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1971 British League season
League British League
No. of competitors19
Champions Belle Vue Aces
Knockout Cup Hackney Hawks
Individual Ivan Mauger
London Cup Hackney Hawks
Midland Cup Coventry Bees
Highest average Ivan Mauger
Division/s below British League (Div 2)

The 1971 British League season was the 37th season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the seventh season known as the British League. [1] [2]

Summary

Reading Racers moved up from Division 2 and Newcastle Diamonds dropped out. [3] Belle Vue Aces retained their title to become the first team to win the title for the second time. The team included three time world champion Ivan Mauger, Swedish international Sören Sjösten, Tommy Roper, Eric Broadbelt, Chris Pusey and a 17 year old Peter Collins in his debut season. [4]

Final table

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Belle Vue Aces 36 25 1 10 51
2 Leicester Lions 36 22 3 11 47
3 Coventry Bees 36 23 0 13 46
4 Sheffield Tigers 36 21 1 14 43
5 Swindon Robins 36 19 3 14 40
6 Reading Racers 36 18 4 14 41
7 Hackney Hawks 36 17 4 15 38
8 Newport Wasps 36 19 0 17 37
9 Wembley Lions 36 17 3 16 37
10 Wimbledon Dons 36 18 1 17 36
11 Poole Pirates 36 17 2 17 35
12 Wolverhampton Wolves 36 17 1 18 34
13 King's Lynn Stars 36 16 2 18 34
14 Halifax Dukes 36 16 2 18 32
15 Exeter Falcons 36 16 0 20 31
16 Glasgow Tigers 36 15 1 20 25
17 Oxford Cheetahs 36 12 1 23 20
18 Cradley Heath Heathens 36 8 4 24 20
19 West Ham Hammers 36 9 1 26 19

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

Top Ten Riders (League Averages)

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Ivan Mauger New Zealand Belle Vue 11.42
2 Ray Wilson England Leicester 10.97
3 Ole Olsen Denmark Wolverhampton 10.96
4 Jim Airey Australia Sheffield 10.70
5 Barry Briggs New Zealand Swindon 10.64
6 Bengt Jansson Sweden Hackney 10.21
7 Eric Boocock England Halifax 10.14
8 Anders Michanek Sweden Reading 10.03
9 Nigel Boocock England Coventry 9.95
10 Ronnie Moore New Zealand Wimbledon 9.93

British League Knockout Cup

The 1971 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 33rd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Hackney were the winners. [5]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
08/05 Halifax 49-29 West Ham
08/05 Swindon 43-35 Wimbledon
06/05 Oxford 46-32 Poole

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
25/06 Wolverhampton 43-35 Belle Vue
21/06 Reading 38-40 Cradley Heath
17/06 Oxford 39-38 Exeter
12/06 King's Lynn 46-32 Newport
11/06 Glasgow 43-34 Leicester
10/06 Sheffield 48-30 Wembley
05/06 Halifax 42-36 Coventry
05/06 Swindon 36-42 Hackney

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
14/08 Halifax 43-35 Sheffield
06/08 Wolverhampton 45-32 Oxford
31/07 King's Lynn 39-39 Hackney
31/07 Cradley Heath 40-38 Glasgow
03/09 Hackney 49-29 King's Lynn

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
17/09 Hackney 50-27 Halifax
06/09 Cradley Heath 50-28 Wolverhampton

Final

First leg

Cradley Heath
Bernt Persson 11
Bob Andrews 9
Mick Handley 7
Pete Jarman 6
John Hart 5
Roy Trigg 3
Cyril Francis 0		41 - 37 Hackney Hawks
Bengt Jansson 10
Barry Thomas 8
Hugh Saunders 8
Garry Middleton 7
Laurie Etheridge 2
Geoff Maloney 1
Eddie Reeves 1
[6]

Second leg

Hackney Hawks
Bengt Jansson 12
Garry Middleton 10
Barry Thomas 9
Dave Kennett 9
Hugh Saunders 6
Eddie Reeves 3
Laurie Etheridge 2		51 - 27 Cradley Heath
Howard Cole (guest) 13
Bob Andrews 5
Roy Trigg 3
John Hart 3
Pete Jarman 2
Mick Handley 1
Ralph Waller 0
[6]

Hackney Hawks were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 88-68.

