Features

Winner of the previous two Amateur TTs, Len Randles, talks to Tory MP, Ralph Hall Caine Hot favourite was Len Randles, winner in both 1923 and 1924. Riding the same overhead valve Sunbeam he’d used in June’s Senior TT; as yet riders were not barred from the September races for competing in a TT ‘proper’,…

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1955 NSU-Vincent Fox Chuck Jackson has owned this 98cc rarity for 46 years – and was given it in the first place. “The bloke I was an apprentice with gave it to me… when the tax ran out in 1967 I then took it all apart and put it in the loft,” explains Chuck. That…

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Attacking Beggars Roost is R W Praill, on his Harley-Davidson outfit; not the obvious choice of machine! As was usual with the trial, there was a strong, large contingent of Army riders, whose riding ability… “compared most favourably with that of the civilian entry” according to The Motor Cycle. Those taking part started on the…

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Ray Milland and Mary Martin Ray – born Alfred Reginald Jones in Neath in 1905, though some say 1907 – was a former Household Cavalryman who found his way to Hollywood. At the time of the photo shown, he had just finished filming Billy Wilder’s The Major and the Minor, with Ginger Rogers. It was…

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Testing at Metropolitan Motorcyclists of the Year competition… Initiated by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), the joint organising committee was made up of RoSPA, the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) and the Royal Automobile Club (RAC). Location was Hendon Aerodrome. The Metropolitan police was throwing its full weight behind the competition too, the…

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Jack Brett at Oliver’s Mount Jack Brett leaps into the air, at Oliver’s Mount in 1949. Aboard his Norton, Brett finished third in the 350cc final, bested by Dickie Dale (Velocette) and Syd Barnett (AJS), though with a comfortable margin over fourth placed AJS mounted Johnny Hodgkin and like-mounted fifth place Alan Dudley-Ward. Those five…

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Held in a distinctly laid back manner, which prompted The Motor Cycle’s man to reflect: “The paddock – anywhere you liked in a huge, undulating field – was a joyous sight to those with affectionate memories of the ‘straight’ speed trials of bygone years,” there was a strong entry, topped by Eric Fernihough (brace of…

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AHS H9 Touring Model You only have to look at any traffic queue to see that motorcyclists are not renowned for their patience. It doesn’t help that sporty models attract more attention in the press than those machines that reward patience as a virtue, but this is hardly a recent phenomenon. Thus, Motor Cycling described…

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1914 James TT Model In the period before the First World War and in the 1920s and 30s too, James made a number of varying machines, including some quality two-stroke lightweights and a range of four-strokes, a single cylinder side valve and overhead valve versions of mainly 350 and 500cc. But James’s biggest, longest running…

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Pip Harris, passengered here by Eric Bliss, at Mallory Park in 1965 Pip Harris’s new Featherbed Manx arrived late in 1952, and when fitted as usual with a Watsonian sidecar, it proved faster than his old one. In fact, with the exception of Eric Oliver’s specially prepared Norton, the only outfit even quicker was Ted…

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