Our old friend and former Six Day man, ‘Brit,’ Norman Hill suggested to us that we should ‘have a word’ with the man who was his Six Day ‘runner’ on the winter boards circuit back when there were up to 17 Six Day races every winter, Marvin Smart.
Not only did Marvin ‘run’ for some of the biggest names in the sport, he was an innovator in the field of advertising on the actual track surface – such an important factor in a Six Day organiser’s budget plans.
Here’s what Marvin had to say to us recently.
Did you race, Marvin?
“During my study at Shrewsbury School of Art, I raced mainly on the track, I had to divide my time between studying and training. I needed less training time for the track, mainly sprinting as a junior, protégé of the late Benny Foster who was then National Coach.
“On the road, as a junior I won a couple of races that ended in sprints but I liked track racing more and concentrated on that.
“I rode open meetings and track leagues – until I got suspended for swearing at a rider who pushed me into the balustrade ‘til my knuckles bled.
“Someone in the stands heard my ‘effing and blinding’ and put in a complaint as there were ‘women around.’
“I stopped racing altogether after that and concentrated on my ‘student life’.
“After my study in Shrewsbury ended, I went to work for an advertising bureau as designer for commercial adverts. I knew this wouldn’t last long as I had a strong feeling of wanting to get out of England to do something different and see other things.
“One day, there was a knock at the door of my parent’s house from a Dutchman named Charles Ruys, who was a promoter and impresario in the cycling world. He came over to England as he was promised the job of Federation National Coach, which went in the end to British, ex-double world amateur pursuit champion, Norman Sheil.
“Ruys had an opportunity to start a sponsored local team by the Shropshire Star newspaper. There was one condition and that was they needed to see that their team was capable of winning races.
“Ruys talked to the local cycling club to ask if there was any club member capable of pulling off a win. Someone mentioned my name but told him that I didn’t race any more.
“This didn’t deter Ruys and before we had finished our conversation, I was enthusiastic enough to promise to be part of the team once I had done a few weeks training.
“Within a couple of weeks I had my first win at a track meeting in Wolverhampton. This got Ruys the sponsorship he needed to fit out the team in jerseys, shorts and tracksuits, and this drew cyclists with international reputation to the club.”
I believe you had your share of crashes?
“At a track meeting, by chance at Wolverhampton again, there was a Commonwealth Games selection team against ‘the Rest’.
“There was an athletics meeting going on concurrently.
“I was in the final against a guy called Ian Alsop [multiple British champion and 1966 Commonwealth Games 10 mile Champion, ed.] from the selection and in a neck and neck finish we crossed the line.
“Even today I don’t know who won as I ran into an athletics official who crossed the track at that exact moment.
“I ended up unconscious in hospital with five cracked and dislocated vertebrae. That kept me quiet for a few months.
“During my stay in hospital, I decided that I would definitely leave Britain. My first choice was America, as I had family living there. I was made aware that to get work one needed a Green Card and that meant doing National Service and being used as shell-fodder in Vietnam.”
How did you arrive in The Netherlands?
“I told Ruys what I was thinking and he said; ‘why not go to Holland?’ He had an address for me to start off, so that’s what I decided to do.
“Six months later and with some training in my legs, my bikes and I stepped onto a boat at Harwich destined for the Hook of Holland.
“I joined up with my friend and fellow Englishman, Graham Webb, we lived next to each other in Hilversum, racing on the road, but after two races I was involved in an accident and broke my wrist and elbow.
“In hospital they asked me if I was really keen on cycling as having read my medical report, they said that an unlucky fall could easily put me in a wheelchair for life as my back would take several years to mend properly.
“I didn’t think twice about calling a halt as I had no intention of having a cycling career.
“Of course, Graham went on to win the World Championship for Amateurs on the road in that same year, 1967.”
How did you end up ‘running?’
“Whilst I was out of commission due to my crash, Charles Ruys was busy organising a Six Day race in London at which Tom Simpson was to be the main attraction. Alas, Tom didn’t make it.
“I went back over to London to be the personal assistant for Ruys during the build-up and the Six and I got to know some of the riders; Klaus Bugdahl [German Six Day star with 37 wins, ed.] asked me if I wanted to be his extra runner at the Berlin Six where he was partnered with Peter Post [a true legend of the sport with 65 wins, ed.]
“In Dortmund I was runner for Bugdahl and Rolf Wolfshohl [Vuelta winner and three times world cyclo-cross champion, ed.] but I was treated badly by Wolfshohl, so I didn’t work for that team again.
“In Charleroi, I worked for Graeme Gilmore [Australian top Six Day man and one of the ‘Blue Train’ of elite riders in the ‘races to nowhere;’ riding 117 Sixes, winning 13; 12 x 2nds; 20 x 3rds – 72 times in the first 5 with 51 different partners, ed.] and Hugh Porter [the greatest-ever pursuiter, with four world professional titles to his name, ed.]
“I also worked for Porter and ‘Joe’ Beghetto [three times world professional sprint champion, ed.] in Milan.
“And I was runner for Norman Hill in Munster – I think – with Englishman Tony Gowland [one of the rare English birds to have won a Six Day back in the era of ‘real’ Sixes – London ‘72 with Patrick Sercu and Montreal ’71 with Gianni Motta, ed] – but when Graeme Gilmore began to get more contracts, I just worked for him as we had become, as it turned out, to be lifelong friends.
“He was, during that period coupled with riders such as Dane, Freddy Eugen [nine Six Day wins]; Belgian, Emile Severeyns [25 Six Day wins]; Aussies Bill Lawrie and Ron Baench [legendary and ‘colourful’ sprinter, ed.]; Belgian Walter Godefroot [the ‘Bulldog of Flanders’ who won the Tour of Flanders twice and Paris-Roubaix as part of a massive palmares, ed.]”
I believe there was a lot of monkey business with the riders back in those days?
“Riders did play jokes on their runners but also on riders among themselves to kill the boredom of the old style Sixes where riders had to be on the track at least 80 hours just riding around with their feet on the bars, reading newspapers.
“They used to lower the saddle of opponents, just a few millimetres each day until their knees were almost hitting their chins, or if they could get hold of their shoes, alter the setting of their shoe plates.
“Riders were always out to make mischief and some were renowned for it