1980 British League season

1980 British League season

League	British League
No. of competitors	17
Champions	Reading Racers
Knockout Cup	Cradley Heath Heathens
Individual	Les Collins
Midland Cup	Cradley Heathens
London Cup	Wimbledon Dons
Highest average	Hans Nielsen
Division/s below	1980 National League
← 1979 1981 →

The 1980 British League season was the 46th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 16th season known as the British League. ^{[1] [2]}

Summary

The league comprised 17 teams - one fewer than the previous season. Exeter Falcons had dropped down to the National League. Hackney Hawks underwent a dramatic transformation from being the bottom side in 1979 to title contenders in 1980, but their challenge faded in the last few weeks and Reading Racers were crowned champions for the second time. ^{[3] [4]}

Reading's success came down to three strong heat leaders, Swedish champion Jan Andersson, their new American signing Bobby Schwartz and England international John Davis. All three produced season averages around the 10 mark, which enabled the team to constantly pick up victories. ^[5] Cradley Heathens successfully retained their Knockout Cup crown overcoming a huge first leg deficit in the final. ^[6]

Hans Nielsen topped the averages for the first time in his career. Neither Ivan Mauger or Ole Olsen finished in the top 10 in averages, as well as both failing to qualify directly for that years’ World Final (Olsen went as reserve). The young American riders continued to improve as more arrived in Britain, with Bruce Penhall qualifying for the World Final and Dennis Sigalos pipping Mauger to be Hull Vikings' top scorer.

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Reading Racers	32	24	1	7	49
2	Hackney Hawks	32	23	0	9	46
3	Belle Vue Aces	32	21	1	10	43
4	Coventry Bees	32	20	2	10	42
5	Cradley Heath Heathens	32	20	0	12	40
6	Ipswich Witches	32	16	2	14	34
7	King's Lynn Stars	32	17	0	15	34
8	Swindon Robins	32	16	2	14	34
9	Poole Pirates	32	15	2	15	32
10	Halifax Dukes	32	15	1	16	31
11	Leicester Lions	32	14	0	18	28
12	Hull Vikings	32	11	5	16	27
13	Wimbledon Dons	32	12	2	18	26
14	Birmingham Brummies	32	11	1	20	23
15	Wolverhampton Wolves	32	9	2	21	20
16	Eastbourne Eagles	32	9	1	22	19
17	Sheffield Tigers	32	8	0	24	16

