International SPEEDWAY

EXTRA !!! Index

"PIRATE" PROGRAMMES
	In the UK, it was not unusual for "unofficial" or "pirate" programmes to be issued for some of the big events, such as the Wembley World Championship Finals. But some Test Matches were also affected, such as this 1952 match at New Cross ... the "pirate" is the poor quality programme on the left.
	Pirate programmes were sold outside the stadiums or, in some cases, at tram stops on the route to the stadium. Three years earlier, another pirate programme was used for the 1949 Birmingham Test.
	The 1948 Test at Belle Vue was another victim of the pirates but this, like all these "souvenir" programmes, was merely a 4-page piece of card. It is known that pirate programmes were also sold for the Tests at Bradford (Odsal) in both 1949 and 1951
	These pirate programmes all appear to come from the same source, judging by the identical border design on the covers. Whoever produced them, they seemed to be unsure as to the year of this Belle Vue Test Match.
LADIES ON THE DIRT-TRACKS
Since 1928, when women such as Fay Taylour, Eva Askwith, and Dot Cowley graced the dirt tracks, there have been several female riders. But none have ridden in a Test Match at senior level. At junior (under-21) level, however, Denmark has tracked two lady riders. The first was Maria Moberg, who scored 2 points from 3 rides when riding for Denmark U-21 against Sweden at Gothenberg on 18.06 2000. But the best known was Sabrina Bogh who rode in all four matches of Denmark Under-21's series against Sweden Under-21 in June and July of 2001. She scored a total of 8 points plus 2 bonus points from 15 rides. Then in August 2001, Sabrina won the Denmark Under-21 Individual Championship at Holsted with a 15-point maximum.

	THE MATCH THAT NEVER WAS ...
			A U.S.A. v Canada match was scheduled for Owego, N.Y on Aug 7, 1999 and a programme printed for it. Unfortunately, the Canadian National Championships held at Welland in late July had to be abandoned due to rain, and was rescheduled at the same track on that date, the last race date of the season there. This of course meant that there could be no Canadian side to ride at Owego on that night so they had to run a regular event instead. Ironically, rain also washed out the second attempt to stage the Canadian Nationals after only one heat, so both meetings were lost and neither restaged that year. Duncan Luke
			This Poole match was scheduled to be the 4th Test in the 1958 England v Australasia series. It was postponed due to rain and never restaged. This rare copy of the programme comes from Roger Stevens

© Brian Collins 2005-08