid-70's when I was considered too young to go to speedway alone as none of the family were remotely interested....

 

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The weekly boy's paper 'The Champion' had a number of speedway stories during the period 1947 to 1955 or so. Often illustrated on the cover. eBay sometimes has copies for sale with the cover of the issue being illustrated.

 

About the same time there was a weekly speedway paper called the 'Speedway Gazette' which I recall being printed on rather poor paper and with a yellow cover. It was edited by Basil (forget his surname) but after awhile he launched a boy's paper called 'Boy's World' which had a non-series speedway story every week of its short life. Also on rather poor paper. There was even a letter to the editor complaining about the number of speedway stories in the paper!

 

All of the above from my memory which may be playing tricks after all these years!

 

 

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