Ted Mellors and 1929 Model CS1 Norton

-SG- E A (Ted) Mellors is best known for his highly competitive thirties racing career, mainly mounted on New Imperials, Velocettes and - his sole TT win in 1939 - on a 250 Benelli. His war time series in Motor Cycling about pre-war circuits is currently getting an airing in 'The Classic Motorcycle', and his book 'Continental Circus' (completed by Geoff Davison) is also worth a read.

Douglas Lamb (32), Ted Mellors (33)
and Arthur Simcock (34)

Peter McManus produced a Mellors biography last year (Ted Mellors - Motorcycling's Forgotten Champion), which I recently bought. It received a rather fulsome review in the VMCC magazine which it does not, in my hypercritical view, live up to. Could I do better? Probably not! None the less, the text does mention that Ted's early TT excursions were on a CS1 Norton - his own in 1928 and a works version with right hand exhaust port in 1929.  He finished 6th in 1928 and retired in 1929. A couple of photos of him and the CS1s are included in the book; unfortunately generated from fuzzy photo-copies and not from the originals.

His Senior TT riding number in 1929 was 33 and number 32 was another works CS1, ridden by the unlucky Douglas Lamb. A TT start line photo of them both is attached - the Sunbeam rider is Arthur Simcock.