British Film Institute

This very attractively shot Topical Budget item shows highlights of the first women's motorcycle event to be held at Brooklands, Surrey. The event's newsworthiness is spelled out when what appears to be a rival newsreel's camera briefly appears in shot. At the end, the race winner is presented with her trophy by Lord Curzon and racing legend Malcolm Campbell.

One of many during the 1920s that illustrate the increasing prevalence of women in what would once have been exclusively male sports, the item highlights the newsreel's ambivalence towards the new autonomy of women. Whether or not the description 'fast girls' would have had the racy overtones for most Topical Budget viewers that it would today, the title, with its jaunty exclamation mark and its decision to describe the competitors as 'girls' rather than 'women', manages to combine celebration with a hint of something more patronising.

Mark Duguid

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