1975 New National League season

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]

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

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.[2] The latter closed for good.[3] Four new teams entered; the Newcastle Diamonds and Crayford Kestrels both returned for their first seasons since 1970, while Mildenhall Fen Tigers and Paisley Lions both competed in their inaugural seasons.[2]

Birmingham Brummies, winners of the last British League Division Two, retained their title[4] and were promoted to the British League for 1976.[5][6] 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.[2]

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 Diamonds 10.89
2 Tom Owen England Newcastle Diamonds 10.78
3 Alan Molyneux England Stoke Potters 10.10
4 Paul Gachet England Eastbourne Eagles 10.08
5 Les Rumsey England Canterbury Crusaders 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.[7]

First round
Date Team one Score Team two
15/04Ellesmere Port43-35Coatbridge
11/04Coatbridge50-28Ellesmere Port
14/04Newcastle44-34Berwick
05/04Berwick40-38Newcastle
21/03Peterborough42-36Boston
16/03Boston40-38Peterborough
14/04Birmingham51-27Crayford
15/04Crayford37-40Birmingham

Second round
Date Team one Score Team two
05/05Scunthorpe38-40Teesside
01/05Teesside45-32Scunthorpe
30/05Coatbridge39-39Newcastle
19/05Newcastle50-27Coatbridge
10/05Paisley43-34Workington
30/05Workington45-33Paisley
05/05Crewe38-40Bradford
14/05Bradford48-30Crewe
09/05Peterborough49-29Weymouth
29/04Weymouth50-28Peterborough
11/05Rye House31-46Birmingham
05/05Birmingham60-18Rye House
10/05Canterbury40-37Eastbourne
11/05Eastbourne49-29Canterbury

Quarter-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
07/08Teesside32-46Newcastle
28/07Newcastle54-24Teesside
24/08Workington47-31Stoke
21/08Stoke42-36Workington
23/09Weymouth42-36Eastbourne
09/07Bradford47-31Weymouth
14/07Birmingham41-37Eastbourne
06/07Eastbourne45-33Birmingham

Semi-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
19/09Workington48-30Newcastle
15/09Newcastle48-30Workington
23/09Weymouth42-36Eastbourne
21/09Eastbourne60-18Weymouth
29/09
replay		Newcastle37-41Workington
26/09
replay		Workington51-27Newcastle

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
[8]

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
[8]

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.[9]

Pos.RiderPtsTotal
1England Laurie Etheridge3 2 2 3 313+3
2Scotland Brian Collins3 3 3 3 113+2
3England Arthur Browning2 2 3 1 210+3
4England Les Rumsey2 3 0 2 310+2
5England Michael Lee1 1 3 2 310+1
6England John Jackson3 1 3 1 19
7England Tom Leadbitter0 2 2 1 38
8England Joe Owen2 0 1 3 28
9England Paul Gachet3 3 fex 2 08
10England Bob Coles2 2 2 0 17
11England Brian Clark0 1 2 3 f6
12England Alan Molyneux1 1 1 0 25
13England Brian Foote0 f 1 2 25
14England Colin Meredith1 0 1 14
15Australia Lou Sansom0 3 0 0 03
16England Tony Childs1 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.[10]

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 Diamonds 10.65
2 Tom Owen England Newcastle Diamonds 10.65
3 Alan Molyneux England Stoke Potters 10.14
4 Les Rumsey England Canterbury Crusaders 9.90
5 Paul Gachet England Eastbourne Eagles 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

  • Graham Drury 8.70
  • Chris Turner 8.13
  • Nigel Wasley 7.75
  • Chris Emery 6.3
  • Ricky Day 6.06
  • Stuart Cope 5.83
  • Les Collins 5.25
  • Max Brown 4.99
  • Geoff Ambrose 4.96
  • Cliff Anderson 4.90
  • Ian Robertson 3.27

Eastbourne

Ellesmere Port

  • John Jackson 9.78
  • Colin Goad 7.13
  • Wayne Hughes 6.76
  • Nicky Allott 6.41
  • Duncan Meredith 5.78
  • Mick McKeon 4.86
  • Steve Casey 4.52
  • Gerald Smitherman 4.37
  • Barry Booth 4.00
  • Andy Reid 3.68

Mildenhall

  • Bob Coles 8.82
  • Chris Julian 6.74
  • Stan Stevens 6.02
  • John Gibbons 5.93
  • Kevin Jolly 5.76
  • John McNeil 4.77
  • Paul Clipstone 3.59
  • Paul Gilbert 3.43
  • Fred Mills 2.97

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

  • Brian Clark 9.00
  • Russ Osborne 7.14
  • Roy Carter 6.67
  • Ken Matthews 6.66
  • Mike Cake 5.53
  • Jack Walker 4.70
  • Ian Clark 4.36
  • Roy Sizmore 4.33
  • Steve Taylor 3.52
  • Phil Cornwell 1.33

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

  • Tom Leadbitter 9.40
  • Doug Underwood 8.34
  • Alan Emerson 8.33
  • Roger Wright 7.68
  • Dave Durham 6.05
  • Pete Reading 5.69
  • Harry MacLean 5.25
  • Trevor Stead 3.44
  • David Levings 3.08
  • Colin Pestell 2.83
  • Ian Silk 2.29

Weymouth

  • Martin Yeates 8.31
  • Brian Woodward 7.77
  • Vic Harding 6.82
  • Chris Robins 5.15
  • Geoff Swindells 4.77
  • Nigel Couzens 4.73
  • Melvin Soffe 4.24
  • Tony Freegard 3.59
  • Ricky Owen 3.09
  • Roger Stratton 2.86

Workington

See also

References
  1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. "teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  3. "Sunderland Speedway". Defunct Speedway. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  4. Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  5. "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  6. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  7. "1975 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. "1975 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  9. "Lee's title bid fails". Cambridge Daily News. 29 September 1975. Retrieved 17 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. "1975 season results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
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