norbold

Rye House entered the league late in the season and Dagenham/Romford withdrew when Dagenham shut down for a while towards the end of the season. Dagenham's closure was the main reason the league was never completed.

The full results of the league (after extensive research at the Newspaper Library, Colindale) are as follows: Dagenham 39 Eastbourne 44 Dagenham 39 Easbourne 43 Dagenham 44 Romford 39 Dagenham 56 Romford 26 Dagenham 26 Rye House 56 Dagenham 49 Smallford 33 Eastbourne 57 Dagenham 27 Eastbourne 44 Dagenham 39 Eastbourne 53 Romford 23 Eastbourne 56 Rye House 27 Eastbourne 46 Rye House 34 Eastbourne 55 Smallford 28 Eastbourne 51 Smallford 32 Romford 40 Dagenham 43 Romford 46 Eastbourne 33 Romford 26 Rye House 56 Romford 40 Smallford 42 Rye House 29 Eastbourne 52 Rye House 44 Smallford 39 Smallford 55 Eastbourne 27 Smallford 51 Rye House 33 The rest of the matches were not run and the league was never completed. Dagenham's leading riders in the league were Frank Hodgson (captain), Jim Baylais, Crusty Pye and Nobby Stock. Jack Tidbury was Romford' star rider. The Smallford team was Doug Wells (captain), Archie Windmill, Ken Tidbury, Percy Brine, Dick Geary, Charlie Appleby, Steve Bullivant, Harry Bower, Bob Wells and Cyril Brine.

Many supporters of the International Brigade were not card carrying communists or even communist sympathisers as such, they were ordinary decent people who saw how evil Hitler and the Nazis were and knew that it was time to take a stand against them. (Something apparently neither you nor Fay Taylour do (did).) The Spanish Civil War gave them that opportunity. This was especially true of the Jewish community who could see what was happening in Germany and what would happen elsewhere if the Nazis succeeded. You didn't need to be a Communist Jew to know what would happen to you. Are you suggesting that all the people who opposed Mosley at Cable Street for example were Communists?

You may be right. I was merely pointing out that none of the websites you referred Parsloes too advanced your argument at all.

From wikipedia: "But there was a dark side to her life. In the late 1930s,she became enamoured of the extreme right-wing political beliefs of Sir Oswald Mosley, the British fascist leader. Mosley and his second wife, Diana Mitford Guinness,were interned in Britain between 1940 and 1943, as a danger to the state, and Taylour suffered a similar fate. Amazingly, when she resumed her racing career after the war, this unsavoury episode was airbrushed out of all her publicity. The file on her in the Alexandra College library has many cuttings about her from all over the world, but nowhere is there a mention of the trouble that her extreme right-wing political beliefs got her into." I'm not sure how you think that will change Parsloes' view...? As for the other websites you mention they seem to confirm what Wikipedia says and that her unsavoury Nazi past has been airbrushed from history apart from this one: http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/0.../story12162.asp which doesn't say anything at all.

Yes, but obviously not as a speedway rider.

You may be right, WW. I'm not sure, but I have no record of him taking part in the results I have from that first meeting.

Not yet. Speedway Star are waiting for the copy from the Museum and then they will put it in. Hopefully within the next few weeks.

Did he?

Ron started in 1927 in Australia. He certainly did not have an unbroken run. It was broken several times.

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.

Yes. It's going to be an indoor arena as Sean says.

Yarmouth speedway was in Great Yarmouth at Yarmouth Stadium on Caister Road.

According to Ron's mini-autobiography, he says, "I am a Scot by birth. In fact the folks are Scottish through and through, and descended from good old farming stock. Dad was working on a farm when I was born...The place - near Glasgow. I was an only child. I went to school at Paisley....When I was six we emigrated to Western Australia..."

Yes, Ron must be the classic example. He also tried a comeback in 1963 at New Cross when he rode in a second half match race against Phil Bishop!

Yes, that's the meeting I saw him in. As you say, very sad. Can you imagine Ron Johnson giving 10 yards to Jimmy Chalkley in his prime!?

Indeed. One of those frequently mentioned in "Greatest rider never to reach a World Final" type threads.

Yes.

I agree. I can't see how anyone comes even close to Hurri-ken, let alone top him in a poll.

I have a copy but have not read in depth yet as I have been mainly interested in reading what Colin had to say about Tom Farndon! I have skimmed through the rest it and it seems really good. Well researched and a comprehensive coverage of pre-War Coventry.

Great idea. That would solve the problem once and for all.

The Speedway Museum is inside Paradise Wildlife Park. If Peter Sampson hadn't donated the ground and the time and money for his staff to help build the Museum and maintain it, it would never have been built. There simply just wasn't enough money raised for it to be built and maintained as a separate entity. The Speedway Museum as such though is not an integral part of Paradise Wildlife Park. It retains its own existence and all the objects in the Museum belong either to the Museum or the people who loaned the objects and is run by an independent committee. You talk about the "Glory Hunters" on the Speedway Museum Committee. Presumably if they are all in it just for the glory you will have no difficulty in naming everyone the committee and nor will anyone else on this Forum. Can you? Yes, the Barclays put in a lot of hard work, but so did a lot of other people, whose names, unlike the Barclays, you probably don't know. I think it is a big slur on the integrity of the people who have worked hard not just to keep the museum going, but have improved it out of all recognition to when it first opened to accuse them of just being "Glory Hunters". And I hope you will withdraw that remark.

Back in the early to mid 60s I can remember the likes of Roy Trigg (at New Cross) and Dave Jessup and Barry Thomas (at West Ham) coming up through the ranks. In the case of Jessup and Thomas I saw their first-ever ride in public and I remember thinking at the time that they were going to be good. Conversely, if it hadn't been for the second half at New Cross, I would never have had the privilege of seeing Ron Johnson ride. He was, of course, well past it by 1960, but, nevertheless, it gave me my one chance of seeing Mr New Cross at the end of his long and very distinguished career.

No, but I can be fairly certain that it wasn't Johnnie Chamberlain.

The reason I do it in my books is mainly one of space. I sign a contract for all my books which say how many words the publisher wants. For every rider whose average I include it's the equivalent of something like 18-20 words as they are tabulated across a whole line. Although I think it is of interest to put in a club's leading riders each year I think the space it would take up to include every rider is too much and would mean having to leave out a fair amount of detail in the book itself. However, you may be right, speedyguy, that it would be a good idea to include a list of "also rode". I did, in fact, in my Wembley book, include a list at the end of all riders who had been contracted to Wembley and the years. Maybe I should have done this in all my books.