1946 Speedway National League

1946 Speedway National League

League	National League
No. of competitors	6
Champions	Wembley Lions
National Trophy	Belle Vue Aces
A.C.U Cup	Belle Vue Aces
Riders' champion	Tommy Price
London Cup	Wembley Lions
Highest average	Eric Langton
Division/s below	Northern League
← 1939 1947 →

The 1946 National League was the 12th season of the highest tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain and the first post-war season. ^{[1] [2]}

The league had been abandoned seven years previously due to the outbreak of World War II. Record attendances were attracted with Wembley Lions attracting an average of 50,000 and the league as a whole a total of six and a half million. ^[3] From the abandoned 1939 season, Southampton Saints and Harringay Tigers were no longer racing whilst Odsal Boomerangs brought National League speedway to Bradford for the first time. ^{[4] [5]}

Wembley Lions won their second National League title.

On 6 July, a crowd of 34,0000 at Odsal Stadium witnessed Odsal Boomerangs lose to Belle Vue Aces. During the match Albert 'Aussie' Rosenfeld, son of Albert Rosenfeld hit the fence and was taken to St Luke's Hospital, Bradford, with a suspected fractured skull. ^[6] He died 10 days later, on 16 July 1946. ^[7]

National League Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Wembley Lions	20	18	0	2	36
2	Belle Vue Aces	20	12	1	7	25
3	Odsal Boomerangs	20	9	1	10	19
4	Wimbledon Dons	20	8	1	11	17
5	New Cross Rangers	20	6	1	13	13
6	West Ham Hammers	20	4	2	14	10

On account of the small number of teams in the league the ACU Cup was run in a league format. Belle Vue Aces came out on top.

A.C.U. Cup final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Belle Vue Aces	10	8	0	2	16
2	Wembley Lions	10	6	1	3	13
3	New Cross Rangers	10	6	0	4	12
4	Odsal Boomerangs	10	4	1	5	9
5	Wimbledon Dons	10	4	0	6	8
6	West Ham Hammers	10	1	0	9	2

Such was the dearth of new riders caused by the war that all of the top ten riders were established pre-war riders and none were below the age of 32.

Top Ten Riders (League only)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Eric Langton		Belle Vue Aces	11.13
2	Jack Parker		Belle Vue Aces	11.00
3	Bill Kitchen		Wembley Lions	10.75
4	Ron Johnson		New Cross Rangers	10.69
5	Eric Chitty		West Ham Hammers	10.30
6	Norman Parker		Wimbledon Dons	10.12
7	Tommy Price		Wembley Lions	10.00
8	Alec Statham		Odsal Boomerangs	9.72
9	Ron Clarke		Odsal Boomerangs	9.50
10	Bill Longley		Odsal Boomerangs	9.20

National Trophy

The 1946 National Trophy was the tenth edition (if including the 1939 abandoned competition) or ninth edition (if not including) of the Knockout Cup. ^[8] Teams from the lower 1946 Speedway Northern League competed in the event.

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
04/05	Birmingham	56–48	Norwich
27/04	Norwich	53–51	Birmingham

Second round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
25/05	Birmingham	61–45	Middlesbrough
16/05	Middlesbrough	58–50	Birmingham
29/04	Newcastle	49–56	Middlesbrough
25/04	Middlesbrough	55–51	Newcastle
25/04	Sheffield	61–47	Glasgow White City
24/04	Glasgow White City	61–47	Sheffield
09/05 replay	Sheffield	63–44	Glasgow White City
08/05 replay	Glasgow White City	62–45	Sheffield

Quarterfinals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
22/06	Birmingham	31–77	Wembley
13/06	Wembley	80–27	Birmingham
20/07	Bradford Odsal	72–36	Sheffield
04/07	Sheffield	48–60	Bradford Odsal
02/07	West Ham	55–52	Wimbledon
01/07	Wimbledon	63–44	West Ham
08/06	Belle Vue	58–49	New Cross
12/06	New Cross	50–57	Belle Vue

Semifinals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
25/07	Wembley	50–57	Belle Vue
13/07	Belle Vue	60–48	Wembley
19/08	Wimbledon	62–46	Bradford Odsal
03/08	Bradford Odsal	53–55	Wimbledon

Final

First leg

16 September 1946

Wimbledon Dons Norman Parker 13 Lloyd Goffe 10 Oliver Hart 9 George Saunders 9 Arch Windmill 6 Dick Harris 6 Mike Erskine 5 Cyril Brine 1	61 – 46	Belle Vue Aces Jack Parker 13 Bill Pitcher 10 Wally Lloyd 10 Eric Langton 8 Ron Mason 2 Jim Boyd 2 Ralph Horne 1 Dent Oliver 0
	[9]

Wimbledon Stadium

Second leg

21 September 1946

Belle Vue Aces Wally Lloyd 18 Jack Parker 14 Bill Pitcher 11 Eric Langton 8 Jim Boyd 6 Dent Oliver 3 Louis Lawson 2 Ron Mason 1	63 – 45	Wimbledon Dons Norman Parker 11 Oliver Hart 10 Dick Harris 7 Mike Erskine 7 Lloyd Goffe 3 George Saunders 3 Cyril Brine 2 Arch Windmill 2
	[9]

Hyde Road Stadium

Belle Vue were National Trophy Champions, winning on aggregate 109–106.

