Morning Star

[falcon 0]

Interesting piece in the paper this morning about Clem Beckett,a speedway rider who was killed in the Spanish civil war fighting with the International Brigade,and formed the first speedway riders union.

[iris123 21,036]

Clem Beckett

[falcon 0]

Clem Beckett

 

Thats the one,thanks.

[Ian 24]

The "Morning Star" could always be relied upon to provide information which was never available in the mainstream press. However, their article on Clem Beckett reveals a little-known technical fact about pre-war speedway, and one of which I must admit to having been unaware.

 

"Clem Beckett loved the dirty growl of his bike's engine, the smell of diesel and hot metal filling his nostrils."

 

So there we have it: a diesel-engined speedway bike back in the 1930s. I wonder why it never caught on? The "Morning Star" being what it is, I suspect that if we wait another fifty years or so they'll be proclaiming that some well-known rider from the early 1980s actually rode a coal-fired bike in support of the miners' strike.

 

It's an interesting story about Clem Beckett though. Does anyone know whether he ever rode against Flying Fay, the Fanatical Fascist?

Edited July 1, 2009 by Ian

[norbold 7,135]

It's an interesting story about Clem Beckett though. Does anyone know whether he ever rode against Flying Fay, the Fanatical Fascist?

Although I knew about both Clem Beckett and Fay Taylour's politics, that thought hadn't occurred to me, Ian. I must look that up.

[speedyguy 20]

The "Morning Star" could always be relied upon to provide information which was never available in the mainstream press. However, their article on Clem Beckett reveals a little-known technical fact about pre-war speedway, and one of which I must admit to having been unaware.

 

"Clem Beckett loved the dirty growl of his bike's engine, the smell of diesel and hot metal filling his nostrils."

 

So there we have it: a diesel-engined speedway bike back in the 1930s. I wonder why it never caught on? The "Morning Star" being what it is, I suspect that if we wait another fifty years or so they'll be proclaiming that some well-known rider from the early 1980s actually rode a coal-fired bike in support of the miners' strike.

 

It's an interesting story about Clem Beckett though. Does anyone know whether he ever rode against Flying Fay, the Fanatical Fascist?

 

 

I regard that as an uncalled for reference to Fay Taylour. She undoubtedly had some extreme right-wing views but I am certain never indulged them to the extremes used by fascists in Italy and Germany (on the assumption Nazism and Fascism are identical philosophies).

 

I have read the item on Clem Beckett - it's rather colourful to say the least. The 'democratic' side he fought for in Spain was in

fact communist in its outlook. It was backed with arms, advisers and others by the Soviet Union (aka Russia). Spain's gold reserves were paid over to the Soviet Union at that time for the arms etc supplied to them.

 

Germany and Italy backed Franco and his army to prevent a Soviet-style republic being established in Spain. Had Franco been defeated, one doesn't like to think what problems a communist Spain could have caused in the post-war cold war years. Russian bases in the Mediterranean for example.

[speedyguy 20]

The "Morning Star" could always be relied upon to provide information which was never available in the mainstream press. However, their article on Clem Beckett reveals a little-known technical fact about pre-war speedway, and one of which I must admit to having been unaware.

 

"Clem Beckett loved the dirty growl of his bike's engine, the smell of diesel and hot metal filling his nostrils."

 

So there we have it: a diesel-engined speedway bike back in the 1930s. I wonder why it never caught on? The "Morning Star" being what it is, I suspect that if we wait another fifty years or so they'll be proclaiming that some well-known rider from the early 1980s actually rode a coal-fired bike in support of the miners' strike.

 

It's an interesting story about Clem Beckett though. Does anyone know whether he ever rode against Flying Fay, the Fanatical Fascist?

 

 

'the smell of diesel and hot metal filling his nostrils' is sheer nonsense. Written by somebody who obviously knows nothing about speedway. Who can explain 'hot metal filling his nostrils' and there has never been a diesel engined speedway bike.

[Ian 24]

[/color]

 

Germany and Italy backed Franco and his army to prevent a Soviet-style republic being established in Spain. Had Franco been defeated, one doesn't like to think what problems a communist Spain could have caused in the post-war cold war years. Russian bases in the Mediterranean for example.

 

If we're going to look at history then let's at least make some attempt to interpret it sensibly.

 

The eastern side of the Adriatic became communist after the war when the then Yugoslavia incorporated all of the shore from the Italian border to the Albanian one. The Adriatic is nothing more than an arm of the Mediterranean, and its total shoreline is vast because of the number of Adriatic islands. Perhaps you could let us know what dreadful problems that caused?

 

Germany may have had all sorts of reasons for backing Franco, but their main input to Spanish domestic politics was the bombing of Guernica by the Luftwaffe. This was nothing other than a racist attack on a city whose population was mainly Basque (which I would imagine to be non-Aryan, in Hitler's volatile imagination). In any case, would a German puppet Spain have been in some way preferable to a communist one?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[speedyguy 20]

If we're going to look at history then let's at least make some attempt to interpret it sensibly.

