1980 British League season

1980 British League season
League	British League
Champions	Reading Racers
No. of competitors	17
Knockout Cup	Cradley Heath Heathens
Individual	Les Collins
Highest average	Peter Collins
Division/s below	1980 National League
	← 1979; 1981 →;

The 1980 British League season was the 46th season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the 16th season known as the British League.^[1]^[2]

Summary[]

The league comprised 17 teams - one fewer than the previous season. Exeter Falcons had dropped down to the National League. Hackney Hawks underwent a dramatic transformation from being the bottom side in 1979 to title contenders in 1980, but their challenge faded in the last few weeks and Reading Racers were crowned champions for the second time.^[3]^[4]

Reading's success came down to three strong heat leaders, Swedish champion Jan Andersson, their new American signing Bobby Schwartz and England international John Davis. All three produced season averages around the 10 mark, which enabled the team to constantly pick up victories.^[5] Cradley Heathens successfully retained their Knockout Cup crown overcoming a huge first leg deficit in the final.

Final table[]

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Reading Racers	32	24	1	7	49
2	Hackney Hawks	32	23	0	9	46
3	Belle Vue Aces	32	21	1	10	43
4	Coventry Bees	32	20	2	10	42
5	Cradley Heath Heathens	32	20	0	12	40
6	Ipswich Witches	32	16	2	14	34
7	King's Lynn Stars	32	17	0	15	34
8	Swindon Robins	32	16	2	14	34
9	Poole Pirates	32	15	2	15	32
10	Halifax Dukes	32	15	1	16	31
11	Leicester Lions	32	14	0	18	28
12	Hull Vikings	32	11	5	16	27
13	Wimbledon Dons	32	12	2	18	26
14	Birmingham Brummies	32	11	1	20	23
15	Wolverhampton Wolves	32	9	2	21	20
16	Eastbourne Eagles	32	9	1	22	19
17	Sheffield Tigers	32	8	0	24	16

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

Top Ten Riders[]

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Peter Collins		Belle Vue Aces	10.70
2	Hans Nielsen		Wolverhampton Wolves	10.70
3	Dave Jessup		King's Lynn Stars	10.52
4	Bo Petersen		Hackney Hawks	10.46
5	Bruce Penhall		Cradley Heathens	10.46
6	Michael Lee		King's Lynn Stars	10.17
7	Chris Morton		Belle Vue Aces	10.11
8	Jan Andersson		Reading Racers	10.08
9	Scott Autrey		Swindon Robins	9.97
10	Bobby Schwartz		Reading Racers	9.95

British League Knockout Cup[]

The 1980 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 42nd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath were the winners.^[6]

First Round[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
06/05	Leicester	59-49	Poole
05/05	Poole	53-55	Leicester

Second Round[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
17/07	Coventry	54-54	Birmingham
09/07	Cradley Heath	60-48	Kings Lynn
04/07	Wolverhampton	53-55	Sheffield
09/06	Birmingham	56-51	Coventry
06/06	Eastbourne	52.5-55.5	Swindon
05/06	Sheffield	56-52	Wolverhampton
03/06	Hull	67-41	Hackney
31/05	Belle Vue	60-48	Wimbledon
31/05	Halifax	57-50	Reading
31/05	Swindon	62-46	Eastbourne
30/05	Hackney	45-63	Hull
29/05	Wimbledon	57-51	Belle Vue
29/05	Ipswich	66-42	Leicester
27/05	Leicester	54-54	Ipswich
25/05	Kings Lynn	58-50	Cradley Heath
21/04	Reading	62-46	Halifax

Quarter Finals[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
03/09	Birmingham	76-30	Sheffield
23/08	Belle Vue	68-40	Hull
21/08	Cradley Heath	54-54	Reading
21/08	Sheffield	49-58	Birmingham
04/08	Reading	53-55	Cradley Heath
19/07	Swindon	63-45	Ipswich
17/07	Ipswich	55-53	Swindon
09/07	Hull	66-42	Belle Vue

Semi Finals[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
01/10	Cradley Heath	67-41	Birmingham
24/09	Belle Vue	59-49	Swindon
15/09	Birmingham	56-52	Cradley Heath
30/08	Swindon	56-52	Belle Vue

Final[]

First leg[]

11 October 1980

Belle Vue Aces Chris Morton 14 14 Peter Collins 13 10 Louis Carr 5 Steve Wilcock 5 4 2	67 - 41	Cradley Heath Phil Collins 13 Alan Grahame 13 Erik Gundersen 7 Ila Teromaa 6 1 Steve Lawson 1 0 Bruce Penhall R/R

Hyde Road Stadium

Second leg[]

29 October 1980

Cradley Heath Bruce Penhall 15 Erik Gundersen 13 Phil Collins 12 Alan Grahame 11 9 Ila Teromaa 8 Steve Lawson 5 5	75 - 33	Belle Vue Aces 10 Louis Carr 10 6 4 Chris Morton 2 (inj) Peter Collins 1 (inj) 0 R/R

Dudley Wood Stadium

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 116-100.

