Rereading the story about Jackie White (February 2020 issue) and the request for names of other riders in the picture – well, number 52 is definitely Jim Squib, who came from the New Forest area.
He was a member of the Southampton speedway team in 1947 (I have individual pictures of the whole team on postcards) and your picture would date from a couple of years later.
Next to him is possibly Cecil Bailey, another team member who went on to take many photos for Motor Cycle News and other publications.
The 250cc Ariel in the picture was in 1959/60 in the shed of Jim Marriott, of Hammonds Green, Totton, and Jim was very proud of the fact it was Jackie’s old bike.
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As an aside, my father worked in the early 1950s for ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, Old MJ’s (Mike Jackson) father, and found MJ riding his (my father’s) motorbike around the grounds of the Jackson house in Chilworth, Southampton. When MJ was given a Greeves, he evidently ploughed a furrow across the lawns…
Bob Buck, via email
PS. We met once when you were returning from an event in Ireland, fuelling your van near Narberth, west Wales, when I barged past just to see what bikes you had in the van. Old motorcyclists are just born nosey where bikes are concerned!
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