 

The eastern side of the Adriatic became communist after the war when the then Yugoslavia incorporated all of the shore from the Italian border to the Albanian one. The Adriatic is nothing more than an arm of the Mediterranean, and its total shoreline is vast because of the number of Adriatic islands. Perhaps you could let us know what dreadful problems that caused?

 

Germany may have had all sorts of reasons for backing Franco, but their main input to Spanish domestic politics was the bombing of Guernica by the Luftwaffe. This was nothing other than a racist attack on a city whose population was mainly Basque (which I would imagine to be non-Aryan, in Hitler's volatile imagination). In any case, would a German puppet Spain have been in some way preferable to a communist one?

 

 

Spain never became a German puppet state. It remained neutral throughout WW2 - and there were organised escape routes across Spain from occupied to Gibraltar which the Spanish police "seemed not to notice."

Franco resisted several efforts by Germany/Italy to enter WW2. The nearest was to send the Blue Division to fight in Russia on the German side - I suppose something similar to the International Brigade?

In regard to Spain as a communist state - they are on the western side of the Med and would have been communist without any neighbours. On the other hand, the Adriatic communist states were backed landwise by other communist states. A Spain in communist isolation with possible Soviet bases there would have been a major problem for NATO.

[Ian 24]

Spain never became a German puppet state. It remained neutral throughout WW2 - and there were organised escape routes across Spain from occupied to Gibraltar which the Spanish police "seemed not to notice."

Franco resisted several efforts by Germany/Italy to enter WW2. The nearest was to send the Blue Division to fight in Russia on the German side - I suppose something similar to the International Brigade?

In regard to Spain as a communist state - they are on the western side of the Med and would have been communist without any neighbours. On the other hand, the Adriatic communist states were backed landwise by other communist states. A Spain in communist isolation with possible Soviet bases there would have been a major problem for NATO.

 

Correct. And it never became a communist state either. I was responding to your hypothesis with another hypthesis.

 

I'm still waiting to hear what problems we faced as a result of Yugoslavian communism. My recollect is that many Brits used to go there on holiday, so it can't have been that much of a threat.

 

 

[speedyguy 20]

Correct. And it never became a communist state either. I was responding to your hypothesis with another hypthesis.

 

I'm still waiting to hear what problems we faced as a result of Yugoslavian communism. My recollect is that many Brits used to go there on holiday, so it can't have been that much of a threat.

 

 

That's because Marshal Tito practiced a less tyrannical brand of communism, probably a protoype of modern China rather than hardline Moscow.

 

Sadly, we're will off course now in the Clem Beckett v Fay Taylour SPEEDWAY debate. My guess is that they never raced against each other.

Beckett was too busy with his diesel engine and smalling burning metal (whatever that all means).

[Ian 24]

That's because Marshal Tito practiced a less tyrannical brand of communism, probably a protoype of modern China rather than hardline Moscow.

 

Sadly, we're will off course now in the Clem Beckett v Fay Taylour SPEEDWAY debate. My guess is that they never raced against each other.

Beckett was too busy with his diesel engine and smalling burning metal (whatever that all means).

 

One thing's for sure. A "less tyrannical brand" of Nazism wasn't practised anywhere.

 

 

[speedyguy 20]

Sadly, we're will off course now in the Clem Beckett v Fay Taylour SPEEDWAY debate. My guess is that they never raced against each other.

Beckett was too busy with his diesel engine and smelling burning metal (whatever that all means).

 

Edited July 5, 2009 by speedyguy

[Ron Butler 0]

Interesting piece in the paper this morning about Clem Beckett,a speedway rider who was killed in the Spanish civil war fighting with the International Brigade,and formed the first speedway riders union.

 

 

 

The "Morning Star" could always be relied upon to provide information which was never available in the mainstream press. However, their article on Clem Beckett reveals a little-known technical fact about pre-war speedway, and one of which I must admit to having been unaware.

 

"Clem Beckett loved the dirty growl of his bike's engine, the smell of diesel and hot metal filling his nostrils."

 

So there we have it: a diesel-engined speedway bike back in the 1930s. I wonder why it never caught on? The "Morning Star" being what it is, I suspect that if we wait another fifty years or so they'll be proclaiming that some well-known rider from the early 1980s actually rode a coal-fired bike in support of the miners' strike.

 

It's an interesting story about Clem Beckett though. Does anyone know whether he ever rode against Flying Fay, the Fanatical Fascist?

 

 

 

Both Clem Beckett and Fay Taylour were legends as speedway riders in their era. Are their political views of any consequence when considering them in relation to 'Speedway History - Years Gone By? I feel they're not.

 

 

 

 

[iris123 21,036]

Well i certainly feel that someone holding extreme right wing views as Fay Taylour did is enough to negate anything she ever done on a speedway track.If someone was extreme enough to come to the government's attention,then she shouldn't be held up as some sort of heroine