A collection of motor sport ephemera, comprising: a programme for the first Speedway meeting at Crystal Palace, Saturday 19th May 1928; a collection

A collection of motor sport ephemera, comprising: a programme for the first Speedway meeting at Crystal Palace, Saturday 19th May 1928; a collection of vintage motor cycling magazines, comprising six copies of Motor Cycling Magazine (1935-two, 1937, 1939, 1944 and 1945), each approximately 64 pages, packed with news, features, letters and adverts relating to motor cycling, some covers loose, slight wear and fading to page edges, fair condition generally; sold with 82 copies of The Motorcycle dating from 1934 to 1960, some loose pages and covers, fair condition; the lot also including a souvenir commemorative programme for a 'Pictures in Motion & Colour' film showing, presented by Lowell Thomas Travelogues, of aviator Ross Smith's flight from England to Australia, 12th November-10th December 1919, personally told by the pilot himself, a four-page brochure containing short story of the flight by Captain Sir Ross Smith, map of the route from Hounslow to Port Darwin, two b & w photos of Smith and his brother and co-pilot Keith, with facsimile signatures, and cover photograph of their Vickers Vimy 'plane, plus a detailed description of what was featured in the two-part film which had a ten-minute interval, fair condition considering age, deep horizontal fold crease-line across centre, staples rusty the opening meeting held on the dirt track at the Crystal Palace Exhibition Gardens in front of a crowd in excess of 6,000, featuring a Grand Parade of all competing riders and 19 races culminating in the advertised 'Thrills and Spills' of the great international match between England and Australia for a £100 prize, 12-page programme, price 6d with colour illustration on cover, information and conditions of all races, fair to good condition The first-ever recognised Speedway meeting in the UK was at High Beech, Essex on 19th February 1928 although there were claims that previous meetings were held at Camberley and Droysden. The sport was introduced into the country by Australians Billy Galloway and Keith McKay. Sir Ross Macpherson Smith (1892-1922) with his brother Keith Smith and mechanics James Bennett and Wally Shiers flew the 18,250km. from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome to Darwin, Northern Territory in 27 days, 20 hours to claim the £A10,000 prize offered by the Australian government for the first Australians in a British aircraft to fly from Great Britain to Australia. In their modified Vickers Vimy bomber, they became the first Australians to cover the journey in less than 30 days. Ross Smith was killed along with Bennett while testing a Vickers Viking amphibian aircraft which crashed in Byfleet soon after taking off from Brooklands on 13 April 1922.