Riders' Championship

Ivan Mauger won the British League Riders' Championship, held at Hyde Road on 16 October. [7]

Pos. Rider Heat Scores Total
1 New Zealand Ivan Mauger 3 3 3 3 2 14
2 New Zealand Barry Briggs 2 2 3 2 3 12
3 Scotland Jim McMillan 1 3 2 3 3 12
4 England Bob Kilby 3 0 2 2 3 10
5 England Nigel Boocock 3 2 1 3 0 9
6 England Eric Boocock 2 2 1 1 3 9
7 Denmark Ole Olsen 3 3 2 f fx 8
8 Sweden Christer Löfqvist 2 1 0 3 2 8
9 Australia Jim Airey 1 1 3 1 1 7
10 England Ray Wilson 1 3 1 1 f 6
11 Norway Reidar Eide 0 2 3 0 1 6
12 Sweden Anders Michanek 2 1 0 0 2 5
13 New Zealand Ronnie Moore 0 1 2 2 0 5
14 Hungary Sándor Lévai 0 0 1 2 1 4
15 England Terry Betts 0 0 0 1 1 2
16 Scotland Bert Harkins (res) 2 - - - - 2
17 Sweden Bengt Jansson 1 0 0 0 0 1
  • ef=engine failure, f=fell, exc=excluded

Final leading averages

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Ivan Mauger New Zealand Belle Vue 11.33
2 Ole Olsen Denmark Wolverhampton 10.99
3 Ray Wilson England Leicester 10.94
4 Jim Airey Australia Sheffield 10.74
5 Barry Briggs New Zealand Swindon 10.67
6 Bengt Jansson Sweden Hackney 10.26
7 Eric Boocock England Halifax 10.19
8 Anders Michanek Sweden Reading 10.05
9 Nigel Boocock England Coventry 9.95
10 Ronnie Moore New Zealand Wimbledon 9.89
11 Martin Ashby England Swindon 9.76
12 Bernt Persson Sweden Cradley Heath 9.68
13 Terry Betts England King's Lynn 9.62
14 Malcolm Simmons England King's Lynn 9.22
15 Trevor Hedge England Wimbledon 9.18
16 Jim McMillan Scotland Glasgow 9.18
17 Sören Sjösten Sweden Belle Vue 9.11
18 Reidar Eide Norway Poole 9.10
19 Göte Nordin Sweden Wembley 9.04
20 John Boulger Australia Leicester 8.99

London Cup

Hackney won the London Cup for only the second time, after previously winning it back in 1936. [8]

Pos Team P W D L F A Pts
1 Hackney Hawks 4 4 0 0 177 135 8
2 West Ham Hammers 4 1 0 3 156 156 2
3 Wimbledon Dons 4 1 0 3 135 177 2

Results

Team Score Team
Hackney 40–38 West Ham
West Ham 45–33 Wimbledon
Hackney 53–25 Wimbledon
Wimbledon 41–37 West Ham
West Ham 36–42 Hackney
Wimbledon 36–42 Hackney

Midland Cup

Coventry won the Midland Cup for the third consecutive year. The competition consisted of six teams. [9]

First round

Team one Team two Score
Wolverhampton Swindon 41–36, 41–35
Oxford Cradley 38–40, 33–45

Semi final round

Team one Team two Score
Leicester Wolverhampton 41–37, 42–36
Cradley Coventry 33–45, 27–51

Final

First leg

Coventry
Tony Lomas 11
Nigel Boocock 10
Ron Mountford 7
Jan Simensen 7
John Haarhy 5
Roger Hill 4
Les Owen 1		45–33Leicester
Ray Wilson 12
John Boulger 11
Alan Cowland 3
Graham Plant 2
Norman Storer 2
Tom Leadbitter 2
Malcolm Brown 1

Second leg

Leicester
John Boulger 12
Ray Wilson 8
Graham Plant 6
Malcolm Shakespeare 6
Norman Storer 5
Alan Cowland 4
Malcolm Brown 0		41–37Coventry
Tony Lomas 8
Ron Mountford 8
Jan Simensen 8
Nigel Boocock 5
Roger Hill 5
Les Owen 3
John Haarhy 0

Coventry won on aggregate 82–74

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

Coventry

Cradley Heath

Exeter

Glasgow

Hackney

Halifax

King's Lynn

Leicester

Newport

Oxford

Poole

Reading

Sheffield

Swindon

Wembley

West Ham

Wimbledon

Wolverhampton

See also

References

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 129–133. ISBN  0-904584-45-3.
  3. ^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 100. ISBN  0-86215-017-5.
  4. ^ "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  5. ^ "1971 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  6. ^ a b "Season 1971" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  7. ^ "Speedway". Sunday Mirror. 17 October 1971. Retrieved 2 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. ^ "Hackney 1971" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  9. ^ "Fifth heat settles Lions". Leicester Daily Mercury. 13 October 1971. Retrieved 21 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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