Clement Walter Mitchell (3 February 1908 – 28 February 1995) was an Australian 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 clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider. He earned 29 international caps for the Australia national speedway team.

Biography

Mitchell, born in

Blyth, South Australia Blyth is a small town in the Mid North of South Australia, located west of the renowned Clare Valley. The town is located on the lands of the Kaurna people, the indigenous people who lived there before European settlement. It has a populatio ...

, was brought over to the UK in 1930 by Roger Frogley, before he started his British leagues career racing a couple of times for

Birmingham Perry Barr Birmingham Perry Barr is a constituency in the West Midlands, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by independent Ayoub Khan since July 2024. It had previously been held since 2001 by Khalid Mahmood of the Labour Party. B ...

. The Birmingham team folded, leaving Mitchell to join the Crystal Palace Glaziers during the

1930 Speedway Southern League The 1930 Southern League was the second season of speedway in the United Kingdom for Southern British teams. The Northern teams also had their second season known as the 1930 Speedway Northern League. Summary White City had left the league ...

season. He was named in the Crystal Palace team for 1931 but he chose to stay in Australia for the season. In 1932, the northern and southern leagues merged to form the National League and Mitchell returned to UK shores arriving to race for Crystal Palace again. He failed to make it out of the reserves and joined Plymouth Tigers mid-season. Mitchell raced in Australia from 1933 to 1936 and was instrumental in setting up the debut's of Jack Milne and Cordy Milne in British speedway. Mitchell returned himself for the 1937 season, signing on with the Harringay Tigers before moving to

New Cross Rangers The New Cross Rangers were a motorcycle speedway team which operated from 1934 until their closure in 1953. They also rode as the New Cross Lambs from 1934 to 1935 and then the New Cross Tamers in 1936. The team were List of United Kingdom Spe ...

the following season. He won the league title with New Cross in 1938. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he joined

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish speedway team based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess and also runs a ...

and spent fours seasons with the Scottish club from 1948 to 1952, before becoming their team manager.

Family

His brother Lindsay Gordon Mitchell also rode professional speedway.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Clem 1908 births 1995 deaths Australian speedway riders Crystal Palace Glaziers riders Harringay Tigers riders Australian expatriate speedway riders in England New Cross Rangers riders Plymouth Tigers riders West Ham Hammers riders