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Post by admin on Sept 22, 2012 12:11:29 GMT -5
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Post by admin on Sept 22, 2012 12:12:21 GMT -5
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Post by admin on Sept 22, 2012 12:13:25 GMT -5
C Palace book...k.cover,jpegCRYSTAL PALACE SPEEDWAY
A HISTORY OF THE GLAZIERS
By Norman Jacobs
Acknowledgments
Norman Jacobs writes: “As always, I have relied heavily on Peter Jackson for the statistics. I would also like to thank John Hyam and Terry Stone for pointing me in the direction of useful material and Triss and Brian Sharp, sons of Crystal’s Palace’s first captain for talking to me at length and showing me their father’s memorabilia.
“Photographs used in the book are from a variety of sources and I would like to thank the following for allowing me to to use theirs: Ian Moultray, Mike Hunter and the Friends of Edinburgh Speedway, Mike Kemp, John Chaplin, Martin Appleby, Tom Marriott, Brian Darby, Triss and Brian Sharp, Nigel Bird and John Skinner of www.defunctspeedway.co.uk.
“Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank my wife, Linda, for all her help with getting the photographs ready for publication.”
Conclusion
Norman Jacobs writes: “Crystal Palace Speedway was born in the age when humans were pushing the boundaries as never before. The early meetings at High Beech had brought a whole new exciting and exhilarating sport to the British public and they loved it. Over the next couple of years, dozens of tracks opened all around the country as people flocked to see the leather-clad warriors tearing round the track, seemingly defying death at every turn.
“One of the earliest of these new tracks was Crystal Palace, the second to open in London, just three months after the first meeting. The racing was some of the best in the country and it brought to the public heroes such as Triss Sharp, Ron Johnson and Tom Farndon. In the early 1930s, Crystal Palace was on top of the world attracting crowds of 20,000 or 30,000 through the turnstiles regularly every week.
“Sadly, however, the management of the Crystal Palace itself never fully understood speedway crowds and what made the racing so exciting, they saw it as just another money-making attraction. Their refusal to install floodlights to allow evening racing and their proposal to increase the rent led the promoters, Fred Mockford and Cecil Smith, to say ‘enough is enough’. They moved operations to a new purpoe-built track.
“Crystal Palace’s own attempts at staging speedway in the latter years of the 1930s was a disaster, and so the track that had once attracted tens of thousands and been acknowledged as one of the best in the country closed down never to reopen. When the real speedway boom set in after the Second World War, Crystal Palace was in no position to take part. Precious relics such as badges and programmes and the fading memories of an ever-dwindling number of fans who actually saw racing at Crystal Palace are all we have left to remind us of the glory years at at what was once one of speedway’s premier tracks.”
Bibliographical information: Publication August 2012; ISBN 978-1-78155-063-5. Price £14.99. Format (mm) 235 x 162 mm. Binding Paperback. Page extent 128. Illustrations 50 black and white. Rights World all languages. Bic Codes WSPM.
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Post by admin on Oct 14, 2012 14:05:45 GMT -5
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