1972 British League season

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1972 British League season
LeagueBritish League
ChampionsBelle Vue Aces
No. of competitors18
Knockout CupBelle Vue Aces
IndividualOle Olsen
Highest averageOle Olsen
Division/s belowBritish League (Div 2)

The 1972 British League season was the 38th season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the eighth season known as the British League.[1]

Summary[]

Ipswich Witches moved up from Division Two but London lost two clubs, when the Wembley Lions and West Ham Hammers closed, reducing the league to eighteen teams.[2]

Belle Vue Aces won their third consecutive title. Their team was littered with great riders including Ivan Mauger, Sören Sjösten and the young Peter Collins; they were backed up by the consistency of Chris Pusey, Eric Broadbelt, Alan Wilkinson and Ken Eyre, which led to a comfortable title win by a clear 12 points.[3][4]

Oxford Cheetahs had a bizarre season when they were rebranded as Oxford Rebels following a takeover by a new consortium, which included former riders Bob Dugard and Danny Dunton, Dave Lanning and the famous musician Acker Bilk. The team under performed badly finishing 17th from 18 teams despite the new image. To make matters worse they signed a new Norwegian rider , who was quickly transferred to Glasgow following poor results. He died riding for Glasgow towards the end of the season (on 29 September) at Hampden Park. Kasa clipped Martin Ashby's bike in a race and hit the wooden fence receiving fatal injuries.[5][6]

Final table[]

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Belle Vue Aces 34 31 1 2 63
2 Reading Racers 34 25 1 8 51
3 King's Lynn Stars 34 24 3 7 51
4 Sheffield Tigers 34 23 3 8 49
5 Leicester Lions 34 17 5 12 39
6 Ipswich Witches 34 17 1 16 35
7 Poole Pirates 34 15 2 17 32
8 Hackney Hawks 34 16 0 18 32
9 Wolverhampton Wolves 34 16 0 18 30
10 Coventry Bees 34 14 2 18 28
11 Exeter Falcons 34 13 2 19 28
12 Halifax Dukes 34 13 2 19 28
13 Wimbledon Dons 34 14 0 20 26
14 Glasgow Tigers 34 12 2 20 25
15 Swindon Robins 34 12 1 21 25
16 Cradley Heath Heathens 34 11 3 20 25
17 Oxford Rebels 34 10 0 24 20
18 Newport Wasps 34 9 0 25 18

M = Matches; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = Total Points

Leading riders[]

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Ole Olsen Denmark Wolverhampton Wolves 11.39
2 Ivan Mauger New Zealand Belle Vue Aces 11.36
3 Terry Betts England King's Lynn Stars 10.51
4 Anders Michanek Sweden Reading Racers 10.51
5 Barry Briggs New Zealand Swindon Robins 10.38
6 Eric Boocock England Halifax Dukes 10.36
7 Ronnie Moore New Zealand Wimbledon Dons 10.34
8 Bernt Persson Sweden Cradley Heathens 10.27
9 Ray Wilson England Leicester Lions 10.14
10 Martin Ashby England Swindon Robins 10.08
11 Bob Kilby England Exeter Falcons 9.89
12 John Boulger Australia Leicester Lions 9.46
13 John Louis England Ipswich Witches 9.39
14 Bengt Jansson Sweden Hackney Hawks 9.38
15 Garry Middleton Australia Oxford Rebels 9.24
16 Nigel Boocock England Coventry Bees 9.23
17 Howard Cole (a.k.a Kid Brodie) England Leicester Lions 8.94
18 Sören Sjösten Sweden Belle Vue Aces 8.92
19 Christer Löfqvist Sweden Poole Pirates 8.90
20 Jim McMillan Scotland Glasgow Tigers 8.86

British League Knockout Cup[]

The 1972 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 34th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Belle Vue were the winners.[7]

First Round[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
09/05 Ipswich 46-32 Sheffield
08/05 Exeter 48-30 Swindon
06/05 Halifax 42-36 Leicester

Second Round[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
03/07 Exeter 50-28 Wimbledon
26/06 Hackney 52-26 Cradley Heath
21/06 Poole 52-26 Halifax
16/06 Newport 42-36 Coventry
16/06 Wolverhampton 38-40 Reading
15/06 Oxford 35-42 Kings Lynn
10/06 Cradley Heath 39-39 Hackney
03/06 Belle Vue 41-37 Glasgow

