1988 British League season

League	British League
No. of competitors	11
Champions	Coventry Bees
Knockout Cup	Cradley Heath Heathens
Individual	Jan O. Pedersen
Highest average	Hans Nielsen
Division/s below	1988 National League
← 1987 1989 →

The 1988 British League season was the 54th season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the 24th known as the British League.^[1][2]

Coventry Bees won the league for the second successive year and again by a 16-point margin. The Bees also reached the Knockout Cup final losing to Cradley Heath. Remarkably it was Cradley's seventh Cup win in 10 years. With the League Cup scrapped the Coventry team had less fixtures to ride and their pairing of Tommy Knudsen and Kelvin Tatum were once again the catalyst for the seasons success finishing 2nd and 4th respectively in the averages. Hans Nielsen topped the averages again for the sixth consecutive season.^[3]

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	Pts
1	Coventry Bees	40	31	2	7	18	82
2	Belle Vue Aces	40	26	1	13	13	66
3	Cradley Heath Heathens	39	22	1	16	15	60
4	Oxford Cheetahs	40	20	6	14	13	59
5	Reading Racers	40	20	3	17	12	55
6	Sheffield Tigers	39	19	2	18	8	48
7	Swindon Robins	40	17	1	22	8	43
8	Wolverhampton Wolves	40	15	3	22	8	41
9	King's Lynn Stars	40	14	3	23	7	38
10	Ipswich Witches	39	13	0	26	4	30
11	Bradford Dukes	39	10	0	29	2	22

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

The 1988 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 50th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath Heathens were the winners for the third successive year if including the tied 1986 final.^[4]

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
09/07	King's Lynn	47-43	Ipswich
08/07	Ipswich	34-55	King's Lynn
23/06	Sheffield	43-47	Cradley Heath
18/06	Cradley Heath	51-39	Sheffield
03/06	Belle Vue	53-37	Bradford
28/05	Bradford	36-54	Belle Vue

Quarter-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
13/08	King's Lynn	40-50	Cradley Heath
10/08	Cradley Heath	53-37	King's Lynn
19/07	Coventry	53-37	Reading
15/07	Belle Vue	53-37	Wolverhampton
14/07	Oxford	48-42	Swindon
11/07	Reading	49-41	Coventry
11/07	Wolverhampton	45-45	Belle Vue

Semi-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
14/10	Belle Vue	48-42	Cradley Heath
13/10	Oxford	38-49	Coventry
08/10	Coventry	44-46	Oxford
14/09	Cradley Heath	49-41	Belle Vue

Final

First leg

Second leg

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 100-80.

Jan O. Pedersen won the British League Riders' Championship. It was the held at Belle Vue Stadium on 9 October.^[6]

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Jan O. Pedersen	3 2 3 3 3	14
2	Erik Gundersen	3 3 3 1 3	13
3	Hans Nielsen	0 3 3 3 3	12+3
4	Chris Morton	2 2 3 2 3	12+2
5	Shawn Moran	1 3 2 2 2	10
6	Richard Knight	2 3 1 2 1	9
7	Ronnie Correy	1 2 2 3 1	9
8	Simon Wigg	2 1 0 3 2	8
9	Kelvin Tatum	2 0 2 2 1	7
10	Per Jonsson	3 2 0 0 0	5
11	Gary Havelock	1 1 0 1 2	5
12	Jan Andersson	1 1 1 1 1	5
13	Kelly Moran	0 0 2 1 2	5
14	Brian Karger	3 1 1 0 0	5
15	Tommy Knudsen	0 1 0	1
16	Paul Smith (res)	0 0	0
17	Carl Stonehewer (res)	0 0	0
18	Jeremy Doncaster	0 0 0	0

• ef=engine failure, f=fell, x=excluded r-retired

Rider	Team	Average
Hans Nielsen	Oxford	11.03
Tommy Knudsen	Coventry	10.08
Erik Gundersen	Cradley Heath	10.06
Kelvin Tatum	Coventry	10.04
Jan O. Pedersen	Cradley Heath	9.88
Shawn Moran	Sheffield	9.51
Sam Ermolenko	Wolverhampton	9.40
Jeremy Doncaster	Ipswich	9.34
Chris Morton	Belle Vue	9.01
Steve Bastable	Bradford	9.00

Belle Vue

Bradford

Coventry

Cradley Heath

Ipswich

King's Lynn

Oxford

Reading

Sheffield

Swindon

Wolverhampton

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