1977 National League season

The 1977 National League was contested as the second division of Speedway in the United Kingdom.[1][2]

1977 National League season
LeagueNational League
ChampionsEastbourne Eagles
No. of competitors19
Knockout CupEastbourne Eagles
IndividualColin Richardson
PairsBoston Barracudas
FoursPeterborough Panthers
Highest averageTom Owen
Division/s above1977 British League

Summary

Newport had moved down from the British League. Their riders were transferred to Bristol Bulldogs but they acquired new riders and were renamed Newport Dragons. Paisley Lions dropped out so the league had 19 teams, the same as the previous season. Part way through the season, Coatbridge Tigers relocated and changed name to Glasgow Tigers.

Eastbourne Eagles won the National League title, completing a league and cup double.[3][4] Eastbournes's star rider was Colin Richardson, who won the Riders' Championship and averaged 10.70 for the season. He was backed up by Mike Sampson, who also surpassed a 10 average and Dave Kennett (8.37 average) and a member of Eastbourne's 1971 winning team.[5]

Joe Owen, the leading rider of 1976 had moved from champions Newcastle Diamonds to join British League side Hull Vikings. Newcastle were unable to compensate for the loss and finished in 6th place, despite Joe's brother Tom Owen finishing top of the averages.[5]

Final table
Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Eastbourne Eagles 36 29 0 7 58
2 Rye House Rockets 36 24 3 9 51
3 Ellesmere Port Gunners 36 22 2 12 46
4 Canterbury Crusaders 36 23 0 13 46
5 Peterborough Panthers 36 22 0 14 44
6 Newcastle Diamonds 36 21 1 14 43
7 Boston Barracudas 36 20 0 16 40
8 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 36 16 4 16 36
9 Teesside Tigers 36 17 1 18 35
10 Crayford Kestrels 36 17 0 19 34
11 Glasgow Tigers 36 16 0 20 32
12 Newport Dragons 36 16 0 20 32
13 Oxford Cheetahs 36 15 1 20 31
14 Scunthorpe Saints 36 15 1 20 31
15 Edinburgh Monarchs 36 15 0 21 30
16 Workington Comets 36 14 1 21 29
17 Weymouth Wizards 36 11 3 22 25
18 Berwick Bandits 36 11 1 24 23
19 Stoke Potters 36 9 0 27 18

Top Five Riders (League Averages)
Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Tom Owen England Newcastle Diamonds 11.01
2 Colin Richardson England Eastbourne Eagles 10.70
3 Martin Yeates England Oxford Cheetahs 10.59
4 John Jackson England Ellesmere Port Gunners 10.22
5 Mike Sampson England Eastbourne Eagles 10.18

National League Knockout Cup

The 1977 National League Knockout Cup was the tenth edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Eastbourne Eagles were the winners of the competition.[6]

First round
Date Team one Score Team two
03/04Eastbourne55-23Canterbury
23/04Canterbury26-52Eastbourne
14/04Oxford44-34Rye House
17/04Rye House44-34Oxford
22/04Edinburgh48-30Scunthorpe
25/04Scunthorpe43-34Edinburgh
02/06
replay		Oxford45-32Rye House
29/05
replay		Rye House42-36Oxford

Second round
Date Team one Score Team two
15/05Eastbourne54-23Crayford
03/05Crayford35-43Eastbourne
22/05Newcastle49-29Glasgow
29/04Glasgow47-30Newcastle
17/05Ellesmere Port46-32Workington
03/06Workington42-36Ellesmere Port
12/06Oxford50-28Newport
23/06Newport41-37Oxford
28/05Berwick46-32Teesside
02/06Teesside44-34Berwick
27/05Edinburgh44-34Stoke
21/05Stoke40-38Edinburgh
22/05Boston43-34Weymouth
24/05Weymouth35-43Boston
20/05Peterborough44-34Mildenhall
22/05Mildenhall38-40Peterborough

