1953 Motspur Park, Surrey 24 Hour Track Race
This race was organised by Timber Woodcock C144 (Surrey Walking Club) and sponsored by the “Sunday Dispatch” newspaper. This was the fourth post war track race, and although there were some good men in the field, no records were broken.
Of the 21 starters, 10 completed 100 miles with 4 going on for the full 24 hours.
The winner was Claude Hubert C156 (France) , who had aspirations of breaking the world record held by his fellow countryman, Henri Caron at 132 miles. He was unable to but achieved the fourth best distance in Britain – 125 miles 1591 yards, the 3 best being:
T. Hammond C10 – 131 miles 580 yards (1908), P. Reading C121 – 129 miles 749 yards (1946), and T. Payne C18 – 127 miles 542 yards (1909).
The race brought 4 new members into the hat-trick club, namely Ron Andrews C124, with 3 completions all on the track, Hew Neilson C145, Willy Watson C146 and Fred Plumb C151 all with 2 track and 1 road completions. The leader of the pack though was Tom Richardson C100 with 4 in the bag.