Seemed a good idea at the time : remember these wee ads that used to appear in the Speedway Star and News in the sixties? Wanted - junior riders for racing in France - apply Victor Boston - well, thats what I did after finishing University in 1966 and thinking that it would be better experience than the somewhat unpredictable apres-meeting novice races at Meadowbank, off I went (pushing my bike between stations to get the connection to Southampton for the ferry to Cherbourg where me and others were to be picked up). Quite an adventure for all the wrong reasons - the tracks were just fields at isolated villages in Brittany where the speedway was part of the annual village fete (run by the local priests generally looking like Robert De Niro in one of his tough-guy roles) Victor was an ex-circus performer on uni-cycles and thats his son Claude at the front who was also a uni-cycle rider and was part of the show. Claude had some of his fingers missing due to getting them stuck in the chain of a speedway bike which he also rode as part of the show. Perhaps the most bizarre bit of the show was where Victor probably into his 70s would come out on the trick bike with his wife Lola (no spring chicken) dressed in a tu tu perched on the front of the bike. Some riders you might recognise in this line up - Pat Adaway, Steve Chilman amongst others...
Posted on: Sat, 08 Feb 2014 21:20:11 +0000
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