1990 National League season

Summary

The 1990 National League was the 16th since its establishment as a second tier in 1975, a renamed British League Division Two, and the last before it was again renamed British League Division Two.[1]

1990 National League season
LeagueNational League
ChampionsPoole Pirates
Knockout CupPoole Pirates
IndividualAndy Grahame
PairsHackney Kestrels
FoursStoke Potters
Highest averageSteve Schofield
Division/s above1990 British League

Summary edit

The league was initially supposed to run with 18 teams - however, Mildenhall Fen Tigers were unable to form a team to the 42-point minimum average limit, and were expelled on March 22, 1990. Matches were once again run over a 16-heat formula, with seven riders per team.

Poole Pirates were again champions, and stepped up into British League Division One for the 1991 season.[2]

League table edit

Pos Club M Home Away F A Pts
W D L W D L
1 Poole Pirates 32 16 0 0 13 0 3 1779 1224 58
2 Middlesbrough Bears 32 16 0 0 6 2 8 1701 1367 46
3 Ipswich Witches 32 13 2 1 9 0 7 1674 1387 46
4 Glasgow Tigers 32 13 0 3 6 0 10 1643.5 1419,5 38
5 Hackney Kestrels 32 13 0 3 6 0 10 1608 1451 38
6 Berwick Bandits 32 15 0 1 3 1 12 1575.5 1483.5 37
7 Wimbledon Dons 32 12 1 3 4 2 10 1376 1469 35
8 Stoke Potters 32 11 0 5 5 1 10 1573 1489 33
9 Exeter Falcons 32 14 0 2 1 1 14 1576 1489 31
10 Peterborough Panthers 32 13 0 3 2 0 14 1456 1613 30
11 Eastbourne Eagles 32 12 0 4 3 0 13 1426 1636 30
12 Newcastle Diamonds 32 11 0 5 3 0 13 1478.5 1586.5 28
13 Edinburgh Monarchs 32 10 1 5 2 0 14 1520.5 1539.5 25
14 Arena Essex Hammers 32 9 1 5 3 0 13 1380 1674 25
15 Rye House Rockets 32 7 0 9 1 0 15 1386 1672 16
16 Long Eaton Invaders 32 7 2 7 0 0 16 1372 1697 16
17 Milton Keynes Knights 32 5 0 11 1 0 15 1286 1770 12

M = Meetings; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; F = Race points for; A = Race points against; Pts = Total Points

National League Knockout Cup edit

The 1990 National League Knockout Cup was the 23rd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Poole Pirates were the winners of the competition.[3]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
14/04 Berwick 62-33 Long Eaton
11/04 Long Eaton 57-39 Berwick

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
21/07 Berwick 50-44 Poole
27/06 Wimbledon 62-33 Exeter
15/06 Hackney 64-32 Eastbourne
10/06 Eastbourne 40-56 Hackney
10/06 Rye House 51-45 Milton Keynes
07/06 Middlesbrough 51-44 Edinburgh
05/06 Milton Keynes 56-39 Rye House
05/06 Poole 56-40 Berwick
04/06 Exeter 61-35 Wimbledon
03/06 Edinburgh 51-45 Middlesbrough
03/06 Glasgow 54-41 Ipswich
03/06 Newcastle 61-35 Arena Essex
02/06 Arena Essex 41-55 Newcastle
02/06 Stoke 65-31 Peterborough
01/06 Peterborough 48-48 Stoke
31/05 Ipswich 60-36 Glasgow

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
21/08 Poole 62-33 Hackney
10/08 Hackney 47-48 Poole
29/07 Newcastle 54-41 Ipswich
21/07 Stoke 51-45 Wimbledon
19/07 Middlesbrough 69-27 Milton Keynes
18/07 Wimbledon 57-37 Stoke
17/07 Milton Keynes 40-56 Middlesbrough
19/07 Ipswich 61-35 Newcastle

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
30/08 Ipswich 47-49 Poole
28/08 Poole 60-36 Ipswich
23/08 Middlesbrough 69-27 Wimbledon
22/08 Wimbledon 36-59 Middlesbrough

Final edit

First leg

Poole Pirates
Craig Boyce 19
Alun Rossiter 13
Gary Allan 11
Tony Langdon 10
Rod Colquhoun 6
Gary Chessell 3
Tom P. Knudsen R/R
62 – 34Middlesbrough Bears
Rod Hunter 11
Jamie Luckhurst 7
Daz Sumner 5
Paul Bentley 5
David Cheshire 3
Dave Edwards 2
Steve Wilcock 1
[4][5]

Second leg

Middlesbrough Bears
Rod Hunter 9
Steve Wilcock 9
Daz Sumner 9
Paul Bentley 9
Jamie Luckhurst 7
David Cheshire 7
Dave Edwards 1
51 – 45Poole Pirates
Craig Boyce 16
Gary Allan 11
Tony Langdon 10
Rod Colquhoun 4
Alun Rossiter 3
Justin Elkins 1
Tom P. Knudsen R/R
[4][5]

Poole were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 107–85.

