Career
He held the British five-mile and 30-mile records. Cyril Cartwright was a miner in the Dukinfield area of England. He set a national record at 59m 18s.
The ship journey to New Zealand took five weeks.
Cartwright got in as many miles as he could before the ship left in January, including riding from Manchester to London and back over a weekend. He took 13 hours on the southbound journey, 11 hours going north.
He said:
Of his ride against Mockridge, he said:
By three-quarter distance, Mockridge was struggling so badly that he gave up when he was 50 yards behind. As well as the gold medal, Cartwright received a certificate for the fastest time ridden in New Zealand.
Cartwright remembered: "As we boarded his ship, the captain didn"t say "Congratulations, nice work." His words were: "I"ve locked those rollers of yours in the hold for the voyage home.
You were nothing but a nuisance on the way here but we don"t want to have to put up with it on the way back.". He had a poor season in 1951 and stopped racing after not being selected for the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952.
