Jim was unquestionably one of Speedway's greatest ever ambassadors and became one of the overall highest point scorers in a career that was to span a total of 36 years between the years 1939 - 1975, apart from the second world war.

We pick up his record in the late fourties and into the fifties when he was to appear in 192 matches for Southampton and totalled 1,371 points. He had joined the Poole camp in 1952 for their Division two season which they eventually won, and he was to remain there until 1956 as well as returning in 1959, scoring a total of 920 pts from 156 meetings for the Pirates. It was during this period that he was to score a maximum for Britain against an overseas side staged at Wolverhampton.

Jim was to move to New Cross after a spell at Plymouth in 1962. But the New Cross speedway were soon to close and he was to only appear 17 times for them, still managing to score a high 186 points before embarking on his long and successful period at Exeter in 1963.

During his stay at the Devon track he was to total something like 1,469.5 points from a total of 204 matches and was given the honour of captaining a Gt.Britain side against Russia that was staged at the County Ground. He was to make a brief re-appearance later on in 1972 on loan from Cradley to help out with an injury hit Exeter side.

It had been to Cradley that Jim moved following his departure from Exeter, and in 1973, he made the drop into the second division with Eastbourne as a rider coach, only to lose his team place following injuries and later joined Canterbury in 1974.

Back to his Exeter days, Jimmy Squibb, who had been signed during the 1963 season from New Cross, took over the role of captain and during his early days at Exeter, Jimmy was the only Falcon who did not wear white boots. His son Barry spent so much time each weekend polishing his father's leathers that he didn't have the heart to paint his boots white but nevertheless did don the green and white jersey which was a part of the Falcons' regular attire for several years from 1962.

In 1964, Jim scored 358 points from 34 matches to average over 10.0 whilst the following year he averaged 8.51 from 30 meetings. The last match of the 1965 season at Exeter was a huge milestone for Jim as he reached his 500th League appearance.

The 1966 season saw Jim's average dip down to 6.62 from 37 meetings whilst it went back up to 7.38 from 37 matches. Jimmy was ever present in the 1968 campaign and averaged 7.46 from 37 as well as reaching the Semi Final of the World Championship but only managed two points. He was ever present again during 1969 when he averaged 7.31 from 37 meetings for the Falcons.

With the passing away of Jimmy in September 2004, the sport lost one of its greatest ambassadors. I do not know if anyone has had a longer career in the sport than Jimmy, but he must be up amongst the few of Speedways true gentlemen.