John Patrick Abbott was born on the twelfth of April 1902 in Burnley - though our card says 1903. Then we seem to know nothing about him until he turned up at the local track, Towneley Speedway. This is said to have been in 1928, but if so it could not have been at the Stadium as it was only opened in 1929. It seems that no expense was spared in its construction, including two covered grandstands, and even electric lights, but for some reason it continued to lose money and was sold to the great Percy Platt, of Rochdale. However not even he could take it beyond the end of 1929.
The same year he appeared as J.P. Abbott (Joe) on Pattreiouex`s "Dirt Track Riders", as card thirteen. That fills in some of the confusion about his racing origins, for it says he "first broadsided at Blackpool`s half mile track". Now that was also the greyhound stadium, but it appears that the original speedway track was at the Sports Ground on South Shore.
The Pattreiouex card also tells of how he "...Rode at the Rochdale track on a Standard Rudge, for some months riding to and from Burnley every meeting on the Rudge. Arriving at the meeting he would strip the bike, "do his stuff", equip the bike and ride back to Burnley. Real enthusiasm! Won honours during 1929 at Leeds, White City (Manchester), Belle Vue, Salford, Sheffield, Barnsley, Rochdale, Warrington, Hanley, Burnley, etc."
The closing of the Rochdale track dispersed the riders, and Joe Abbot moved to Preston. Then he was approached by the Belle Vue Aces, who had just joined the National League, and who would be the team to beat in the 1930s, winning the league title five times on the trot between 1933 and 1937, the year our man is shown in Belle Vue colours on card one of John Player`s "Speedway Riders".
In 1938 he seems to have gone to Australia, and was seriously injured, so much so that he was sent back to England with a warning, never to ride again. This is mentioned on our card. partially, as ""Had a serious accident in Australia in the Test Matches in 1938." Looking that up I can see it was a collision with the Australian Lionel Maurice Van Praag. The race was stopped, and then re-run, but our man was missing. The injury was to his spine, which takes a pummelling as the bikes bounce over the cinders, to say nothing of the continual leaning from side to side to skid round the corners. We don`t know if he told Belle Vue any of that, but three months after he returned to England he also returned to them.
In 1939 Belle Vue shared the title with the Wembley Lions, and looked forward to another run. Little did they know that no more competitions would take place until 1946 - which they also won outright. However by then our man was at Harringay, captain of the "Racers", though he did not stay long, moving to the Odsal Boomerangs in 1947. They are the team, for some reason, which are called "Bradford" on our card. However I`m not sure why it says he is "now back at Bradford", because he went there only after he left Harringay. More investigations, I think.
Anyway, on the twenty-first of June, still racing for Odsal, and live on television, he was involved in another accident at West Ham Stadium. What saved him was the attendance, that night, of a quantity of ambulancemen from Poplar Hospital, who raced down and saved his life.
This story then takes an even sadder turn, for, on the first of July 1950, in a National League Match, at Odsal, and again against the West Ham Hammers, his bike suddenly fell over and he was run over by another rider, too close to stop. Some say that he was killed instantly, and others that the bike fell because he had died whilst riding it. He was forty-eight years old. The most curious thing is that they did not stop the meeting, they continued, and it appears that his death was not broadcast until after the meeting had ended and the fans gone home.
That was a sad night for speedway, as his friend, and fellow rider, Jock Shead, who had even been born in the same street as him in Burnley, was also killed, at Norwich. And he was only twenty-four.
The home page for all the Kiddy`s Favourites sets can be found with that card, which was our Card of the Day for the 21st of October, 2023 - so here we will only record the details for this set, which appear in our original British Trade Index part II, RB.27, issued in 1969, as :
KIDDY`S FAVOURITES Ltd. Glasgow
Cards issued about 1948-52, as singles, joined pairs, or stapled in batches in booklet form. Premiums offered for complete sets. Small size, very variable, about 63-69 x 38-50 m/m
- "POPULAR" SPEEDWAY RIDERS. Sm. Nd. (52) See D.353 ... KHM-8
The D.353 reference takes you to the back of the British Trade Index part II, and might well make your heart skip a beat at the thought that they were also issued by another company, as is usual with a "D" code, but they were not, it is simply that they are known in an anonymous printing, having green borders and black captions. And it seems strange that only our set, and "Cricketers" were printed in that way, but more information may come to light.
There is an update in British Trade Index part III, rather confusingly telling us that the "Popular Speedway Riders captions are in (a) green (b) grey-black". This could just mean that the usual caption was green and the anonymous version grey-black, adding the information in from D.353, but if so then why not mention that this also applied to the "Cricketers"?
In our updated British Trade Index, there has been a change in both the order of the sets, and in the details of our set. The listing now reads :
- "POPULAR" SPEEDWAY RIDERS. 1950. Nd. (52) Captions in a) green b) grey-black. See HX-150. Back a) normal descriptive, b) . Buy `Yanky` Bubble Gum - it`s best". ... KID-200