British Skating Legends

Phil holmes and i were discussing some of the lighter moments of yesteryear and we both remembered the starting line scuffle at Herne bay between south londons Johnny Ellis and Alan Kibble from the Midland, not too sure who started it but one of them decided that he didn.t  have enough room on the startline and a scuffle  broke out with them both trying to kick each others skates from under them which started a pushing and shoving match that was  getting out of hand until  the nsa officials  intervined, amazingly no one was disqualified but the race was a real needle, there was always a little bit of north/.south divide plus the fact that both the culprits were very different both in stature and nature as i knew them both, every club had a character in those days and the midland had kibble  whereas John always seemed more introverted, it all ended ok in the end but it did help to add some humour to the occasion, we at the BRSC had our own character name Mick tookey  and i remember standing next to him at the time which made it even more entertaining, on a more serious note  i read on this site somewhere that  John Ellis  had passed away sometime ago. real shame , nice bloke as i remember.    Roy lowe

Hi Roy...yes, sadly Johnny Ellis passed away a few years back, as did his stalwart team mate, Ted Cooke, more recently.  Ted was a member of the British 'B' team that went to Fallonica in 1967 - my dad's first outing for his country aged 18

thanks for the info John ,I suppose bad news is to be expected given the longevity of most of the older skaters but it still leaves a nasty taste as i remember these guys as young fit men, i knew them as both  friends and competitors ,ok it was 40 years ago but that does not make it any easier.