1985 British League season

1985 British League season
League	British League
Champions	Oxford Cheetahs
No. of competitors	11
Knockout Cup	Oxford Cheetahs
League Cup	Coventry Bees
Individual	Erik Gundersen
Pairs	Oxford Cheetahs
Highest average	Hans Nielsen
Division/s below	1985 National League
	← 1984; 1986 →;

The 1985 British League season was the 51st season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the 21st known as the British League.^[1]^[2]

Team changes[]

Wimbledon Dons dropped to the National league, this was the first time that Wimbledon would not compete in the top tier of speedway.

Summary[]

Oxford Cheetahs won the league and cup double.^[3] The Oxford team, financed by the Oxford Stadium owners Northern Sports and headed by David Hawkins was the most expensive team assembled in the history of the league. The team included Danish international Hans Nielsen (signed for a record £30,000) in 1984. Nielsen had topped the previous season's averages on Oxford's return to the league and was imperious during 1985, finishing with an exceptional average, way ahead of any other rider. The team eased to the league title by a clear ten points, with Simon Wigg, Andy Grahame, Marvyn Cox, Jens Rasmussen and Melvyn Taylor all riding over 50 matches each during the season.^[4]^[5]

Defending champions Ipswich Witches finished mid-table which was not surprising taking into account that just three matches into the season their leading rider Billy Sanders committed suicide on 23 April. The news shocked the club and the wider speedway world at the time.^[6]

Final table[]

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	Pts
1	Oxford Cheetahs	20	16	1	3	10	43
2	Sheffield Tigers	20	13	1	6	6	33
3	Coventry Bees	20	11	2	7	7	31
4	Halifax Dukes	20	9	1	10	5	24
5	Ipswich Witches	20	9	2	9	4	24
6	Belle Vue Aces	20	10	0	10	4	24
7	Cradley Heath Heathens	19	10	0	9	4	24
8	Swindon Robins	20	8	1	11	6	23
9	Reading Racers	19	6	4	9	6	22
10	Wolverhampton Wolves	20	5	2	13	2	14
11	King's Lynn Stars	20	5	0	15	0	10

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

Leading averages[]

Rider	Team	Average
Hans Nielsen	Oxford	11.35
Shawn Moran	Sheffield	10.39
Erik Gundersen	Cradley Heath	10.38
Kenny Carter	Halifax	10.13
Tommy Knudsen	Coventry	10.13
Bobby Schwartz	Wolverhampton	9.80
Chris Morton	Belle Vue	9.77
Jan Andersson	Reading	9.43
Bo Petersen	Swindon	9.35
John Cook	Ipswich	9.33

British League Knockout Cup[]

The 1985 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 47th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Oxford Cheetahs were the winners.^[7]

First Round[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
19/07	Oxford	43-35	Coventry
29/06	Swindon	36-42	Ipswich
24/06	Wolverhampton	49-29	Halifax
15/06	Coventry	35-43	Oxford
30/05	Ipswich	45-33	Swindon
25/05	Halifax	48-30	Wolverhampton

Quarter Finals[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
23/09	Reading	43-34	Sheffield
22/08	Sheffield	39-39	Reading
29/08	Ipswich	43-34	Wolverhampton
19/08	Wolverhampton	39-39	Ipswich
31/07	Oxford	47-31	Belle Vue
20/07	Belle Vue	40-38	Oxford
11/07	Sheffield	46-32	Reading
08/07	Reading	46-32	Sheffield
07/07	Cradley Heath	53-25	Kings Lynn
06/07	Kings Lynn	39-39	Cradley Heath

Semi Finals[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
22/10	Reading	38-40	Oxford
16/10	Oxford	41-36	Reading
11/09	Cradley Heath	36-42	Ipswich
19/09	Ipswich	43-35	Cradley Heath

Final[]

First leg[]

27 October 1985

Ipswich Witches	41 - 37	Oxford Cheetahs Hans Nielsen 14

Foxhall Stadium

Second leg[]

30 October 1985

Oxford Cheetahs Hans Nielsen 15 Simon Wigg Troy Butler Jens Rasmussen	42 - 35	Ipswich Witches John Cook Jeremy Doncaster Dennis Sigalos

Oxford Stadium

Oxford Cheetahs were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 79-76.

