S.Africa v. HOLLAND 1950/51.
    This is the Dutch team that took part in the test match series against South Africa at Wembley, Jo'burg in 1950/51. The Union team won the series 5-0, but the tourists were more successful in their other club matches at Bloemfontein, Klerksdorp and Boksburg. (Full results can be found via the link on the History page.)
Seen below, smartly turned out, - note helmets all uniformly presented to show their national flag, though the race jacket is that of 'The Windmills' team - , they comprised L>R: Wim van Hemelrijk, Gerrit Jonker, Jan Bosman (on bike), Bert Willard, Thei Bisschopps, Henk Dammers; Kneeling L>R: Joop Nolten, Tinus Metzelaar.  They were later joined by Henk Stemen.  
   Below is the S.African team that recipricated this Dutch visit in the following June, July, Aug. '51. 

South African Touring Team of Europe, 1951
A 7-man SA team toured Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway in 1951, led by Buddy Fuller,
 and rode in 18 matches over 10 weeks.   Full tour results.
Standing (lt. to rt): Toby Boshoff, Alec Blankfield, Buddy Fuller (on bike), Harry du Toit, Bob Raw
Kneeling: Maurice Fenton (left), Joe Blankfield.

'BOKs             1948    1949     1950     1951    1952    1953
 B.Fuller          H.42     H.181      L.36        -         -          -
 F.Wills              -         L.179         -           -         -      L.77,S.31
 D.Serrurier       -         L.241      L.158       -         -          -
 R.Duval             -         L. 49      L.232     L.202   L.255     -  
.                     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

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  Doug Serrurier c.1954.

More 1950s Speedway Action
1951/52: Ht.1 of 2nd S.Africa v. Overseas Test at Wembley Stadium, 11 Jan.1952.
L>R: Doug Serrurier, Ken Middleditch, Henry Long, Tony Lewis.  Long won and a set a new track record of 75.4s; Lewis 2nd, Midddleditch 3rd.   Overseas won 62-45 and took the Series 3½-1½.


1956/57: Ht.1 of the 6th S.Africa v. England Test at Wembley Stadium, Jo'burg.  L>R, Eric Boothroyd, Henry Long, Jim Lightfoot, Arthur Duncan. Long won from Boothroyd and Lightfoot. SA won 57-51 to level the series at 3-3, but England took the final test at Durban to come out on top.


LT: London-born Dave Collins with British riders' representative, Vic Ridgeon. Collins started his racing in the Union, and had the rare distinction of riding for both the Springboks and England. 
RT: S.African Fred Lang as a UK Wembley Lion, photographed there in 1954.

PRE-WAR RIDERS

Keith Harvey, South Africa's first Dirt Track rider.
    The 2 photographs below show South African Keith Harvey in the team bibs of his last 2 UK teams, immediately before and after WWII, - Norwich Stars (1939) and New Cross Rangers, (1946,'47.)
   Harvey had started Dirt Track racing at the start of the sport in Europe, - 1928 - , when he joined Crystal Palace (outer London) following rally and road-racing exploits at home, (he never rode speedway in the Union.) He was to be the last skipper of the Palace “Glaciers” when they re-enter league racing in 1939, but on its closure mid-season he transferred to Norwich.
    He'd been a regular double-figure scorer for the Palace, and top-scored for them at The Firs, (Norwich) in their last match on July 1st, as poor crowds closed Crystal Palace, so the Stars would have been happy to see him join the East Anglian side. At the Firs, riding at No.4, leg-trailer Harvey, (note the knee hook in the NX shot,) couldn't reproduce the same form, his best at home being 7pts against Newcastle, then 11pts away at Hackney Wick in mid-August. After the war, he joined New Cross (south London,) closer to his Stockwell motor-cycle business, but at the age of 50 was struggling to keep a team place and retired during the 1947 season.
     He eventually returned home to Natal in the '50s, where he would often turn out to watch Durban Hornets race, and passed away in 1972, being buried in his home town at Verulaam.

 Cecil de la Porte  in 1936
   Cecil de la Porte was a South African rider who arrived in Britain in 1935 and signed for the Wembley club in London. The following year he represented South Africa in qualifying rounds of the World Championship.
    De la Porte had won South Africa’s nomination after beating Stan Collins* for the SA Dirt Track Championship in November 1935. He had second-half rides at Wembley in 1935 and the following year raced for the club’s second team, the Wembley Cubs, before moving in 1937 to link with fellow countryman Keith Harvey* at Birmingham in the 2nd division Provincial League.
     Legend has it that in his early days at Wembley, de la Porte fell out with the Lions’ distinguished Australian international and future World Champ Lionel van Praag, who warned him: “Keep out of my way or I’ll run over you!” Apparently, in one race de la Porte failed to remember this and Praagie was as good as his word.

