International SPEEDWAY

INTERNATIONALS - RHODESIA

Britain v Dominions

1953-54	Tue 29.12 : Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia
		Britain	58	Dominions	50
UNOFFICIAL	(Att: 7,500)	Freddie Williams ©	15	Roy Bester	13
	Rhodesian Golden Helmet: Freddie Williams beat Trevor Redmond	Ian Williams	14	Fred Lang	13
		Bill Kitchen	12	Trevor Redmond ©	9
		Reg Duval	9	Harry Serrurier	9
		Dick Campbell	5	Bert Clark	2
		Howdy Byford	3	Bert Hall	2
				Derek Manford	2

The scores above come from "Speedway Star" magazine (16.1.54), where they accompanied the following match report from Howdy Byford: After my stretcher ride from the Monday meeting [Commonwealth Best Pairs - see programme cover above] I was put in the meeting on the following day as reserve for the England [Britain] team. I had only one ride when I went out with Freddie Williams, won the heat, and helped us score a 5-1, which swung the match our way. After that I retired from the meeting again - feeling much too sore , from the previous night's spill, to do any more good. In the match the British touring side beat the Dominions by 58-50, The crowd was a real good one, somewhere around 7,500 people turning out to watch the show. The Dominions side also rode below strength as Doug Lang, another crash victim on the Monday night, fell again and had to go to hospital for observation. Halfway the scores were level, 27 points apiece. Then came my first and last ride of the night. A maximum for us. Another 5-1 in the next race and from then on we were sitting pretty. The Williams boys were both riding well - especially young Ian. But for a fall in the last race he would have topped our scores. You may have noticed that Brian Crutcher and Don Perry were missing from our line-up. We hope to remedy that by staging a return visit to Bulawayo next Februrary with the complete side.
This pretty much confirms some of the scorers, but now we have a "filled in" (well, after a fashion!) programme (see above), kindly supplied by Duncan Luke. The "riders points" columns have been filled in as finishing positions, and Byford's win in ht.10, and a Britain 5-1 in ht.11 confirm Byford's report. However, Bert Hall is shown as replacing Byford in his other rides, Bert Clark replaces absent Don Perry, and Ian Williams replaces absent Brian Crutcher - all in the Britain team. But in the scorers at the top of this page, Hall and Clark are shown as riding for the Dominions team! Dick Campbell is shown as riding for Britain in the scorers at the top - but for Dominions in the programme. My interpretation of the programme heat results is :
Ht.1 F Williams, Redmond, Serrurier, Hall 3-3 3-3 Ht.2 Bester, Kitchen, Duval, Campbell 3-3 6-6 Ht.3 I Williams, F Lang, D Lang, Clark 3-3 9-9 Ht.4 Serrurier, Redmond, Kitchen, Duval 1-5 10-14 Ht.5 I Williams, Bester, Campbell, Clark 3-3 13-17 Ht.6 F Williams, F Lang, Hall, D Lang f 4-2 17-19 Ht.7 I Williams, Redmond, Serrurier, Clark 3-3 20-22 Ht.8 Bester, F Williams, Campbell, Hall 2-4 22-26 Ht.9 Duval, Kitchen, F Lang, Manford 5-1 27-27	Ht.10 Byford, F Williams, Serrurier, Redmond 5-1 32-28 Ht.11 Kitchen, Duval, Campbell, Bester 5-1 37-29 Ht.12 I Williams, F Lang, Clark, Manford 4-2 41-31 Ht.13 Kitchen, Serrurier, Duval, Redmond 4-2 45-33 Ht.14 Bester, I Williams, Campbell, Clark 2-4 47-37 Ht.15 F Lang, F Williams, Hall, Manford 3-3 50-40 Ht.16 Redmond, Clark, Serrurier, I Williams f 2-4 52-44 Ht.17 F Williams, Bester, Campbell, Hall 3-3 55-47 Ht.18 F Lang, Duval, Kitchen, Manford 3-3 58-50

© Brian Collins