Now
check up on
Exeter
's Division One matches since the
British League was formed in 1965. It'll
take very little working out to see that Jimmy Squibb has a truly enviable 100
per cent attendance record with the Falcons.
Only
Les McGillivray of Hackney has a comparable record and coincidentally they
were team-mates at Poole in 1959 and Ipswich in 1960 and '61 and but for a
last minute transfer just before the 1963 season opened they could both be in
the Hawks team today.
The
1970 season will almost certainly open with only Les retaining a 100 per cent
British League attendance record, for after six-and-a-half years with the
Falcons veteran Jim slapped in a transfer request at the end of 1969.
A
product of the Hampshire grass tracks, Jim applied for, and was granted, a
trial with
Southampton
prior to their opening in 1947 and
so impressed team manager Frank Goulden that he was immediately offered a
contract.
Since
then he's been a model of consistency and chalked up his 500th league match
when riding for
Exeter
against
Wolverhampton
on
October 4, 1965
.
That figure includes only National, Provincial and British League
matches. There were twenty
Southern League appearances in 1963 and '64, "And there's probably been
more regional league appearances," says Jim, "but time passes by so
quickly I've forgotten a lot of what has happened since I first took up
speedway."
Fortunately,
we have record books to guide us through the main facts.
Come with me as we have a quick look through the years at Jim's record.
In
1947 he contested all of
Southampton
's 28 Division Three National League
matches and whilst the Saints scored more race points than
Eastbourne
and Cradley Heath that year Jim
missed out on a league winners medal for the Eagles beat the Heathens on race
points after both teams had scored 36 match points to
Southampton
's 35.
A team-mate of Jim's that year was Pete Lansdale, who along with
partner Wally Mawdsley has been Jim's promoter since he linked up with New
Cross in 1963.
The
following year (1948)
Southampton
were again third in the same
competition with Jim having a 100 per cent attendance record from 44 matches. A
team-mate that year was Cecil Bailey, now well known throughout the South of
England for his motorcycle racing photography.
Promotion
into Division Two followed in 1949 when
Southampton
finished seventh of twelve teams
with Jim again present in all 44 matches.
Three
more teams joined the league in 1950 and
Southampton
retained their seventh place.
Jim was ever-present in all 28 matches and took over the Saints
captaincy mid-season when Bob Oakley was transferred to Wembley.
It
has been said that Oakley's transfer started the
Southampton
slump.
Gates certainly dropped and midway through 1951 they pulled out of the
league, but not before Jim had again registered a 100 per cent attendance from
the seven matches ridden. Of the
offers made for his services Jim plumped to have a go at Division One racing
and linked up with Harringay where he made 13 league appearances.
It wasn't a 100 per cent record for Jim didn't quite match up to the
tough standards at the top in those days.
He did strike up some happy relationships though and had as his
team-mates Jack Biggs, Danny Dunton and Olle Nygren, who are all still
associated with the sport.
Jim
was back in Division Two circles in 1952 when he linked up with
Poole
where he did yeoman service until
the Pirates pulled out of Division One at the end of 1956.
It
was a 100 per cent attendance record again in 1952 and '53.
His 44 matches in 1952 bringing Jim a League Winners medal when
present-day millionaire Len Matcham controlled the Pirates fortunes.
In 1953, 32 matches were contested and
Poole
finished one match point behind
Coventry
for runners-up spot.
That was the year Norman Strachan made his debut in speedway.
As
far as Jim is concerned, the rot set in during 1954 when he contested only 19
of the Pirates 20 matches whilst in 1955 he was absent on three of the 32
occasions Poole took to clinch another League Winners medal!
The
Pirates had a phenomenal run in the Daily
Mail National Trophy that year beating Rayleigh, Ipswich, Swindon,
Southampton and Division One side Birmingham (after drawing at the first
attempt) on aggregate in succeeding rounds before going down to eventual
winners Norwich in one of the semi-finals.
This run, and the Division Two performances earned the Pirates
promotion into Division One when Jim contested all 24 of their 1956 fixtures,
again having Jack Biggs as a teammate.
But
Poole
's previous year's success was not
maintained and in spite of the infusion of star calibre riders they finished
sixth of the seven teams contesting the league, and put up the shutters at the
end of the year.
Jim
moved back to Southampton (who had come back into Division Two racing under
the Charlie Knott banner in 1954) for 1957 but there were no divisions that
year, just the one 11-team National League.
Jim missed only two of
Southampton
's twenty matches but brought his
record up with two "guest" appearances for other tracks.
It was eighteen appearances from eighteen fixtures contested in 1958
whilst in '59 he did five with
Southampton
before again linking up with
Poole
who had returned to the fold a year
earlier.
Charlie
Knott moved into
Poole
in 1960 for Provincial League
operations and Vic Gooden took his Pirates up to
Ipswich
, Jim included.
Jack Biggs, Colin Gooddy, Les McGillivray and Len Silver were also in
the Witches team, whose team manager was Maurice Littlechild.
Jim took part in all eighteen National League matches and achieved a
similar record again in 1961.
Ipswich
closed at the end of the year and
Jimmy moved down into Provincial League circles with
Plymouth
where he was ever-present in 24
matches and finished fourth in the league's scorers behind Ivor Brown (260
points), Erie Boothroyd (253) and Guy Allott (235).
Jimmy collected 234 points.
With
Plymouth
's closure at the end of the season,
competition for Jim's signature was hot. Hackney
were finally allocated him but Jim wasn't happy about riding the track and
only hours before the tapes went up he joined New Cross, where he was
appointed skipper, and made his debut in the Rangers colours AT Hackney!
New Cross never got the attendances they deserved and after
Poole
had visited the
Old Kent Road
on August 2 they pulled out of
racing for good.
Jim
was ever-present in all seventeen league matches before he moved to
Exeter
.
"
Exeter
was one track 1 could never
ride," recalls Jim, "so the challenge was there to join them and try
and do well." He never intended staying beyond the end of 1963 but he did
and as well as competing in their five remaining league matches that year he
took part in all twenty-one fixtures in 1964.
Exeter
's home match against
Sheffield
was never staged due to a rain
postponement at the end of the season.
His
debut in
Exeter
's colours was on
August 26, 1963
,
although two weeks earlier he'd represented the Provincial League at
the
County
Ground
in a match against
Swindon
.
On
May 25 1964
, he was appointed skipper following
Len Silver's departure to link up with Hackney where he joined Mike Parker as
co-promoter before assuming full control.
Born
in Poole in 1920, Jim wanted to be a speedway rider before the war but Mr.
Hitler stepped in and Jim was called up for a more important tour which took
in Belgium, France, Germany, Holland and Poland.
Nowadays he operates a haulage business from his home at Bartley in the
New Forest
, just outside
Southampton
.
The Squibbs have their own pet pony Ned, who comes to the back gate for
a carrot most mornings.
A
team-man through and through, Jim has never claimed any major individual
honours although several International "caps" have come his way over
the years and he's been fortunate enough to have the occasional speedway tour
into Europe.
Parade
editor
Paul Parish ordered 800 words for this story. I hope he has some space to
spare for such yeoman service to the sport over a period of 23 years is
difficult indeed to cram into so few words.
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