Quarter-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
10/07Eastbourne54-24Newcastle
08/08Newcastle34-43Eastbourne
26/07Ellesmere Port46½-31½Oxford
14/07Oxford37-41Ellesmere Port
25/06Berwick46-32Edinburgh
15/07Edinburgh41-37Berwick
17/07Boston45-33Peterborough
01/07Peterborough40-38Boston

Semi-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
25/09Eastbourne57-21Ellesmere Port
02/09Ellesmere Port50-28Eastbourne
27/08Berwick45-33Boston
19/08Boston38-40Berwick

Final

First leg

Berwick Bandits
Willie Templeton 9
Graham Jones 9
Dave Gifford 7
Mike Hiftle 6
Wayne Brown 5
Robin Adlington 4
Colin Caffrey 1		41 – 37Eastbourne Eagles
Colin Richardson 13
Mike Sampson 11
Steve Naylor 7
Eric Dugard 5
Paul Woods 1
Roger Abel 0
Dave Kennett 0
[7]

Second leg

Eastbourne Eagles
Colin Richardson 12
Mike Sampson 11
Steve Naylor 9
Eric Dugard 9
Dave Kennett 7
Roger Abel 7
Paul Woods 6		61 – 16Berwick Bandits
Brendan Shilleto (guest) 6
Graham Jones 5
Willie Templeton 2
Mike Hiftle 2
Ian Darling 1
Dave Gifford 0
Colin Caffrey 0
[7]

Eastbourne were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 98–57.

Riders' Championship

Colin Richardson won the Riders' Championship, sponsored by Gauloises and held at Wimbledon Stadium on 24 September.[8]

Pos.RiderPtsTotal
1England Colin Richardson3 3 3 3 315
2England Martin Yeates3 3 2 3 213+3
3England Tom Owen3 3 3 3 113+2
4England Kelvin Mullarkey3 2 3 2 212
5England Rob Hollingworth2 3 1 2 311
6England John Jackson2 3 1 2 310
7Australia Steve Koppe1 2 1 2 39
8England Laurie Etheridge2 1 0 2 27
9Australia Stuart Mountford0 0 2 1 25
10Scotland Bert Harkins1 1 1 1 15
11England Alan Emerson0 0 0 1 34
12Australia Danny Kennedy0 2 2 0 ex4
13Wales Brian Woodward2 0 1 1 04
14Scotland Brian Collins0 1 2 0 03
15England Bob Coles1 1 0 ef 03
16England Steve Lawson1 0 f 0 12
17England Ian Clark (res)00
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

Pairs

The National League Pairs was held at Hyde Road on 4 June and was won by Boston Barracudas.[9]

Semi finals

  • Boston bt Canterbury
  • Newport bt Oxford

Final

  • Boston bt Newport

Fours

Peterborough won the fours championship final, held at the East of England Arena on 7 August.[10][11]

Semi finals

  • SF1 = Eastbourne 21, Stoke 12, Ellesmere Port 8, Boston 7
  • SF2 = Canterbury 18, Peterborough 14, Newcastle 9, Oxford 7

Final

PosTeamPtsRiders
1Peterborough Panthers17Clark I 6, Hawkins 5, Hines 5, Flatman 1, Clark B 0
2Canterbury Crusaders14Banks 6, Koppe 3, Spelta 3, Kennett 2
3Eastbourne Eagles13Richardson 5, Sampson 5, Dugard 2, Abel 1
4Stoke Potters4Mountford 2, Nunan 1, Gledhill 1, Robertson 0

Leading final averages
Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Tom Owen England Newcastle Diamonds 10.82
2 Colin Richardson England Eastbourne Eagles 10.63
3 Martin Yeates England Oxford Cheetahs 10.53
4 Mike Sampson England Eastbourne Eagles 10.09
5 John Jackson England Ellesmere Port Gunners 10.07

Riders & final averages

Berwick

  • Graham Jones 7.85
  • Robin Adlington 7.01
  • Mike Hiftle 6.65
  • Willie Templeton 5.76
  • Dave Gifford 5.69
  • Terry Kelly 4.44
  • Keith Williams 4.00
  • Noel Suckling 3.86
  • Wayne Brown 3.85
  • Colin Caffrey 3.47

