1975 New National League season

1975 New National League season
LeagueNew National League
No. of competitors20
ChampionsBirmingham Brummies
Knockout CupEastbourne Eagles
IndividualLaurie Etheridge
PairsNewcastle Diamonds
Highest averageJoe Owen
Division/s above1975 British League

The 1975 New National League was contested as the second division/tier of Speedway in the United Kingdom when British League Division Two was renamed. It was subsequently named the National League.[1] The change came about following unrest between some of the clubs and the speedway authorities in previous seasons.[2]

Summary

The league increased by one team for the fourth season in a row, despite the loss of three teams; the Barrow Bombers, Long Eaton Archers and Sunderland Gladiators.[3] Sunderland closed for good but in November 1974, Ian Thomas bought the defunct Sunderland licence and transferred it to re-form the Newcastle Diamonds.[4][5] Three other new teams entered, in addition to the Newcastle Diamonds and they were Crayford Kestrels (returning for their first season since 1970), while Mildenhall Fen Tigers and Paisley Lions both competed in their inaugural seasons.[3]

Birmingham Brummies, winners of the last British League Division Two, retained their title[6] and were promoted to the British League for 1976.[7][8] Birmingham won the league by 5 points despite losing their leading rider Phil Herne to Newport in division 1. Birmingham relied heavily on Arthur Browning, Alan Grahame and Keith White, improved performances by Ricky Day and Carl Askew and solid seasons once again from John Hart and George Major.[3]

Newcastle finished runner-up on their return to league action, with the Owen brothers Joe Owen and Tom Owen topping the league averages.

Final table

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Birmingham Brummies 38 29 1 8 59
2 Newcastle Diamonds 38 27 0 11 54
3 Stoke Potters 38 26 0 12 52
4 Eastbourne Eagles 38 25 0 13 50
5 Boston Barracudas 38 24 2 12 50
6 Workington Comets 38 23 2 13 48
7 Berwick Bandits 38 21 3 14 45
8 Crayford Kestrels 38 20 2 16 42
9 Ellesmere Port Gunners 38 19 1 18 39
10 Canterbury Crusaders 38 19 0 19 38
11 Bradford Barons 38 17 2 19 36
12 Coatbridge Tigers 38 17 1 20 35
13 Scunthorpe Saints 38 17 0 21 34
14 Rye House Rockets 38 13 2 23 28
15 Paisley Lions 38 14 0 24 28
16 Crewe Kings 37 13 1 23 27
17 Teesside Tigers 38 13 0 25 26
18 Peterborough Panthers 37 13 0 24 26
19 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 38 11 1 26 23
20 Weymouth Wizards 38 8 2 28 18

Top Five Riders (League Averages)

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Joe Owen England Newcastle 10.89
2 Tom Owen England Newcastle 10.78
3 Alan Molyneux England Stoke 10.10
4 Paul Gachet England Eastbourne 10.08
5 Les Rumsey England Canterbury 10.01

National League Knockout Cup

The 1975 National League Knockout Cup was the eighth edition (first under its new name) of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Eastbourne Eagles were the winners of the competition.[9]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
15/04 Ellesmere Port 43-35 Coatbridge
11/04 Coatbridge 50-28 Ellesmere Port
14/04 Newcastle 44-34 Berwick
05/04 Berwick 40-38 Newcastle
21/03 Peterborough 42-36 Boston
16/03 Boston 40-38 Peterborough
14/04 Birmingham 51-27 Crayford
15/04 Crayford 37-40 Birmingham

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
05/05 Scunthorpe 38-40 Teesside
01/05 Teesside 45-32 Scunthorpe
30/05 Coatbridge 39-39 Newcastle
19/05 Newcastle 50-27 Coatbridge
10/05 Paisley 43-34 Workington
30/05 Workington 45-33 Paisley
05/05 Crewe 38-40 Bradford
14/05 Bradford 48-30 Crewe
09/05 Peterborough 49-29 Weymouth
29/04 Weymouth 50-28 Peterborough
11/05 Rye House 31-46 Birmingham
05/05 Birmingham 60-18 Rye House
10/05 Canterbury 40-37 Eastbourne
11/05 Eastbourne 49-29 Canterbury

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
07/08 Teesside 32-46 Newcastle
28/07 Newcastle 54-24 Teesside
24/08 Workington 47-31 Stoke
21/08 Stoke 42-36 Workington
23/09 Weymouth 42-36 Eastbourne
09/07 Bradford 47-31 Weymouth
14/07 Birmingham 41-37 Eastbourne
06/07 Eastbourne 45-33 Birmingham

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
19/09 Workington 48-30 Newcastle
15/09 Newcastle 48-30 Workington
23/09 Weymouth 42-36 Eastbourne
21/09 Eastbourne 60-18 Weymouth
29/09
replay		 Newcastle 37-41 Workington
26/09
replay		 Workington 51-27 Newcastle

