speedyguy

It was given in either VSM or Classic Speedway about 18 months ago. My copies have been filed in the loft by Mrs SG! Dare not disturb things in a search for them at the moment!!!

It was - and he also rode at New Cross in 1946.

Danny Lee also rode at Staines in 1939 where his main rival was former West Ham rider Jack Adams. At Oxford, among Lee's opponents would probably have been Billy Newell and George Bason - possibly Peter Robinson.

In 1954,I paid £5 for a bike once owned by Charlie Challis. It had been fitted with a 250cc JAP engine (probably for use on grass). The bike was standing in a scrap yard at the Elephant & Castle in south London. I sold it on to the French rider Claude Boston who wanted the frame, handlebars and wheels. The engine went as a job-lot in the deal.

Danny Lee was at West Ham in the mid-1930s, then with Birmingham in 1937 and 1938. He was also active at Eastbourne from the mid-1930s to 1939. In the latter season, Lee also rode for Southampton. Post-war he came back at Harringay, then joined Sheffield. He went on to ride for Edinburgh before retiring the early 1950s. Danny was also a keen member of the Veteran Speedway Riders Association (as it was first known) for many years. At one time he lived in Hastings.

Many thanks for this. Great stuff on a near forgotten era.

I have been told that Frank Hodgson was Dagenham's captain and that Alvin 'Spike' Rhiando could also have been in the Daggers team squad.

Thanks. Do you have the team squads for either side please?

High Beech were invited to take part but declined at the last moment. http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/oldtimespeedway

The league ran in 1938 but fixtures were never completed. Eastbourne won the most matches so were 'declared' as champions. Other teams in the league were Rye House, Dagenham, Romford and Smallford. Reserach is underway on http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/oldtimespeedway where basic teams for Eastbourne and Rye House and a few known results are given. Any more help in regard to the league, complete teams, and points scorers would be appreciated at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/oldtimespeedway

sewn on the back of his leathers "No Pasáran". That was the famous last words from the communists at Madrid - before it happened and the Spanish army entered the city. Why did so many people still know and respect her after the war? And was Clem Beckett a communist or communist sympathiser? If he was - and it's most likely as the International Brigade was communist inspired - he would appear to be no different to Fay Taylour - just at the opposite end of the political spectrum.

I did not say that Fay Taylour was throwing bricks. She was probably only there as a spectator. Do you now otherwise - I don't either, but that's what I think happened. After all she was a woman. As they say "you've really got your kickers in a twist (not for the first time on any subject! ) over Fay Taylour. Tell me this, why did so many who knew Fay Taylour pre-war, who must have known about her internment, still respect and deal with her after WW2?

