(Image: Archives)
BRADFORD were in the market for new riders ahead of the 1953 season.
One of them was former London favourite Arthur Bush.
He had not impressed too much initially when he arrived in 1951 alongside Harringay team-mate Alf Viccary, in a swap deal for Jack Biggs, but his form improved markedly.
Bush rode very well in the second half of that campaign, so much so that he caught the eye of the national selectors, who picked him for the tour of Australia.
That turned out to be bad news for Bradford, as their man stayed behind to, incredibly, try his luck as an oyster bar proprietor.
Fortunately for the Odsal management, and less fortunately for Bush, that did not work out, and he returned before the end of 1952, as we reported in the T&A on this day 74 years ago.
But Bush struggled to recapture the form he had shown in late 1951 and was packed off to Second Division Yarmouth during the 1953 campaign.
Promoter Bruce Booth had even bigger ambitions for Bradford, and with his side set to visit Sweden at the end of the season, he saw an opportunity.
Keen to acquire the best of the best from Sweden, Booth had his heart set on Olle Nygren, a former national champion.
Sadly, Nygren opted for Bristol and Bradford missed out on a supreme talent, who finished fourth at the following year’s Individual World Championship at Wembley.
Nygren’s greatest year lay in the future too, as he became both Nordic Champion and a World Team Cup winner in 1960.