1995 Premier League speedway season

1995 Premier League speedway season

League	Premier League
Champions	Eastbourne Eagles
Knockout Cup	Bradford Dukes
Individual	Gary Havelock
Fours	Cradley Heathens
Highest average	Billy Hamill
Division/s below	1995 Academy League
← 1994 1996 →

The 1995 Premier League season was the 61st season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom. It was also the first for the new league, and the first of two seasons in which British speedway was competed as a single division.^[1]

Summary[]

The gulf in quality of teams was highlighted because of the merging of the two leagues, with Eastbourne Eagles winning the title 56 points clear of bottom club Exeter Falcons.^[2] Eastbourne had been an easy runner-up the previous year to runaway winners Poole Pirates and retained four of their riders Martin Dugard, Dean Barker, Stefan Dannö and Stefan Andersson, which provided enough firepower to seal the Championship. Poole finished mid-table but were missing Craig Boyce who had switched to Swindon Robins.^[3]

Bradford Dukes won their fourth Knockout Cup in the last five years. Former World Champion Gary Havelock guided Bradford to the Cup success and also picked up the Premier League Riders Championship.^[4]

Final table[]

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	Pts
1	Eastbourne Eagles	40	28	3	9	18	77
2	Bradford Dukes	40	25	2	13	17	69
3	Cradley Heath Heathens	40	25	1	14	17	68
4	Peterborough Panthers	40	25	0	15	12	62
5	Wolverhampton Wolves	40	23	0	17	14	60
6	Ipswich Witches	40	23	0	17	13	59
7	Glasgow Tigers	40	21	1	18	14	57
8	Belle Vue Aces	40	20	1	19	14	55
9	Edinburgh Monarchs	40	20	4	16	10	54
10	Arena Essex Hammers	40	21	0	19	10	52
11	Swindon Robins	40	20	3	17	9	52
12	Poole Pirates	40	18	2	20	9	47
13	Reading Racers	40	17	4	19	9	47
14	Sheffield Tigers	40	19	0	21	9	47
15	Coventry Bees	40	17	1	22	8	43
16	Hull Vikings	40	17	2	21	4	40
17	Oxford Cheetahs	40	16	1	23	6	39
18	Long Eaton Invaders	40	14	4	22	7	39
19	King's Lynn Stars	40	14	4	22	6	38
20	Middlesbrough Bears	40	10	2	28	2	24
21	Exeter Falcons	40	8	3	29	2	21

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

Leading averages[]

Rider	Team	Average
Billy Hamill	Cradley Heath	10.91
Joe Screen	Bradford	10.82
Chris Louis	Ipswich	10.52
Peter Karlsson	Wolverhampton	10.50
Jason Crump	Poole	10.44
Greg Hancock	Cradley Heath	10.42
Sam Ermolenko	Wolverhampton	10.37
Gary Havelock	Bradford	10.25
Martin Dugard	Eastbourne	10.22
Craig Boyce	Swindon	9.99
Leigh Adams	Arena Essex	9.96
Lars Gunnestad	Poole	9.94
Mark Loram	Exeter	9.78
Brian Andersen	Coventry	9.53
Dean Barker	Eastbourne	9.35
Jason Lyons	Belle Vue	9.06
Bobby Ott	Kings Lynn	8.98
Paul Thorp	Hull	8.97
David Norris	Reading	8.90
Ryan Sullivan	Peterborough	8.85

Premier League Knockout Cup[]

The 1995 Speedway Star Knockout Cup was the 57th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams but the first to be known as the Premier League Knockout Cup. Bradford Dukes were the winners of the competition.^[5]

First Round[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
21/04	Peterborough	64-42	Ipswich
20/04	Ipswich	65-44	Peterborough
22/04	Eastbourne	52-54	Arena Essex
21/04	Arena Essex	56-53	Eastbourne
23/04	Glasgow	63-43	Middlesbrough
27/04	Middlesbrough	43-64	Glasgow
18/05	Sheffield	63-43	Long Eaton
19/04	Long Eaton	54-52	Sheffield
21/04	Oxford	72-36	Poole
19/04	Poole	54-51	Oxford

Second Round[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
20/07	Ipswich	52-56	Reading
17/07	Reading	46-59	Ipswich
15/07	Bradford	70-38	Wolverhampton
05/07	Kings Lynn	55-53	Coventry
17/06	Coventry	65-43	Kings Lynn
14/06	Cradley Heath	59-53	Glasgow
09/06	Edinburgh	46-61	Hull
05/06	Exeter	47-57	Swindon
05/06	Wolverhampton	58-46	Bradford
04/06	Glasgow	54-53	Cradley Heath
03/06	Swindon	55-50	Exeter
31/05	Hull	59-49	Edinburgh
02/06	Belle Vue	68-36	Sheffield
01/06	Sheffield	61-46	Belle Vue
02/06	Arena Essex	58-48	Oxford
29/05	Oxford	58.5-47.5	Arena Essex

Quarter Finals[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
10/08	Ipswich	57-50	Coventry
05/08	Bradford	72-35	Hull
26/07	Coventry	58-49	Ipswich
26/07	Hull	54-41	Bradford
22/07	Cradley Heath	61-47	Oxford
22/07	Swindon	57-50	Belle Vue
21/07	Belle Vue	68-38	Swindon
21/07	Oxford	54-52	Cradley Heath

Semi Finals[]

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
13/09	Coventry	52-55	Bradford
02/09	Bradford	58-50	Coventry
19/08	Cradley Heath	49-57	Belle Vue
18/08	Belle Vue	59-48	Cradley Heath

Final[]

First leg[]

Second leg[]

Bradford Dukes were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 111-97.

