1973 British League Division Two season

The 1973 British League Division Two season was the second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.[1]

1973 British League Division Two season
LeagueBritish League Division Two
ChampionsBoston Barracudas
No. of competitors18
Knockout CupBoston Barracudas
IndividualArthur Price
Highest averageLou Sansom
Division/s aboveBritish League (Div 1)

Summary

The 1973 season saw the league expanded to 18 teams with the addition of Chesterton Potters.[2] The team had last raced during the 1963 Provincial Speedway League season under the name of the Stoke Potters.[3]

Boston Barracudas won their first title and went on to win the league and cup double.[4][5] Boston had finished runner-up to Crewe Kings the previous season, with decent season averages recorded by five riders Arthur Price, Jim Ryman, Carl Glover, Russ Osborne and Ray Bales. With a largely unchanged team, they went one place better by sealing the league title. Boston won easily, 14 points clear of their nearest rival, and four of the five riders improved their averages from 1972. Arthur Price also won the Riders' Championship.[6]

Final table
Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Boston Barracudas 33 29 0 4 58
2 Workington Comets 34 21 2 11 44
3 Eastbourne Eagles 34 19 2 13 40
4 Peterborough Panthers 34 19 1 14 39
5 Birmingham Brummies 34 19 0 15 38
6 Teesside Tigers 34 19 0 15 38
7 Bradford Northern 34 18 0 16 36
8 Crewe Kings 34 17 1 16 35
9 Long Eaton Rangers 33 16 1 16 33
10 Barrow Bombers 34 15 2 17 32
11 Sunderland Stars 34 15 2 17 32
12 Hull Vikings 34 13 5 17 31
13 Chesterton Potters 34 14 1 19 29
14 Ellesmere Port Gunners 34 14 0 20 28
15 Canterbury Crusaders 34 13 2 19 28
16 Scunthorpe Saints 32 12 1 21 25
17 Berwick Bandits 32 11 1 22 23
18 Rayleigh Rockets 34 9 3 22 21

Top Five Riders (Leading Averages)
Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Lou Sansom Australia Workington Comets 10.56
2 Alan Knapkin England Bradford Northern 10.04
3 Jack Millen New Zealand Sunderland Stars 9.80
4 Carl Glover England Boston Barracudas 9.56
5 Ken McKinlay Scotland Scunthorpe Saints 9.50

British League Division Two Knockout Cup

The 1973 British League Division Two Knockout Cup was the sixth edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Boston Barracudas were the winners of the competition.[7]

First round
Date Team one Score Team two
19/05Canterbury44-34Eastbourne
13/05Eastbourne37-41Canterbury

Second round
Date Team one Score Team two
03/06Boston58-20Crewe
04/06Crewe44-34Boston
08/06Peterborough56-22Barrow
05/06Barrow45-32Peterborough
13/06Bradford48-29Ellesmere Port
05/06Ellesmere Port42-35Bradford
04/06Birmingham46-32Scunthorpe
03/06Scunthorpe38-40Birmingham
08/06Workington45-33Berwick
09/06Berwick42-36Workington
31/05Teesside48-30Sunderland
08/06Sunderland38-40Teesside
09/06Rayleigh46-32Hull
30/05Hull43-34Rayleigh
07/06Long Eaton48-30Canterbury
09/06Canterbury42-36Long Eaton

Quarter-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
24/06Boston50-28Peterborough
29/06Peterborough37-41Boston
04/07Bradford48-30Birmingham
02/07Birmingham47-31Bradford
27/07Workington53-25Teesside
26/07Teesside44-33Workington
21/07Rayleigh49-29Long Eaton
26/07Long Eaton36-42Rayleigh

Semi-finals
Date Team one Score Team two
19/08Boston46-32Bradford
22/08Bradford43-35Boston
30/08Workington60-18Rayleigh
18/08Rayleigh43-35Workington

Final

First leg

Boston Barracudas
Carl Glover 15
Ray Bales 13
Arthur Price 10
Russ Osborne 10
Dave Piddock 5
David Gagen 5
Jim Ryman R/R		58 – 19Workington Comets
Lou Sansom 7
Malcolm Mackay 5
Kym Amundson 4
Steve Watson 3
Taffy Owen 0
Mitch Graham 0
Bernie Hornby 0
[8]

Second leg

Workington Comets
Lou Sansom 12
Malcolm Mackay 10
Mitch Graham 7
Taffy Owen 6
Kym Amundson 5
Steve Watson 6
Bernie Hornby 1		47 – 31Boston Barracudas
Carl Glover 16
Arthur Price 6
Ray Bales 4
Dave Piddock 2
Russ Osborne 1
David Gagen 1
Les Glover 1
Jim Ryman R/R
[8]

Boston were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 89–66.

