1987 National League season

In 1987 the National League, also known as British League Division Two, was the second tier of speedway racing in the United Kingdom.[1]

1987 National League season
LeagueNational League
ChampionsEastbourne Eagles
No. of competitors16
Knockout CupEastbourne Eagles
IndividualAndrew Silver
PairsMildenhall Fen Tigers
FoursMildenhall Fen Tigers
Highest averageAndrew Silver
Division/s above1987 British League

Team changes

Glasgow Tigers were without a home so they joined the 1987 season based at Workington's Derwent Park.[2]

Mid-season withdrawals

On 31 July, Glasgow Tigers (now called Workington Tigers held their last fixture against Stoke.[2] The following day on 1 August, Boston Barracudas withdrew after a heavy home defeat to Eastbourne. Both Glasgow-Workington and Boston had their results expunged.[3]

Summary

The league champions that year were Eastbourne Eagles.[4][5]

Final table
Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Eastbourne Eagles 30 22 0 8 44
2 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 30 20 1 9 41
3 Milton Keynes Knights 30 19 1 10 39
4 Stoke Potters 30 18 1 11 37
5 Peterborough Panthers 30 18 0 12 36
6 Berwick Bandits 30 17 1 22 35
7 Wimbledon Dons 30 14 2 14 30
8 Poole Pirates 30 15 0 15 30
9 Middlesbrough Tigers 30 13 3 14 29
10 Edinburgh Monarchs 30 13 2 15 28
11 Newcastle Diamonds 30 12 2 16 26
12 Arena Essex Hammers 30 12 1 17 25
13 Canterbury Crusaders 30 11 1 18 23
14 Exeter Falcons 30 11 1 18 23
15 Long Eaton Invaders 30 8 1 21 17
16 Rye House Rockets 30 8 1 21 17

National League Knockout Cup

The 1987 National League Knockout Cup was the 20th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Eastbourne Eagles were the winners of the competition for the third successive year.[6]

First round
Date Team one Score Team two
24/05Mildenhall66-30Rye House
17/05Rye House24-24aMildenhall
25/04Berwick64-32Newcastle
20/04Newcastle51-44Berwick

a=Abandoned

Second round
Date Team one Score Team two
10/07Peterborough57-39Middlesbrough
21/06Glasgow47-49Edinburgh
21/06Peterborough34-32aMiddlesbrough
20/06Berwick65-31Long Eaton
19/06Edinburgh65-31Glasgow
18/06Middlesbrough56-40Peterborough
17/06Long Eaton51-45Berwick
17/06Mildenhall64-31Exeter
16/06Poole51-45Eastbourne
15/06Exeter51-45Mildenhall
14/06Eastbourne62-33Poole
01/06Arena Essex52-44Wimbledon
30/05Canterbury61-35Boston
25/05Rye House47-48Mildenhall
20/05Wimbledon48-48Arena Essex
16/05Stoke60-36Milton Keynes
12/05Milton Keynes50-46Stoke
10/05Boston50-46Canterbury

a=Abandoned

Quarter-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
01/08Stoke49-29Peterborough
31/07Edinburgh45-50Eastbourne
25/07Berwick46-50Mildenhall
25/07Canterbury54-42Arena Essex
25/07Eastbourne56-40Edinburgh
24/07Peterborough50-46Stoke
09/07Arena Essex60-36Canterbury
01/07Mildenhall61-35Berwick

Semi-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
31/08Mildenhall60-36Arena Essex
23/08Eastbourne57-39Stoke
20/08Arena Essex51-45Mildenhall
15/08Stoke53-42Eastbourne

Final

First leg

Mildenhall Fen Tigers
Melvyn Taylor 12
Dave Jessup 11
David Jackson 10
Glen Baxter 8
Eric Monaghan 5
Richard Green 4
Lee Farthing 0		50 – 46Eastbourne Eagles
Martin Dugard 14
Gordon Kennett 13
Andy Buck 9
Dean Standing 5
Dean Barker 2
Keith Pritchard 2
Darren Standing 1
[7][8]

Second leg

Eastbourne Eagles
Dean Standing 11
Andy Buck 11
Gordon Kennett 10
Martin Dugard 9
Dean Barker 6
Keith Pritchard 5
Darren Standing 2		54 – 41Mildenhall Fen Tigers
Melvyn Taylor 12
Dave Jessup 11
David Jackson 11
Richard Green 5
Eric Monaghan 1
Paul Blackbird 1
Glen Baxter 0
[7][8]

Eastbourne were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 100–91.

