2005 Elite League speedway season

2005 Elite League speedway season
LeagueSky Sports Elite League
ChampionsCoventry Bees
Knockout CupBelle Vue Aces
Craven ShieldOxford Silver Machine
IndividualNicki Pedersen
PairsSwindon Robins
Highest averageNicki Pedersen
Division/s belowPremier League
Conference League

The 2005 Elite League speedway season was the 71st season of the top division of speedway in the United Kingdom and governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA).[1][2][3]

Season summary

In 2005, the league consisted of ten teams, with the title being decided by a play-off between the top four.[4]

Belle Vue Aces topped the regular season table and won the Knockout Cup. Their world champion rider Jason Crump was in superb form throughout the season. Fellow Australian Leigh Adams topped the league averages for Swindon for arguably the second consecutive season but it was Coventry Bees that experienced their first title success since the glory days of the late 1980s.[3]

Coventry had finished bottom of the table during the previous season and with the exception of finishing runner-up in 2003 had been starved of success. The club made a change that proved instrumental, they brought in Scott Nicholls from Ipswich and supported by Andreas Jonsson and Chris Harris the team defeated Belle Vue in the Elite League Play off final.[5]

Final table

Pos M W D L F A Pts Bon Tot
1 Belle Vue Aces 36 24 0 12 1766 1520 48 13 61
2 Coventry Bees 36 23 0 13 1739 1605 46 13 59
3 Peterborough Panthers 36 21 2 23 1709 1598 44 12 56
4 Eastbourne Eagles 36 19 1 16 1658 1646 39 10 49
5 Poole Pirates 36 18 1 17 1666 1647 37 10 47
6 Ipswich Witches 36 16 3 17 1661 1672 35 9 44
7 Swindon Robins 36 17 2 17 1617 1675 36 7 43
8 Wolverhampton Wolves 36 14 2 20 1682 1647 30 10 40
9 Oxford Silver Machine 36 11 1 24 1550 1773 23 3 26
10 Arena Essex Hammers 36 11 0 25 1539 1804 22 3 25
= Qualified for Play Offs

'A' Fixtures

Home \ Away AE BV COV EAS IPS OX PET PP SWI WOL
Arena Essex Hammers 43–47 42–51 43–47 57–39 41–49 48–42 61–30 53–42 52–41
Belle Vue Aces 63–30 49–41 49–41 50–43 63–28 58–38 55–37 40–32 53–42
Coventry Bees 53–40 38–53 52–41 47–49 51–43 44–51 47–43 54–40 55–39
Eastbourne Eagles 52–42 53–37 42–51 48–45 55–39 51–40 44–46 56–40 45–45
Ipswich Witches 53–41 48–41 51–42 41–50 56–38 45–45 44–49 55–40 51–44
Oxford Silver Machine 46–48 43–52 40–54 50–41 48–46 49–46 49–41 41–49 50–45
Peterborough Panthers 52–39 52–39 52–43 52–43 40–55 48–42 40–50 55–41 47–43
Poole Pirates 55–40 53–41 57–36 50–44 47–43 54–41 52–41 54–40 46–44
Swindon Robins 53–38 46–44 49–41 48–44 49–44 46–43 46–44 45–45 48–42
Wolverhampton Wolves 49–47 40–50 48–45 46–47 47–43 55–38 55–40 56–38 57–33
Source: [6]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

'B' Fixtures

Home \ Away AE BV COV EAS IPS OX PET PP SWI WOL
Arena Essex Hammers 41–51 42–51 43–47 49–41 47–46 39–54 51–44 52–42 36–60
Belle Vue Aces 47–48 51–44 59–35 64–29 52–43 36–39 53–42 52–41 58–38
Coventry Bees 54–42 49–42 58–37 44–46 54–39 53–43 49–44 51–45 48–41
Eastbourne Eagles 56–37 46–43 43–46 58–38 57–35 48–42 46–40 55–39 49–41
Ipswich Witches 64–30 43–47 40–54 55–38 54–40 46–46 51–45 42–42 50–42
Oxford Silver Machine 49–41 41–54 42–52 49–41 45–47 43–47 46–44 51–42 47–43
Peterborough Panthers 61–32 48–42 48–42 62–31 50–43 52–30 48–42 53–43 51–39
Poole Pirates 52–38 53–41 46–47 50–40 44–46 46–44 44–46 50–40 52–43
Swindon Robins 58–35 53–39 47–43 44–46 52–41 54–38 47–43 53–39 48–42
Wolverhampton Wolves 63–31 39–51 38–55 49–41 59–34 45–45 55–41 54–42 53–40
Source: [6]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Play-offs

Semi-final decided over one leg. Grand Final decided by aggregate scores over two legs.