Quarter Finals[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
31/08 Ipswich 38-40 Reading
05/08 Belle Vue 58-20 Newport
05/08 Kings Lynn 56-22 Exeter
04/08 Hackney 45-33 Poole

Semi Finals[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
27/09 Kings Lynn 38-40 Belle Vue
22/09 Hackney 40-38 Reading

Final[]

First leg[]

Hackney Hawks
Bengt Jansson 12
Barry Thomas 9
7
6
4
Laurie Etheridge 2
Hugh Saunders 0		40 - 37Belle Vue Aces
Alan Wilkinson 11
Ivan Mauger 10
Peter Collins 6
Sören Sjösten 6
Chris Pusey 3
Eric Broadbelt 1
Ken Eyre 0
[8]
Hackney Wick Stadium

Second leg[]

Belle Vue Aces
Sören Sjösten 10
Chris Pusey 9
Ivan Mauger 8
Ken Eyre 7
Peter Collins 5
Alan Wilkinson 4
Eric Broadbelt 2		45 - 33Hackney Hawks
Bengt Jansson 12
10
Barry Thomas 6
3
Hugh Saunders 2
0
Laurie Etheridge 0
[8]
Hyde Road Stadium

Belle Vue Aces were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 82-73.

Teams[]

Belle Vue Aces[]

Coventry Bees[]

Cradley Heath[]

Exeter Falcons[]

  • Australia
  • England
  • New Zealand Bruce Cribb
  • England John Davis
  • England
  • Norway Kjell Gimre
  • England
  • England Kevin Holden
  • England
  • England Chris Julian
  • England Bob Kilby
  • Australia
  • Australia
  • England Mike Sampson
  • Sweden Christer Sjösten
  • England
  • Norway Edgar Stangeland
  • England

Glasgow Tigers[]

Hackney Hawks[]

Halifax Dukes[]

Ipswich Witches[]

King's Lynn Stars[]

Leicester Lions[]

  • England Geoff Ambrose
  • England Geoff Bouchard
  • Australia John Boulger
  • England Malcolm Brown
  • England Alan Cowland
  • England Brian Foote
  • England Bruce Forrester
  • England Dave Jessup
  • England Malcolm Shakespeare
  • England Norman Storer
  • England Ray Wilson

Newport Wasps[]

Oxford Rebels[]

  • England Malcolm Ballard
  • Scotland
  • Norway
  • England John Davis
  • England Paul Gachet
  • England Colin Gooddy
  • England
  • Wales
  • England Roger Johns
  • Norway
  • England Gordon Kennett
  • England George Major
  • Scotland Ken McKinlay
  • England
  • Australia Garry Middleton
  • Wales Taffy Owen
  • Denmark
  • Australia Lou Sansom
  • England
  • England
  • New Zealand Rick Timmo
  • England

Poole Pirates[]

Reading Racers[]

Sheffield Tigers[]

  • Norway Reidar Eide
  • England Arnold Haley
  • Scotland Bert Harkins
  • England
  • England
  • England
  • England
  • Australia
  • Australia Bob Valentine
  • England Reg Wilson
  • England Doug Wyer

Swindon Robins[]

  • England David Ashby
  • England Martin Ashby
  • England James Bond
  • New Zealand Barry Briggs
  • England Mike Broadbank
  • Australia Garry Flood
  • England
  • England Norman Hunter
  • England
  • England Brian Leonard
  • New Zealand
  • England

Wimbledon Dons[]

  • Australia
  • England John Dews
  • England Trevor Hedge
  • New Zealand Ronnie Moore
  • Sweden Tommy Jansson
  • England
  • England
  • England
  • England
  • New Zealand Graeme Stapleton
  • England
  • England
  • England

Wolverhampton Wolves[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 129–133. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  3. ^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 100. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  4. ^ "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  5. ^ "Svein Kasa". Speedway Plus. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  6. ^ Bamford,R & Shailes,G (2007). “The Story of Oxford Speedway”. ISBN 978-0-7524-4161-0
  7. ^ "1972 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. ^ a b "Season 1972" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
Retrieved from ""