1978 National League season

1978 National League season
LeagueNational League
No. of competitors20
ChampionsCanterbury Crusaders
Knockout CupEastbourne Eagles
IndividualSteve Koppe
PairsEllesmere Port Gunners
FoursPeterborough Panthers
Highest averageTom Owen
Division/s above1978 British League

The 1978 National League was contested as the second division of Speedway in the United Kingdom.[1]

Summary

Newport Dragons dropped out of the league after just one season of second tier racing, however two new entrants - Milton Keynes Knights and Barrow Furness Flyers - saw the league expanded to twenty teams. Weymouth changed their nickname from Wizards to Wildcats.

Former Leicester and Teesside promoter Ron Wilson brought speedway to Milton Keynes[2] with a team called the Knights who would race at the Milton Keynes Greyhound Stadium (known in speedway circles as the Groveway).[3]

Canterbury Crusaders won the National League title.[4][5] Although equal on points with Newcastle Diamonds they won by virtue of the fact that their race points difference was greater than their rival.[6] It was Canterbury's second title win in eight years, previously winning in 1970. The Crusaders were led by heavy scoring from Les Rumsey and Riders' Champion Steve Koppe, while Newcastle's Tom Owen topped the averages for the second consecutive year.[7]

Earlier in the season 18 year-old junior rider Chris Prime was representing Newcastle when he was killed in the National League match against Mildenhall on 3 April.[8]

Final table

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Canterbury Crusaders 38 30 0 8 60
2 Newcastle Diamonds 38 29 2 7 60
3 Rye House Rockets 38 27 0 11 54
4 Eastbourne Eagles 38 25 1 12 51
5 Ellesmere Port Gunners 38 24 0 14 48
6 Peterborough Panthers 38 22 1 15 45
7 Oxford Cheetahs 38 20 4 14 44
8 Stoke Potters 38 21 1 16 43
9 Glasgow Tigers 38 19 1 18 39
10 Crayford Kestrels 38 16 2 20 34
11 Berwick Bandits 38 17 0 21 34
12 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 38 16 1 21 33
13 Weymouth Wildcats 38 16 0 22 32
14 Workington Comets 38 16 0 22 32
15 Edinburgh Monarchs 38 15 1 22 31
16 Milton Keynes Knights 38 12 6 20 30
17 Boston Barracudas 38 13 2 23 28
18 Teesside Tigers 38 12 0 26 24
19 Scunthorpe Saints 38 9 2 27 20
20 Barrow Furness Flyers 38 8 2 28 18

National League Knockout Cup

The 1978 National League Knockout Cup was the 11th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Eastbourne Eagles were the winners of the competition for the second successive year.[9]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
13/05 Stoke 51-27 Workington
12/05 Workington 40-38 Stoke
29/05 Newcastle 43-33 Teesside
01/06 Teesside 39-39 Newcastle
21/05 Rye House 58-20 Milton Keynes
23/05 Milton Keynes 26-52 Rye House
19/05 Ellesmere Port 47-31 Berwick
21/05 Berwick 35-42 Ellesmere Port

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
11/06 Eastbourne 57-21 Scunthorpe
12/06 Scunthorpe 28-47 Eastbourne
23/06 Peterborough 43-35 Barrow
20/06 Barrow 33-45 Peterborough
08/06 Oxford 47-31 Stoke
10/06 Stoke 43-35 Oxford
25/06 Mildenhall 56-21 Newcastle
26/06 Newcastle 40-38 Mildenhall
11/06 Rye House 52-26 Glasgow
16/06 Glasgow 39-39 Rye House
04/07 Crayford 46-32 Edinburgh
30/06 Edinburgh 40-38 Crayford
17/06 Canterbury 48-27 Weymouth
20/06 Weymouth 37-41 Canterbury
07/07 Ellesmere Port 54-23 Boston
25/06 Boston 36-42 Ellesmere Port

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
06/08 Eastbourne 45-30 Peterborough
11/08 Peterborough 39-38 Eastbourne
10/08 Oxford 43-34 Mildenhall
09/07 Mildenhall 40-38 Oxford
09/07 Rye House 44-34 Crayford
18/07 Crayford 39-39 Rye House
12/08 Canterbury 55-23 Ellesmere
28/07 Ellesmere 48-30 Canterbury

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
27/08 Eastbourne 56-22 Oxford
07/09 Oxford 32-45 Eastbourne
24/09 Rye House 57-20 Canterbury
30/09 Canterbury 41-37 Rye House

Final

First leg

Eastbourne Eagles
Dave Kennett 10
Mike Sampson 9
Steve Naylor 9
Eric Dugard 8
Roger Abel 6
Paul Woods 4
Ian Fletcher 0		46 – 32Rye House Rockets
Bob Garrad 11
Ted Hubbard 7
Ashley Pullen 6
Kelvin Mullarkey 4
Kevin Smith 2
Karl Fiala 1
Hugh Saunders 1
[10]

Second leg

Rye House Rockets
Ted Hubbard 10
Kelvin Mullarkey 9
Bob Garrad 9
Hugh Saunders 5
Karl Fiala 4
Kevin Smith 4
Ashley Pullen 0		41 – 37Eastbourne Eagles
Eric Dugard 11
Dave Kennett 7
Mike Sampson 6
Roger Abel 4
Paul Woods 4
Steve Naylor 3
Ian Fletcher 2
[10]

Eastbourne were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 83–73.

