| 1929 –
The Brandon “Test Match”. |
While researching the 1929/1930 Australian speedway season, I recently came
across what is a very rare account of a match staged at Coventry (called Brandon
Speedway) in England in September of 1929. The match was billed as a “Test
Match” between England and Australia. The format used for the event was a series
of two-man match races over 16 heats, with one point awarded for a win.
Speedway history has confined this encounter to the “Unofficial Internationals”
file as it wasn’t until 1930 that the first officially sanctioned Test Match was
staged. Following is the report of the Brandon event which I discovered in a
November 1929 Australian newspaper: -
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"Enormous crowds from the whole of the
surrounding district gathered at the Brandon Speedway to watch the England v.
Australia “Test Match”. So great was the attendance that it was rumoured that
many were turned away. The Australian team consisted of Billy Lamont, Frank
Arthur, Col Stewart, and Max Grosskreutz, while England was represented by Jack
Parker, A. W. Jervis, Syd Jackson, and Wilmot Evans. The match, therefore, might
have been described as Coventry v. Australia, for all are Coventry boys, except
Jack Parker, who is, however, intimately connected with the town.
"To begin with, the racing was close, though the final score of 9 ½ to 6 ½
points gave Coventry the lead. The first heat between Evans and Col Stewart led
to a dead heat, owing to the highly appreciated action of Col Stewart in
refusing to win. Both men fell in the first lap, and then after a terrific fight
Evans fell in the third lap.
Next Syd Jackson finished a yard or two behind Frank Arthur. Jervis and Max
should have made a good match, but Max fell twice and Jervis had a walk-over.
Jack Parker managed to defeat Billy Lamont, leaving the score for the first
round at Coventry 2 ½, Australia 1 ½.
"A feature of the evening was the luck of the Australians in drawing the inside
berth. Only four times in the sixteen events did a Coventry man achieve this
distinction. The surprise came in the second round, when Wilmot Evans, who was
at the top of his form, managed to get home ahead of Frank Arthur. He was being
led all the way round, but Frank made one small mistake and Wilmot got inside to
win. Jackson rode in his usual finished style, but shed a chain in the seventh
heat and was beaten by Grosskreutz. Jervis had an easy win from Billy Lamont,
who fell twice, though Jervis was in the lead at the time. The second round was
finished by Jack Parker beating Stewart, at the same time equalling his four-lap
rolling start record.
"The two first heats in the third round went to Max and Billy Lamont
respectively, Evans being unable to repeat his form in the first, and Jackson’s
engine giving trouble in the second. However, Jervis defeated Stewart, and
Parker had an easy win over Frank Arthur.
"In the last round Billy Lamont fell when he was up against Wilmot, and the two
were dead level at the time. Then Jackson took a point from Stewart, and the
final two heats both went to Australia, Frank Arthur beating Jervis, whose
engine gave trouble, and Grosskreutz defeating Parker for the same reason."
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The cover of the programme for the
September 1929 "Test Match". |
I have another report of this match, a section
of which is reproduced below. Jack Parker’s eyewitness account of the occasion
is also included. The following is taken from the 1979 English publication
“Speedway Panorama” written by
Ron Hoare: - |
"Most people are aware of the very first official test match against the
Australians, which filled Wimbledon Stadium to its limits and about which so
much has been written, but a previous battle between the two countries took
place at Brandon, Coventry in September 1929 – a fact which is relatively
unknown and in any case seems to have been largely forgotten. This event, put on
by the Brandon management with considerable ingenuity and heralded by a blaze of
publicity, brought forth a mammoth crowd and produced a whole batch of
pre-meeting headaches. Jack Parker, who was a member of the English side on that
occasion, has some vivid memories of this astonishing evening, which remain
indelibly sketched on his mind."
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Jack Parker's comments: -
“This was really the brainchild of Captain Peacocke, a leading light in the
Brandon set-up, and produced a crowd of about 25,000, all of whom somehow or
other crammed into the Stadium, which incidentally, was reckoned to have a
capacity of less than 10,000! Then when the gates were eventually shut, another
1,000 or so who were locked out swarmed forward, broke down the barriers by the
pits and forced an entrance that way, which caused a breakage in the pits
electric lighting system. Thus the riders were forced to move themselves and
their bikes into the centre of the track. I have never seen anything like it and
later on that evening when people were struggling to leave the Stadium, part of
the riders’ dressing room, which was a wooden structure, was pushed down. Some
of the riders trying to take baths were at one time mixed up with spectators!”
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| Acknowledgement: |
Thanks to Roger Stevens
and Brian Collins for permission to use the cover of the 1929 Brandon programme.
Those who aren't familiar with Brian Collins' excellent web site devoted to
International speedway events may like to check it out at
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/intspeedway/
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Thanks to Ross Garrigan for this report. |
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