in Australia had taken its toll on Bennett and Wood. In 1965, they sold the Speedwell brand to General Accessories, the owners of their once great Melbourne based rival Malvern Star (purchased in 1958 from Bruce Small). In a similar way to Malvern Star, bicycle building was phased out from about 1970 in preference to cheaper imports. Competitive results In November 1906 the fastest time in the Goulburn to Sydney race was taken by J. O. Burr on a Royal Speedwell. He won another Royal Speedwell for his trouble. In 1910 E. A. Pearson set a record on a Royal Speedwell for the Sydney to Melbourne ride (565 miles) in a time of 43 hours 18 minutes (actual riding time; overall time 49 hours). This record stood for the next 17 years. Pearson continued to ride his Royal Speedwell and by 1927 had achieved 100,000 miles. Other Speedwell World Championship riders of the time were: Frank Louis Kramer, 1901–16, 1918, 1921. In an undated letter from Australian rider W. Erskine (whilst in the USA) to Bennett and Wood, he wrote "You will be surprised to know that Kramer is riding one of your machines and declares it is the best machine he has ever had. So far he has won two Championships and almost everything he started in. All the best riders in America are on Speedwell's including Reggie McNamara (the best all-rounder here to-day), Alf Goullet, Corry and Grenda (sic)". Arthur Spencer, 1917, 1920, 1924 Ray Eaton, 1919 Harris Horder, 1927 Cecil Walker, nine times world's champion. He later opened his own bicycle business in Melbourne. In 1932 Speedwell rider Edgar "Dunc" Gray won the Olympic time trial by covering a kilometre (1094 yards) unpaced from a standing start in 1 min 13 seconds at Los Angeles, USA. At the time this was a world record. During his long career Gray represented Australia in three Olympic Games, his other appearances being Amsterdam in 1928 and Berlin in 1936. He also rode for Australia in the Empire Games held at Manchester in 1934 and Sydney in 1938. In the former event he won two British Empire Championships. He became an employee at Speedwell building racing bikes (the "Olympic", so named in his honour, was one of the racing models) and promoting for Speedwell. One of his Royal Speedwell bikes is on display at the Dunc Gray Velodrome in Sydney. Arie