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This site covers just the Six Day Cycle Races held in the British Isles - and for the 20th Century that means just London ..

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This project was started in May 2011 to fill an empty niche in the Internet, a free-access archive - and as a learning project for those involved.

So only of specialised interest and definitely a not-for-profit project - but at least you may find something interesting and different. We did - and still are.

A sister site holds a small amount of information discovered during the research that relates to six day races in Australia and Latin America. It also covers some 19th Century races in the USA.  More here.

The above picture is of racing in New York - rather than racing in Britain - but it is the earliest indoor track photo found so far.

Update October 2019
After a long gap it is possible that work will start over winter on searching for more contemporary reports of six day races - and racers - that relate to the British Isles. But this is subject to competing some other projects - and taking out a subscription to the newspaper and family history archives. Also now that so much contemporary information is available online there is no reason to repeat the results of the current London Six Day here - so the 2018 edition is as far as it goes.

 

Finding information about these bike races has been helped by fans who have loaded facts and images up to the Internet for searchers like me. Thanks to all who have shared their information. The information collected has been organised by year - with the 19th century races grouped together under “The Beginnings” page. This section contains our biggest surprises - with reports of Sixes in Aberdeen, Bristol, Dublin, Dundee, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, York and more. Plus some surprising material about 19th century Women’s Six Days in a dedicated Women’s Races sub-section.

The latest additions mean that there are now 94 confirmed long-distance cycle races for men and women in the 19th century - plus a few more that carried over to 1901. They are summarised here...

 

But first, here is an overview of the 20th century London Sixes that were held from 1923 to 1967 as remembered by that famous cycling journalist, J B Wadley. We now know that there was an earlier two-man Six Day at Alexandra Palace in 1903 but the article remains just as interesting.

 

MODERN SIXES IN LONDON

Eight modern sixes have been held in London two at Olympia, six at Wembley

ALL WAS SET for the first London two-man six-day race at Olympia in 1923 when a rather important fact was discovered. The track wasn't safe! The opening had to be postponed for a week, during which the offending grooves and bumps were ironed out. Then, after a good race, and a particularly thrilling last night, Persyn and Vandevelde of Belgium won with a lap lead over a French pair. Of the two English riders on the starting list, sprinter W. A. Ormston was an early retirement, but Maurice Selbach - who as an amateur had three times won the North Road twenty-four hours time trial rode with great courage to finish in sixth place with his Italian partner.
"Promoters thanked spectators for their support and promised to hold the race again next year", concluded one report of the race. But it was not until eleven years later that the next London "Six" was held, again at Olympia.
The
1934 event was promoted by the former American star Willie Spencer who was then organising a series of events on a portable track in the principal cities across the States. For the Olympia race he astutely paired Britain's star sprinter Sid Cozens with the "Six-Day King" Piet Van Kempen of Holland. Wonderfully nursed by the Dutch master, Cozens was able to maintain his speed to the end and win a six-day race at his first attempt. Cozens - Van Kempen won on points from the powerful German combination Kilian - Vopel.
Cozens was less fortunate when,
two years later, the first of four annual sixes was held at the Empire Pool, Wembley, the Manchester sprinter crashing and having to quit the race within twenty-four hours. A similar accident eliminated the road all-rounder Frank Southall. This time Kilian - Vopel made no mistake, gaining a vital lap lead on the last night and holding it to the end, despite a desperate challenge from Aerts - Buysse (Belgium) and the spectacular and popular French team Ignat - Diot who were known as the Red Devils.
Piet Van Kempen had also ridden in that 1936 race with relatively weak brother Jan.
In 1937, however, the famous Dutchman - then approaching forty - was back again with a first-class team-mate for the Coronation Six which started a few days after the coronation of H.M. George VI. Paired with Albert Buysse (runner-up the previous year) Van Kempen won his thirty-fourth six-day race with a points victory over Ignat - Diot and the American pair Walthour - Crossley. Of the five British starters only Cozens (7th) finished, Charlie Holland being an early casualty with a broken collar bone.
With no British riders in the
1938 Wembley Six, the crowd adopted as its favourite Australia's Joe Buckley who was partnered by the outstanding man of the race, Karel Kaers. The giant Belgian - who had won the world road championship in 1934 - did not win, but demonstrated his amazing versatility during the special events, breaking the flying start lap record (176 yards) with 9.6 seconds, and unofficially beating the world flying start mile record with a time of 1 min. 50.6 sec. The race was again won by Albert Buysse, now partnered by a second "A.B." in Albert Billiet. They won on points from Slaats – Pelenaars (Holland) with another Dutchman, or perhaps THE Dutchman, Piet Van Kempen paired with Wals, a lap behind.
The
1939 Wembley race is remembered as "The Sprinters' Six", the outstandingly fast field including the two greatest speedmen of the day, Jeff Scherens (Belgium) and Arie Van Vliet (Holland). Their spectacular bursts made it one of the most memorable of the series. But - as so often has been proved in six-day racing-winning every sprint on the programme is of no avail if, at the end of the race, the team has lost a lap. And this Van Vliet (partnered by Wals) and Scherens (with Dekuysscher) had done, leaving Karel Kaers and Omer Debruycker (Belgium) to ride the final lap of honour. Sid Cozens had another bad crash early on, but came back pluckily to finish sixth with his Australian partner, Benny Clare.
Twelve years were to pass before Wembley Pool again heard the rumble of chains and the swish of paperweight tyres on a wooden track. Yet, astonishingly, among the field for the
1951 race was the great Gustave Kilian, billed now as a Luxembourger, riding his eighty-sixth six-day race at the age of forty-three. Although with no hope of winning his thirty-fourth, Kilian proved a remarkable partner to the native Luxembourg rider Lull Gillen, the pair finishing fourth.
Favourites for the race, and certainly of the crowd, were two Australians, Alf Strom and Roger Arnold. Four years earlier the two Sydneysiders had come to Britain, ridden a few races, then moved to Belgium where they quickly became one of the best six-day teams in the world. On this racing return to London in 1951, Strom – Arnold strove mightily to win, but at the final gun they were a lap down on the Belgian pair Adriaenssens – Bruylandt, but took second place with a superior points score over Rigoni – Teruzzi (Italy) and Gillen – Kilian.
During the week Arnold gave proof of the team's great "class" by riding a flying start mile in 1 min. 53.8 sec. with Gillen only 0.1 sec. slower.
London rider Wally Summers was among the 1951 starters but retired after three days. The
following year, however, Britain fared better with two riders starting and both finishing. They were Dave Ricketts and Len Jackson, at that time living and racing in Belgium, although neither had ridden a six-day event. Each was paired with an experienced continental, Ricketts with Senfftleben (France) and Jackson with Gillen. The pairs finished sixth and seventh respectively.
At the head of affairs, Strom – Arnold allowed nobody to give them the slip this time, scoring a popular victory by a lap from their old rivals Rigoni and Teruzzi and Roth – Von Buren of Switzerland.
That 1952 promotion was the last six-day to be held in Britain. Of the winners, Arnold is now back in Australia, but Strom is living in Belgium and plans to be at the SKOL "Six" which, it is confidently expected, will be the first of a new and successful series.

 

There must be plenty more out there that is “in a box in the attic” but just waiting to be seen by a wider audience. Please get in touch if you have anything that might help. Scans of documents and photos of items are just fine - but if anything needs a safe home then it can be looked after well.

Site search function via the Yahoo! indexes of these pages...


Footnote: we have tried to stick to using Six Day as in “Six Day Racing” rather than Six Days or 6-Day / 6-Days. But it is just a choice and probably breaks the rules of English grammar.

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