1980 National League season

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1980 National League season
LeagueNational League
ChampionsRye House Rockets
No. of competitors20
Knockout CupBerwick Bandits
IndividualWayne Brown
PairsMiddlesbrough Tigers
FoursCrayford Kestrels
Highest averageDave Perks
Division/s above1980 British League

The 1980 National League was contested as the second division of Speedway in the United Kingdom.[1]

Summary[]

The league was increased from 19 teams to 20 from the previous season. Exeter Falcons dropped down from the British League to join the 19 incumbent sides.[2]

Rye House Rockets who had been pipped to the title in the previous season in the last meeting, won the title by just one point from Newcastle Diamonds to win their first National League title.[3][4] Rye House had managed to retain all of their top riders from the previous season and the solid performances of Bob Garrad, Karl Fiala, Kelvin Mullarkey and Kevin Smith for the second year running made up for the disappointment of 1979. Newcastle's second place finish was remarkable bearing in mind that they had lost the league's leading rider Tom Owen to Hull Vikings in the highest division.[5] Despite signing 1979 Riders' champion Ian Gledhill, the defending champions Mildenhall suffered after losing Melvyn Taylor and to other teams.[5]

Final table[]

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Rye House Rockets 38 31 0 7 62
2 Newcastle Diamonds 38 30 1 7 61
3 Middlesbrough Tigers 38 27 2 9 56
4 Berwick Bandits 38 24 1 13 49
5 Edinburgh Monarchs 38 23 2 13 48
6 Boston Barracudas 38 23 2 13 48
7 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 38 21 2 15 44
8 Peterborough Panthers 38 21 0 17 42
9 Crayford Kestrels 37 20 1 16 41
10 Ellesmere Port Gunners 38 20 1 17 41
11 Glasgow Tigers 38 19 2 17 40
12 Exeter Falcons 38 17 1 20 35
13 Scunthorpe Stags 38 15 1 22 31
14 Nottingham Outlaws 38 14 2 22 30
15 Oxford Cheetahs 38 14 1 23 29
16 Stoke Potters 38 14 0 24 28
17 Weymouth Wildcats 37 13 1 23 27
18 Canterbury Crusaders 38 10 4 24 24
19 Milton Keynes Knights 38 8 2 28 18
20 Workington Comets 38 2 0 36 4
  • Crayford v Weymouth fixture was never ridden.

Top Five Riders[]

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Dave Perks England Oxford Cheetahs 10.82
2 Paul Woods England Crayford Kestrels 10.53
3 Steve Wilcock England Middlesbrough Tigers 10.29
4 Mike Ferreira Zimbabwe Canterbury Crusaders 10.21
5 Steve Lawson England Glasgow Tigers 10.07

National League Knockout Cup[]

The 1980 National League Knockout Cup was the 13th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Berwick Bandits were the winners of the competition for the first time, having been runners-up three times in the previous four seasons.[6]

First Round[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
03/05 Berwick 52-26 Newcastle
28/04 Newcastle 41-37 Berwick
25/05 Mildenhall 45-33 Rye House
26/05 Rye House 44-34 Mildenhall
04/05 Boston 54-24 Stoke
05/05 Stoke 27-51 Boston

Second Round[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
07/06 Berwick 46-32 Ellesmere Port
13/06 Ellesmere Port 42-36 Berwick
23/05 Edinburgh 42-34 Glasgow
25/05 Glasgow 40-37 Edinburgh
01/06 Mildenhall 46-32 Nottingham
18/06 Nottingham 37-41 Mildenhall
07/06 Canterbury 44-33 Milton Keynes
10/06 Milton Keynes 40-38 Canterbury
19/06 Middlesbrough 51-27 Scunthorpe
29/06 Scunthorpe 37-40 Middlesbrough
05/06 Oxford 40-37 Weymouth
27/06 Weymouth 40-38 Oxford
08/06 Boston 59-19 Workington
11/07 Workington 26-52 Boston
13/06 Peterborough 42-25 Crayford
22/07 Crayford 41-37 Peterborough

Quarter Finals[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
20/07 Berwick 47-31 Edinburgh
18/07 Edinburgh 39-39 Berwick
23/07 Mildenhall 51-27 Canterbury
26/07 Canterbury 44-34 Mildenhall
24/07 Middlesbrough 45-33 Oxford
06/08 Oxford 32-46 Middlesbrough
31/08 Boston 50-27 Peterborough
12/09 Peterborough 39-39 Boston

Semi Finals[]

Date Team One Score Team Two
06/09 Berwick 52-26 Mildenhall
07/09 Mildenhall 41-37 Berwick
18/09 Middlesbrough 54-24 Boston
05/10 Boston 42-36 Middlesbrough

Final[]

First leg

Middlesbrough Tigers
Brian Havelock 10
Mike Spink 10
Steve Wilcock 9
Mark Courtney 6
Geoff Pusey 4
Martin Dixon 3
John Clegg 0		42 – 36Berwick Bandits
Mike Fullerton 11
Steve McDermott 9
Brett Saunders 6
Mike Caroline 5
Rob Grant 3
Nigel Close 2
Wayne Brown R/R
[7]
Cleveland Park Stadium

Second leg

Berwick Bandits
Steve McDermott 15
Mike Fullerton 9
Nigel Close 8
Rob Grant 8
Brett Saunders 3
Mike Caroline 0
Wayne Brown R/R		43 – 34Middlesbrough Tigers
Mark Courtney 11
Steve Wilcock 9
Geoff Pusey 6
Martin Dixon 6
Mike Spink 2
John Clegg 0
Alan Armstrong 0
[7]

Berwick were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 79–76.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  3. ^ Oakes, Peter (1981). Daily Mirror 1981 Speedway Yearbook, pages 101. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-10-23. Retrieved 2012-08-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ a b "Teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  6. ^ "1980 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  7. ^ a b "1980 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
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