Semi-finals

  • Belle Vue Aces 53-40 Eastbourne Eagles
  • Coventry Bees 55-41 Peterborough Panthers

Final

First leg

Coventry Bees
Sebastian Ułamek 11
Scott Nicholls 10
Morten Risager 9
Billy Janniro 8
Joonas Kylmäkorpi 8
Chris Harris 5
Martin Smolinski 3		54 - 41Belle Vue Aces
Jason Crump 21
Joe Screen 9
Andy Smith 4
Simon Stead 4
Rusty Harrison 2
Jason Lyons 1
R/R

Second leg

Belle Vue Aces
Jason Crump 10
Joe Screen 9
Andy Smith 9
Simon Stead 7
Jason Lyons 4
Rusty Harrison 3
R/R		42 - 47Coventry Bees
Scott Nicholls 11
Chris Harris 9
Billy Janniro 8
Morten Risager 6
Sebastian Ułamek 5
Joonas Kylmäkorpi 4
Martin Smolinski 4

The Coventry Bees were declared League Champions, winning on aggregate 101-83.

Elite League Knockout Cup

The 2005 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 67th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Belle Vue Aces were the winners of the competition.[7]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
21/04 Swindon 60-36 Poole
20/04 Poole 51-41 Swindon
07/04 Ipswich 55-40 Wolverhampton
04/04 Wolverhampton 37-53 Ipswich

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
15/06 Arena Essex 51-40 Ipswich
12/06 Swindon 55-39 Coventry
26/05 Ipswich 52-42 Arena Essex
21/05 Eastbourne 59-36 Peterborough
20/05 Coventry 51-41 Swindon
19/05 Oxford 49-41 Belle Vue
16/05 Belle Vue 59-35 Oxford
13/05 Peterborough 56-37 Eastbourne

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
21/09 Arena Essex 52-41 Eastbourne
18/08 Swindon 37-35 Belle Vue
27/07 Belle Vue 61-32 Swindon
23/07 Eastbourne 55-40 Arena Essex

Final

First leg

Eastbourne Eagles
Nicki Pedersen 17
Adam Shields 10
Davey Watt 9
Dean Barker 5
Andrew Moore 5
Daniel Giffard 0
R/R		46 - 44Belle Vue Aces
Jason Crump 16
Jason Lyons 9
Joe Screen 8
Andy Smith 7
Simon Stead 3
Rusty Harrison 1
R/R

Second leg

Belle Vue Aces
Jason Crump 16
Joe Screen 12
Jason Lyons 11
Simon Stead 5
Andy Smith 5
Rusty Harrison 4
R/R		53 - 37Eastbourne Eagles
Nicki Pedersen 11
Adam Shields 7
Davey Watt 6
Travis McGowan 5
Oliver Allen4
Andrew Moore 4
R/R

The Belle Vue Aces were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 97-83.

Riders' Championship

Nicki Pedersen won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at Abbey Stadium on 28 August.[8]

Pos. Rider Pts Total SF Final
1 Denmark Nicki Pedersen 1 3 3 2 3 12 x 3
2 England Scott Nicholls 0 3 3 2 2 10 2 2
3 Sweden Peter Karlsson 3 1 3 1 2 10 3 1
4 Denmark Bjarne Pedersen 3 1 2 3 3 12 x 0
5 Denmark Charlie Gjedde 3 1 1 3 3 11 1
6 England Lee Richardson 2 0 3 2 3 10 0
7 United States Greg Hancock 2 3 2 0 2 9
8 Australia Jason Crump 2 2 0 2 2 8
9 Poland Krzysztof Kasprzak 0 3 1 3 1 8
10 United States Billy Hamill 3 2 0 - - 5
11 England Mark Loram 2 2 0 1 0 5
12 Czech Republic Aleš Dryml Jr. 0 1 0 3 0 4
13 England David Howe 1 2 0 0 1 4
14 Australia Davey Watt 1 0 2 1 0 4
15 Sweden Freddie Lindgren 0 0 2 1 1 4
16 England Simon Stead 1 0 1 0 1 3

Pairs

The Elite League Pairs Championship was held at the East of England Arena on 27 March and was won by Swindon Robins for the second consecutive year.[9]

Semi finals

  • Belle Vue 5 Arena Essex 4 - Rickardsson, Screen, Crump, Havelock
  • Swindon 7 Wolves 2 - Adams, Richardson, Max Howe

Final

  • Swindon 6 Belle Vue 3 - Adams, Crump, Richardson, Screen

Leading final averages

Rider Team Average
Australia Leigh Adams Swindon 10.42
Australia Jason Crump Belle Vue 10.35
Denmark Nicki Pedersen Eastbourne 10.30
England Scott Nicholls Coventry 9.45
Sweden Peter Karlsson Peterborough 9.48
Denmark Hans Andersen Ipswich 9.44
Sweden Mikael Max Wolverhampton 9.39
United States Greg Hancock Oxford 9.32
Denmark Bjarne Pedersen Poole 9.27
England Lee Richardson Swindon 8.85

Riders & final averages

Arena Essex

Belle Vue

Coventry

Eastbourne

Ipswich

Oxford

Peterborough

Poole

Swindon

Wolverhampton

See also

References

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ "2005 league tables". Speedway GB.
  3. ^ a b "A Year in Summary : 2005". Speedway Plus. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  4. ^ Bamford, Robert (2006). Tempus Speedway Yearbook 2006. NPI Media Group. ISBN 0-7524-3692-9.
  5. ^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
  6. ^ a b "2005 fixtures & results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  7. ^ "2005 Elite League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. ^ "Elite League Riders' Championship". Speedway History. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
  9. ^ "2005 Elite League Pairs". Speedway Updates. Retrieved 20 May 2023.