1968 British League Division Two season

1968 British League Division Two season

League	British League Division Two
No. of competitors	10
Champions	Belle Vue Colts
Knockout Cup	Canterbury Crusaders
Individual	Graham Plant
Highest average	Mick Handley
Division/s above	British League (Div 1)
← 1964 1969 →

The 1968 British League Division Two season was the inaugural season of a second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain. ^{[1] [2]}

Summary

The formation of a new division 2 was a success and attracted five new clubs to league speedway, the Nelson Admirals from Nelson in Lancashire, ^[3] the Crayford Highwaymen from east London, ^[4] the Canterbury Crusaders from Kent, the Berwick Bandits from Scotland and the Reading Racers. Additionally three other clubs, Middlesbrough, Plymouth and Rayleigh returned to league action having previously competed in the old defunct Provincial League and Weymouth returned after a 13-year absence. ^{[5] [6]}

Belle Vue Aces, members of the first division, fielded a reserve side known as Belle Vue Colts and won the first league title. ^[7] Colt's riders Taffy Owen, Ken Eyre, Eric Broadbelt and John Woodcock all scored heavily and ended with impressive averages. ^[8] Canterbury in their first season of existence won the division 2 Knockout Cup beating another new team Reading in the final. ^[6]

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Belle Vue Colts	18	14	0	4	28
2	Nelson Admirals	18	11	0	7	22
3	Middlesbrough Teessiders	18	10	1	7	21
4	Plymouth Devils	18	10	0	8	20
5	Rayleigh Rockets	18	9	1	8	19
6	Crayford Highwaymen	18	8	1	9	17
7	Canterbury Crusaders	18	8	1	9	17
8	Reading Racers	18	6	2	10	14
9	Weymouth Eagles	18	5	2	11	12
10	Berwick Bandits	18	5	0	13	10

Fixtures and results

Home \ Away	BV	BER	CAN	CRA	MID	NEL	PLY	RAY	REA	WEY
Belle Vue		54–24	55–23	57–21	46–31	42–36	48–30	46–31	53–25	63–15
Berwick	28–49		52–26	44–33	38–40	37–41	37–41	47–31	41–34	43–33
Canterbury	38–39	40–37		40–37	42–36	46–32	43–35	39–39	45–33	44–34
Crayford	43–33	57–21	57–21		37–41	50–27	51–27	49–28	50–28	41–34
Middlesbrough	40–37	43–34	51–27	48–30		35–42	47–31	40–37	45–33	50–28
Nelson	46–32	54–23	40–37	46–32	43–35		55–21	46–31	53–25	43–35
Plymouth	43–35	43–35	47–31	54–24	53–25	50–28		48–30	42–36	41–36
Rayleigh	37–40	51–26	45–33	46–30	41–36	48–30	40–34		44–34	47–31
Reading	37–40	45–33	37–41	46–32	39–39	41–37	50–28	44–34		49–29
Weymouth	34–43	48–28	48–29	39–39	49–29	42–36	42–36	38–40	39–39

Source: ^[9]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top five riders (league averages)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1=	Mick Handley		Crayford	10.22
1=	Mike Cake		Plymouth	10.22
3	Chris Bass		Plymouth	9.91
4	Dave Schofield		Nelson	9.82
5	Taffy Owen		Belle Vue	9.59

British League Division Two Knockout Cup

The 1968 British League Division Two Knockout Cup was the first edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams and coincided with the newly formed league. ^[10]

Previously the tier two and tier three teams had competed in the National Trophy until 1964, and although they held their own finals during some years it only served as qualification for the main competition. Canterbury Crusaders were the winners of the competition. ^[11]

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
26/08	Reading	52-44	Rayleigh

Quarter-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
10/08	Canterbury	56-37	Crayford
22/08	Middlesbrough	53-41	Nelson
26/08	Reading	52-44	Plymouth
24/08	Berwick	45-51	Belle Vue

Semi-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
30/09	Reading	56-40	Belle Vue
07/09	Canterbury	64-31	Middlesbrough

Final

First leg

12 October 1968

Canterbury Crusaders Peter Murray 14 Barry Crowson 14 Martyn Piddock 13 John Hibben 10 Graham Miles 7 Ken Vale 2 Pat Flanagan 0	60 – 36	Reading Racers Vic White 11 John Poyser 8 Ian Champion 6 Stuart Wallace 4 Phil Pratt 3 Ted Spittles 2 Dene Davies 2
	[12]

Kingsmead Stadium

Second leg

14 October 1968

Reading Racers John Poyser 17 Vic White 11 Ted Spittles 9 Stuart Wallace 3 Dene Davies 2 Phil Pratt 1 Ian Champion 1	44 – 52	Canterbury Crusaders Peter Murray 14 Barry Crowson 12 John Hibben 8 Graham Miles 6 Ken Vale 6 Martyn Piddock 5 Dave Grimley (guest) 1
	[12]

Reading Stadium

Canterbury were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 112–80.

