1963 Provincial Speedway League Explained

Competition:	Provincial League
Competitors:	13
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Wolverhampton Wolves
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Cradley Heathens
Domesticcup3:	Individual
Domesticcup3 Winners:	Ivan Mauger
Highestaverage:	George Hunter
League Above:	1963 National League
Prevseason:	1962
Nextseason:	1964

The 1963 Provincial Speedway League was the fourth season of the Provincial League in the United Kingdom.^[1] Thirteen speedway teams took part.

Season summary

Thirteen teams competed again as in 1962, despite the loss of four teams. At the start of the year Neath had folded, and their place was taken by the new track at St Austell. After finishing at the bottom of the table the previous year, Bradford and Leicester were no longer running due to financial difficulties and Plymouth had also withdrawn. Long Eaton returned to competitive racing after 12 years under Reg Fearman,^[2] ^[3] and Rayleigh returned under new ownership after a missing the 1962 season. New Cross Rangers would have made it 14 teams after returning but closed down in August, never to re-open.^[4] ^[5]

Speedway returned to Hackney Wick Stadium after an absence of 25 years under the promotion of Mike Parker and Reg Fearman.^[6]

Wolverhampton won the league but there was controversy at the end of the year when Wolverhampton refused to move up to the National League, which was dwindling in numbers. This would lead to the Provincial League running outside of the jurisdiction of the Speedway Control Board for the 1964 season.^[7] ^[8]

Final table

Pos	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts
1	Wolverhampton Wolves	24	15	1	8	31
2	Stoke Potters	24	14	1	9	29
3	Poole Pirates	24	14	0	10	28
4	Sheffield Tigers	24	14	0	10	28
5	St Austell Gulls	24	13	2	9	28
6	Newcastle Diamonds	24	13	1	10	27
7	Exeter Falcons	24	12	1	11	25
8	Edinburgh Monarchs	24	12	1	11	25
9	Cradley Heath Heathens	24	11	1	12	23
10	Hackney Hawks	24	10	1	13	21
11	Middlesbrough Bears	24	9	2	13	20
12	Long Eaton Archers	24	7	2	15	16
13	Rayleigh Rockets	24	5	1	18	11

M = Matches; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = Total Points

New Cross Rangers resigned in mid-season - record expunged.

Top five riders (League only)

	Rider	Team	C.M.A.
1	George Hunter	Edinburgh	11.09
2	Ivan Mauger	Newcastle	10.42
3	Ivor Brown	Cradley	10.30
4	Jimmy Squibb	New Cross/Exeter	10.30
5	Clive Featherby	Sheffield	10.05

Provincial League Knockout Cup

The 1963 Provincial League Knockout Cup was the fourth edition of the Knockout Cup for the Provincial League teams. Cradley Heathens were the winners.^[9]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
30/04	New Cross	58–37	St Austell
03/06	Rayleigh	35–61	Stoke
18/06	Long Eaton	43–52	Newcastle
20/06	Middlesbrough	58–38	Wolverhampton
20/06	Sheffield	57–39	Exeter
03/07	Poole	50–46	Edinburgh

Second round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
08/07	Newcastle	65–31	Middlesbrough
10/07	Hackney	54–42	New Cross
10/07	Poole	44–52	Sheffield
05/08	Cradley Heath	55–41	Stoke

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
12/08	Newcastle	60–36	Hackney
31/08	Cradley Heath	61–35	Sheffield

Final

First legSecond leg

Riders' Championship

Ivan Mauger won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at Hyde Road on 28 September.^[10]

width=25px	Pos.	width=180px	Rider	width=100px	Pts	width=50px	Total
1		3,2,3,3	11+3
2		3,2,3,3	11+2
3		1,3,3,2	9+3+1
4		1,2,3,3	9+4+0
5		3,1,2,3	9+2
6		3,2,2,2	9+1
7		2,3,2,2	9+0
8		3,2,3,0	8
9		2,1,2,3	8
10		1,3,2,1	7
11		2,1,1,3	7
12		2,3,0,1	6
13		2,3,0,0	5
14		3,0,1,1	5
15		0,0,3,2	5
16		2,2,0,0	4
17		1,0,2,1	3
18		1,0,0,2	3
19		0,1,0,2	3
20		0,1,1,	3
21		0,2,0,0	2
22		0,0,1,1	2
23	Maury McDermott	1,0,1,0	2
24		0,1,1,0	2

Riders & final averages

Cradley Heath

10.30
7.84
6.04
5.98
5.55
5.26
4.71
3.70
2.00

Edinburgh

11.09
9.21
9.19
8.09
7.64
5.13
4.36
3.58
3.36
2.85

Exeter

9.58
8.40
8.29
7.79
6.94
5.88
5.29
4.73
4.00
3.29

Hackney

10.04
6.67
6.53
6.47
(George Snailum) 5.70
5.33
4.52
4.27
3.77
3.76

Long Eaton

9.11
7.80
7.16
5.58
5.87
5.03
4.99
4.65
4.23
3.75
3.64

Middlesbrough

9.63
8.50
7.92
6.08
6.08
4.00
3.46
3.19

Newcastle

10.42
9.29
6.44
6.00
5.84
3.50
3.45
2.74

New Cross (withdrew mid-season)

9.93
6.72
6.59
5.16
5.11
4.67
3.28
1.85
1.82

Poole

9.92
8.98
8.42
7.19
5.35
5.31
3.89
3.79

Rayleigh

8.47
7.76
6.15
5.97
5.75
5.74
4.62
3.20
2.73

St Austell

8.50
7.88
6.93
6.56
Chris Blewett 5.81
5.44
5.02
4.00

Sheffield

10.05
9.91
7.43
7.10
6.78
5.70
5.64
5.61
(Jack Thorp) 5.57
5.61
2.67

Stoke

9.67
9.13
7.47
7.44
(Kid Bodie) 5.57
4.81
4.47
4.14
2.92

Wolverhampton

8.50
7.88
7.59
6.93
6.56
5.49
5.44
5.02
5.81

Notes and References

Web site: Championship History . Poole Speedway . 2008 . 2008-05-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080516063211/http://www.poolespeedway.net/08-website/lgerecord.php . 16 May 2008 . dead .
News: Speedway again at Long Eaton . Daily Mirror . 29 January 1963 . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 22 September 2024.
News: Speedway back after 12 years . Nottingham Evening Post . 2 March 1963 . 16 November 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
Web site: Historic league tables. Speedway Archive.
Web site: Year by Year. Speedway Researcher. 13 August 2021.
News: Speedway at hackney Wick again . Daily Mirror . 7 November 1962 . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 28 September 2024.
Book: Rogers, Martin. The Illustrated History of Speedway. 1978. 129. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. 0-904584-45-3.
Web site: BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - POST-WAR ERA (1946-1964). Official British Speedway website. 13 August 2021.
Web site: 1963 Provincial League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive. 13 August 2021.
News: Squibb & Cox not in hunt . Express and Echo . 30 September 1963 . 13 June 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .