1981 National League season

The 1981 National League was contested as the second division/tier of Speedway in the United Kingdom.[1]

1981 National League season
LeagueNational League
ChampionsMiddlesbrough Tigers
No. of competitors19
Knockout CupEdinburgh Monarchs
IndividualMike Ferreira
PairsCanterbury Crusaders
FoursEdinburgh Monarchs
Highest averageMike Ferreira
Division/s above1981 British League

Summary

The league started with 20 teams with Nottingham Outlaws dropping out and Wolverhampton Wolves joining up, having moved down from the British League.

Berwick Bandits were forced to quit after 26 league meetings, their record being expunged. Middlesbrough Tigers comfortably won their first ever title.[2][3]

Exeter Falcons rider Tony Sanford died following an accident at the County Ground Stadium on 7 September. He was racing in a match against Milton Keynes when he hit a barrier near the final bend.[4] A memorial trophy was held in subsequent years in his memory.[5]

Final table

[6]

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Middlesbrough Tigers 36 30 1 5 61
2 Weymouth Wildcats 36 26 1 9 53
3 Newcastle Diamonds 36 25 1 10 51
4 Edinburgh Monarchs 36 25 0 11 50
5 Glasgow Tigers 36 24 0 12 48
6 Boston Barracudas 36 22 0 14 44
7 Exeter Falcons 36 22 0 14 44
8 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 36 20 0 16 40
9 Peterborough Panthers 36 19 1 16 39
10 Crayford Kestrels 36 19 0 17 38
11 Ellesmere Port Gunners 36 18 1 17 37
12 Oxford Cheetahs 36 18 1 17 37
13 Wolverhampton Wolves 36 14 1 21 29
14 Canterbury Crusaders 36 14 1 21 29
15 Stoke Potters 36 14 0 22 28
16 Rye House Rockets 36 11 0 25 22
17 Scunthorpe Stags 36 6 1 29 13
18 Workington Comets 36 6 1 29 13
19 Milton Keynes Knights 36 4 0 32 8

National League Knockout Cup

The 1981 National League Knockout Cup was the 14th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Edinburgh Monarchs were the winners of the competition.[7]

First round
Date Team one Score Team two
29/03Mildenhall58-38Canterbury
04/04Canterbury52-44Mildenhall
17/04Ellesmere Port47-49Wolverhampton
19/04Wolverhampton43-53Ellesmere Port
23/04Middlesbrough69-27Glasgow
29/05Glasgow55-40Middlesbrough
11/04Stoke51-45Milton Keynes
07/04Milton Keynes38-58Stoke

Second round
Date Team one Score Team two
29/05Edinburgh65-31Exeter
01/06Exeter56-40Edinburgh
04/06Oxford59-34Scunthorpe
01/06Scunthorpe46-49Oxford
07/06Mildenhall76-20Ellesmere Port
29/05Ellesmere Port30-64Mildenhall
29/05Peterborough70-26Rye House
07/06Rye House32-64Peterborough
06/06Berwick53-42Newcastle
08/06Newcastle52-44Berwick
09/06Weymouth74-20Workington
29/05Workington31-59Weymouth
07/06Boston69-27Crayford
02/06Crayford42-51Boston
07/06Middlesbrough55-41Stoke
06/06Stoke48-48Middlesbrough

Quarter-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
14/08Edinburgh65-31Oxford
13/08Oxford41-54Edinburgh
05/07Mildenhall61-35Peterborough
26/06Peterborough49-47Mildenhall
17/07Berwick51-45Weymouth
14/07Weymouth48-48Berwick
02/08Boston57-39Middlesbrough
?Middlesbrough45-51Boston

Semi-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
27/09Edinburgh64-32Mildenhall
11/09Mildenhall46-50Edinburgh
14/10Berwick64-32Boston
27/09Boston58½-37½Berwick

Final

First leg

Berwick Bandits
Steve McDermott 13
Wayne Brown 11
Mike Caroline 9
Rob Grant 6
Brett Saunders 5
Brian Collins 3
Jim Beaton 2		49 – 46Edinburgh Monarchs
Dave Trownson 10
Neil Collins 9
Ivan Blacka 9
Chris Turner 8
George Hunter 7
Scott Robson 3
Ian Westwell 0
[8]

Second leg

Edinburgh Monarchs
George Hunter 13
Dave Trownson 11
Ivan Blacka 11
Neil Collins 7
Chris Turner 7
Roger Lambert 6
Ian Westwell 0		55 – 40Berwick Bandits
Charlie McKinna (guest) 14
Steve McDermott 9
Mike Caroline 7
Rob Grant 5
Brett Saunders 3
Brian Collins 2
Jim Beaton 0
[8]

Edinburgh were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 101–89.

Riders' Championship

Mike Ferreira won the Riders' Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 26 September 1981.[9]

Pos.RiderPtsTotal
1Zimbabwe Mike Ferreira3 3 3 3 315
2England Simon Wigg1 3 3 3 313
3New Zealand Bruce Cribb3 3 2 0 311
4England Dave Perks3 1 2 2 210
5England Neil Collins2 3 2 2 110
6England Steve Wilcock2 2 1 2 29
7England Steve Lawson2 0 3 38
8England Barry Thomas2 0 3 2 18
9England Kelvin Mullarkey0 2 1 3 28
10England Steve Finch0 2 2 16
11New Zealand Wayne Brown3 25
12England Ian Gledhill0 2 1 14
13England Rob Maxfield1 1 1 1 04
14England David Gagen2 0 1 03
15New Zealand David Bargh1 1 1 03
16Australia Bob Humphreys1 0 01
17England John Barclay11
18England Neville Moore00
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

Pairs

The National League Pairs was held at The Shay on 18 July and was won by Canterbury Crusaders.[10]

Semi finals

  • Canterbury bt Wolverhampton
  • Berwick bt Mildenhall

Final

  • Canterbury bt Berwick

Fours

Edinburgh Monarchs won the fours championship final, held at the East of England Arena on 26 July.[11][12]

Semi finals

  • SF1 = Wolverhampton 16, Edinburgh 16, Mildenhall 13, Crayford 3
  • SF2 = Middlesbrough 16, Newcastle 16, Peterborough 11, Weymouth 4

Final

PosTeamPtsRiders
1Edinburgh Monarchs15Turner 4, Collins 4, Trownson 4, Blacka 3
2Newcastle Diamonds13Bargh 5, Emerson 3, Hunter 3, Blackadder 2
3Middlesbrough Tigers11Courtney 5, Pusey 3, Wilcock 2, Havelock 1
4Wolverhampton Wolves9Burton 5, Evitts 2, Stead 2, Cribb 0

Leading final averages
Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Mike Ferreira Zimbabwe Canterbury Crusaders 10.87
2 Steve Lawson England Glasgow Tigers 10.55
3 Mark Courtney England Middlesbrough Tigers 10.44
4 Les Rumsey England Weymouth 10.19
5 Dave Perks England Oxford Cheetahs 10.13

Riders & final averages

Berwick (withdrew from league)

Boston

Canterbury

Crayford

  • Barry Thomas 9.02
  • Alan Sage 7.88
  • Laurie Etheridge 6.90
  • Mike Pither 5.72
  • Trevor Barnwell 5.70
  • Mike Spinks 4.83
  • Paul Hollingsbee 4.47
  • Keith Pritchard 4.15
  • Paul Bosley 2.24

Edinburgh

Ellesmere Port

Exeter

  • Rob Maxfield 9.07
  • Bob Coles 8.24
  • Martin Hewlett 8.10
  • John Barker 7.85
  • Les Sawyer 7.68
  • Andy Campbell 6.53
  • Keith Wright 6.00
  • John Williams 5.99
  • Keith Millard 4.30
  • Tony Sanford 3.20

Glasgow

  • Steve Lawson 10.55
  • Charlie McKinna 8.04
  • Kenny McKinna 7.57
  • Nigel Close 7.08
  • Harry MacLean 6.02
  • Colin Caffrey 5.80
  • Andy Reid 5.52
  • Ray Palmer 4.44
  • Alan Mason 2.74

Middlesbrough

Mildenhall

Milton Keynes

  • Bob Humphreys 9.14
  • Graham Plant 6.38
  • Andy Hibbs 6.00
  • Mick Blaynee 4.77
  • Barry Allaway 4.41
  • Mark Baldwin 4.36
  • Steve Payne 4.30
  • Nigel Davis 4.20
  • Brett Alderton 4.15

Newcastle

Oxford

Peterborough

  • Richard Greer 8.20
  • Andy Hines 8.04
  • Dave Allen 7.69
  • Mick Hines 7.58
  • Andy Fisher 6.08
  • Nigel Couzens 5.97
  • Andy Buck 5.32
  • Ian Barney 4.91

Rye House

Scunthorpe

  • Kevin Teager 7.56
  • Nicky Allott 7.51
  • Mark DeKok 5.71
  • Tony Featherstone 5.33
  • Rob Woffinden 5.19
  • Tony Childs 3.62
  • Graeme Beardsley 3.45
  • Julian Parr 2.99
  • Phil Kynman 2.73

Stoke

  • Pete Smith 8.28
  • Mike Sampson 7.97
  • Arthur Browning 6.68
  • Rob Lightfoot 6.55
  • Mark Collins 6.29
  • Rod North 6.11
  • Steve Sant 6.06
  • Ian Robertson 3.87

Weymouth

  • Les Rumsey 10.19
  • Martin Yeates 10.12
  • Simon Wigg 10.07
  • Brian Woodward 7.11
  • Malcolm Shakespeare 7.02
  • Terry Tulloch 5.91
  • Steve Crockett 5.68
  • Steve Schofield 5.64
  • Bob Coles 5.22

Wolverhampton

  • Bruce Cribb 9.99
  • Les Rumsey 8.77
  • Neil Evitts 7.80
  • Billy Burton 6.74
  • Tony Boyle 5.95
  • Paul Stead 5.51
  • Mike Wilding 4.11
  • Rob Carter 3.55
  • John Hough 3.49
  • Steve Crockett 1.41

Workington

  • Terry Kelly 6.97
  • Wayne Jackson 6.22
  • Mark Dickinson 5.67
  • Guy Wilson 4.47
  • Des Wilson 4.42
  • Kevin Clapham 3.67
  • David Blackburn 3.51
  • John Frankland 2.69
  • Michael Irving 0.89

See also

References
  1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  3. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  4. "Tony Sanford". Motorsport memorial. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  5. "PLYMOUTH: TONY SANFORD MEMORIAL TROPHY - PREVIEW". Speedway GB. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
  6. "About - Exeter Speedway 1981". Archived from the original on 2012-10-23. Retrieved 2012-08-21.
  7. "1981 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. "1981 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  9. "Tigers crash out". Cambridge Daily News. 28 September 1981. Retrieved 20 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. "1981 season results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 22 May 2023.
  11. "Tigers miss the boat in four teams final". Cambridge Daily News. 27 July 1981. Retrieved 23 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. "1981 full season results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
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