1926 continued
THE HISTORY of the
MIDDLESBROUGH & DISTRICT MOTOR CLUB
PART 2
33 of 97
Hon.Auditors - W.Weaver, A.W.Munnoch. Motorcycle Football Team Captain -
J.F.Dixon.
Committee - A.Smith, A.Blackburn, G.W.Liddle, R.H.Richardson, R.F.Parkinson,
J.A.Jellicoe, A.Young, J.Parsons.
W.Ryan was elected V/President of the Yorkshire Centre A.C.U.Board.
Motorcycle Football. This was the year when Motorcycle Football boomed.
Requests were received from Darlington, Tadcaster, Camberley, Barnard Castle
Unionist Association, the Y.M.C.A. The team competed at the Ripon Whitsun Meet
and were successful in winning the Cup for the third time in succession. Other
requests were for a match at Raby Castle, from the Thirsk British Legion and from
the Cumberland County M.C.
The A.C.U. having been urged to take control of the sport W.Ryan was appointed a
delegate to London to confer in making new rules for same. He reported that the
meeting lasted about 5 hrs. and he had been able to secure practically all our
suggested alterations. The Union had agreed to organise a competition on the lines
of the Association Cup and, being unable to grant any expenses to the delegates,
the Club agreed to pay same.
The team was entered in the National Competition. In the first round they met the
Cumberland County Club at Stockton and won 15 to nil. In the 2nd round they met
the Grimsby M.C. & G.C. at Samuelsons Athletic Ground, Middlesbrough, which they
won, result unknown. The semi-final was played at Bristol and the team were again
successful. The Final took place at the Crystal Palace. The opposition were
Coventry. The match was started but was not finished due to heavy rain. The
replayed Final took place at Headingley on Saturday, 20th March 1927 The
Middlesbrough team were J.F..Dixon, Capt.P.N. Blake, A.G.Smith, J.W.Collinson,
W.Creasor, F.Creasor. The Coventry team were - J.Montgomery, S.Jackson,
D.Brandish, B.G.Elliott, L.Crisp and L.Parsons. Middlesbrough were defeated by 11
goals to 1 and throughout the game they suffered from machine trouble which
included one burnt piston, one nearly square wheel, 2 burnt-out clutches and an inlet
valve which would persist in hammering the sparking plug points. Freddy Dixon
spent nearly the whole time tuning up the machines. The events of the day
concluded with a dinner given by the Leeds Club to the two teams and the A.C.U.
Officials.
I digress here for a moment and refer to a letter dated May 12th 1924 from Bert C.
Alien, San Jose, California, U.S.A. accompanying which he sent a photograph of the
Middlesbrough team playing football at Richmond. Shortly before this match the
Prince of Wales, later Edward Eighth had taken a toss from his pony whilst playing
polo and the picture is .captioned - "Cyclist shows example set by Prince". The habit
of falling doesnot seem to be confined only to turfmen but it appears to have also
extended to other sports as well. One of the players in this novel motorcycle football
match held in England shows excellent form in his spill taken in a recent game
between the Middlesbrough and Yorkshire teams, the rider in question being Bill
Collinson. The picture also shows Phil Blake, Albert Smith, Frank Dixon and Walter
Creasor and was exhibited in the window of a drugstore.