Riders' Championship edit

Andy Grahame won the Riders' Championship. The final sponsored by Jawa Moto & Barum was held on 15 September at Brandon Stadium.[6]

Pos. Rider Pts Total
1   Andy Grahame 2 3 3 3 3 14
2   Chris Louis 3 2 2 3 3 13
3   Craig Boyce 3 3 2 3 0 11+3
4   David Bargh 2 3 3 1 2 11+2
5   Steve Regeling 1 2 3 2 2 10
6   Steve Schofield 3 1 2 1 2 9
7   Les Collins 3 0 r 2 3 8
8   Martin Goodwin 2 1 1 3 1 8
9   Eric Monaghan 1 1 3 2 1 8
10   Rod Hunter 2 3 0 0 1 6
11   David Walsh f f 2 0 3 5
12   Richard Hellsen 1 2 1 1 1 6
13   Shane Bowes 1 2 fex 1 2 6
14   Gordon Kennett 0 1 1 2 0 4
15   Mick Poole fex r 1 0 0 1
16   Jens Rasmussen r - - - - 0
17   Andy Meredith (res) 0 0 0
18   Lee Coleman (res) 0 0 0
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure t=touched tapes

Pairs edit

The National League Pairs Championship was held at Shawfield Stadium Glasgow on 17 June. The event was won by Hackney Kestrels.[7][8]

Semi finals

  • Hackney bt Middlesbrough
  • Exeter bt Newcastle

Final

  • Hackney bt Exeter

Fours edit

Stoke won the fours championship final, held at the East of England Showground on 22 July.[9]

Semi finals

  • SF1 = Ipswich 16, Stoke 11, Wimbledon 11, Glasgow 10
  • SF2 = Poole 16, Hackney 13, Berwick 10, Middlesbrough 9

Final

Pos Team Pts Riders
1 Stoke 16 Monaghan 6, Carr 5, Crabtree 4, Cobby 1 Carlson 0
2 Poole 13 Rossiter 5, Langdon 4, Boyce 3, Allan 1
3 Hackney 10 Schofield 5, Galvin 3, Whittaker 2, Tagg 0
4 Ipswich 9 Louis 4, Parker 2, Standing 2, Mogridge 1

Final leading averages edit

The top ten rider averages in the National League as of October 31, 1990:

Rider Average Team
1   Steve Schofield 10.51 Hackney
2   Craig Boyce 10.45 Poole
3   Steve Regeling 10.20 Exeter
4   Chris Louis 10.19 Ipswich
5   Rod Hunter 9.93 Middlesbrough
6   David Bargh 9.72 Newcastle
7   Mick Poole 9.58 Peterborough
8   Andy Grahame 9.40 Wimbledon
9   Jens Rasmussen 9.36 Rye House
10   Andy Galvin 9.27 Hackney

Riders & final averages edit

Arena Essex

  • Martin Goodwin 8.85
  • Rob Tilbury 8.09
  • Wayne Garratt 5.77
  • Troy Pratt 5.65
  • Kevin Brice 4.95
  • Adrian Stevens 4.48
  • Simon Wolstenholme 4.31
  • Kevin Teager 3.88
  • Robert Ledwith 2.86

Berwick

Eastbourne

  • Gordon Kennett 8.94
  • Andy Buck 6.99
  • Tony Primmer 6.49
  • Paul Woods 6.24
  • Darren Standing 5.76
  • Brian Nixon 5.52
  • Keith Pritchard 5.52
  • Justin Walker 4.82
  • Darren Grayling 4.12

Edinburgh

Exeter

Glasgow

Hackney

  • Steve Schofield .10.51
  • Andy Galvin 9.27
  • Paul Whittaker 8.18
  • Gary Tagg 5.96
  • Michael Warren 5.45
  • Dave Hamnett 4.41
  • Tim Korneliussen 3.96
  • Shawn Venables 3.80
  • Ian Humphreys 2.91

Ipswich

Long Eaton

Middlesbrough

Milton Keynes

  • Peter Glanz 7.24
  • Jonathan Cooper 6.00
  • Mark Blackbird 5.52
  • David Clarke 5.47
  • Trevor Banks 5.45
  • Mark Lyndon 5.33
  • Andy Hines 5.03
  • Rob Woffinden 4.59
  • Thierry Hilaire 3.68

Newcastle

Peterborough

Poole

Rye House

Stoke

Wimbledon

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  3. ^ "1990 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  4. ^ a b "1990 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  5. ^ a b "Poole 1990 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  6. ^ "Grahame's title". Staffordshire Sentinel. 17 September 1990. Retrieved 22 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ "1990 fixtures" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  8. ^ "Potters pairs bid comes unstuck". Staffordshire Sentinel. 18 June 1990. Retrieved 26 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Potters capture fours title for the first time". Staffordshire Sentinel. 6 August 1990. Retrieved 8 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.