Riders' Championship

Tommy Price won the British Riders' Championship final held at Empire Stadium on 12 September, in front of 85,000 spectators. ^{[10] [11]} There were no less than 23 qualifying rounds, where riders from National and Northern League tracks respectively, competed in six meetings each. ^[10]

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Tommy Price	3 3 3 3 3	15
2	Bill Kitchen	3 3 2 2 3	13
3	Jack Parker	3 f 3 3 3	12
4	Eric Langton	2 1 3 3 2	11
5	Malcolm Craven	3 2 f 2 3	10
6	Norman Parker	2 3 1 2 2	10
7	Eric Chitty	2 1 3 1 2	9
8	Frank Hodgson	1 3 2 1 1	8
9	Ron Johnson	f 2 3 2 f	7
10	Bert Spencer	1 1 1 0 2	5
11	Wally Lloyd	0 2 2 0 1	5
12	Jeff Lloyd	0 1 0 2 1	4
13	Bill Longley	2 2 0 0 0	4
14	Tommy Allott	0 0 0 1 1	2
15	Ernie Price	1 0 1 0 0	2
16	Ron Clarke (res)	1 1 0	2
16	Alec Statham	0 0 0 - -	0

• f=fell

London Cup

First round

Team one	Score	Team two
New Cross	59–49, 46–60	Wimbledon
West Ham	62–46, 43–65	Wembley

Final

First leg

26 August 1946

Wimbledon Norman Parker 17 Oliver Hart 13 Archie Windmill 7 Cyril Brine 6 Dick Harris 2 George Saunders 1 Lloyd Goffe 1 Charlie Dugard 1	53–55	Wembley Bill Kitchen 13 George Wilks 11 Tommy Price 9 Bill Gilbert 9 Alf Bottoms 7 Bob Wells 4 Roy Craighead 2 Charlie May 0

Plough Lane

Second leg

29 August 1946

Wembley Tommy Price 16 Bill Kitchen 14 Bill Gilbert 8 Alf Bottoms 7 Roy Craighead 2 George Wilks 2 Bob Wells 1 Charlie May 1	66–42	Wimbledon Norman Parker 10 Lloyd Goffe 7 Oliver Hart 7 Cyril Brine 7 Archie Windmill 6 George Saunders 3 Dick Harris 2 harlie Dugard 0
	[12]

Wembley Stadium

Wembley won on aggregate 121–95

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• Eric Langton 11.13
• Jack Parker 11.00
• Wally Lloyd 8.46
• Bill Pitcher 6.91
• Dent Oliver 5.00
• Jim Boyd 4.92
• Ron Mason 3.90
• Harold Jackson 4.67
• Louis Lawson 1.45

New Cross

• Ron Johnson 10.69
• Eric French 9.52
• Geoff Pymar 8.63
• Les Wotton 8.24
• Phil Bishop 4.14
• Mick Mitchell 4.12
• Frank Lawrence 3.78
• Keith Harvey 3.40
• Les Webbon 3.06
• Ray Moore 2.29
• Jack Cooley 2.13
• Jack White 0.57

Odsal

• Alec Statham 9.72
• Ron Clarke 9.50
• Bill Longley 9.20
• Ernie Price 8.39
• Fred Tuck 6.90
• Albert Rosenfeld 2.93
• Vic Pitcher 2.86
• Bill Osborne 2.00
• Red Hamley 1.33
• Jack White 1.25
• Charlie Oates 1.24
• Stan Beardsall 0.80
• Ron Stringer 0.60

Wembley

• Bill Kitchen 10.75
• Tommy Price 10.00
• George Wilks 9.00
• Alf Bottoms 5.90
• Bill Gilbert 5.72
• Bob Wells 5.66
• Roy Craighead 5.50
• Bronco Wilson 5.11
• Charlie May 4.90

West Ham

• Eric Chitty 10.30
• Malcolm Craven 9.03
• Colin Watson 8.40
• Bob Harrison 7.89
• Jack Cooley 4.73
• Cyril Anderson 4.14
• Benny King 3.47
• Buck Whitby 3.39
• Frank Lawrence 3.23
• Ron Howes 3.23
• George Gower 3.00
• Bert Roger 2.45
• Dick Geary 2.29

Wimbledon

• Norman Parker 10.12
• Lloyd Goffe 8.23
• Oliver Hart 7.58
• Mike Erskine 6.29
• George Saunders 5.82
• Dick Harris 5.69
• Arch Windmill 5.38
• Charlie Dugard 4.38
• Alex Gray 4.00
• Cyril Brine 4.00

See also

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

References

1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
2. "Year by Year". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
3. Dalling, P. (2011). The Golden Age Of Speedway. The History Press. ISBN   0-7524-5831-0
4. Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN   0-904584-45-3.
5. "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - POST-WAR ERA (1946-1964)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
6. "Speedway's biggest 34,000" . Bradford Observer. 8 July 1946. Retrieved 11 August 2021– via British Newspaper Archive.
7. "Injured speedway rider dies" . Hull Daily Mail. 16 July 1946. Retrieved 11 August 2021– via British Newspaper Archive.
8. "1946 National Trophy". Speedway archive.
9. "1946 National Trophy". Speedway Archive. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
10. "1946 fixtures" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
11. "Tommy Price wins Speedway Championship" . Daily Herald. 13 September 1946. Retrieved 3 June 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
12. "Wembley Win Cup Final" . South Western Star. 30 August 1946. Retrieved 16 September 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.