Riders' Championship

Andrew Silver won the Riders' Championship. The final sponsored by Jawa Moto & Barum was held on 12 September 1987 at Brandon Stadium.[9]

Pos.RiderPtsTotal
1England Andrew Silver3 3 3 3 315
2England Nigel Crabtree3 3 3 3 214
3England David Blackburn2 2 1 3 210+3
4England Les Collins1 3 3 2 110+2
5England David Biles1 2 2 2 310+1
6England Dave Mullett2 1 2 2 29
7England Martin Dixon3 2 2 1 08
8England Dave Jessupef 3 3 2 08
9England Kevin Jolly2 0 1 1 37
10England Martin Dugard3 2 0 fr 27
11England Trevor Banks0 1 2 3 06
12England Paul Woods1 1 1 0 36
13England Steve Lawson2 0 0 1 14
14England Nigel Sparshott0 0 1 0 12
15England Ian Barney0 1 0 0 12
16England Rob Woffinden1 tex ef 1 02
17England Wayne Broadhurstr0
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure t-touched tapes

Pairs

The National League Pairs was held at Wimborne Road on 26 July and was won by Mildenhall Fen Tigers.[10][11]

Semi finals

  • Peterborough (Hawkins & Barney) bt Stoke (Crabtree & Stead) 6-3
  • Mildenhall (Jessup & Taylor) bt Eastbourne (Kennett & Dugard) 6-3

Final

  • Mildenhall bt Peterborough 6-3

Fours

Mildenhall won the fours championship final. The first semi final was held at Peterborough on 9 August but the remaining semi final and final were cancelled due to heavy rain. The re-run was not held until 16 October at Hackney.[12]

Semi finals

  • SF1 = Mildenhall 18, Arena Essex 16, Berwick 8, Poole 6
  • SF2 = 1 Eastbourne, 2 Wimbledon, 3 Middlesbrough 4 Peterborough

Final

PosTeamPtsRiders
1Mildenhall Fen Tigers31Taylor 10, Monaghan 9, Jackson 6, Jessup 6
2Arena Essex Hammers30Silver 12, Goodwin 10, G Chessell 5 M Chessell 3
3Eastbourne Eagles27Buck 8, Kennett 8, Dean Standing 4, Pritchard 4 Dugard 3
4Wimbledon Dons7Tatum 5, Johns 1 Simpson 1, Jolly 0, Mussett 0

Leading averages
Rider Team Average
Andrew SilverArena Essex10.66
Martin DugardEastbourne10.40
Melvyn TaylorMildenhall10.38
Nigel CrabtreeStoke10.20
Martin DixonMiddlesbrough10.01
Les CollinsEdinburgh9.96
Dave JessupMildenhall9.92
Steve SchofieldPoole9.54
Kevin JollyWimbledon9.48
Gordon KennettEastbourne9.40

Riders & final averages

Arena Essex

Berwick

  • Charlie McKinna 8.08
  • Steve McDermott 8.00
  • Phil White 7.88
  • Rob Woffinden 7.68
  • Rob Grant Sr. 6.93
  • Ian Stead 6.85
  • Wayne Ross 6.45
  • Sean Courtney 6.06
  • Paul McHale 4.57

Boston (withdrew from league)

  • Andy Hines 8.17
  • Carl Baldwin 6.35
  • Phil White 5.81
  • Andy Fisher 4.96
  • Wally Hill 3.60
  • Jonathan Cooper 3.32
  • Gary Clegg 3.29
  • Jamie Young 3.27
  • Chris Mulvihill 1.75

Canterbury

  • Dave Mullett 8.62
  • Mike Spink 7.51
  • Rob Tilbury 7.15
  • Paul Whittaker 6.93
  • Paul Evitts 6.33
  • Mark Lyndon 5.63
  • Richard Pettman 3.95
  • Carl Chalcraft 3.76
  • Jimmy Goodsell 2.00

Eastbourne

Edinburgh

  • Les Collins 9.96
  • Doug Wyer 8.40
  • Brett Saunders 7.77
  • Dave Trownson 6.90
  • Chris Cobby 6.15
  • Scott Lamb 5.55
  • Phil Jeffrey 4.73
  • Jamie Young 2.87
  • Ray Taaffe 2.82
  • Colin Smith 1.00
  • Shaun Bickley 0.71

Exeter

Glasgow (withdrew from league)

  • Steve Lawson 8.48
  • Gordon Whitaker 7.16
  • Martin McKinna 5.35
  • Jacko Irving 4.63
  • Derek Cooper 3.35
  • Geoff Powell 3.10
  • Jim Graham 2.59

Long Eaton

Middlesbrough

Mildenhall

Milton Keynes

Newcastle

Peterborough

Poole

Rye House

  • Paul Woods 8.11
  • Barry Thomas 6.93
  • Jamie Luckhurst 6.40
  • Kevin Brice 5.10
  • Linden Warner 4.99
  • Kevin Teager 4.81
  • Gary Rolls 4.44
  • Rob Parish 4.15
  • Steve Bryenton 4.00
  • Julian Parr 3.51

Stoke

  • Nigel Crabtree 10.20
  • Darren Sumner 8.03
  • Graham Jones 7.94
  • Paul Stead 7.38
  • Mike Wilding 6.34
  • Derek Richardson 5.16
  • Bobby Duncan 3.71

Wimbledon

See also

References
  1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. "Workington Speedway". Defunct Speedway. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  3. "Year by Year". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  4. Oakes, P.(2006). Speedway Star Almanac. ISBN 0-9552376-1-0
  5. "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  6. "1987 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  7. "1987 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  8. "Mildenhall 1987 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  9. "Nigel makes up for NLRC second". Staffordshire Sentinel. 14 September 1987. Retrieved 21 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. "1987 fixtures" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  11. "Tigers triumph". Cambridge Daily News. 27 July 1987. Retrieved 25 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. "Fantastic Fours!". Cambridge Daily News. 31 October 1987. Retrieved 8 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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