Tom Farndon by: John Chaplin

At THE age of 22 he had reached the very top of his profession. He typified the unquenchable spirit of adventurous youth. No film star had such a devoted following. He had won every speedway championship there was to be won. At one point in his meteoric career he held all the National League track records. He was, at the time, probably the best speedway rider in the world. As if he had not been blessed with gifts enough, he was also devastatingly handsome, superbly spectacular and magnificently consistent. He was said to possess the perfect combination of skill, judgment and daring.

The destiny of Tom Farndon (England, Crystal Palace and New Cross) was surely to become the greatest speedway rider England would ever produce. And it is as certain as anything can be in this crazy speedway business that he would have brought the individual World Championship title to England a full 13 years sooner than did the magnificent Tommy Price of Wembley. But on the night of what should have been another of his regular finest hours, tragedy of the utmost magnitude -- and certainly of monstrous perfidy -- struck him down.

Left: Tom Farndon with Max Grosskreutz

He was then 24 years old, and though his achievements, up until fate turned its cruel ferocity upon him, had bordered on the monumental, his future potential appeared limitless. Tragically he was never to realise the full promise of his unique abilities. Tom Farndon really liked horses, and he originally thought he might like to be a jockey. Riding motorcycles started out as just 'a bit of a lark'. But he could not have had a finer speedway apprenticeship . . . riding with the Parker brothers, Jack and Norman, in his home town team, Coventry. It was a very short apprenticeship. He and the Parkers parted company when Coventry closed in 1931, the brothers going to Southampton and Tom to the Fred Mockford-Cecil Smith metropolitan promotion at the truly spectacular Crystal Palace.

From then on his star rose like a comet. His wild and precocious speedway talent refined itself into what we now know as superstardom.

He used to pull bikes to pieces and reconstruct them. Then he started experimenting with motorcycles belonging to friends. He never lost an opportunity to sneak off for a joyride. He had plenty of spills -- and father had to pay. In the end he wore down his father's resistance and Farndon senior bought him a bike. So when the new speedway opened at Brandon, young Tom was one of the first through the gates. And here is where the 'bit of a lark' came in. That's what Tomthought it would be to try the new sport. He stripped down his machine for practice sessions and, mounted on his improvised speedster . . . he crashed! He crashed more often than any of the others. He never got round two laps without a crash -- according to a Special Correspondent. Then, one afternoon, a director of the track lent him a proper speedway bike, a dirt track Douglas. First time out on his new mount he beat the previous night's best times. He was only two-fifths of a second off the track record.

Left: Tom Farndon with Jack Parker in 1932

He was spotted by a local motorcycle dealer by the name of Stanley Glanfield. Now Stanley Glanfield just happened to be the Stanley Glanfield who, by chance, had been traversing the globe in a motorcycle combination about the same time as Lionel Wills. They both seemed to end up in Australia just when dirt track racing was beginning to take off as a national pastime. It was their reports of what they saw that resulted in the birth of speedway racing in England.

The deal was that Mr Glanfield would supply a machine in return for a share -- a goodly share according to Hylda -- of Tom's winnings. She says: 'Mr Glanfield wanted so much money when Tom won that my husband, Joe, said: "Forget that!" and bought Tom a speedway bike of his own. 'First time out he crashed. He wasn't hurt much, but the trouble was the handlebars. Tom had very short arms and they couldn't find suitable handlebars for him. 'But eventually he got to the stage where he was very, very good. Then the track went bust and he went to Crystal Palace. He didn't like the big Palace track, he liked the tricky little tracks. That's why he was such a success when Palace moved to New Cross. It was small.'

Left: Tom Farndon with Dicky Case in 1935

It was around this time that Tom met and married a Coventry milkmaid, Audrey Gledhill. They met at a dance, recalled Hylda, but Tom was so shy that he would never ask any of the girls to trip the light fantastic. So Joe used to say to him: 'Tell me which one you want', and he would make the introductions. Audrey was also shy, refusing to be married in a traditional white wedding gown in a church ceremony because she didn't want any fuss.

Here are the career highlights:
Farndon is the only rider who has ever held the National League Riders Championship, the London Riders Championship and the British Individual Championship simultaneously; he alone has successfully defended the BIC twice.' He had also won the prestigious Star Championship in 1933, from his team mate Ron Johnson and West Ham's Bluey Wilkinson. But it was far from an unbroken run of triumph. For instance, when Fred Mockford and Cecil Smith signed him for the Palace, they soon found that he was not altogether the success they had hoped. The reason was that he tuned his own motors. It was said that they used to employ a special member of the track staff whose job it was to walk round the circuit and pick up the parts that fell from Tom's machine.

Things changed when the team moved to New Cross, where Mockford and Smith introduced the track workshop system, under the mechanical guru Alf Coles, where the machines of the entire team were looked after. It is reported that from then on Tom Farndon didn't have to worry about a mechanical thing. He never saw his machine until an hour before a meeting. He went out and raced, and then forgot about his bikes until the next meeting.

