"My wife and I have Grandchildren in NZ and we visit - covid permiting - for 4 or 5 months each UK winter. Having known Fred and Carol since the late 60's we always visit them at their home outside Napier. Fred is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.
I rode with him in a few Grasstracks. During one he rode Bill Davies Douglas. Danny and Lee Dunton, Jim Gregory and John Stallworthy were also riding. Fred has a big collection of Vintage and Classic bikes as well as his last speedway ride, his ESO-JAP.
Last time we visited, his lovely mum Dot greeted us pushing a wheelbarrow full of stable sweepings. She had just finished 'Mucking out' the stalls. Like all true eccentrics she was wearing a nice skirt and blouse, a twin string pearl neclace and wellies! Dot's life had just improved as she had had her cararact done.
Note the singular - she only had sight in one eye! She had terrible trouble convincing the surgeons to do it. If it went wrong, she would have been blind. She, with typical Kiwi forthrightness said " I'm bloody well blind as it is - you can't make it much worse! "
So they did it - successfully. Cant wait until we can get together again, hopefully in 2022."
"Lovely to finally learn more about my Dad, Angus McGuire and his speedway days. He rode with the Liverpool Chads for late 1949 and through 1950. Then with the Fleetwood Flyers during late 1950 and 1951. He loved motorcycles for the rest of his life and could fix any of them."
"In 1971 the Oxford Section of the VMCC ran a Vintage Grass Track ot the Sports Trust playing fields in Kidlington. We had help from the Oxford Ixion MCC, borrowing their ropes and stakes to mark out the circuit, A bumper entry included Bill Davies, Rick (Fred) Timmo, Danny Dunton, Lee Dunton, Jim Gregory, John Stallworthy, Titch Allen, founder of the VMCC, Roger Gagg and yours truly. As well as George Bason with a 250 Triumph! I remember George as a very polite and well turned out chap. He spent a lot of time speaking with Bill Davies and John Browne of Carterton. John Brown was one of the founders of the Oxford Speedway at Cowley pre war. He and George went back a long way. Happy Memories."
"I remember a little about Jack racing at Western Springs NZ with his sister as pusher. I still remember last time I seen Jack he was on top of a steel beam welding at shopping centre in Otara South Auckland. How did I know him? I was in his class at Penrose High School. RIP Jack"
