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Programme Pot-Pourri |
STYLE and HUMOUR | ||
These two superb programme covers
were designed for Austrian MRC meetings. The "knights in shining armour", with racejacket breastplates (above), depicts Ronnie Moore, Ove Fundin, and Olle Nygren. The programme was used for an individual meeting at Vienna on 09.04.1960 |
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On the right, and beautifully drawn, is "cowboy" Ove Fundin, riding a 1 h.p horse-bike. This programme covered two meetings in the Austria MRC v Oxford v Vargarna series, those staged at Vienna (02.04.1960) and Graz (06.04.1960). It is especially relevant as Ove won all his 25 races in that series! Details are here | Many thanks to Duncan Luke for letting me use the scans of these rare programmes. |
"PIRATE" PROGRAMMES | ||
In
the UK, it was not unusual for "unofficial", "souvenir",
or "pirate" programmes to be issued for some of the big
events, such as the Wembley World Championship Finals.
But they were also printed for other big meetings, including some Test
Matches - a selection of which are shown below. They were poor quality, and printed on a folded card to make 4 pages. Judging by the similar border designs in many cases, it appears that they mostly came from two or three sources. Pirate programmes were sold outside the stadiums or, in some cases, at tram stops on the route to the stadium. With the exception of a 1937 England v Overseas match, they are all from England v Australia Tests. |
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1935 Harringay | 1937 Harringay | 1938 Wimbledon |
1939 Harringay | 1948 Belle Vue | 1949 Birmingham |
1949 New Cross | 1949 Bradford Odsal | 1952 Belle Vue (NOT 1951!) |
1952 New Cross | 1952 Harringay | |
The
Official programmes for the above matches can be seen at : England v Australia 1935-39, England v Australia 1948-52, England v Overseas 1937 |
THE MATCHES THAT NEVER HAPPENED ... | ||||
A U.S.A. v Canada match was scheduled
for Owego, N.Y on Aug 7, 1999 and a programme printed for it. Unfortunately, the Canadian National Championships held at Welland in late July had to be abandoned due to rain, and was rescheduled at the same track on that date, the last race date of the season there. This of course meant that there could be no Canadian side to ride at Owego on that night so they had to run a regular event instead. Ironically, rain also washed out the second attempt to stage the Canadian Nationals after only one heat, so both meetings were lost and neither restaged that year. Duncan Luke |
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This Poole match was scheduled to be
the 4th Test in the 1958 England v Australasia series. It was postponed
due to rain and never restaged. This rare copy of the programme comes from Roger Stevens |
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Contributors : Roger Stevens, Duncan Luke, Phil Smith | ||
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© Brian Collins