1972 British League Division Two season

1972 British League Division Two season
LeagueBritish League Division Two
No. of competitors17
ChampionsCrewe Kings
Knockout CupCrewe Kings
IndividualPhil Crump
Highest averagePhil Crump
Division/s aboveBritish League (Div 1)

The 1972 British League Division Two season was the second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.[1][2]

Summary

The league still consisted of 17 teams with two teams leaving the league and two teams entering. The Rochdale Hornets had disbanded for good at the end of the previous season, whilst Ipswich Witches moved up to the British League. Two newly created teams Ellesmere Port Gunners and Scunthorpe Saints joined the league. The Romford Bombers promotion and team moved to the West Ham Stadium replacing the defunct West Ham Hammers at the stadium but halfway through the season, they moved again to become Barrow Happy Faces as their sponsor at the time was Duckhams Oil - its happy face logo was prominently displayed on the team's race jackets.[3]

Crewe Kings won their first title and completed the league and cup double.[4][5] Crewe were led by their Australian Phil Crump who finished top of the league averages and won the Riders' Championship. John Jackson also finished with an impressive average, as did their new signing Australian international Garry Flood. Flood would only ride the one season in speedway and would go on to win eight Australian Motocross Championships.[3][6]

Final table

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Crewe Kings 32 22 1 9 45
2 Boston Barracudas 32 21 1 10 43
3 Peterborough Panthers 32 21 0 11 42
4 Rayleigh Rockets 32 17 4 11 38
5 Eastbourne Eagles 32 18 2 12 38
6 Birmingham Brummies 32 18 1 13 37
7 Workington Comets 32 18 0 14 36
8 Hull Vikings 32 16 0 16 32
9 Barrow Happy Faces 32 15 1 16 31
10 Teesside Teessiders 32 14 3 15 31
11 Bradford Northern 32 15 0 17 30
12 Sunderland Stars 32 13 2 17 28
13 Canterbury Crusaders 32 13 1 18 27
14 Berwick Bandits 32 12 3 17 27
15 Ellesmere Port Gunners 32 12 0 20 24
16 Long Eaton Rangers 32 11 2 19 24
17 Scunthorpe Saints 32 5 1 26 11

Top Five Riders (League Averages)

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Phil Crump Australia Crewe 11.10
2 Geoff Maloney England Rayleigh 10.53
3 Richard Greer England Peterborough 9.98
4 John Harrhy England Peterborough 9.93
5 John Jackson England Crewe 9.91

British League Division Two Knockout Cup

The 1972 British League Division Two Knockout Cup (sponsored by the Speedway Express) was the fifth edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Crewe Kings were the winners of the competition.[7]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
01/05 Crewe 49-29 Ellesmere Port
02/05 Ellesmere Port 33-45 Crewe

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
05/06 Crewe 59-19 Scunthorpe
04/06 Scunthorpe 19-59 Crewe
04/06 Sunderland 55-23 Workington
09/06 Workington 46-31 Sunderland
25/06 Eastbourne 50-28 Long Eaton
08/06 Long Eaton 38-40 Eastbourne
04/06 Boston 46-32 Rayleigh
17/06 Rayleigh 43-35 Boston
09/06 Peterborough 52-26 Barrow
13/06 Barrow 36-42 Peterborough
07/06 Bradford 52-26 Berwick
10/06 Berwick 39-38 Bradford
05/06 Birmingham 43-35 Canterbury
10/06 Canterbury 41-37 Birmingham
08/06 Teesside 48-30 Hull
07/06 Hull 40-38 Teesside

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
03/07 Crewe 53-25 Sunderland
03/07 Sunderland 42-36 Crewe
09/07 Eastbourne 45-33 Boston
02/07 Boston 40-38 Eastbourne
07/07 Peterborough 36-14 Bradford
05/07 Bradford 45-33 Peterborough
03/07 Birmingham 48-30 Teesside
06/07 Teesside 41-37 Birmingham

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
31/07 Crewe 47-31 Eastbourne
30/07 Eastbourne 44-34 Crewe
04/08 Peterborough 43-35 Birmingham
14/08 Birmingham 42-36 Peterborough

Final

First leg

Crewe Kings
John Jackson 12
Garry Flood 10
Phil Crump 9
Dave Parry 7
Dai Evans 6
Garry Moore 4
Peter Nicholas 3		51 – 27Peterborough Panthers
Roy Carter 11
Brian Clark 6
John Davis 4
John Amies 3
David Ashby 1
Ted Howgego 1
Frank Smith 1
Richard Greer R/R
[8]
British Railways Sports Ground

Second leg

Peterborough Panthers
Richard Greer 11
Roy Carter 10
Brian Clark 6
John Davis 5
Ted Howgego 4
David Ashby 3
John Amies 1		40 – 38Crewe Kings
Phil Crump 12
John Jackson 10
Garry Flood 8
Garry Moore 6
Dai Evans 2
Dave Parry 0
Peter Nicholas 0
[8]

Crewe were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 89–67.

