NEW ADDICTION
Dibben joined the Alton and District Motorcycle Club, taking part in trials competitions, longdistance runs and map-reading events. But perhaps the most defining of Dibben’s club outings was a run to the Isle of Man TT Races in 1949. “I had listened to Graham Walker giving voice commentary on the Isle of Man TT Races and it was magic to my ears. I went again in 1950 and did a few ‘Mad Sunday’ laps of the course when the roads were open. I was hooked.” Bemused with the utility board, Dibben wrote to BSA asking for a job. BSA promptly replied and offered him work on the production line handbuilding Gold Stars along with just seven other men. The new job also prompted a move to new ‘digs’: “I moved into 202 Charles Road, just round the corner from the factory and that was the place to stay for people in motorsport. Geoff Duke used to stay there and Billy Nicholson stayed there too.” Charles Road – Dibben’s home for 10 years – brought about its own entertainment. “We were always messing about and playing practical jokes on each other. Again, it’s stories within stories but I remember saying to my fellow lodger, Bill: ‘I’ll fill the bath for you’ and I filled it with cold water, knowing that Bill would jump in straightaway.” His landlady, simply known as ‘Mrs P’, was a fearsome woman. “Mrs P’s bra extended the full length of her kitchen table and she threatened to wrap it around my neck when I passed a cheeky comment about it.” It was while at BSA that Dibben started racing. “I had a word with Sammy Jones, my Gold Star boss and arranged a hire-purchase of a 350cc racer.” Dibben and his colleague, Stuart Mcleod built the machine themselves and made a racing debut at Chelmsford. He crashed during the race but this wasn’t the end of his racing career. It was the early 1950s, around which time Dibben and Stuart started frequenting the Cherry Orchard Cafe in the middle of Birmingham. The cafe was also a favourite haunt of Norton’s ‘featherbed’ creator Rex Mccandless. Random chance had, once again, intervened in Dibben’s life. “He asked me if I would test and report on the new proposed models in Norton’s experimental department,” said Stan. “I thought ‘yes please’.” But it wasn’t an easy job. “I was met with a host of objections and negative comments about the bike so, in a visit to the drawing office, I said: “I understand my job is to test and report my findings, not ride and confirm objections.” Once again, the plain-speaking Dibben had set out his stall. This was 1952. It proved to be an eventful year. Dibben entered the Manx GP on his Gold Star but managed to persuade Norton’s Joe Craig – his immediate boss at the time – to build and race his own 350cc Norton Manx. But this was on condition that he built it in his own time. “This was just days before the events started,” said Dibben. “So, we smuggled Stuart Mccleod – who was still working at BSA – into the holy of holies of the Norton factory. We worked through the night.” The work paid off: Dibben completed a lap of the Mountain course in just 28 minutes. Within two years he was competing in the Senior race at the TT. “I was on a 500cc Manx and it was exciting but challenging too. I was number 68, so had a long wait after the front starters.” It was 1953 when the seeds of Dibben’s racing career were truly sown. That year, while still working at Norton, Dibben was asked to report to the Motor Industries Research Association (MIRA) on the suspension of racer Eric Oliver’s Norton by lying in the sidecar. Dibben completed the assignment and thought nothing more of it, until he arrived at the Motor and Motorcycle Club in Birmingham that year. “I arrived and suddenly people were saying to me ‘are you mad?’ I asked what on earth this was about and it turned out that word had got around that I was passengering for Eric Oliver in the World Championship series in the next year. That was the first I’d heard of it.”
“MRS P’S BRA EXTENDED THE FULL LENGTH OF HER KITCHEN TABLE AND SHE THREATENED TO WRAP IT AROUND MY NECK WHEN I PASSED A CHEEKY COMMENT ABOUT IT.”