Left: Tom Farndon

Tom Farndon set out on the road to speedway stardom as a shy young man from Coventry in 1929. Within five years he had reached celebrity status matched by today's pop idols. It had not been a case of an unbroken climb to the top, but his skill, daring and remarkable ability had seen him achieve fame - and fortune - matched only by the pioneer Australians in the early days of the sport. Tom Farndon's good looks and pleasant personality brought him a huge fan following, particularly among young women, and his sheer talent for speedway racing brought him not only the admiration of his peers but the solid achievement of winning every dirt-track championship there was to be won. At the age of only 24, in 1935, he was the world's best speedway rider.... The 1935 speedway season had hardly begun when Tom Farndon set up a new track record at New Cross, and in so doing he became the first speedway rider to complete four laps of a track in less than one minute.

In June he fended off the challenge of Hackney's Dick Case for his British title. By then he had worn the crown longer than any other rider. Such was the standing of the competition at the time, that New Cross supporters chartered 214 motor coaches to travel to cheer on Tom in his deciding match against Case at Wembley. His remarkable form made him favourite for his next target, that year's Star Championship at Wembley, the final of which was due to take place on Thursday August 28th. Both the British and the Star championships involved the elite of world speedway who treated the paying public to the finest and most spectacular exhibitions of individual racing. On the night before the final - the Wednesday and New Cross's usual race day - the rangers, who were lying second in the league, met Harringay who, led by Tom's former Coventry team-mate Jack Parker, were on a winning streak. Depleted by the absence of the injured Joe Francis and Harry Shepherd, New Cross lost. Tom contributed nine points and won his second half scratch heat.

Left: Tom Farndon with his son Roy

Historian Cyril May was there and described what happened: 'I still have vivid recollections of the evening, the New Cross Scratch Race Final, with Tom, Stan Greatrex and Ron Johnson (all of New Cross) and Bluey Wilkinson (of West Ham) taking their places on the starting grid. 'Remember, Ron and Tom had virtually carried the team for several months; they were, in less than a minute, put out of action at a single blow. 'From the tapes Ron and Tom took a slight lead, but fewer than tow yards separated his back wheel from Tom's front. More than a little halfway down the back straight on the third lap, the New Cross skipper touched the fence and fell. So close was Tom that there was never the slightest possibility of his avoiding the crash or laying down his machine. 'Tom and his machine were thrown into the air, and he was flung an incredible distance before falling on his head. It looked from the terraces as if Tom deliberately turned, to try and hit the fallen machine instead of the man. Audrey was among the thousands of fans who saw the crash. Both riders were taken to hospital. Ron Johnson escaped serious injury - no broken bone, but he was badly bruised and had severe lacerations to an arm. It was enough to keep him from the following night's Star Final at Wembley. But Tom's injuries were far more serious.

The entire incident had been witnessed by Bluey Wilkinson, the fourth rider in that fateful race, who said later that he had sensed 'something was going to happen' and had deliberately stayed out of the way. Bluey, of course, was also in the following night's Star Final, and may well have decided on a prudent approach to what was, after all, an unimportant race compared with the big night to come. The Speedway News, in its account of the meeting, reported that 'Wilkinson finished alone....' His time: 63.8. The race had been re-run and Greatrex had pulled out after being 'filled up'. The accident was recorded - in small type - on page 12 of that edition. 'A black night for New Cross', the headline read. 'Last Wednesday night was the culmination of the blackest period in the history of New Cross speedway or, for that matter, of London Motor Sports Ltd.' At the Miller General Hospital, Greenwich, Tom Farndon fought for life for 48 hours. Newspaper reports told of 'amazing scenes outside the hospital. Hundreds of women prayed in the pouring rain'.

Left: Tom Farndon funeral at New Cross

Such was his following that regular bulletins on Tom's condition were posted on the gates. Tram and omnibus drivers stopped their vehicles at the hospital so that their passengers could read the notices. Two days after the crash Tom died without regaining consciousness. By ten o'clock that evening the crowds - including hundreds of weeping women - had grown so big at the hospital gates that police had to be called to control the multitude Saddened friends at Tom's Funeral . Many of Tom's female fans had collapsed with his death posted and had to receive medical attention.

Several vowed they would never visit a speedway track again. One said 'Everyone loved Tom Farndon. he was such a wonderful rider and one of the cleanest and most unspoilt stars of the tracks.' The eulogy in Speedway News ironically reported Tom as saying: 'If I ever have a serious crash I shall retire.' He was, said the feature, 'perhaps the most colourful rider of his day...the harder the race the better Farndon liked it, not was he wont to make an excuse on the rare occasions when he had to acknowledge defeat. The limitless adulation he received when a mere youngster would have turned most heads, but Farndon remained modest and unassuming to the last. No champion of any sport has ever worn his laurels so gracefully.

Tom Farndon Grave Stone

Left: Tom Farndon's Grave Stone

The gravestone on Tom Farndon's plot at Foleshill Cemetery, Coventry, is most remarkable, and certainly the most unusual in the burial place. In black marble, it is an art deco depiction of a speeding motorcyclist - though no one seems to know who commissioned it or who made it. Roy thinks it may have been put there by Tom's admirers. Audrey is now dead so it is not possible to find out from her how it came to be there. The mystery must remain unless any reader can indicate to us a line of inquiry we might take to find out its true origin.

New Cross Speedway

'Speedway the New Way'

Tom Farndon by: John Chaplin