Home Country vs Overseas 20/08/1938

Home Country 21	20 August 1938
Overseas 30	Challenge
Home Country 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 T B 1. Stan Greatrex 3 3 3 9 2. Bill Nisbet 0 0 0 0 3. Oliver Hart 2 3 2 7 4. Norman Hargreaves ef 2' 1' 3 2 5. Rol Stobbart 0 2 1 3 6. George Burgess 1 1' 0 2 1 . Australians 1. Jimmy Gibb 2 3 3 8 2. Bruce Venier 1' 0 0 1 1 3. Charlie Spinks 3 2 3 8 4. Reg Hay 1 1' 2' 4 2 5. George Pepper 3 1 2 6 6. Bob Sparks 2' 0 1' 3 2
Heat 1 Greatrex, Gibb, Venier, Nisbet 1min 21.2 Heat 2 Spinks, Hart, Hay, Hargreaves (E) 1min 22.6 Heat 3 Pepper, Sparks, Burgess, Stobbart 1min 24.8 Heat 4 Greatrex, Spinks, Hay, Nisbet 1min 22.6 Heat 5 Hart, Hargreaves, Pepper, Sparks 1min 24.2 Heat 6 Gibb, Stobbart, Burgess, Venier 1min 26.8 Heat 7 Greatrex, Pepper, Sparks, Nisbet 1min 23.2 Heat 8 Gibb, Hart, Hargreaves, Venier 1min 24 Heat 9 Spinks, Hay, Stobbart, Burgess 1min 25.8 Match Race Stan Greatrex Bt Jimmy Gibb 1min 25 Reserves Race Leo Lungo, Bill Little, Stanley Gargan, Dick Dennie 1min 28.8 Scottish Silver Torch Heat 1 Oliver Hart, Reg Hay, Bob Sparks, Dick Dennie 1min 26 Heat 2 Charlie Spinks, Bruce Venier, Bill Little, Bill Nisbet 1min 29 Heat 3 Jimmy Gibb, Leo Lungo, George Burgess, Norman Hargreaves 1min 25 Heat 4 Stan Greatrex, George Pepper, Rol Stobbart, Stanley Gargan 1min 26 Final: Charlie Spinks, Stan Greatrex, Jimmy Gibb, Oliver Hart 1min 23.8
Stan Greatrex made a welcome reappearance at the Marine Gardens Speedway on 20 August when he captained a team representing the home country against a side representing the overseas. The visitors took the lead in the second heat and held it to the end to win by six points. Home country 24, overseas 30. On a very loose track Greatrex gave some thrilling displays of riding and finished up in the team event by scoring a hat trick. Although Jimmy Gibb, the rival captain just failed to score his hat trick he captained his team with the utmost confidence. A good start was made by the home country in the first heat, when Greatrex took the lead and forged ahead to win by a good margin. Incidentally in the fastest time of the day 1 min 21 and one fifth secs. Charlie Spinks evened up matters in the next heat when he just defeated Oliver Hart, the popular Edinburgh rider on the post. The home country reduced the leeway in the fifth heat when Hart rose to the occasion and gained first place points. The score now was home country 14 points, overseas 16 points. The overseas team continued to hold their lead and in the final heat Charlie Spinks, supported by Reg Hay, finished matters by gaining maximum points between them. The rival captains gave a magnificent exhibition of riding when they met in a match race. Gibb, on the inside, had a slight advantage over Greatrex and made every possible use of it. Greatrex, however, held on all the way to finish with a grand spurt to win by a very short margin. Hart was again prominent when winning the first heat of the Scottish Silver Torch race and he looked as if he would be hard to beat in the final. Spinks, Gibb and Greatrex all qualified for the final which proved to be a very thrilling race. Spinks on the inside shot into the lead and Hart followed, leaving Greatrex third and Gibb last. Hart tried hard to catch up on Spinks and looked like doing so when he over slid on the end and left Spinks to finish an easy winner. Leo Lungo scored a decisive victory over Bill Little and Stan Gargan in the reserves’ race, surprising everybody by the great improvement in his riding.