1993 British League season

1993 British League season
LeagueBritish League
No. of competitors11
ChampionsBelle Vue Aces
Knockout CupBradford Dukes
FoursReading Racers
IndividualPer Jonsson
Highest averageSam Ermolenko
Division/s belowBritish League (Div 2)

The 1993 British League season was the 59th season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the 29th known as the British League.[1][2]

Summary

Belle Vue Aces won their first title since 1982. The Manchester team relied on a group of consistent riders, with no rider exceeding a 9-point average but five riders ranging from 8.75 to 6.72. The team consisted of World Under-21 champion Joe Screen, Australian Jason Lyons, Americans Bobby Ott and Shawn Moran and Dane Frede Schött.[3] The Championship was the closest in British League history with Belle Vue finishing on the same points as Wolverhampton Wolves and taking the title on heat points difference. It all came down to the last match when Belle Vue visited Wolves and pulled off a 54–53 victory. Wolves who were clear at the top of the table earlier in the season suffered a series of injuries and were missing four riders towards the end of the season.[4]

Oxford Cheetahs dropped out of the first division resulting in their three time World Champion Hans Nielsen moving to Coventry Bees and Martin Dugard joining Eastbourne Eagles.[5]

Final table

Pos Team PL W D L BP Pts
1 Belle Vue Aces 40 24 1 15 14 63
2 Wolverhampton Wolves 40 23 0 17 17 63
3 Eastbourne Eagles 40 23 1 16 14 61
4 Arena Essex Hammers 40 21 1 18 10 53
5 Coventry Bees 40 18 3 19 13 52
6 Reading Racers 40 20 1 19 10 51
7 Bradford Dukes 40 19 3 18 7 48
8 Ipswich Witches 40 17 0 23 8 42
9 King's Lynn Stars 40 15 4 21 6 40
10 Poole Pirates 40 17 0 23 6 40
11 Cradley Heath Heathens 40 16 0 24 5 37

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

Speedway Star Knockout Cup

The 1993 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 55th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Bradford Dukes were the winners for a third consecutive year.[6]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
08/07 Ipswich 55-53 Wolverhampton
24/05 Wolverhampton 64-43 Ipswich
22/05 Cradley Heath 59-49 Belle Vue
21/05 Arena Essex 72-36 Kings Lynn
21/05 Belle Vue 58-48 Cradley Heath
08/05 Kings Lynn 54-54 Arena Essex
16/07 Belle Vue 59-47 Cradley Heath
30/06 Cradley Heath 59-49 Belle Vue

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
20/08 Belle Vue 60-47 Wolverhampton
11/08 Wolverhampton 57-51 Belle Vue
31/07 Coventry 64-44 Poole
14/07 Poole 55-53 Coventry
05/07 Reading 63-45 Arena Essex
04/07 Bradford 66-42 Eastbourne
27/06 Eastbourne 63-45 Bradford
18/06 Arena Essex 67-41 Reading

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
10/10 Belle Vue 61-46 Arena Essex
21/09 Arena Essex 67-41 Belle Vue
18/09 Bradford 61-47 Coventry
14/08 Coventry 54-54 Bradford

Final

First leg

Bradford Dukes
Kelvin Tatum 12
Sean Wilson 12
Gary Havelock 9
Antal Kocso 9
Simon Green 8
Paul Bentley 6
Darren Pearson 2		58 - 50Arena Essex Hammers
Josh Larsen 15
Leigh Adams 14
Leigh Lanham 8
Bo Petersen 7
Robert Ledwith 5
Neville Tatum 1
Colin White 0
[7]

Second leg

Arena Essex Hammers
Leigh Adams 14
Josh Larsen 12
Bo Petersen 11
Neville Tatum 6
Robert Ledwith 6
Colin White 3
Leigh Lanham 2
Russell Etherington 1		55 - 53Bradford Dukes
Kelvin Tatum 15
Gary Havelock 13
Paul Pickering 12
Sean Wilson 6
Paul Bentley 4
Darren Pearson 3
Antal Kocso 0
[8]

Bradford Dukes were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 111-105.

Fours

Reading Racers won the fours championship final (sponsored by H.E.A.T) and held at the East of England Arena on 25 July.[9][10]

Final

Pos Team Pts Riders
1 Reading 27 Jonsson 8, Mullett 8, Castagna 7, Olsson 4
2 Wolves 25 Ermolenko 8, Karlsson P
3 Belle Vue 11 Screen 6
4 Arena Essex 9 Larsen 3, Ravn 3

Riders' Championship

Per Jonsson won the British League Riders' Championship. It was due to be run at Abbey Stadium in early October but was called off twice due to wet weather before finally taking place on 31 October.[11]

Pos. Rider Total
1 Sweden Per Jonsson 14
2 Sweden Henka Gustafsson 13+3
3 England Chris Louis 13+2
4 Australia Leigh Adams 11
5 Sweden Peter Karlsson 10
6 Denmark Hans Nielsen 10
7 Sweden Tony Rickardsson 8
8 England Joe Screen 7
9 Australia Craig Boyce 6
10 England Simon Cross 6
11 New Zealand Gary Allan 6
12 Australia Jason Crump 5
13 England Kelvin Tatum 5
14 Australia Jason Lyons 3
15 England David Norris 3
16 England Glenn Cunningham (res) 2
17 England Simon Wigg 1
18 England Steve Camden (res) 0
  • ef=engine failure, f=fell, x=excluded r-retired

Leading averages

Rider Team Average
United States Sam Ermolenko Wolverhampton 11.12
Sweden Per Jonsson Reading 10.34
Denmark Hans Nielsen Coventry 10.05
United States Greg Hancock Cradley Heath 9.85
United States Ronnie Correy Wolverhampton 9.62
Australia Leigh Adams Arena Essex 9.49
Sweden Henrik Gustafsson Kings Lynn 9.27
Sweden Tony Rickardsson Ipswich 9.01
United States Billy Hamill Cradley Heath 8.99
England Martin Dugard Eastbourne 8.98

Riders & final averages

Arena Essex

Belle Vue

Bradford

Coventry

Cradley Heath

Eastbourne

Ipswich

King's Lynn

Poole

Reading

Wolverhampton

See also

References

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
  3. ^ "1993 league tables". Speedway GB.
  4. ^ "1993 Fixtures" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  5. ^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  6. ^ "1993 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  7. ^ "Speedway". Sunday Mirror. 17 October 1993. Retrieved 27 June 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ "Dukes lift cup again". Huddersfield Daily Examiner. 23 October 1993. Retrieved 13 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Racers' fab four are hot stuff!". Reading Evening Post. 26 July 1993. Retrieved 11 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ "1993 fixtures" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  11. ^ "Speedway results". Newcastle Journal. 1 November 1993. Retrieved 6 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.