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Fred with Henry Long, 2005, (centre rear, Boet Strydom)                                                        FRED WILLS    -  b. 24.4.1919,   d. 21.10.2013

ALAN HUNT

Alan Hunt receives the Natal Open Championship trophy from Buddy Fuller, Hoy Park, Durban, 1956.
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PETER WILLIAMS

Memories of the 1956/57 S.African Season by a Wembley Lion.



Wembley team 1956/7: Ken Long, Toby Boshoff, Jimmy Meade, Henry Long (on bike), Peter Williams, Pat Mckenzie; kneeling: Aubrey Long, Arthur Duncan.

England: Eric Boothroyd, Ron Mountford, Jim Lightfoot, Peter Williams, Nick Nicholls, Jimmy Gooch, Dave Collins. (Collins was a UK-born S.A. resident, drafted into the team after the death of England's skipper Alan Hunt 2 weeks earlier.)

 
Above & below: Wembley Stadium, (the morning after a meeting.)



   The Wembley Workshops of 1956.



   Above & below: Interval Attractions.
- Promoter Buddy Fuller is seen trying out this bike on which a fella would climb up the ladder and down the other side while being ridden around the track.

- Ron Mountford is seen in the 2 shots below trying out the little Midget car he'd had made and transported over to South Africa from UK. (He was a good mechanic and welder.) With the Midget, built like all with 500cc JAP speedway bike engines, he made attempts on the track record.  "A very hard rider, he didn’t see anybody when he was riding."
   
         

 
       Wembley Lions skipper, Henry Long         Brit Jim Lightfoot, Vereeniging Aces & Covenry UK
 
This chap in the 2 shots above had only one hand and a hook-type attachment on his right. So he had the throttle fitted to the left. Thought to be Fred Goodrum, who had an arm amputated after a road crash in March 1952. Goodrum was driving a car with Buddy Fuller and his son Bobby, Reg Duval and Trevor Redmond as passengers from Jo'burg to Durban when he swerved to avoid a head-on collision and went off the road. The arm was too badly damaged to save and was amputated at Ladysmith Hospital. As far as is known he never raced again: the adapted bike was for his own enjoyment.


         ..........   On the road in 1956 !

L > R: Pat McKenzie, Peter Williams, Buddy Fuller and Alan Hunt.
The Bedford bus we traveled all over the country in, and up to Rhodesia. Note the bikes in the back. 4 could sit up front, doing the driving, then there were 4 big bunk beds that were used for sitting or sleeping on.
    "I thought Southern Rhodesia was more civilised, the gardens much greener, and the local black population more pleasant than in Jo’burg. Driving down towards the Cape was another wonderful experience as the countryside became more beautiful and colourful as you got nearer to the coast.

    Buddy Fuller had a business friend who ran a Carnival, (still running today as the Minstrel Carnival,) which each year had talent contests for blacks and coloured in Cape Town. One day after we got back from a cinema visit to where the carnival was to be on that night, Godfrey Rabbi, Buddy’s friend, said “We've found a young boy who has a good voice, same name as you, Danny Williams.” He later, in the UK at the age of 20, made a very good recording of 'Moon River', which made No.1 in the charts in 1961."

   At Cape Point to see the Baboons.   Eve Hunt standing,(Alan Hunts wife,),
   Sitting on the fender, Peter Williams, Jimmy Gooch, the driver, (a friend of Buddy Fuller.)

.........  recreation !

  

Peter Williams joins in at the cycle speedway.   Nick Nicholls and PW at Haut Bay, Cape Town.
"At Cape point it was too cold to go into the water, but just a few miles around the corner to the Indian Ocean the water was lovely."

                                                 ...................

    Some recent pleasant memories from Peter Williams. Unfortunately others remain: the tour ended badly on return to Britain in 1957 when the British riders involved in this '56/'57 South African season with Buddy Fuller were charged, fined and received a UK riding ban from the RAC/SCB on the basis that the Fuller tracks, including Wembley, were unlicensed.  

South African speedway's 2 World Finalist, ( held @ Wembley, London)
Henry Long 1952         and                        Doug Davies 1956, (also qualified in '55, but withdrawn thru illness,)
seen here in their club colours, - Belle Vue Aces and Birmingham Brummies.

         
     Reproduced left is a copy of
"South African Speedway Monthly",
Vol.1 No.4, a magazine of the SA SRA (Speedway Riders Association) issued January 1954.  The full 24 page content can be read on the Old Time Speedway website, under Links/Speedway in Print, (registration required.) Seen on the cover, in action at the Old Barn track in 1946, Bob Serrurier, and below, from within:-
- Harry du Toit in the Sprinbok national race-jacket,
- and as a Spring Star, centre, with Bill Kitchen, (Harry du Toit,) & George Mathews.
- Hornets in action: Vern McWilliams & Bill Dalton of Durban Hornets with Howdy Byford of Wembley Lions trying an outside line.

The following table of team match results taken from 'SA Speedway Monthly' serves to illustrate the level of activity over the 6-week December period, (there will have been other individual, i.e. non-team meetings in addition to these matches.)