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1961 Provincial Speedway League
League	Provincial League
No. of competitors	11
Champions	Poole Pirates
Knockout Cup	Cradley Heathens
Individual	Reg Reeves
Highest average	Reg Reeves
Division/s above	1961 National League
	← 1960; 1962 →;

The 1961 Provincial Speedway League was the second season of the Provincial League.^[1]

Summary

Eleven speedway teams took part. Liverpool, Yarmouth and Bristol^[2] had all folded at the end of the previous season and Bradford were unable to take their place in the league after the construction of their new track was delayed.

Exeter, Plymouth, Wolverhampton, Middlesbrough and Newcastle all re-opened their tracks and joined the league for the start of the season. Plymouth took on Bristol's riders and Bulldog nickname. Poole were champions, finishing seven points ahead of runners up Plymouth.^[3]^[4]^[5] After a couple of challenge meetings held throughout 1960^[6] Exeter returned following a five-year league absence under the promotion of Wally Mawdsley and Pete Lansdale.^[7]

Final table

Pos	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts
1	Poole Pirates	20	15	1	4	31
2	Plymouth Bulldogs	20	12	0	8	24
3	Stoke Potters	20	12	0	8	24
4	Cradley Heath Heathens	20	11	1	8	23
5	Rayleigh Rockets	20	11	0	9	22
6	Edinburgh Monarchs	20	10	1	9	21
7	Sheffield Tigers	20	10	0	10	20
8	Exeter Falcons	20	9	0	11	18
9	Wolverhampton Wolves	20	7	0	13	14
10	Middlesbrough Bears	20	6	1	13	13
11	Newcastle Diamonds	20	5	0	15	10

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

Top Five Riders (League only)

	Rider	Team	C.M.A.
1	Reg Reeves	Rayleigh	11.43
2	Jack Scott	Plymouth	11.08
3	Ken Middleditch	Poole	10.55
4	Ross Gilbertson	Poole	10.51
5	Tony Lewis	Poole	10.32

Provincial League Knockout Cup

The 1961 Provincial League Knockout Cup was the second edition of the Knockout Cup for the Provincial League teams. Cradley Heathens were the winners.^[8]

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
13/05	Stoke	53–41	Middlesbrough
19/05	Rayleigh	50–46	Exeter

Second round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
18/05	Sheffield	43–53	Plymouth
21/06	Poole	71–25	Wolverhampton
24/06	Stoke	46–50	Cradley Heath
17/07	Edinburgh	49–47	Rayleigh

Semifinals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
29/07	Cradley Heath	55–41	Poole
12/08	Edinburgh	55–40	Plymouth

Final

First leg

9 September 1961

Cradley Heath Ivor Brown 15 Harry Bastable 13 Derek Timms 13 Ivor Davies 10 John Hart 8 Tony Eadon 7 Vic White 2	68 - 28	Edinburgh Doug Templeton 9 Willie Templeton 8 Jimmy Tannock 4 Wayne Briggs 4 Alf Wells 2 George Hunter 1 Dick Campbell 0
	^[9]

Dudley Wood Stadium

Second leg

23 September 1961

Edinburgh Dick Campbell 14 Jimmy Tannock 10 Wayne Briggs 9 Doug Templeton 9 Willie Templeton 8 George Hunter 5 Alf Wells 4	59 - 34	Cradley Heath Derek Timms 7 Ivor Brown 6 Harry Bastable 6 Tony Eadon 6 John Hart 4 Vic White 3 Ivor Davies 2
	^[10]

Old Meadowbank

Riders' Championship

Reg Reeves won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at Harringay Stadium on 16 September in front of 20,000 spectators. Defending champion Trevor Redmond suffered a broken chain in his last race when leading Reeves, which prevented him from winning the title again.^[11]

Pos.	Rider	Pts	Total
1	Reg Reeves	3 3 3 3 3	15
2	Trevor Redmond	3 3 3 3 ef	12
3	Maury Mattingley	3 2 1 3 3	12
4	Jack Scott	2 3 2 2 2	11
5	Stan Stevens	2 1 2 2 3	11
6	Ivor Brown	3 3 2 ef 3	11
7	Harry Bastable	1 2 3 2 2	10
8	Graham Warren	1 1 2 f 2	6
9	Ken Middleditch	0 1 1 1 2	5
10	Len Silver	2 2 0 0 1	5
11	Pete Lansdale	0 2 2 1 0	5
12	Tony Lewis	exc 0 1 3 1	5
13	Vic Ridgeon	2 1 0 1 1	4
14	Rick France	1 0 0 2 0	3
15	Eric Boothroyd	2 0 1 1 0	3
16	Peter Jarman	f 0 0 f 1	1

f=fell, r-retired, exc=excluded, ef=engine failure

Riders & final averages

Cradley Heath

Ivor Brown 10.14
Harry Bastable 8.88
Stan Stevens 7.54
Ivor Davies 7.14
George Bewley 6.15
Derek Timms 5.97
Ronnie Rolfe 5.29
John Hart 5.04
Alan Totney 4.44
Tony Eadon 4.00
Vic White 2.97

