 Trade In this Item for up to £1.10
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Golden Age of Speedway for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £1.10, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The post-war era was British speedway's golden age. Ten million spectators passed through the turnstiles of a record number of tracks at the sport's peak. With league gates as high as 80,000, speedway offered a colourful means of escape from the grim austerity of the times. A determinedly clean image, with no betting and rival fans mingling on the terraces, made speedway the family night out of choice. The sport thrived despite punitive taxation and Government threats to close down the speedways as a threat to industrial productivity. A three-division National League stretched from Exeter to Edinburgh and the World Championship Final attracted a capacity audience to Wembley. Test matches against Australia provided yet another international dimension. Even at the height of its popularity, speedway was a sporting edifice built on unstable foundations, which crumbled alarmingly as the 1950s dawned and Britain's economic and social recovery brought competing attractions like television.
About the Author
Philip Dalling has been a journalist all his working life and has covered speedway racing for a variety of publications for all of that time, interviewing many of the most significant figures in the sport. He has contributed to Speedway Star, Classic Speedway, and Backtrack and is an associate member of the World Speedway Riders Association, which gives him considerable access to many of the sport's best-known figures. He is the author of Long Eaton Nottingham Speedway.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't know anything about 1940s/50s speedway (or at least I didn't) aside from some of the key names of racers like Ove Fundin, Reg Fearman, Peter Craven and Johnnie Reason to name but a few. This book is fascinating because it is retrospective analysis coupled with recollections of the riders and officials of the time. It's full of fantastic images from the time that really evoke the grit, dirt and spirit of the sport in its golden age. And yet it is not all happy endings, there is an underlying sense of a sport at its peak, but facing a downward turn in fortunes which Dalling captures sympathetically but honestly. It was a really exciting time for the sport with some really amazing riders and it's all revealed here with an evocative and engrossing narrative and illustrations.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent addition to the speedway library. A good chronological account of speedway's post -war boom and relative decline. There are many pictures which must have taken an age to accumulate and many of which can hardly have been seen for many years, if ever before. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, even though (or because?) I was much too young to have been there at the time. It was a hugely entertaining account of speedway in a very different social and economic era. My only (not very serious!) complaint? I wish it had been at least twice the size! I hope that Philip Dalling will consider writing more histories of speedway, to bring the story up to date. Some would say that the 1980's were another golden age. Thanks, Philip.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a really good examination of UK Speedway in the 1940s and '50s. Philip Dalling has drawn together memories of the time from a host of national and international speedway legends and his story, which is exceptionally well written and researched, gives a well-rounded overview of the sport, the riders and the atmosphere of post-war speedway.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
An excellent read
I have read many Speedway books in my time, having followed the sport since 1949. I found this one the most factual and pleasant read of all of them, with excellent photographs.
Published 10 months ago by Robert A. Cooper
speedway super sport
another fine publication on speedway, an era where 30,000 attended wimbledon.
i went at 13 to see the DONS when they were the best team in the world. 1956. Read more
i went at 13 to see the DONS when they were the best team in the world. 1956. Read more
Published 11 months ago by grandad
speedwayfan
I bought this book as a present for an old speedway fan. He thought it was fabulous, so a good buy indeed
Published 12 months ago by kirbygrip
An excellent read for speedway fans
This speedway history covers the period in Britain from post-war (1946) to the 1957 season.
Unlike some sports books (with respect) this is extremely well written and... Read more
Unlike some sports books (with respect) this is extremely well written and... Read more
Published 13 months ago by enjaybee
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
