Arthur Warden Jervis (26 February 1905 – 12 December 1987) was an international

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

rider from England. He earned two international caps for the

England national speedway team The Great Britain Speedway Team (also known as GB Speedway Team) is one of the major teams in international speedway. The team is managed by former Great Britain riders Oliver Allen and Simon Stead, and captained by the 2018 Speedway World Champ ...

Biography

Jervis, born in Coventry, rode in the pioneer years of British speedway, riding dirt track meetings in his home city of Coventry from the age of 14 and becoming champion of the Midlands and North in 1928. He also bought a garage in Coventry. He began his British leagues career riding for White City Manchester during the inaugural

1929 Speedway English Dirt Track League The 1929 English Dirt Track League was the inaugural season of speedway in the United Kingdom for Northern English teams. There was also a Southern League called the 1929 Speedway Southern League that started during the same year. Summary The se ...

season. His two seasons with the Manchester club were chaotic because they withdrew from the league on both occasions. He also raced a couple of times for

Belle Vue Aces The Belle Vue Aces are a British motorcycle speedway, speedway club, based in Manchester. The club hold the record of having won the top tier List of United Kingdom speedway league champions, League championship 13 times. They currently compete ...

. In 1931,

Leicester Super Leicester Super was a motorcycle speedway team based at the Leicester Super Speedway near Melton Road. History Promotion company Speedways and Sports Ltd initially approached Leicestershire County Cricket Club in 1929 with a proposal to constr ...

team manager Alec Jackson signed Jervis as the new captain, also signing Australian international

Bruce McCullum The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

Tommy Price Thomas Price (2 December 1911 – 26 December 1997) was a British Motorcycle speedway, speedway rider. In 1949 he won the first Speedway World Championship to be held after the Second World War.Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of t ...

, Cliff Watson, and Alf Summersby. He enjoyed a full season of league racing for

, recording an impressive 10.14 league average for the club. This was the second best league average behind

Eric Langton Eric Kemp Langton (27 September 1907 – 1999) was an English motorcycle speedway who won the Star Riders' Championship in 1932, the forerunner to the Speedway World Championship. League career Born in Leeds, England in 1907, Langton began hi ...

. Following the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern leagues for the 1932 Speedway National League season, he moved to London to ride for the

West Ham Hammers The West Ham Hammers were a speedway team, first promoted by Jimmy Baxter in 1929. History They operated from the West Ham Stadium until the outbreak of World War II under several different promotions, most successfully under the control o ...

. Jervis cut his speedway career short after the 1932 season. Despite being capped by England and still being in demand by teams, he chose to concentrate on his builder's business in Coventry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jervis, Arthur 1905 births 1987 deaths British speedway riders Leicester Super riders West Ham Hammers riders White City Manchester riders