roland davies

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paw broon
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Re: roland davies

Post by paw broon »

matrix, you might already have this site bookmarked, but if not, it might interest you:-
http://www.speedwayfiction.co.uk/heroesofthetrack.html

matrix
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Re: roland davies

Post by matrix »

paw broon wrote:matrix, you might already have this site bookmarked, but if not, it might interest you:-
http://www.speedwayfiction.co.uk/heroesofthetrack.html
Thanks Paw, yes bookmarked from when you linked it to the speedway post a while back, it is a useful site.

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Re: roland davies

Post by Phoenix »

These four scans are Boys' Favourite Library covers from the late forties/early fifties. All twenty stories in the series were written by Edward R Home-Gall.
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BFLcov02.jpg
BFLcov07.jpg
BFLcov11.jpg
Last edited by Phoenix on 31 Mar 2017, 08:59, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: roland davies

Post by Phoenix »

This is the fourth.
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BFLcov14.jpg

matrix
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Re: roland davies

Post by matrix »

Thank you Phoenix for posting those 'Boys' Favourite Library' scans what a great group of covers, they are now documented for future reference.

They are similar to some of the 'Champion' covers where they attempted some crazy things on motorcycles playing football being one.

Going back to Roland Davies who grew up around a lot of early motorcycles, his first one being a very old Ex-W.D. Douglas.
In the early years he mentions that "they churned up dust, terrified the horses and were likely to blow up without warning" exciting times indeed!

And he writes "In the early twenty's, as a boy I found great delight in watching three young men who to me then, were almost demi-gods, because of the motorcycles they rode". I guess it's easy to see where his obsession with speed came from!

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Re: roland davies

Post by Phoenix »

I was reading your post this morning, matrix, when I remembered that a year or so later there was a follow-up series of apparently just seven titles called simply Boys' Favourite, again all written by Edward R. Home-Gall. Number 3 in this series was called The Convict Speed Devil. See below for the front cover.
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BFcov03.jpg

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paw broon
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Re: roland davies

Post by paw broon »

Re. the cover of #3. The lead rider's team emblem resembles the old Rayleigh Rockets emblem.

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Re: roland davies

Post by Phoenix »

I can't say I've ever heard of Rayleigh Rockets, Paw, but I do remember that speedway matches were very popular in the fifties due largely to BBC television coverage. In fact a lad in the same form as me for most of our time at Lancaster Royal Grammar School was called Bill Kitchen, and as well as being a decent friend he was the nephew of the Belle Vue rider with the same name. The boy's family lived in Galgate, which is about four miles north of Lancaster on the A6 going towards Preston, and Bill's dad ran the local garage. Come to think of it, there was another rider somewhere in the outer reaches of the family, Dick Fisher if I'm remembering his name correctly, and I think he also rode for one of Belle Vue's teams. An uncle of another friend of mine from our Primary School days played water polo for Lancaster at the Kingsway Baths, but that's a story for another day. Or not as the case may be!! :)

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paw broon
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Re: roland davies

Post by paw broon »

Rayleigh eventually became Rye House Rockets. When I was working on the papers, I did a weekly report for the local rag of the Tigers matches when they were based at Albion Rovers Stadium - and I use stadium in the loosest possible sense - in Coatbridge. Well before that, I was introduced to Speedway when the Monarchs moved to Coatbridge for a season. Ivan Mauger et al.
There were some exotic sounding nicknames way back and some teams had rather good jacket emblems. It just doesn't feel the same nowadays with all the sponsor logos, but I suppose that's what keeps teams going.

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Re: roland davies

Post by matrix »

Thank you for the other scan Phoenix.

Interesting background Paw!

Re the Jackets and emblems some of those are now very collectable and worth a tidy sum. I have watched American Pickers where they turn up at a house looking for what they call Rusty gold". Some households have old motorcycle jackets, jerseys, posters, and lots more associated with an old motorcycle club, and most are shocked by the money offered for them.

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Re: roland davies

Post by Phoenix »

Somewhere I certainly have some match programmes from the fifties and sixties. It never occurred to me that they might be worth anything!!

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Re: roland davies

Post by Phoenix »

Here are the only two covers from my collection of early issues of The Champion, matrix, that have motorbikes on their front cover. The first is from 64 (Apr. 14 1923), the other is from 204 (Dec. 19 1925), where the guys are doing a massive 40mph. But then they're the bhoys for top-speed thrills!! I hope the scans are to your liking. :)
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Championcov64.jpg
Championcov204.jpg

matrix
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Re: roland davies

Post by matrix »

Spot on Phoenix! Thanks again for taking the time to help with those, they are great covers. You have a nice collection. I enjoy reading those stories in 'The Champion' and other titles, picked up a 'Detective weekly' recently with Sexton Blake v Waldo the wonder-man from 1939, great story.

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Re: roland davies

Post by Phoenix »

Do you already have the covers of The Champion in 1949 that feature motorbikes, matrix? There are nine in all. If you have fewer than nine, to save my time please let me have the issue numbers of those you do have. I'll scan the others for you. This is the only complete postwar year of the comic that I have in loose issues.

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philcom55
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Re: roland davies

Post by philcom55 »

If it's any help Matrix here's a back cover that Roland Davies drew for an early issue of Modern Wonder in 1937.
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