International SPEEDWAY

INTERNATIONALS - UNITED KINGDOM

England & Australia v USA & Canada

SERIES REPORT

Following the conclusion of a successful 5-match Test series between England and Australia (which the Lions had won 3-2), the two first division tracks which had not been allocated a Test match, Harringay and Bristol, called for more Tests to be staged. This resulted in the announcement of this series between two composite teams. Originally this was to have been a 5-match series (though the fifth venue was never decided) but the appetite of the public for such matches was somewhat soured by the strange team selections for the first-ever Official Test Match to be staged at Bristol.

The North American team virtually picked itself, but the Anglo-Australian combination was notable for the non-selection of two young crowd favourites, George Newton and Geoff Pymar, who had performed well in the earlier Ashes Tests. The latter was actually selected as second reserve for the Bristol match, but was so disgusted by this that he withdrew. Max Grosskreutz, the Norwich rider-promoter, was selected even though it was widely known that he was semi-retired and had made it clear early in the season that he would ride only for Norwich, and for Australia against England. In addition, Frank Varey was ordered to ride by the Control Board, despite being injured - he eventually had one race, from which he retired.

Despite all that, a big crowd turned out at Bristol and were rewarded with a superb match. The "home" team opened with a shock 5-1 when Jack Milne was left at the gate, but within a couple of races the scores were level. The Americans relied largely on their "big 3" (one of whom, Cordy Milne, was the Bristol captain), but it was Canadian Jimmy Gibb who joined Jack Milne for a heat 10 5-1 which gave the Americans the lead for the first time, after van Praag had engine trouble. E-A looked set to regain the lead in heat 15 as van Praag and Atkinson led Lamoreaux, but then the Englishman fell, and Lammy, in order to avoid him, went over the white line and onto the centre green. In the penultimate race, the same E-A pair scored a 4-2 which gave their team a one-point lead going into the final heat, in which Lammy soon built a comfortable lead over Kitchen while Johnson and Kaufman had an excellent duel for the vital 3rd place point, eventually won by the American.

If the Bristol match had been a great advertisement for the sport, the second match at Harringay was certainly not. This was particularly unfortunate as the last 10 minutes of the match were shown live on BBC TV. It became clear early on that the English and Australian riders were just not interested in the match, and it was strongly suspected that they were reserving their efforts for the Wembley World Final, just 5 days away. The Harringay crowd soon became restless with the lack of aggression by the E-A riders, and yelled for the use of Alec Staham, the home reserve. And indeed it was Statham that was the only Anglo-Aussie to emerge with any credit, not to mention his teams' only race win in 18 races when he defeated the previously unbeatable Lamoreaux-Kaufman pairing in heat 12. The only mystery was why he was not given more than three races. But that defeat for Lammy was the only one suffered by the "big 3" of the American team, who completed a 2-0 series victory, for the series had by now been reduced to just three matches.

The final match in Manchester was evenly balanced until the interval, during and after which heavy rain fell. The Americans failed to adapt to the conditions, and the England-Australia team were led to an ultimately comfortable victory by the new World Champion Bluey Wilkinson, who scored a maximum.

© Brian Collins