Boston

  • Rob Hollingworth 9.90
  • Carl Glover 7.84
  • Colin Cook 7.68
  • Paul Gilbert 7.04
  • Steve Clarke 6.48
  • Billy Burton 6.27
  • Dave Piddock 5.75
  • Dave Allen 5.45
  • Stuart Cope 5.37
  • Ron Cooper 5.25

Canterbury

Coatbridge/Glasgow

  • Brian Collins 8.94
  • Mick McKeon 7.95
  • Grahame Dawson 7.65
  • Rob Maxfield 7.13
  • Derek Richardson 5.41
  • Merv Janke 4.75
  • Benny Rourke 4.57
  • Jimmy Gallacher 4.35
  • Nicky Hollingworth 2.87

Crayford

Eastbourne

Edinburgh

Ellesmere Port

Mildenhall

  • Bob Coles 8.81
  • Trevor Jones 7.05
  • Robert Henry 6.66
  • Mike Spink 6.40
  • Mick Bates 6.22
  • Neil Leeks 5.83
  • John Gibbons 5.66
  • Fred Mills 5.64
  • Melvyn Taylor 4.63

Newcastle

  • Tom Owen 10.82
  • Robbie Blackadder 8.61
  • Ron Henderson 7.72
  • Phil Kynman 7.22
  • Robbie Gardner 6.35
  • Neil Coddington .06
  • Phil Micheledies 4.75
  • Eddie Argall 4.43
  • Rob Maxfield 2.78
  • Robin Dixon 2.19
  • Nigel Crabtree 1.47

Newport

  • Jim Brett 8.84
  • Brian Woodward 8.31
  • John Goodall 7.61
  • Mike Broadbank 6.52
  • Cliff Anderson 5.26
  • Chris Robins 5.18
  • Malc Bedkober 5.00
  • Dave Shepherd 2.88

Oxford

Peterborough

Rye House

Scunthorpe

  • Nicky Allott 8.29
  • Arthur Browning 7.69
  • John McNeil 7.22
  • Sid Sheldrick 5.86
  • Dave Baugh 5.76
  • Trevor Whiting 5.09
  • Paul Cooper 4.80
  • Phil White 4.75
  • Danny Young 4.21

Stoke

  • Stuart Mountford 8.15
  • Tim Nunan 7.3
  • Ian Gledhill 6.67
  • Carl Askew 6.49
  • Ian Robertson 6.26
  • Mick Fishwick 5.65
  • Steve McDermott 5.29
  • Rob Dole 4.50
  • Colin Farquharson 4.11
  • Ian Jeffcoate 3.86
  • Trevor Vincent/Charley 3.37

Teesside

  • Alan Emerson 8.56
  • Steve Wilcock 6.84
  • Pete Reading 6.16
  • Pete Smith 6.09
  • Nigel Close 5.14
  • Martyn Cusworth 4.95
  • John Robson 4.80
  • Mike Beaumont 4.67
  • Harry MacLean 2.56

Weymouth

  • Danny Kennedy 8.65
  • Vic Harding 7.95
  • Malcolm Corradine 7.91
  • Chris Robins 6.14
  • Sean Willmott 5.65
  • Rob Jones 5.59
  • Geoff Swindells 5.27
  • Richard Evans 5.24
  • Chris Julian 4.77
  • Roger Stratton 4.58

Workington

  • Steve Lawson 8.19
  • Brian Havelock 7.82
  • Mick Newton 6.47
  • Ian Hindle 6.37
  • Roger Wright 5.61
  • Colin Goad 5.49
  • Terry Kelly 4.65
  • Mark Dickinson 3.14
  • Chris Bevan 3.04
  • Andy Reid 3.04

See also

References
  1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  3. "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  4. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  5. "Teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  6. "1977 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  7. "1977 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  8. "Stuart's five". Staffordshire Sentinel. 26 September 1977. Retrieved 17 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. "1977 season results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 20 May 2023.
  10. "Speedway". Lincolnshire Free Press. 9 August 1977. Retrieved 9 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. Oakes, Peter (1978). 1978 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 39. ISBN 978-0904584509.
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