Final

First leg

Workington Comets
Mike Newton 11
Taffy Owen 11
Lou Sansom 10
Roger Wright 8
Robbie Gardner 5
Terry Kelly 1
Steve Lawson 1		47 – 31Eastbourne Eagles
Neil Middleditch 12
Paul Gachet 7
Mike Sampson 5
Eric Dugard 3
Pete Jarman 2
Colin Richardson 2
Mike Pither 0
[10]

Second leg

Eastbourne Eagles
Neil Middleditch 10
Mike Sampson 10
Pete Jarman 10
Paul Gachet 8
Eric Dugard 7
Mike Pither 4
Colin Richardson 3		52 – 25Workington Comets
Lou Sansom 13
Robbie Gardner 6
Taffy Owen 4
Terry Kelly 1
Steve Lawson 1
Mick Newton 0
Roger Wright 0
[10]

Eastbourne were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 83–72.

Riders' Championship

Laurie Etheridge won the Riders' Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 27 September.[11]

Pos. Rider Pts Total
1 England Laurie Etheridge 3 2 2 3 3 13+3
2 Scotland Brian Collins 3 3 3 3 1 13+2
3 England Arthur Browning 2 2 3 1 2 10+3
4 England Les Rumsey 2 3 0 2 3 10+2
5 England Michael Lee 1 1 3 2 3 10+1
6 England John Jackson 3 1 3 1 1 9
7 England Tom Leadbitter 0 2 2 1 3 8
8 England Joe Owen 2 0 1 3 2 8
9 England Paul Gachet 3 3 fex 2 0 8
10 England Bob Coles 2 2 2 0 1 7
11 England Brian Clark 0 1 2 3 f 6
12 England Alan Molyneux 1 1 1 0 2 5
13 England Brian Foote 0 f 1 2 2 5
14 England Colin Meredith 1 0 1 1 4
15 Australia Lou Sansom 0 3 0 0 0 3
16 England Tony Childs 1 0 0 0 0
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

Pairs

The National League Pairs was held at Hyde Road on 17 May and was won by Newcastle Diamonds.[12]

Semi finals

  • Ellesmere Port bt Eastbourne
  • Newcastle bt Crayford

Final

  • Newcastle bt Eastbourne

Leading final averages

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Joe Owen England Newcastle 10.65
2 Tom Owen England Newcastle 10.65
3 Alan Molyneux England Stoke 10.14
4 Les Rumsey England Canterbury 9.90
5 Paul Gachet England Eastbourne 9.87

Riders & final averages

Berwick

Birmingham

Boston

Bradford

  • Tony Featherstone 8.34
  • Colin Meredith 7.92
  • Dave Baugh 7.42
  • Tony Boyle 7.11
  • Steve Wilcock 5.75
  • Andy Cowan 5.55
  • Alan Knapkin 5.48
  • Mick Fielding 4.49
  • Brenton Langlois 4.34
  • Dave Parkin 3.06
  • Barry Weaver 1.82

Canterbury

  • Les Rumsey 9.90
  • Dave Gooderham 8.63
  • Barney Kennett 8.23
  • Graham Clifton 5.31
  • Bob Spelta 5.11
  • Jimmy Squibb 5.00
  • Gerald Purkiss 4.85
  • Terry Casserley 3.77

Coatbridge

Crayford

  • Laurie Etheridge 9.74
  • Alan Sage 8.51
  • Trevor Barnwell 7.72
  • Pete Wigley 6.26
  • Bob Young 5.86
  • Les Ott 5.78
  • Alan Johns 5.68
  • George Barclay 5.34
  • Dave Shepherd 4.92
  • Bill Archer 4.11

Crewe

Eastbourne

Ellesmere Port

Mildenhall

Newcastle

Paisley

  • Sid Sheldrick 8.00
  • Mike Fullerton 7.20
  • Alan Bridgett 7.12
  • Chris Roynon 6.00
  • Tom Davie 5.26
  • Bernie Foot 5.20
  • Stuart Mountford 4.47
  • Mick Sheldrick 4.00
  • Geoff Snider 4.00

Peterborough

Rye House

Scunthorpe

  • Tony Childs 8.35
  • Keith Evans 7.52
  • Ken McKinlay 6.46
  • Andy Hines 5.99
  • Colin Cook 5.91
  • Tony Gillias 5.55
  • Andy Sims 5.38
  • Ray Watkins 4.24
  • Chris Emery 4.13
  • Ian Silk 2.09

Stoke

Teesside

Weymouth

Workington

See also

References

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ "Eagles want speedway shake-up". Eastbourne Gazette. 13 November 1974. Retrieved 20 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ a b c "teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  4. ^ "Ian Thomas buys out Sunderland". Hull Daily Mail. 28 November 1974. Retrieved 4 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Sunderland Speedway". Defunct Speedway. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  6. ^ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  7. ^ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  8. ^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  9. ^ "1975 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  10. ^ a b "1975 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  11. ^ "Lee's title bid fails". Cambridge Daily News. 29 September 1975. Retrieved 17 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "1975 season results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 20 May 2023.