Races in South Africa

Going through the David Hales collection at Brooklands, I came across this picture which might be of interest to South African members of this website.
It shows a collection of Maritzburg Motor Cycle Club trophies and turns out these were won during 1915 by the Morcom (brothers?) on A.B.C. motorcycles.



On February 2^nd 1915 the club organised three speed trials and H.B. Morcom won in Class II (motorcycles up to 500cc) at a speed of 57.6mph and in Class II (motorcycles up to 1000cc) at a speed of 60mph. That was the fastest time of the day, even faster than the Indian 7hp ridden by E.S. Perks which finished 1.5 seconds behind the A.B.C.. Newspapers reported that Morcom's A.B.C. was stripped for racing while all the others were in ordinary touring condition but also added "Of course they had the same option, but they apparently chose to run as stated".

Morcom won several more trophies on his A.B.C. during 1915 but at the end of June 1915 he had to face competition from A.R. Morcom (his brother?) also on an A.B.C. twin cylinder.
The inter-club hill climb that day was split between two events: one held on the Town Hill, Pietermaritzburg in the morning (3 miles) while the second on Belfort Hill in the afternoon (1 mile), the winner being the man who showed the best average on the two hills.
A.R. Morcom was first and H.B. Morcom second in the morning but H.B. Morcom won the overall event setting the fastest time ahead of some Rudge.

The picture must have been sent back to the A.B.C. works in Hersham to remark the achievement and was kept at the factory offices until these closed in 1971 and passed it on to David.