Leading final averages
Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Lou Sansom Australia Workington Comets 10.50
2 Alan Knapkin England Bradford Northern 10.03
3 Jack Millen New Zealand Sunderland Stars 9.74
4 Ken McKinlay Scotland Scunthorpe Saints 9.69
5 Carl Glover England Boston Barracudas 9.62

Riders' Championship

Arthur Price won the Rider's Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 6 October.[9]

Pos.RiderPtsTotal
1England Arthur Price3 2 1 3 312+3
2England Bobby McNeil2 3 3 1 312+2
3Australia Lou Sansom3 1 2 3 312+1
4England Bruce Forrester3 3 3 2 f11
5England Dave Baugh3 2 3 3 f11
6England Mike Broadbanks1 0 3 3 310
7England Richard Greer2 3 1 2 210
8England Graham Drury0 3 2 2 29
9England Arthur Browning1 1 2 1 27
10England Barney Kennett1 0 1 2 15
11England Geoff Bouchard0 2 0 1 25
12Scotland Ken McKinlayef 2 2 04
13England Dave Morton2 1 ex3
14New Zealand Jim Wells (res)2 0 0 1 03
15Scotland Willie Templeton (res)1 0 1 13
16England Tom Owenfx 0 f 11
17England Dave Mills1 f1
18England Bob Young (res)1 f1
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

Riders & final averages

Barrow

  • Tom Owen 8.32
  • Mike Sampson 8.31
  • Terry Kelly 7.40
  • Sid Sheldrick 6.98
  • Chris Bailey 6.97
  • Craig Pendlebury 6.50
  • Joe Owen 6.21
  • Chris Roynon 5.69
  • Keith Evans 5.60

Berwick

Birmingham

Boston

Bradford

  • Alan Knapkin 10.03
  • Dave Baugh 9.23
  • Robin Adlington 7.93
  • Tony Featherstone 7.74
  • Brenton Langlois 5.71
  • Mick Fairbairn 5.65
  • Colin Meredith 5.37
  • Mike Fullerton 4.75
  • Tony Freegard 4.67
  • Rob Maxfield 4.40
  • Rod Chessell 3.45

Canterbury

  • Barney Kennett 7.38
  • Peter Murray 6.90
  • Ted Hubbard 6.75
  • Derek Cook 6.41
  • Trevor Jones 6.33
  • Graham Banks 5.96
  • Dave Piddock 5.71
  • Les Rumsey 5.71
  • Gary Cottham Sr. 4.61
  • Dave Gooderham 4.30

Chesterton

Crewe

Eastbourne

Ellesmere Port

  • Graham Drury 9.03
  • Paul O'Neal 7.94
  • Robbie Gardner 6.99
  • Colin Goad 6.51
  • Chris Morton 6.29
  • Barry Booth 4.35
  • Gerald Smitherman 4.24
  • Roger Austin 4.14
  • Wayne Hughes 3.40
  • Paul Callaghan 2.29

Hull

  • Dave Mills 9.29
  • Tony Childs 8.49
  • Alan Cowland 7.66
  • Robin Amundson 7.60
  • Dennis Gavros 5.55
  • Pete Boston 4.58
  • Dennis Wasden 4.42
  • Kelvin Mullarkey 4.31
  • Clark Facey 4.00
  • Grahame Dawson 3.17
  • Roger Austin 2.80
  • Eddie Argall 1.94

Long Eaton

Peterborough

Rayleigh

  • Peter Moore 8.30
  • Bob Young 7.04
  • Trevor Barnwell 6.59
  • Dave "Tiger" Beech 6.12
  • Les Ott 5.87
  • Brian Foote 5.75
  • Terry Stone 5.27
  • Peter Cairns 4.96
  • Pete Wigley 4.56
  • Dingle Brown 4.29
  • Steve Clarke 3.58

Scunthorpe

  • Ken McKinlay 9.69
  • Ian Hindle 8.18
  • Dingle Brown 6.18
  • Rod Haynes 5.87
  • Jack Bywater 5.40
  • Doug Underwood 4.64
  • Rex Garrod 4.58
  • Chris Emery 3.30

Sunderland

  • Jack Millen 9.74
  • Dave Gatenby 7.56
  • Jim Wells 7.44
  • Russ Dent 6.21
  • George Barclay 6.10
  • Terry Barclay 4.66
  • Brian Havelock 4.64
  • Peter Wrathall 4.07
  • John Robson 1.14

Teesside

Workington

  • Lou Sansom 10.50
  • Malcolm MacKay 8.88
  • Mitch Graham 8.07
  • Taffy Owen 7.44
  • Kym Amundson 5.51
  • Steve Watson 5.41
  • Bernie Hornby 3.57
  • Darryl Stobbart 3.53

See also

References
  1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  3. "Stoke Speedway (Loomer Road)". Defunct Speedway. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  4. "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  6. "teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  7. "1973 British League Division Two Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. "1973 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  9. "Price takes Crump's crown". Lynn Advertiser. 9 October 1973. Retrieved 17 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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