RIP FRANK MIDGLEY – SPEEDWAY WRITER / PHOTOGRAPHER

(The following is a beautiful tribute written by SA correspondent Mark Neale to his long time friend, Frank Midgley. Mark held wonderful admiration and respect for the long time SA writer/photographer.)

Words and photos by Mark Neale

Sad to learn a great of Australian Speedway and a long time friend, Frank Midgley passed away on Friday afternoon November 3.

He was 85 years of age.

Frank was a great man and did a hell of a lot for Speedway in South Australia.

He had been involved in the sport for seventy years, starting out a spectator then a co-driver of a TQ with a mate before going on to take photos and write reports for many magazines throughout Australia.

He was a vital part of Peter White’s Speedway World when that publication started in the mid 80s and also for National Speedway Illustrated, published by Dennis Newlyn, along with many other magazines.

Frank would always supply photos and the history of events to the promoters for use in the programmes.

He was always willing to help me when I would ring him looking for results to fill my blank spots in my state championship stats book.

Frank always kept his stats books up to date with the top four placings in all sections and all states.

No matter what I wanted, he would always have what I required. He was a wonderful historian for the sport.

His photo collection goes way back to the 1950s, starting at Skyline Speedway, Rowley Park Speedway, Speedway Park, North Arm, Wayville, the Sidewinders and Gillman Speedway, along with the country tracks in South Australia.

He would have thousands and thousands of photos all catalogued in year and season order, along with a lot of other memorabilia which included many scrap books of newspaper clippings from the Adelaide Advertiser and the old newspapers.

I have plenty of photos from Frank that I will cherish when I dig them out and look through them

We would always have a chat when we went to North Arm, Murray Bridge, Speedway Park or Gillman Speedway.

I last spoke to Frank on Friday, October 27 for about an hour or so, remembering the old days and talking about how we have both been struggling with health issues.

I was saddened to hear he had been in hospital in Flinders and the Royal Adelaide for about two weeks.

It came as quite a shock tonight (Saturday, November 4) when my phone starting going crazy with this sad and terrible news about a great friend of mine passing away.

Every time I would ring him and he answered, I would ask: “Frank, old son, how are you going?” He would always say: “Mark, how you going?” He would then always ask how my health was.

I’ll remember our last chat, Frank.

R.I.P FRANK MIDGLEY

AN AUSTRALIAN SPEEDWAY LEGEND.