Edinburgh

Dick Campbell 9.65
Doug Templeton 8.42
George Hunter 7.41
Willie Templeton 6.55
Wayne Briggs 5.83
Jimmy Tannock 5.72
Alf Wells 4.20

Exeter

Pete Lansdale 9.33
Len Silver 8.81
Roy Bowers 8.12
Howdy Byford 8.00
Eric Hockaday 7.66
Francis Cann 6.75
Billy Smith 4.90
Clive Hitch 3.84
Eric Howe 3.60
Len Glover 2.25

Middlesbrough

Eric Boothroyd 9.05
Geoff Pymar 8.50
Clive Hitch 7.50
Don Wilkinson 7.00
Tommy Roper 6.49
Fred Greenwell 6.18
Wal Morton 5.65
Rick France 5.56
Eric Boocock 4.42
Bob Webb 4.00
Reg Nicholls 3.83
Vic Lonsdale (Jack Thorp) 3.78

Newcastle

Gil Goldfinch 8.65
Don Wilkinson 7.05
Vic Lonsdale (Jack Thorp) 5.85
George Major 5.67
Slant Payling 5.55
George Glen 4.85
Pat Flanagan 4.65
Gordon Mitchell 2.61

Plymouth

Jack Scott 11.08
Maury Mattingley 9.38
Cliff Cox 8.92
Ron Bagley 6.86
Chris Julian 6.03
Pat Flanagan 4.41
Chris Blewett 4.14
Ray Wickett 3.36
George Summers 1.23

Poole

Ken Middleditch 10.55
Ross Gilbertson 10.51
Tony Lewis 10.32
Geoff Mudge 7.80
Tim Bungay 6.32
Allan Kidd 5.88
Norman Strachan 4.68

Rayleigh

Reg Reeves 11.43
Stan Stevens 8.53
Harry Edwards 8.44
Bob Thomas 6.68
Roy Craighead 5.12
Geoff Penniket 4.89
Pete Sampson 4.39
Terry Stone 4.36

Sheffield

Guy Allott 9.64
Clive Featherby 9.59
Derrol Melbin 8.80
Ronnie Rolfe 7.20
Jack Winstanley 6.97
Stuart Hickman 6.86
Bernard McArthur 6.27
Tony Robinson 6.21
Col Smith 3.64
Malcolm Bruce 3.40

Stoke

Reg Fearman 9.60
Ron Sharp 9.50
Brian Craven 8.64
Ken Adams 8.59
Eric Hockaday 8.44
Ray Harris 7.63
Pete Jarman 6.97
Peter Kelly 6.92
Bill Wainwright 5.23
John Edwards 5.22
Frank Wooster 3.86
Colin Pratt 3.00
John Key 2.32

Wolverhampton

Graham Warren 10.00
Ernie Lessiter 8.33
Tommy Sweetman 6.92
Vic Ridgeon 6.45
Terry Betts 6.24
Bob Oakley 5.39
Ron Taylor 4.97
Derek Braithwaite 4.73
Cyril Francis 4.67
Howard Cole (Kid Bodie) 4.62
Eric Eadon 2.53
Bob Warner 2.46

References

^ "Championship History". Poole Speedway. 2008. Archived from the original on 16 May 2008. Retrieved 18 May 2008.
^ "Bristol loses speedway, dog track". Daily Herald. 31 December 1960. Retrieved 5 October 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "Year by Year". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
^ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
^ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - POST-WAR ERA (1946-1964)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
^ "Speedway like this will pull league crowds". Express and Echo. 4 October 1960. Retrieved 23 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "League Again at Exeter". Express and Echo. 10 August 1960. Retrieved 12 January 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "1961 Provincial League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
^ "Cradley Heath to take cup now?". Birmingham Weekly Mercury. 10 September 1961. Retrieved 15 June 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "Cradley Heath's Trophy". Birmingham Weekly Mercury. 24 September 1961. Retrieved 15 June 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "One Long Yawn for Trevor". Daily Mirror. 18 September 1961. Retrieved 12 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.