Riders' Championship

Steve Koppe won the Riders' Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 23 September 1978.[11]

Pos. Rider Pts Total
1 Australia Steve Koppe 3 3 3 2 3 14
2 England John Jackson 3 3 2 2 3 13
3 England Ted Hubbard 3 2 2 3 2 12+3
4 England Dave Gooderham 1 2 3 3 3 12+2
5 England Ray Bales 2 0 3 3 3 11
6 England Tom Owen 1 1 2 3 2 9
7 England Arthur Price 3 2 2 1 1 9
8 England Danny Kennedy 0 1 3 2 2 8
9 England Laurie Etheridge 2 3 0 1 1 7
10 England Tony Lomas 1 1 1 2 1 6
11 England Graham Jones 1 3 1 0 0 5
12 England Rob Hollingworth 0 2 1 1 0 4
13 Scotland George Hunter 2 1 3
14 England Steve Wilcock (res) 1 1 0 1 3
15 England Nicky Allott 0 0 0 0 2 2
16 England Mike Sampson 2 2
17 England Steve Lawson 0 0 0 0 0 0

Pairs

The National League Pairs was held at The Shay on 15 July and was won by Ellesmere Port.[12]

Semi finals

  • Newcastle bt Canterbury
  • Ellesmere Port bt Eastbourne

Final

  • Ellesmere Port bt Newcastle

Fours

Peterborough won the fours championship final for the second successive year, held at the East of England Arena on 30 July.[13][14]

Semi finals

  • SF1 = Stoke 13, Peterborough 12, Newcastle 12, Edinburgh 10
  • SF2 = Canterbury 16, Weymouth 12, Ellesmere Port 12, Eastbourne 8

Final

Pos Team Pts Riders
1 Peterborough Panthers 18 Couzens 6, Flatman 5, Hunt 4, Gooderham 3
2 Stoke Potters 12 Robertson 4, Lomas 3, Harrhy 3, Mountford 2
3 Canterbury Crusaders 9 Koppe 4, Clifton 3, Ferreira 2, Rumsey 0
4 Ellesmere Port Gunners 9 Ellams 4, Collins 3, Carr L 2, Finch 0, Jackson 0

Top Five Riders

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Tom Owen England Newcastle 10.82
2 Bob Humphreys Australia Milton Keynes 10.59
3 John Jackson England Ellesmere Port 10.36
4 Les Rumsey England Canterbury 9.81
5 Mike Sampson England Eastbourne 9.74

Riders & final averages

Barrow

  • Charlie Monk 8.20
  • Geoff Pusey 7.22
  • Chris Bevan 6.82
  • Andy Reid 5.53
  • Chris Roynon 5.01
  • Ken Murray 4.23
  • Mark Courtney 3.61
  • Chris Robins 3.13
  • Malcolm Chambers 2.29
  • Gary Pottenger 2.29
  • Les Race 1.74
  • Dave Butt 1.73
  • Des Wilson 1.25

Berwick

Boston

  • Gary Guglielmi 8.38
  • Tony Boyle 7.95
  • Steve Clarke 7.11
  • Dave Allen 7.02
  • Paul Gilbert 6.50
  • Stuart Cope 5.36
  • Andy Fisher 5.33
  • Craig Featherby 5.26
  • Dave Mortiboys 4.94
  • Ron Cooper 4.13
  • Roger Lambert 4.00
  • Keith Bloxsome 3.79
  • Dennis Mallett 2.93

Canterbury

Crayford

  • Laurie Etheridge 9.34
  • Alan Sage 8.63
  • Alan Johns 6.28
  • Pete Wigley 5.19
  • Richard Davey 5.18
  • Tony Featherstone 5.02
  • John Hooper 4.36

Eastbourne

Edinburgh

Ellesmere Port

Glasgow

  • Steve Lawson 7.93
  • Derek Richardson 7.52
  • Merv Janke 7.51
  • Benny Rourke 6.68
  • Colin Farquharson 4.64
  • Jim Beaton 4.49
  • Charlie McKinna 3.54
  • Keith Bloxsome 3.50
  • Terry Kelly 3.48
  • Mick Newton 2.97

Mildenhall

Milton Keynes

Newcastle

Oxford

Peterborough

Rye House

Scunthorpe

Stoke

Teesside

  • Steve Wilcock 7.94
  • Nigel Close 7.39
  • Pete Smith 7.23
  • Pete Reading 6.13
  • Martyn Cusworth 4.75
  • Peter Spink 4.46
  • Martin Dixon 4.09
  • Bob Watts 3.79
  • John Robson 3.14
  • Dave Gatenby 2.90

Weymouth

Workington

  • Arthur Price 8.63
  • Brian Havelock 8.39
  • Rob Maxfield 7.66
  • Ian Hindle 6.40
  • Mark Dickinson 5.14
  • David Coles 4.82
  • Andy Margarson 4.79
  • Des Wilson 4.43
  • Tony Childs 3.27

See also

References

  1. ^ "About - Exeter Speedway 1978". Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  2. ^ "Talking Sport". Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph. 21 January 1978. Retrieved 29 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ "Join out joust with Knights of Milton Keynes". Daily Mirror. 21 March 1978. Retrieved 29 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  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. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  7. ^ "Teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  8. ^ "Chris Prime Newcastle History". Newcastle Speedway. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  9. ^ "1978 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  10. ^ a b "1978 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  11. ^ "Bales edged out". Cambridge Daily News. 25 September 1978. Retrieved 20 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "1978 season results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  13. ^ "Speedway". Daily Mirror. 31 July 1978. Retrieved 10 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ "1978 full season results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 11 May 2023.