1989 British League season explained

The 1989 British League season (also known as the Sunbrite British League for sponsorship reasons) was the 55th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 25th known as the British League.^[1]

Summary

The Coventry Bees were the defending champions from 1988. The league was once again run over a 15-heat formula, with 7 riders per team.^[2]

Oxford Cheetahs bounced back to winning ways claiming their third title in five years. The team was led by their double world champion Hans Nielsen who by the end of the season would be world champion for the third time and top the averages for an incredible seventh season running. He was backed up by Simon Wigg, Martin Dugard, Andy Grahame, Marvyn Cox and Troy Butler, all of whom averaged from about 6 to 8 points for the season. The defending champions Coventry could only finish 5th after losing Tommy Knudsen for the season. Cradley Heath won thir 8th Knockout Cup in 11 years (it would also be their last).^[3]

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	Pts
1	Oxford Cheetahs	32	22	1	9	13	58
2	Wolverhampton Wolves	32	19	2	11	12	52
3	Cradley Heathens	32	19	3	10	10	51
4	Belle Vue Aces	32	19	2	11	10	50
5	Coventry Bees	32	15	3	14	8	41
6	Swindon Robins	32	12	1	19	8	33
7	Reading Racers	32	13	1	18	5	32
8	Bradford Dukes	32	9	2	21	3	23
9	King's Lynn Stars	32	8	1	23	3	20

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

British League Knockout Cup

The 1989 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 51st edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath Heathens were the winners for the fourth successive year if including the tied 1986 final.^{[4] [5] [6]}

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
21/04	Belle Vue	57-33	King's Lynn
08/04	King's Lynn	38-52	Belle Vue

Quarter-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
26/06	Reading	51-39	Belle Vue
10/06	Cradley Heath	50-40	Oxford
09/06	Belle Vue	45.5-44.5	Reading
09/06	Oxford	45-45	Cradley Heath
13/05	Coventry	45-45	Bradford
06/05	Bradford	46-44	Coventry
22/04	Swindon	45-45	Wolverhampton
10/04	Wolverhampton	49-41	Swindon

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
26/08	Bradford	57-33	Wolverhampton
19/08	Cradley Heath	42-48	Reading
07/08	Wolverhampton	60-30	Bradford
31/07	Reading	40-50	Cradley Heath

Final

First legSecond leg

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 95-85.

Riders' Championship

Shawn Moran won the British League Riders' Championship. It was the held at Belle Vue Stadium on 1 October.^[7]

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=70px	Heat Scores	width=50px	Total
1		3 3 3 3 3	15
2		3 3 3 3 2	14
3		2 3 2 2 3	12
4		1 2 1 2 3	9
5		3 2 3 0 0	8
6		0 1 3 1 3	8
7		2 0 1 3 2	8
8		0 2 2 2 2	8
9		2 0 2 2 1	7
10		3 1 1 1 1	7
11		1 1 2 3 0	7
12		1 3 0 0 1	5
13		1 2 0 1 1	5
14		2 0 0 1 2	5
15		0 1 1 0 0	2
16	Glenn Hornby (res)	0 0	0
17	Scott Smith (res)	0 0	0
18		0 r(inj)	0

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

Leading final averages

Rider	Club	Average
Hans Nielsen	Oxford	10.91
Jan O. Pedersen	Cradley	10.22
Erik Gundersen	Cradley	9.97
Sam Ermolenko	Wolverhampton	9.85
Shawn Moran	Belle Vue	9.68
Kelvin Tatum	Coventry	9.49
Simon Cross	Cradley	9.13
Jeremy Doncaster	Reading	8.61
Jimmy Nilsen	Swindon	8.41
Kelly Moran	Belle Vue	8.29

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• Shawn Moran 9.68
• Kelly Moran 8.29
• Peter Ravn 7.54
• Gary Hicks 7.17
• Chris Morton 6.75
• Joe Screen 6.40
• Carl Stonehewer 5.50
• Gordon Whitaker 3.41
• Paul Smith 2.09
• Mike Lewthwaite 1.85

Bradford

• Paul Thorp 7.79
• Neil Evitts 7.51
• Andy Smith 7.27
• Bryan Larner 5.40
• Henrik Kristensen 4.94
• Glenn Doyle 4.76
• Antal Kocso 4.60
• Michael Graves 4.17

Coventry

• Kelvin Tatum 9.49
• Rick Miller 6.93
• Sean Wilson 6.52
• John Jørgensen 6.39
• Andy Hackett 5.49
• Roman Matoušek 5.27
• Kai Niemi 4.69
• Mike Bacon 2.95
• Paul Smith 2.55

Cradley Heath

• Jan O. Pedersen 10.22
• Erik Gundersen 9.97
• Simon Cross 9.13
• Gert Handberg 6.52
• Greg Hancock 6.06
• Alan Grahame 5.78
• John Bostin 3.00

Kings Lynn

• Richard Knight 7.83
• Lance King 7.67
• John Davis 6.74
• Allan Johansen 6.65
• Armando Dal Chiele 5.03
• Stephen Davies 4.93
• Dennis Löfqvist 4.82
• Adrian Stevens 3.56
• Paul Smith 3.14
• Roger Horspool 1.50

Oxford

• Hans Nielsen 10.91
• Simon Wigg 7.69
• Martin Dugard 7.61
• Andy Grahame 6.91
• Marvyn Cox 6.80
• Troy Butler 5.96
• Paul Dugard 2.56
• Kevin Pitts 1.64

Reading

• Jeremy Doncaster 8.61
• Mitch Shirra 7.62
• Tony Olsson 6.49
• Carl Blackbird 5.52
• Armando Castagna 5.47
• Dave Mullett 5.09
• Malcolm Holloway 4.38
• David Steen 2.56

Swindon

• Jimmy Nilsen 8.41
• Brian Karger 8.09
• Andrew Silver 7.38
• John Davis 6.67
• Peter Nahlin 6.24
• Bart Bast 5.05
• Gary Chessell 4.88
• Tom P. Knudsen 4.00 (2 matches only)
• David Smart 3.72

Wolverhampton

• Sam Ermolenko 9.85
• Ronnie Correy 7.86
• Neil Collins 6.88
• Robert Pfetzing 6.61
• Graham Jones 6.60
• Jan Staechmann 6.54
• Andy Phillips 5.73

See also

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Historic league tables. Speedway Archive.
2. Web site: 1990 league tables. Speedway GB.
3. Web site: HISTORY ARCHIVE. British Speedway. 3 July 2021.
4. Web site: 1989 British League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive.
5. News: Heathens scent cup glory . Sandwell Evening Mail . 17 October 1989 . 1 October 2021 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
6. News: Speedway . Sandwell Evening Mail . 27 October 1989 . 1 October 2021 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
7. News: Sad day for Doncaster and Shirra . Reading Evening Post . 2 October 1989. 5 June 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .