1979 British League season explained

The 1979 Gulf British League season was the 45th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 15th season known as the British League.^{[1] [2]}

Summary

The league was sponsored by Gulf Oil for a fifth season. It comprised 18 teams - one fewer than the previous season.^[3] White City Rebels had folded and their riders became Eastbourne Eagles assets as Eastbourne were promoted from the National League. Bristol Bulldogs also dropped out after only two seasons back in the top flight.^[4]

Coventry Bees won the league for the second year running. Hull Vikings' second place was their best ever finish. The Coventry Bees team was similar to the previous season with a young 18 year-old Danish newcomer Tommy Knudsen replacing Jiří Štancl from the previous season. Alan Molyneux once again backed up the Coventry overseas contingent with a solid average.^[5] Cradley Heath won the Knockout Cup mainly thanks to their USA superstar Bruce Penhall. The Cradley team also had their own young Danish newcomer in 20 year-old Erik Gundersen and 20 year-old Hans Nielsen posted a 10 plus average for the season riding for Wolves. The future looked extremely bright for Denmark.

During the new British League Fours tournament a horrific accident took place at Hackney Wick Stadium on Friday 8 June. In the final heat between Hackney and Eastbourne all four riders were competing when Hackney's Vic Harding and Eastbourne's Steve Weatherley touched and their bikes became locked together. They were both thrown from their bikes into the fence and the metal post supporting one of the track lights. Both riders were taken to hospital but Harding died later that night and Weatherley was left paralysed.^{[6] [7]} Further bad news filtered though in December after the season had finished, when Poole Pirate's Christer Sjösten died following serious injuries sustained in a race in Australia.

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Coventry Bees	34	26	0	8	52
2	Hull Vikings	34	24	2	8	50
3	Cradley Heath Heathens	34	24	0	10	48
4	King's Lynn Stars	34	22	1	11	45
5	Exeter Falcons	33	20	0	13	40
6	Halifax Dukes	34	18	0	16	36
7	Reading Racers	34	17	0	17	34
8	Swindon Robins	33	15	3	15	33
9	Wimbledon Dons	34	16	1	17	33
10	Belle Vue Aces	34	14	4	16	32
11	Wolverhampton Wolves	34	15	1	18	31
12	Poole Pirates	34	14	3	17	31
13	Sheffield Tigers	34	14	2	18	30
14	Birmingham Brummies	34	13	2	19	28
15	Ipswich Witches	34	12	2	20	26
16	Eastbourne Eagles	34	10	2	22	22
17	Leicester Lions	34	10	0	24	20
18	Hackney Hawks	34	9	1	24	19

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

Top Ten Riders (League Averages)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Scott Autrey		Exeter	10.91
2	Ivan Mauger		Hull	10.54
3	Phil Crump		Swindon	10.36
4	Michael Lee		King's Lynn	10.29
5	John Davis		Reading	10.22
6	Hans Nielsen		Wolverhampton	10.16
7	Gordon Kennett		Eastbourne	10.13
8	Ole Olsen		Coventry	10.03
9	Bruce Penhall		Cradley	10.02
10	Dave Jessup		King's Lynn	9.80

British League Knockout Cup

The 1979 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 41st edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath were the winners.^[8]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
16/06	Cradley Heath	66-42	Leicester
29/05	Leicester	40-68	Cradley Heath
20/04	Eastbourne	65-43	Ipswich
19/04	Ipswich	53-54	Eastbourne

Second round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
10/09	Cradley Heath	78-29	Wimbledon
09/08	Wimbledon	54-53	Cradley Heath
06/07	Eastbourne	65-43	Reading
18/06	Birmingham	59-49	Swindon
16/06	Coventry	74-34	Poole
16/06	King's Lynn	53-55	Wolverhampton
16/06	Swindon	62-46	Birmingham
15/06	Poole	59-48	Coventry
15/06	Wolverhampton	56-52	King's Lynn
11/06	Reading	77-31	Eastbourne
02/06	Belle Vue	61-47	Exeter
01/06	Hull	81-25	Sheffield
31/05	Exeter	70-38	Belle Vue
31/05	Sheffield	60-48	Hull

Quarter-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
24/09	Cradley Heath	71-37	Wolverhampton
21/09	Wolverhampton	52-56	Cradley Heath
20/08	Reading	53-55	Halifax
14/07	Halifax	79-29	Reading
03/08	Exeter	56-52	Swindon
18/07	Hull	75-34	Coventry
14/07	Coventry	60-48	Hull
14/07	Swindon	46-62	Exeter

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
07/10	Halifax	49-59	Cradley Heath
06/10	Cradley Heath	43-23	Halifax
19/09	Hull	70-38	Exeter
17/09	Exeter	60-48	Hull

Final

First leg

Second leg

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 120-96.

Riders' Championship

John Louis won the British League Riders' Championship, held at Hyde Road on 20 October and sponsored by Gauntlet (Leyland Used Cars).^[9]

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=70px	Heat Scores	width=50px	Total
1		2 3 3 3 3	14
2		3 2 3 3 2	13
3		3 3 2 1 3	12
4		2 3 2 3 1	11
5		3 2 1 1 3	10
6		0 3 3 3 0	9
7		2 2 1 2 2	9
8		1 1 3 1 2	8
9		2 2 0 2 1	7
10		1 R 2 0 1	6
11		3 0 0 1 1	5
12		0 1 0 2 2	5
13		1 1 1 2 0	5
14		0 1 2 0 1	4
15		0 0 1 0 0	1
16		1 0 0 0 0	1

• ef=engine failure, f=fell, x=excluded r-retired

Final leading averages

The top ten averages recorded at the end of the season.^[10]

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Scott Autrey		Exeter	10.83
2	Ivan Mauger		Hull	10.38
3	Phil Crump		Swindon	10.34
4	John Davis		Reading	10.32
5	Hans Nielsen		Wolverhampton	10.29
6	Michael Lee		King's Lynn	10.21
7	Ole Olsen		Coventry	9.92
8	Gordon Kennett		Eastbourne	9.91
9	Bruce Penhall		Cradley	9.88
10	Dave Jessup		King's Lynn	9.72

Midland Cup

Coventry won the Midland Cup for the fourth consecutive year. The competition consisted of six teams and was sponsored by the Trustee Savings Bank.^[11]

First round

width=150	Team one	width=150	Team two	width=120	Score
Birmingham	Swindon	32–46, 31–47
Wolverhampton	Cradley	39–38, 32–46

Semi final round

width=150	Team one	width=150	Team two	width=120	Score
Leicester	Swindon	44.5–33.5, 38–40
Coventry	Cradley	46–32, 34–44

Final

First leg

Second leg

Coventry won on aggregate 93–63

London Cup

Hackney won the London Cup but the competition consisted of just Wimbledon and Hackney.^[12]

Results

width=100	Team	width=70	Score	width=100	Team
Hackney	44–34	Wimbledon
Wimbledon	43–35	Hackney

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• 9.76
• 9.06
• 7.60
• 6.00
• 5.56
• 5.17
• 4.81
• 4.25
• 4.21
• 3.08
• 0.86

Birmingham

• 9.15
• 7.91
• 7.60
• 6.14
• 5.90
• 5.05
• 5.05
• 4.33
• 2.72

Coventry

• 9.92
• 9.13
• 8.00
• 6.62
• 6.41
• 5.93
• 5.73
• 4.95

Cradley Heath

• 9.88
• 8.34
• 7.85
• 7.83
• 7.71
• 7.54
• 7.35
• 6.84
• 4.77
• 4.76

Eastbourne

• 9.91
• 8.76
• 6.98
• 5.59
• 5.09
• 4.27
• 3.91
• 3.75
• 3.41
• 3.09
• 2.96

Exeter

• 10.83
• 8.49
• 6.94
• 6.47
• 6.40
• 6.17
• 6.06
• 6.05

Hackney

• 7.78
• 7.74
• 7.70
• 5.09
• 4.33
• 4.00
• 3.80
• 3.63

Halifax

• 8.95
• 8.13
• 7.59
• 6.93
• 6.87
• 5.18
• 4.84
• 4.24

Hull

• 10.38
• 8.62
• 8.47
• 8.40
• 7.46
• 6.75
• 6.01

Ipswich

• 9.32
• 9.21
• 7.51
• 7.43
• 7.33
• 6.43
• 4.95
• 4.45
• 4.00
• 3.76
• 3.41
• 3.27
• 2.10

King's Lynn

• 10.21
• 9.72
• 8.58
• 5.98
• 5.24
• 5.00
• 4.97
• 4.26
• 3.87
• 2.27

Leicester

• 8.47
• 6.28
• 5.99
• 5.88
• 5.40
• 4.75
• 4.14
• 3.49
• 3.47

Poole

• 9.04
• 8.58
• 6.49
• 6.48
• 6.06
• 5.82
• 4.33
• 2.57

Reading

• 10.32
• 8.64
• 7.75
• 6.31
• 5.65
• 5.23
• 5.16
• 5.12
• 3.75

Sheffield

• 8.74
• 7.57
• 6.47
• 6.03
• 4.92
• 4.84
• 4.52
• 4.37
• 4.17
• 3.61
• 3.33

Swindon

• 10.34
• 7.65
• 6.98
• 6.30
• 6.06
• 5.92
• 4.66
• 3.52

Wimbledon

• 9.26
• 8.97
• 7.89
• 7.38
• 6.91
• 5.47
• 5.39
• 4.35
• 1.86
• 1.38

Wolverhampton

• 10.29
• 7.93
• 6.81
• 6.73
• 6.39
• 5.84
• 5.44
• 5.23
• 3.52

See also

• List of United Kingdom Speedway League Champions
• Knockout Cup (speedway)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Historic league tables. Speedway Archive.
2. Book: Bott, Richard. The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. 1980. 94. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. 0-09-141751-1.
3. Book: Oakes, Peter. 1981 Speedway Yearbook. 1981. 80. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. 0-86215-017-5.
4. Web site: HISTORY ARCHIVE. British Speedway. 2 July 2021.
5. Web site: 1979 league tables. Speedway GB.
6. News: Vic Harding killed . Reading Evening Post . 9 June 1979 . British Newspaper Archive . subscription . 28 September 2024.
7. Web site: Vic Harding. Speedway Museum Online. 30 July 2021.
8. Web site: 1979 British League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive.
9. News: Speedway . The People . 21 October 1979 . 4 June 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
10. Book: Bott, Richard. The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. 1980. 96. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. 0-09-141751-1.
11. News: ...and they're cup kings, too! . Coventry Evening Telegraph . 15 October 1979 . British Newspaper Archive. 21 October 2023 . subscription .
12. Web site: 1979 fixtures and results . Speedway Researcher . 1 October 2023.