1974 British League Division Two season

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1974 British League Division Two season
LeagueBritish League Division Two
No. of competitors19
ChampionsBirmingham Brummies
Knockout CupBirmingham Brummies
IndividualCarl Glover
Highest averagePhil Herne
Division/s aboveBritish League (Div 1)

The 1974 British League Division Two season was the second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain. It was the final season of British League Division Two before it was renamed as the New National League.[1]

Summary

[edit]

The league was again expanded by one team from 18 to 19 teams. Weymouth Wizards were the new addition to the league, returning to action after five years out. Additionally there were two in and two out; Hull Vikings had moved up to the British League swapping places with Coatbridge Tigers and also swapping their top riders. Rayleigh Rockets closed down but the promotion, riders and nickname moved to Rye House. It was the first season of league speedway at Rye House since the 1959 Southern Area League.[2][3]

There were a few changes of nicknames; the Chesterton Potters changed their team name to the Stoke Potters, Bradford became the Barons, Sunderland became the Gladiators and Long Eaton raced as the Archers.[4]

Birmingham Brummies won their first title, completing a league and cup double.[5][6] Australian Phil Herne improved his average by over 3 points from the 1973 season and Arthur Browning also exceeded a 10 average, the two factors proved to be the catalyst for Birmingham's success. John Hart and George Major both scored heavily throughout the season too.[2]

Final table

[edit]
Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Birmingham Brummies 35 26 3 6 55
2 Eastbourne Eagles 36 24 3 9 51
3 Boston Barracudas 36 23 2 11 48
4 Workington Comets 36 22 3 11 47
5 Crewe Kings 36 22 0 14 44
6 Teesside Tigers 36 19 1 16 39
7 Bradford Barons 36 19 1 16 39
8 Peterborough Panthers 34 18 1 15 37
9 Coatbridge Tigers 36 18 0 18 36
10 Canterbury Crusaders 36 18 0 18 36
11 Berwick Bandits 36 16 1 19 33
12 Barrow Bombers 36 15 2 19 32
13 Stoke Potters 36 16 0 20 32
14 Ellesmere Port Gunners 35 14 3 18 31
15 Long Eaton Archers 36 14 2 20 30
16 Rye House Rockets 36 13 0 23 26
17 Scunthorpe Saints 36 10 2 24 22
18 Sunderland Gladiators 36 11 0 25 22
19 Weymouth Wizards 36 10 0 26 20

Top Five Riders (League Averages)

[edit]
Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Phil Herne Australia Birmingham 10.78
2 Carl Glover England Boston 10.44
3 Mitch Graham England Workington 10.29
4 Arthur Browning England Birmingham 10.17
5 John Jackson England Crewe 10.07

British League Division Two Knockout Cup

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The 1974 British League Division Two Knockout Cup was the seventh edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Birmingham Brummies were the winners of the competition.[7]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
02/04 Barrow 36-42 Stoke
29/04 Crewe 43-35 Workington
04/04 Stoke 46-31 Barrow
12/04 Sunderland 37-41 Teesside
18/04 Teesside 55-22 Sunderland
03/05 Workington 46-32 Crewe

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
25/05 Berwick 29-49 Workington
20/05 Birmingham 47-31 Long Eaton
19/05 Boston 49-28 Weymouth
22/05 Bradford 43-34 Ellesmere Port
04/05 Canterbury 44-34 Eastbourne
03/05 Coatbridge 55-23 Scunthorpe
05/05 Eastbourne 47-31 Canterbury
21/05 Ellesmere Port 52-26 Bradford
13/06 Long Eaton 37-40 Birmingham
24/05 Peterborough 52-26 Rye House
05/05 Rye House 36-42 Peterborough
27/05 Scunthorpe 44-34 Coatbridge
17/05 Stoke 51-27 Teesside
23/05 Teesside 32-45 Stoke
14/05 Weymouth 44-34 Boston
24/05 Workington 50-28 Berwick

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
01/07 Birmingham 48-30 Boston
14/07 Boston 39-39 Birmingham
02/08 Coatbridge 48-30 Stoke
14/07 Eastbourne 50-28 Workington
18/06 Ellesmere Port 40-38 Peterborough
21/06 Peterborough 46-31 Ellesmere Port
18/07 Stoke 40-38 Coatbridge
26/07 Workington 43-35 Eastbourne

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
09/09 Birmingham 58-20 Peterborough
23/08 Coatbridge 48-29 Eastbourne
01/09 Eastbourne 56-21 Coatbridge
06/09 Peterborough 41-37 Birmingham

Final

[edit]

First leg

Eastbourne Eagles
Paul Gachet 12
Martin Yeates 9
Neil Middleditch 8
Pete Jarman 7
Bobby McNeil 7
Mike Sampson 2
Trevor Geer 2		47 – 31Birmingham Brummies
Arthur Browning 11
Phil Herne 10
John Hart 4
George Major 4
Keith Anderson 1
Carl Askew 1
Ricky Day R/R
[8]

Second leg

Birmingham Brummies
Phil Herne 12
Arthur Browning 11
George Major 10
John Hart 7
Keith Anderson 7
Ricky Day 2
Carl Askew 1		50 – 27Eastbourne Eagles
Pete Jarman 9
Neil Middleditch 8
Paul Gachet 7
Trevor Geer 2
Martin Yeates 1
Bobby McNeil 0
Mike Sampson 0
[8]

Birmingham were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 81–74.

Leading final averages

[edit]
Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Phil Herne Australia Birmingham 10.48
2 Carl Glover England Boston 10.29
3 Arthur Browning England Birmingham 10.14
4 Mitch Graham England Workington 10.00
5 John Jackson England Crewe 9.95

Riders' Championship

[edit]

Carl Glover won the Rider's Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 28 September.[9]

Pos. Rider Pts Total
1 England Carl Glover 2 3 3 3 2 13+3
2 England Ted Hubbard 3 3 3 2 2 13+2
3 Australia Phil Herne 3 1 2 3 3 12
4 England Mike Lanham 3 2 2 2 1 10
5 England Geoff Bouchard 1 2 2 3 2 10
6 England John Jackson 1 0 3 3 3 10
7 England Colin Meredith 2 2 2 2 1 9
8 England Mike Broadbanks 2 2 3 fx 7
9 Wales Graham Drury 0 0 1 2 3 6
10 England Brian Havelock (res) 1 3 4
11 England Bobby McNeil 1 3 fx 4
12 Scotland Ken McKinlay 1 3 fx 4
13 New Zealand Dave Gifford 2 1 0 0 0 3
14 England Brian Foote 0 1 1 1 0 3
15 England Tom Owen 1 1 f 1 r 3
16 England Bruce Forrester 3 0 f fx ex 2
17 England Bob Hughes (res) 1 1 1
18 Scotland Willie Templeton (res) 0 1 f ex 1 0
19 England Mitch Graham 0 ex 0
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

Riders & final averages

[edit]

Barrow

  • Tom Owen 8.54
  • Dave Baugh 8.46
  • Terry Kelly 8.00
  • Sid Sheldrick 7.77
  • Paul O'Neal 7.37
  • Joe Owen 7.36
  • Chris Roynon 6.12
  • Mick Sheldrick 3.40
  • Graham Tattersall 2.74

Berwick

Birmingham

Boston

Bradford

Canterbury

Coatbridge

Crewe

Eastbourne

Ellesmere Port

  • Graham Drury 9.31
  • Colin Goad 8.32
  • Steve Taylor 7.36
  • Nigel Wasley 6.16
  • Wayne Hughes 6.05
  • Duncan Meredith 5.89
  • Gerald Smitherman 5.20
  • Nicky Allott 4.37
  • Ken Stafford 3.60
  • Steve Casey 2.71
  • Ray Hassall 2.16

Long Eaton

Peterborough

  • Mike Lanham 9.11
  • Brian Clark 8.73
  • Jack Walker 6.75
  • Ken Matthews 6.31
  • Roy Carter 6.29
  • Steve Osborn 6.12
  • Roy Sizmore 5.74
  • Peter Thompson 4.85
  • Eric Dugard 4.44
  • Chris Drewett 4.14

Rye House

Scunthorpe

  • Tony Childs 8.82
  • Ken McKinlay 8.13
  • Doug Underwood 6.56
  • Andy Sims 6.54
  • Keith Evans 6.07
  • Dingle Brown 6.04
  • Chris Emery 6.03
  • Jack Bywater 5.60
  • Tim Swales 4.50
  • Chris Doyle 4.14
  • Roger Pascall 2.86

Stoke

Sunderland

Teesside

Weymouth

  • Kelvin Mullarkey 7.19
  • Bob Hughes 6.77
  • Steve Lomas 6.36
  • Nigel Couzens 5.64
  • Geoff Swindells 5.51
  • Clark Facey 4.88
  • Russell Foot 4.88
  • Glyn Facey 4.80
  • Brian Paddington 4.28
  • Mark Sawyers 3.47

Workington

  • Mitch Graham 10.00
  • Malcolm MacKay 8.77
  • Taffy Owen 8.42
  • Alan Cowland 7.28
  • Steve Watson 5.54
  • Darryl Stobbart 4.98
  • Bernie Hornby 4.14
  • Steve Lawson 1.68

See also

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ a b "teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  3. ^ "Lightning ban lifted just in time". South Eastern Gazette. 26 March 1974. Retrieved 24 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. ^ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  6. ^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  7. ^ "1974 British League Division Two Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. ^ a b "1974 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  9. ^ "Crash ends Graham's title hopes". Hull Daily Mail. 30 September 1974. Retrieved 17 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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