On the main night Eddie Smith just beat Oppy in the fifty kilometres track race. Horrie Marshall, in later years a good friend, was another great rider. The West Australian riders were top class in those days, notably the Smith brothers. Oppy and several other Eastern States riders came to Perth for the cycling championships and thrilled the crowds with some great riding at the WACA. One piece of luck that I did have earlier in the season was the getting of Hubert Opperman’s autograph. The Sunday Times picture showed Perth Boys School Headmaster, Tommy Chandler, and our Sportsmaster, Bill Skipworth, with Hubert “Oppy” Opperman and the contestants for the PBS heats. The next year I was to change that and have a more successful season. I was only riding a standard road bike with heavy tyres as did many other juniors. I think that was my first or second ride in a race. The times for the ten miles were just over 30 minutes in each heat.
Cole and my friend Sid Belicke, who finished just in front of me. In my heat the minor placings behind Keith Andrews were A. The first heat was won by Harvey Opie from Tom Patterson, Ean McDonald and H. I have the Sunday Times (11 June 1933) photo of the pre-start lineup and from that I can recall some heat placings. I feel sure that the race was always going to turn out that way. The winner of the heat was Keith Andrews who went on to greater things in his senior career. Over the final stages they were too good and I had to settle for fifth place. It took me most of the race to catch them and sit in for a breather. In the movies I would have caught the field and then passed the leaders to go on and win. Willing hands got me back on the bike and away I went after the field. When we jumped away my “pusher off” was slow in letting the bike go and down I crashed gathering a few wounds as I fell. I rode in the second heat and struck disaster right at the start. Two PBS heats over ten miles with winners to the final. You can read more about the Cash family here: cashfamily.blogĪ highlight of the first half of the year was the running of the “Malvern Star Australian Schoolboys Cycling Championship” heats on the Welshpool Road on 10 June. We thank him for sharing his information and research.
This biography was written by Peter Quin-Conroy.
0 kommentar(er)
