Colin Clark’s pictures of numbers 51 and 16 in the April OBM do not identify with any machines in my programmes for the years 1946 and ’50s at Cadwell.
Number 40, however, is of the well-known Midland Sidecar Champion W (Bill) Boddice from Smethwick; very good riding a solo, but on an outfit he was in another class!
He competed against the well-known names like Eric Oliver, Jackie Beeton, Pip Fearris, Ernie Walker, and not forgetting Big Jack Surtees on his 998 HRD, father of John Surtees.
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To see these outfits coming down from Barn Corner, sometimes three abreast, was quite something.
My first visit to Cadwell was in August 1946 on my dad’s 250cc 6TP Velo (Cadwell was the first circuit to open after the war).
As a 15-year-old, it was a long ride from Doncaster but one of many. I still have the old Velo, one of the first 6TPs made in 1930, registered in Doncaster, DT2530.
Dennis Prosser
South Yorkshire
Read more Letters, Opinion, News and Features in the May 2019 issue of OBM – on sale now!
