A brief chat with... John Avery

Referred to as ‘The Oxford Flier’, John Avery was actually born and raised in Gloucestershire until his father, prewar car competitor Harold Avery, moved the family to Oxford in the early 1940s. Though not particularly interested in motorcycles, John’s dad owned a garage and motorcycles would come into the showroom.

When a quarter litre BSA arrived, almost brand-new but with a seized engine, it was passed over to John. Freeing up the motor, the little Beezer was pressed into service for John’s first event, a Reading Ace MCC club trial in 1945. He won.

“Scrambling was the thing which attracted me really,” he says, “but