Teams[]

Arena Essex Hammers[]

• Leigh Adams
• Paul Hurry
• Josh Larsen
• 
• 
• 
• Alan Mogridge
• Jan Pedersen
• 
• 
• 

Belle Vue Aces[]

• Louis Carr
• Peter Carr
• 
• 
• Andre Compton
• 
• Neil Evitts
• John Jørgensen
• Niklas Klingberg
• 
• 
• Jason Lyons
• Chris Manchester
• 
• Frede Schött
• 
• 
• 
• Glyn Taylor
• 

Bradford Dukes[]

• 
• 
• Gary Havelock
• 
• 
• Joe Screen
• Garry Stead
• Sean Wilson

Coventry Bees[]

• Brian Andersen
• Paul Bentley
• 
• Paul Clews
• Andre Compton
• John Jørgensen
• 
• 
• Stuart Robson
• Andy Smith
• 
• Shaun Tacey

Cradley Heath[]

• 
• Simon Cross
• 
• Billy Hamill
• Greg Hancock
• 
• 
• Scott Smith
• 
• 

Eastbourne Eagles[]

• Stefan Andersson
• Dean Barker
• 
• Stefan Dannö
• Martin Dugard
• Stefan Ekberg
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Kelvin Tatum
• 

Edinburgh Monarchs[]

• 
• Les Collins
• 
• Lawrence Hare
• Mike Faria
• 
• 
• 
• Kenny McKinna
• 

Exeter Falcons[]

• 
• 
• Paul Fry
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Mark Loram
• 
• 
• Antonín Šváb Jr.
• Petr Vandirek
• Václav Verner

Glasgow Tigers[]

• Shane Bowes
• 
• Charles Ermolenko
• 
• James Grieves
• 
• 
• 
• 
• David Walsh

Hull Vikings[]

• 
• 
• 
• 
• Andre Compton
• Nigel Crabtree
• 
• Alan Grahame
• Graham Jones
• 
• Jan Stæchmann
• Glyn Taylor
• Paul Thorp

Ipswich Witches[]

• Savalas Clouting
• Jeremy Doncaster
• 
• Lawrence Hare
• Ben Howe
• 
• Leigh Lanham
• Chris Louis
• Scott Nicholls
• 

King's Lynn Stars[]

• 
• Bohumil Brhel
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Bobby Ott
• 
• Troy Pratt
• 
• Glyn Taylor
• Tomáš Topinka

Long Eaton Invaders[]

• 
• 
• Ronnie Correy
• Martin Dixon
• 
• Richard Hellsen
• 
• Steve Johnston
• Kai Laukkanen
• 
• Andre Pollehn
• Carl Stonehewer
• 
• Brent Werner
• Simon Wigg

Middlesbrough Bears[]

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Shane Parker
• Róbert Nagy
• 
• Andre Pollehn
• 
• Scott Robson
• 
• 
• 
• 

Oxford Cheetahs[]

• Daniel Andersson
• 
• 
• Armando Castagna
• 
• Michael Coles
• Martin Goodwin
• 
• 
• 
• Jimmy Nilsen
• 
• 
• 

Peterborough Panthers[]

• Hans Clausen
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Marián Jirout
• Ronni Pedersen
• Mick Poole
• Jens Rasmussen
• Ryan Sullivan
• 
• Zdeněk Tesař

Poole Pirates[]

• 
• Jason Bunyan
• Jason Crump
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Lars Gunnestad
• 
• 
• 
• Alun Rossiter
• Steve Schofield
• 
• Kelvin Tatum
• 

Reading Racers[]

• 
• Andre Compton
• Marvyn Cox
• 
• Petri Kokko
• 
• Phil Morris
• Ray Morton
• Dave Mullett
• David Norris
• Tony Olsson
• Lee Richardson
• 
• 

Sheffield Tigers[]

• 
• Zoltán Adorján
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Neil Collins
• 
• 
• Roman Matoušek
• George Štancl
• 

Swindon Robins[]

• 
• 
• Craig Boyce
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Glenn Cunningham
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Brian Karger
• 
• 
• Peter Nahlin
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• Mark Thorpe
• 
• 
• 

Wolverhampton Wolves[]

• 
• 
• 
• Sam Ermolenko
• James Grieves
• 
• Peter Karlsson
• 
• 
• 
• 

See also[]

• List of United Kingdom Speedway League Champions
• Knockout Cup (speedway)

References[]