Card Set 6

John Player & Sons

The card album

Speedway Riders

[A series of 50 cigarette cards]

Card 1 British Joe Abbott

Card 2 British Arthur Atkinson

Card 3 British Phil Bishop

Sad that he had over 400 crashes, who was counting and can any modern rider beat Phil's crash record!

Card 4 British Gordon Byers

John Skinner says: I visited Gordon in 2004 at his home in Gosforth Newcastle upon Tyne, he was into his 90s, sadly he died later, a couple of years short of reaching 100.  We discussed his speedway career and he was full of life and happy to talk about anything including speedway!.  He couldn't remember winning the first ever race at Newcastle's Brough Park in 1929 when he was 17yrs old.  He told me he was earning huge amounts of money when he was riding for Wembley in the early 1930s.  He was proud to tell me that he was a member of the first England touring side that sailed to Australia 1931/32?  I took Gordon to Newcastle's belated 75th rider reunion in 2005 and he enjoyed the occasion although there was no-one left from his era at the function for him to reminisce with.

Card 5 Australian Dicky Case

Card 6  British Frank Charles

Frank was joint 4th in the 1936 world final, the first recognised world final.  He shared 4th spot with American Cordy Milne breaking the track record in the process.

Card 7 Canadian Eric Chitty

Eric was also a respected singer, he was a "Crooner", I believe!  Reg Fearman told me he had presented an Eric Chitty 78rpm record to Eric's son a few years ago.  I don't know about Crooning I am a Rolling Stones fan!

Card 8 British Bill Clibbett

Card 9 Australian Eric Collins

Daredevil  Eric was a stamp collector, not the most macho of sidelines to riding speedway.

Card 10 British Tommy Croombs

Tommy was an inside line rider.  Passing on the inside is an art form but for me speedway is at its greatest when a rider goes out wide and passes coming out of a bend.  No disrespect to Tommy, I just enjoy a fast outside line rider more.

Card 11 British Billy Dallison

Card 12 British Jack Broncho Dixon

Card 13 British Acorn Dobson

Stan was nicknamed "Acorn" because some thought his head resembled an Acorn!

Card 14 British Frank Goulden

Card 15 British Stan Greatrex

Card 16 British George Greenwood

Card 17 Australian Max Grosskreutz

Card 18 Danish Morian Hansen

Card 19 British Bob Harrison

Card 20 Australian Vic Huxley

Card 21 Scottish/Australian Ron Johnson

Card 22 British Wally "Nobby" Key

Card 23 New Zealander Wally Kilmister

Wally was the first successful Kiwi to make an impact in the UK.  Who would have guessed that Kiwi Wally was paving the way for Ronnie Moore, Barry Briggs and Ivan Mauger!

Card 24 British Bill Kitchen

Card 25 British Gus Kuhn

The card says Gus was racing motorcycles "before the War".  The "War" in question was the First World War 1914-18.  He was obviously not a teenager when he took up speedway in 1928

Card 26 Australian Cyclone Billy Lamont

Billy was one of speedway's very first big star draws.  He impressed wherever he went

Card 27 British Eric Langton

A top English rider.  He was beaten in a run off by Australian Lionel Van Praag for the 1936 world title.  He started at Leeds and must be the best ever Leeds rider.

Card 28 British Harold Riley Lees aka "Ginger" Lees

Card 29 British Walter "Wally" Lloyd

Card 30 American Cordy Milne

Cordy was the younger brother of Jack Milne.  The Milne brothers were the pick of the American riders of the early 1930s era.

Card 31 American Jack Milne

Jack and brother Cordy finished 2nd and 3rd in the 1937 World Championship and had the second world war not came along two years later one or both of the brothers could easily have been world champion.

Card 32 Australian John Glass aka Mick Murphy

Card 33 British George Newton

John says: I am too young to have seen George Newton ride.  However every photo of George that I have seen, like the above picture shows him to have been very exciting to watch

Card 34 British Jack Ormston

Card 35 British Jack Parker

Card 36 British Cliff Parkinson

Card 37 British Tommy Price (Liverpool)

I know this era had two Tommy Price's.  This card refers to the Lancashire rider, not the southern Tommy Price.  I can tell them apart by their ears The Wembley Tommy had sticky out ears but this drawing shows the northern Tommy with prominent ears!  Maybe the artist got it wrong and confused the two guys

Card 38 British Geoff Pymar

Card 39 British Claude Rye

Card 40 Australian Jack Sharp

Card 41 British Harry Shepherd

Harry was a nuts and bolts guy and was involved in inventing the starting gate, something so fundamental to us modern fans, but yes the sport started without starting gates. They had to be invented and manufactured for all the UK tracks to use.  Harry was your man for this.

Card 42 Australian Dicky Smythe

Card 43 British Harold "Tiger" Stevenson

Tiger reversed the trend of Aussie riders coming to the UK and being successful.  He travelled to OZ and rode there with lots of success.

Card 44 British Fred Strecker

Card 45 Australian Lionel Van Praag

An incredible name "Lionel Van Praag" he etched his name into speedway records for ever!  He won the first world championship in 1936

Card 46 British Frank Varey

Frank rode a Scott 500cc 2-stroke machine when he started. The Scott's paintwork was mainly red and he rode in Argentina wearing a red jersey.  They nicknamed him the "Red Devil"

Card 47 British Colin Watson

This artwork is suspect I have never seen a JAP fuel tank that shape.  I think the artist has got it wrong!

Card 48 Australian Arthur "Bluey" Wilkinson

Australians call ginger headed guys "Bluey" hence Arthurs speedway name

Card 49 British George Wilks

Card 50 Australian Dicky Wise

I believe this Card Set is the best one available for collectors but if you have any other sets please get busy scanning and send the images to me John

David Pipes' Original Player's Collection

David says: Hi John, I am attaching scans of the Players booklet – as you are aware the cards were issued with gum on the backs and all you had to do was lick or moisten the back and stick the card into the special album sold by Players for one penny !  As you already have this set on your website I think that you would be interested to see how the cards were originally meant to be viewed (with a reasonable bit of artwork included).

John says: Yes David a collection in the original booklet is always great to see.  Players did a great job with their cig cards

The Player's Booklet

Player's Please!  As an ex smoker with a cough!  I wish I had never took up the habit.  However cigarette cards like this set are a source of speedway information for anyone looking into the history of the sport.  So thank you David Pipes and thank you Players

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