Riders' Championship

Graham Plant aged just 19, won the Rider's Championship. The final was held at Hackney Wick Stadium on 27 September. Several riders were involved in a crash, which resulted in Chris Bailey (broken wrist) and Barry Crowson (suspected fractured thigh bone) going to hospital. ^[13] However, Crowson after receiving an all-clear rode for his parent club West Ham Hammers the following evening. ^[14]

Pos.	Rider	Pts	Total
1	Graham Plant	3 3 2 2 3	13
2	Ken Eyre	2 3 3 3 1	12
3	Graeme Smith	1 2 3 2 3	11
4	Mick Handley	ex 3 2 3 3	11
5	Murray Burt	3 f 3 2 3	11
6	Allan Brown	ex 2 3 3 2	10
7	Mike Cake	3 1 1 3 2	10
8	Tony Lomas	2 2 0 1 2	7
9	John Poyser	2 r 1 2 1	6
10	John Woodcock	f 2 2 ef 1	5
11	Dave Schofield	1 1 1 1 1	5
12	Martyn Piddock	0 0 2 1 2	5
13	Barry Crowson	2 3 f	5
14	Chris Bailey	3 f f	3
15	Barry Duke (res)	1 1 ef	2
16	Roy Williams	1 1 0 0 0	2
17	Taffy Owen	0 1 0 0 0	1
18	Mike Vernam (res)	0 0 0	0

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

Leading final averages

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Mick Handley		Crayford Highwaymen	10.48
2	Mike Cake		Plymouth	10.22
3	Chris Bass		Plymouth	10.15
4	Peter Murray		Canterbury	10.05
5	Allan Brown		Middlesbrough	9.63

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue Colts

• Taffy Owen 9.35
• Ken Eyre 8.94
• Eric Broadbelt 8.15
• John Woodcock 8.15
• Chris Bailey 7.74
• Ken Moss 6.33
• Peter Thompson 5.93
• Brian Bentley 5.49

Berwick

• Bill McMillan 9.12
• Roy Williams 7.85
• Brian Whaley 7.69
• Brian Black 6.81
• Mark Hall 6.59
• Lex Milloy 5.89
• Grieves Davidson 4.53
• Alex Nichol 3.51
• Tom Blackwood 3.37
• Colin Robertson 2.71

Canterbury

• Peter Murray 10.05
• Barry Crowson 8.44
• Ken Vale 8.00
• Martyn Piddock 7.96
• John Hibben 6.85
• Tyburn Gallows 4.91
• Pat Flanagan 4.61
• Chris Raines 4.57
• Frank Wendon 4.30
• Barry Lee 3.15

Crayford

• Mick Handley 10.48
• Tony Childs 7.68
• Derek Timms 6.54
• Colin Clark 6.05
• Dai Evans 5.88
• Geoff Ambrose 5.87
• Stuart Riley 5.12
• Tony Armstrong 4.31

Middlesbrough

• Allan Brown 9.63
• Graham Plant 8.54
• Graham Edmonds 8.31
• Tom Leadbitter 6.82
• Terry Lee 6.78
• Paul O'Neal 6.07
• Pete Reading 4.75
• Alan Palmer 3.25
• John Spilsbury 2.09

Nelson

• Dave Schofield 9.54
• Alan Paynter 9.10
• Murray Burt 8.76
• Gary Peterson 8.14
• Terry Shearer 6.76
• Dave Beacon 5.79
• Jack Winstanley 5.51
• Paul Sharples 4.15

Plymouth

• Mike Cake 10.22
• Chris Bass 10.15
• Phil Woodcock 6.67
• Tony George 6.13
• Dave Whittaker 6.08
• Keith Marks 5.69
• Frank Payne 5.07
• Chris Roynon 4.75
• Ian Gills 3.23

Rayleigh

• Graeme Smith 7.55
• Mike Gardner 7.49
• Dennis Mannion 7.44
• Dingle Brown 6.48
• Laurie Etheridge 6.20
• Geoff Maloney 6.06
• Terry Stone 6.03
• Colin Tucker 3.09

Reading

• John Poyser 9.29
• Ian Champion 6.91
• Joe Weichlbauer 6.88
• Ted Spittles 6.68
• Stuart Wallace 6.20
• Dene Davies 5.39
• Ian Bottomley 4.91
• Phil Pratt 4.59

Weymouth

• Tony Lomas 9.39
• Mike Vernam 7.94
• Barry Duke 7.71
• Chris Yeatman 6.14
• Mick Steel 5.08
• Roy Carter 4.58
• Adrian Degan 3.05
• Phil Arnold 2.72

See also

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

References

1. "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
2. Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 129–133. ISBN   0-904584-45-3.
3. "A cinders debut" . Nelson Leader. 31 May 1968. Retrieved 27 August 2024– via British Newspaper Archive.
4. "Speedway comes to Kent" . Kent Messenger & Gravesend Telegraph. 3 May 1968. Retrieved 2 November 2024– via British Newspaper Archive.
5. "Teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
6. "Book Extract:Tears and Glory The Winged Wheel Story". Speedway Plus. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
7. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN   0-86215-017-5.
8. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
9. "1968 fixtures & results". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
10. "Year by Year". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
11. "1968 British League Division Two Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
12. "Season 1968" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
13. "Two in hospital after Big Speedway Pile-Up" . Daily Mirror. 28 September 1968. Retrieved 13 June 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
14. "Barry Crowson joins the Eagles" . Eastbourne Herald. 15 February 1969. Retrieved 4 October 2024– via British Newspaper Archive.