Teams[]

Belle Vue Aces[]

Louis Carr
Peter Carr
Peter Collins
Mike Lohmann
Chris Morton
Steve Wilcock

Birmingham Brummies[]

Steve Bastable
Wayne Brown
Peter Carr
Alan Emerson
Neil Evitts
Andy Grahame
Phil Herne
Finn Jensen
Zdeněk Kudrna
Kelly Moran
Audun Ove Olsen
Paul Thorp
Brian Woodward

Coventry Bees[]

Alf Busk
Laurie Etheridge
David Gagen
Gary Guglielmi
Rod Hunter
Tommy Knudsen
Steve McDermott
Alan Molyneux
Ole Olsen
Mitch Shirra

Cradley Heath[]

Phil Collins
Alan Grahame
Erik Gundersen
Derek Harrison
Robert Henry
Steve Lawson
Bruce Penhall
Dave Perks
Mike Sampson
Ila Teromaa

Eastbourne Eagles[]

Reidar Eide
Trevor Geer
Richard Greer
Barney Kennett
Gordon Kennett
Niklas Klingberg
Kelvin Mullarkey
Kai Niemi
Les Rumsey
Paul Woods

Hackney Hawks[]

Karl Fiala
Bob Garrad
Andrzej Huszcza
Roman Jankowski
Kelvin Mullarkey
Bo Petersen
Zenon Plech
Kevin Smith
Barry Thomas
Finn Thomsen
Keith White
Sean Willmott

Halifax Dukes[]

Kenny Carter
Ian Cartwright

Hull Vikings[]

Frank Auffret
David Bargh
Bobby Beaton
Peter Carr
John Cook
Nigel Crabtree
Ian Gledhill
Robert Henry
Rod Hunter
Ivan Mauger
Shawn Moran
Joe Owen
Tom Owen
Dennis Sigalos

Ipswich Witches[]

Tony Davey
Preben Eriksen
Tim Hunt
Kevin Jolly
Mike Lanham
John Louis
Billy Sanders

Leicester Lions[]

Ian Clark
Les Collins
Colin Cook
Mark Courtney
Bob Garrad
Rolf Gramstad
Andrzej Huszcza
Steve Regeling
John Titman
Phil Vance

Poole Pirates[]

Neil Middleditch
Ron Preston
Malcolm Simmons
Václav Verner
Martin Yeates

Reading Racers[]

Jan Andersson
Martin Ashby
Andy Campbell
John Davis
Reidar Eide
Ashley Pullen
Bobby Schwartz
Jiří Štancl

Sheffield Tigers[]

Eric Broadbelt
Neil Collins
Aleš Dryml Sr.
Carl Glover
Arnold Haley
Henny Kroeze
Shawn Moran
Reg Wilson
Doug Wyer

Swindon Robins[]

Scott Autrey
Nigel Boocock
Louis Carr
Phil Crump
Reidar Eide
Mike Ferreira
Malcolm Holloway
Bob Kilby
Steve Koppe
Steen Mastrup
Milan Špinka
Jan Verner
Martin Yeates

Wimbledon Dons[]

Edward Jancarz
Roger Johns
Colin Richardson
Larry Ross
Simon Wigg

Wolverhampton Wolves[]

Wayne Brown
Arthur Browning
Billy Burton
Hans Christensen
Bruce Cribb
Reidar Eide
Richard Greer
George Hunter
Jimmy McMillan
Dave Morton
Hans Nielsen
Petr Ondrašík

References[]

^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 80. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
^ "1979 league tables". Speedway GB.
^ "1980 league tables". Speedway GB.
^ "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
^ "1980 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.

[1] "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.

[2] Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 80. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.

[3] "1979 league tables". Speedway GB.

[4] "1980 league tables". Speedway GB.

[5] "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 3 July 2021.

[6] "1980 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.

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v t Speedway in the United Kingdom
Current leagues	SGB Premiership SGB Championship National League List of United Kingdom speedway league champions
Former leagues	Elite League Premier League National League (1932–1964) Provincial League British League British League Division Two/National League Conference League National League Division Two National League Division Three English Dirt Track League/Northern League Southern League (1929–1931) Southern League (1952–1953) Provincial League (1936–1937) Southern Area League
See also	Knockout Cups League Riders' champions League Pairs champions League Fours champions British Speedway Championship British U-21 British U-19 Craven and Young Shields Elite Shield
See also	Speedway British Speedway Promoters' Association Speedway Control Bureau

v t United Kingdom Speedway Seasons
Tier One League Top division	1929 1929 1930 1930 1931 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Tier Two League Second division	1934 1936 1937 1938 1939 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Tier Three League Third division	1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1994 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Champions	League champions Cup winners