Leading final averages

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Phil Crump Australia Crewe 11.13
2 Geoff Maloney England Rayleigh 10.34
=3 Richard Greer England Peterborough 10.03
=3 John Jackson England Crewe 10.03
5 Malcolm Ballard England Eastbourne 9.94

Riders' Championship

Phil Crump won the Rider's Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 14 October.[9]

Pos. Rider Pts Total
1 Australia Phil Crump r 3 3 3 3 12+3
2 England Arthur Price 3 2 3 2 2 12+2
3 England Bob Coles 3 3 1 1 3 11+3
4 Scotland Ross Gilbertson 3 3 2 3 fex 11+disq
5 England Roger Mills 1 2 2 3 2 10
6 England Malcolm Ballard f 0 3 3 3 9
7 Australia Bob Young 1 1 2 2 9
8 Scotland Doug Templeton 2 1 2 2 1 8
9 England George Major 1 0 3 2 2 8
10 England Dave Baugh 2 1 ex 1 3 7
11 England Paul Tyrer 2 3 ex ex 0 5
12 Wales Taffy Owen 1 0 2 0 1 4
13 England Dave Durham 1 1 0 1 1 4
14 England Richard Greer 0 2 1 0 1 4
15 England Russ Dent 2 0 0 1 0 3
16 England Tony Childs 0 2 0 0 0 2
17 England John Jackson (res) 1 0
18 England Ray Watkins (res) 0 0 0
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

Riders' final averages

Barrow

  • Bob Coles 8.61
  • Mike Sampson 8.35
  • Mike Watkin 6.75
  • Tom Owen 5.36
  • Ian Hindle 4.95
  • Chris Roynon 4.57
  • Bobby Campbell 4.36
  • Keith Evans 4.33
  • Alan Mackie 3.69

Berwick

Birmingham

Boston

Bradford

  • Dave Baugh 8.69
  • Alan Knapkin 8.11
  • Robin Adlington 7.89
  • Colin Meredith 5.92
  • Alf Wells 5.92
  • Alan Bridget 5.82
  • Barry Meeks 4.81
  • Sid Sheldrick 4.73
  • Mick Fielding 3.88
  • Mick Fairbairn 3.54

Canterbury

Crewe

Eastbourne

Ellesmere Port

  • Paul Tyrer 8.47
  • Graham Drury 6.56
  • Colin Goad 6.42
  • Robbie Gardner 6.40
  • Cyril Francis 5.65
  • Ian Gills 5.41
  • Chris Blythe 4.50
  • Paul Callaghan 4.45
  • Geoff Pusey 1.90

Hull

  • Tony Childs 9.03
  • Dave Mills 8.59
  • Robin Amundson 7.73
  • Stan Stevens 6.76
  • Dennis Gavros 5.71
  • Bryan Loakes 5.40
  • Pete Boston 4.95
  • Clark Facey 4.54
  • Dennis Wasden 4.31
  • Colin Tucker 4.15
  • Bernie Hornby 1.82

Long Eaton

  • Geoff Bouchard 8.06
  • Roger Mills 7.95
  • Joe Hughes 6.29
  • Steve Bass 5.77
  • Chris Harrison 4.42
  • Peter Jarvis 4.05
  • Cliff Emms 3.40
  • Phil Whittaker 3.39
  • Gil Farmer 3.06
  • Ian Champion 2.67
  • Brian Woodhouse 1.56

Peterborough

Rayleigh

Scunthorpe

  • Brian Maxted 6.36
  • Terry Kelly 6.00
  • Ray Watkins 5.80
  • Phil Bass 5.78
  • Doug Underwood 5.08
  • Ian Wilson 5.00
  • Rod Haynes 4.79
  • Brian Osborn 4.07
  • Alan Bellham 3.70
  • John Bowerman 3.67
  • Peter Taylor 2.82

Sunderland

Teesside

Workington

  • Taffy Owen 8.8
  • Lou Sansom 8.53
  • Malcolm MacKay 8.47
  • Mitch Graham 6.43
  • Kym Amundson 5.89
  • Steve Watson 5.13
  • Dave Kumeta 4.04
  • Darryl Stobbart 4.00
  • Lindsay Davies 3.71

See also

References

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  3. ^ a b "teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  4. ^ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. ^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  6. ^ "Gary Flood - One of Australia's all-time motocross legends". Australian Motocross History. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  7. ^ "1972 British League Division Two Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. ^ a b "1972 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  9. ^ "Phil Crump wins title after run-off". Hull Daily Mail. 16 October 1972. Retrieved 16 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.