Skid-o
Skid-o motorcycle card game by Pepys, 1951.

Skid-o motorcycle card game by Pepys, published in 1951. This was a “Double Feature” game based on speedway with track and riders included. Players compete to finish the course or to obstruct their opponents.


Above: Skid-o motorcycle card game by Pepys, 1951. The set consists of the Speedway, 6 Motor Bikes with coloured wooden stands, and a pack of 50 cards divided into Speed cards and Control cards.
Speedway was very popular around this time. The stars were household names maybe because the sport was regularly on TV. The 1954 5th edition of Speed had Speedway riders on the Double number cards which were all well known riders.

Above: Speedway riders on the double number cards from the 5th edition of Speed, 1954.

By Rex Pitts (1940-2021)
Member since January 30, 2009
View ArticlesRex's main interest was in card games, because, he said, they were cheap and easy to get hold of in his early days of collecting. He is well known for his extensive knowledge of Pepys games and his book is on the bookshelves of many.
His other interest was non-standard playing cards. He also had collections of sheet music, music CDs, models of London buses, London Transport timetables and maps and other objects that intrigued him.
Rex had a chequered career at school. He was expelled twice, on one occasion for smoking! Despite this he trained as a radio engineer and worked for the BBC in the World Service.
Later he moved into sales and worked for a firm that made all kinds of packaging, a job he enjoyed until his retirement. He became an expert on boxes and would always investigate those that held his cards. He could always recognize a box made for Pepys, which were the same as those of Alf Cooke’s Universal Playing Card Company, who printed the card games. This interest changed into an ability to make and mend boxes, which he did with great dexterity. He loved this kind of handicraft work.
His dexterity of hand and eye soon led to his making card games of his own design. He spent hours and hours carefully cutting them out and colouring them by hand.