There's a great difference between being an active Nazi - which nowhere is there evidence to support that Taylour was - rather than being a borderline member of Oswald Moseley's pre-war movement. The latter had Taylour's involvement - she made stupid comments (don't we all at times?) but was hardly in a category to place her on trial at Nuremberg? Apart from that, she was also at the Cable Street riots in 1936 (as were many misguided young people at that time). Much is also made of the fact her right-wing views were airbrushed out of her publicity. By whom? It must have been in the public domain. Too much conspiracy surrounds this opinion. To keep advancing airbrushing tends to indicate a massive conspiracy by reserachers - who are they and what motive could they have for doing this? Hard facts are that people who knew Fay Taylour pre-war did not shun her post-war. Her internment must have been known to them, people like Crystal Palace and New Cross promoter Fred Mockford. Yet when he staged a 20 years of speedway anniversary meeting (after the war years) at New Cross in 1948, Fay Taylour was a guest of honour. Another who knew who both pre and post-war links was Alvin 'Spike' Rhiando the midget car and big circuit race car driver (aka AJ Franchetti he mystery American speedway rider at Stamord Bridge in 1932). He knew and was professionally associated with Fay Taylur from around 1931 until his own death in (I think) the eraly 1960s. All her other pre-war contacts also seem to have continued dealings with Fay after the war. Post-war she was welcomed back to USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa where she had also visited in the 1930s. Were they (and their immigration departments) all ignorant of her political opinions? I doubt it, but they obviously regarded it all as being very minor stuff to have allowed her back into their countries. My view is that the passage of time has turned Fay Taylour's right-wing views into a bigger monster than is needed. I once attended commuist party meetings (in the audience not as a member). Does that make me an advocate of Stalinist policies? The same could apply to Taylour in regard to Moseley. The passage of time is causing us to judge Fay Taylour on the basis of her internment in the 1940s, yet many outspoken Irish people suffered a similar fate (if they came from Eire aka Irish Republic) as Taylour did - none of us knew her personally she we find ourselves qualified to make judgments (as may I am doing). The thread's original topic, Clem Beckett as a hero because he joined and fought and died with the International Brigade in Spain in 1937. Yet this was an extremely left-wing group dedicated to supporting a Spanish Republican government - which sold its gold reserves to the Soviet Union - was at the time running amok with political and financial corruption and anxious to establish a communist (or similar) government in Spain. That is why the Franco-led Spanish army fought against them. The Falange (Spain's fascist party) jumped on the Franco band-wagon. Clem Beckett is hardly a political hero - he seems to have been sadly mixed up in the political rivalries of the 1930s as Taylour was at the other political extreme. The fact that he was a speedway rider makes him a good focal point for publicising left-wing involvement in the Spanish Civil War.

In the war years I remember many people were interned for their right-wing views. Two of them were reasonable neighbours to my home in south London - they were both Italians. One was the local barber, the other was an ice cream salesman. There was hysteria in rounding up people then - many without need. They were among them. They later came back and were welcomed. Fay Taylor knew Oswald Moseley and may have joined his party. In iternment, could it not have been possible that her actions may have been to wind-up her jailers?

What a pathetic response. You must get back to rewriting speedway history!

These files give a different view on Fay Taylour. Maybe you might care to browse them? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fay_Taylour http://midgetcarpanorama.proboards.com/ind...y&thread=16 http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/2006/12/f...mous-woman.html http://www.webbikeworld.com/books/fay-taylour.htm http://www.historicspeedway.co.nz/Fay%20Taylour.htm http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/0.../story12162.asp http://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/2060222379/

For once it would seem there's a question you don't know the answer to.

Has anyone ever thought - or knows - if in post war years if Fay Taylour repented her right-wing views? Perhaps her biographer Dr Brian Belton may know the answer to this.

Yes, it's another recycling of a much-debated topic. Elsewhere on the forum, Fay Taylour's political views are under detbate - AGAIN!!!

It's a little late to start rewriting speedway history. Fay Taylour's exploits in speedway, motorcycling, midget cars, sprint cars etc are well chronicled worlwdie and in a favourable vein. Much is made in this country of her links to Oswald Moseley (or at least on the BSF ) - not so elsewhere. What do we know about the political opinions of the Eastern bloc riders who came to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s? Has anyone checked if any of these were card carrying communists? I suspect quite a few probably were. Are we going to run checks and then those who do not meet the needed 'democratic criteria' will be expunged from the history books. Do a google search for Fay Taylour - she deservedly gets full credit for her sporting achievements. They say politics and sport should not mix - obviously they do - at least in regard to the views of P1928. There's an article about Fay Taylour here - http://midgetcarpanorama.proboards.com/ind...y&thread=16

Fay Taylour was "a darling girl from the emerald isle..."

Yes. He's in indeed a serious canidate. Indications are that Jimmy Squibb started at Southampton in 1939, where he was a protege of local riders Vic Collins and Frank Bond.

Fay Taylour's speedway, midget car and sprint car racing exploits have been favourably covered over many years worldwide. Her political views have in no way detracted from her feats on the track. Nor should they IMO. She may have been wrong with her political opinions but she was hardly a Gestapo or SS officer or a prison camp guard!

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).