League Cup[]

The League Cup was contested as a league format. Coventry Bees won the final over two legs defeating Oxford Cheetahs 86-70 on aggregrate.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Qualifying table[]

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Cradley Heathens	20	13	1	6	34
2	Oxford Cheetahs	20	11	2	7	32
3	Ipswich Witches	20	12	1	7	32
4	Coventry Bees	20	10	1	7	30
5	Wolverhampton Wolves	20	10	1	9	27
6	Swindon Robins	20	11	0	9	26
7	Belle Vue Aces	20	9	2	9	24
8	Reading Racers	20	8	2	10	21
9	Halifax Dukes	20	8	0	12	20
10	Sheffield Tigers	20	4	1	15	19
11	King's Lynn Stars	20	4	1	15	10

Semi finals[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
15/08	Ipswich	37–41	Oxford
25/09	Cradley Heath	40–38	Coventry
27/09	Oxford	39–39	Ipswich
02/10	Coventry	46–32	Cradley Heath

Final[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
25/10	Oxford	42–36	Coventry
26/10	Coventry	50–28	Oxford

Teams[]

Belle Vue Aces[]

Carl Blackbird
Andy Campbell
Peter Collins
Kenny McKinna
Chris Morton
Andy Smith

Coventry Bees[]

David Bargh
Steve Bastable
John Jørgensen
Tommy Knudsen
Rick Miller
Kelvin Tatum

Cradley Heath[]

Phil Collins
Stephen Collins
Simon Cross
Alan Grahame
Erik Gundersen
Finn Jensen
Jan O. Pedersen
Andrew Silver
Kevin Smith

Halifax Dukes[]

Kenny Carter
Neil Evitts
Kurt Hansen
Rod Hunter
Larry Ross
Sean Willmott
Doug Wyer

Ipswich Witches[]

Louis Carr
John Cook
Jeremy Doncaster
Richard Knight
Kai Niemi
Dennis Sigalos
Billy Sanders

Oxford Cheetahs[]

Troy Butler
Marvyn Cox
Nigel De'ath
Andy Grahame
Klaus Lausch
Hans Nielsen
Jens Rasmussen
Melvyn Taylor
Simon Wigg

Reading Racers[]

Jan Andersson
David Blackburn
John Davis
Mark Fiora
Martin Goodwin
Malcolm Holloway
Tim Hunt
Per Jonsson
Einar Kyllingstad
Neil Middleditch
Dave Mullett
Mitch Shirra

Sheffield Tigers[]

Steve Baker
Alf Busk
Peter Carr
Les Collins
Neil Collins
Martin Hagon
Shawn Moran
Dave Morton
David Walsh
Reg Wilson

Swindon Robins[]

Alf Busk
Colin Cook
Phil Crump
Gordon Kennett
Jimmy Nilsen
Bo Petersen
Alun Rossiter
Malcolm Simmons
Per Sorensen
Martin Yeates

Wolverhampton Wolves[]

Preben Eriksen
Martin Goodwin
Gary Havelock
Roger Johns
Peter Ravn
Gerd Riss
Steve Schofield
Bobby Schwartz
Jan Stæchmann
Paul Thorp

References[]

^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
^ "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
^ "1985 league tables". Speedway GB.
^ "SPEEDWAY: Nielsen regret at Oxford". Oxford Mail.
^ Bamford/Shailes, Robert/Glynn (2007). The Story of Oxford Speedway. Tempus Publishing Ltd. pp. 128–135. ISBN 978-0-7524-4161-0.
^ "NOT FORGOTTEN – BILLY SANDERS". AMCN. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
^ "1985 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
^ Bamford/Shailes, Robert/Glynn (2007). The Story of Oxford Speedway. Tempus Publishing Ltd. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-7524-4161-0.
^ "Coventry Bees results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
^ "League Cup table". Cradley Speedway. Retrieved 14 August 2021.

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

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

[3] "1985 league tables". Speedway GB.

[4] "SPEEDWAY: Nielsen regret at Oxford". Oxford Mail.

[5] Bamford/Shailes, Robert/Glynn (2007). The Story of Oxford Speedway. Tempus Publishing Ltd. pp. 128–135. ISBN 978-0-7524-4161-0.

[6] "NOT FORGOTTEN – BILLY SANDERS". AMCN. Retrieved 30 July 2021.

[7] "1985 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.

[8] Bamford/Shailes, Robert/Glynn (2007). The Story of Oxford Speedway. Tempus Publishing Ltd. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-7524-4161-0.

[9] "Coventry Bees results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 3 July 2021.

[10] "League Cup table". Cradley Speedway. Retrieved 14 August 2021.

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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

1985 British League season

Contents

Team changes[]

Summary[]

Final table[]

Leading averages[]

British League Knockout Cup[]

First Round[]

Quarter Finals[]

Semi Finals[]

Final[]

First leg[]

Second leg[]

League Cup[]

Qualifying table[]

Semi finals[]

Final[]

Teams[]

Belle Vue Aces[]

Coventry Bees[]

Cradley Heath[]

Halifax Dukes[]

Ipswich Witches[]

King's Lynn Stars[]

Oxford Cheetahs[]

Reading Racers[]

Sheffield Tigers[]

Swindon Robins[]

Wolverhampton Wolves[]

See also[]

References[]

v t British League seasons
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
Domestic cups: British League Knockout Cup