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

Fixtures and results

Home \ Away	BV	BIR	COV	CH	EAS	HAC	HAL	HV	IPS	KL	LEI	PP	RR	SHE	SWI	WIM	WOL
Belle Vue		41–37	40–38	42–36	53–25	49–29	44–34	43–35	44–34	40–38	41–37	45–33	43–35	47–30	52–25	46–31	41–37
Birmingham	37–41		35–43	45–33	33–45	44–34	41–37	44–34	42–36	34–44	41–37	41–37	32–46	41–37	35–43	46–32	36–42
Coventry	44–34	45–33		36.5–41.5	47–31	52–26	47–31	52–26	42–36	43–35	43–35	47–31	40–38	48–30	44–34	49–29	45–33
Cradley Heath	42–36	49–29	44.5–33.5		57–21	44–34	40–38	45–33	53–25	40–38	39–38	42–36	46–32	50–28	46–32	51–27	44–34
Eastbourne	45–33	37–41	47–31	45–31		34–43	41–37	37–41	40–38	42–36	31–47	34–44	26–52	46–32	30–48	39–39	41–37
Hackney	45–33	41–37	44–34	37–40	44–34		45–32	46–31	46–32	40–38	43–35	44–34	40–38	53–25	43–35	56–22	52–26
Halifax	46–32	44–34	37–41	40–38	52–26	38–39		48–30	44–34	42–36	43–35	42–36	39–39	49–29	42–36	40–38	51–27
Hull	38–40	51–27	39–39	42–36	46–32	38–40	32–46		39–39	41–37	42–36	39–39	40–38	60–18	42–36	44–33	41–36
Ipswich	41–36	54–24	43–35	46–32	48–30	49–28	56–22	43–35		40–38	48–30	45–33	31–47	59–19	48–30	50–27	38–40
King's Lynn	43–34	49–29	46–32	52–26	63–15	43–35	48–30	56–22	40–38		44–33	50–28	38–40	58–20	44–34	44–34	41–37
Leicester	37–41	46–32	42–36	40–38	49–29	38–40	51–27	43–35	42–36	40–38		42–36	32–46	48–30	38–40	45–33	43–35
Poole	43–35	43–35	37–41	48–30	46–32	45–32	57–21	39–39	47–31	41–37	41–37		38–40	44–34	44–34	43–35	43–32
Reading	47–31	45–33	43–35	40–38	52–26	47–31	48–30	43–35	56–22	52–26	53–25	47–31		54–24	38–40	53–25	49–29
Sheffield	27–51	38–40	31–47	48–30	46–32	38–40	34–43	43–35	37–41	43–35	28–50	34–43	41–37		45–33	41–37	44–34
Swindon	39–39	52–26	43–35	35–43	43–35	32–46	44–34	46–32	39–39	40–38	45–33	49–29	33–45	59–19		41–37	46–32
Wimbledon	36–42	43–35	39–39	44–34	47–31	37–41	51–24	47–31	40–37	40–38	44–34	47–31	35–43	49–29	43–35		40–38
Wolverhampton	49–29	39–39	36–42	34–43	43–34	34–43	42–36	39–39	37–41	36–42	43–35	44–34	27–51	61–17	35–43	44–34

Source: ^[7]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top ten riders (league averages)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Peter Collins		Belle Vue	10.70
2	Hans Nielsen		Wolverhampton	10.70
3	Dave Jessup		King's Lynn	10.52
4	Bo Petersen		Hackney	10.46
5	Bruce Penhall		Cradley	10.46
6	Michael Lee		King's Lynn	10.17
7	Chris Morton		Belle Vue	10.11
8	Jan Andersson		Reading	10.08
9	Scott Autrey		Swindon	9.97
10	Bobby Schwartz		Reading	9.95

British League Knockout Cup

The 1980 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 42nd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath were the winners. ^{[8] [6]}

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
06/05	Leicester	59-49	Poole
05/05	Poole	53-55	Leicester

Second round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
17/07	Coventry	54-54	Birmingham
09/07	Cradley Heath	60-48	Kings Lynn
04/07	Wolverhampton	53-55	Sheffield
09/06	Birmingham	56-51	Coventry
06/06	Eastbourne	52.5-55.5	Swindon
05/06	Sheffield	56-52	Wolverhampton
03/06	Hull	67-41	Hackney
31/05	Belle Vue	60-48	Wimbledon
31/05	Halifax	57-50	Reading
31/05	Swindon	62-46	Eastbourne
30/05	Hackney	45-63	Hull
29/05	Wimbledon	57-51	Belle Vue
29/05	Ipswich	66-42	Leicester
27/05	Leicester	54-54	Ipswich
25/05	Kings Lynn	58-50	Cradley Heath
21/04	Reading	62-46	Halifax

Quarter-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
03/09	Birmingham	76-30	Sheffield
23/08	Belle Vue	68-40	Hull
21/08	Cradley Heath	54-54	Reading
21/08	Sheffield	49-58	Birmingham
04/08	Reading	53-55	Cradley Heath
19/07	Swindon	63-45	Ipswich
17/07	Ipswich	55-53	Swindon
09/07	Hull	66-42	Belle Vue

Semi-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
01/10	Cradley Heath	67-41	Birmingham
24/09	Belle Vue	59-49	Swindon
15/09	Birmingham	56-52	Cradley Heath
30/08	Swindon	56-52	Belle Vue

Final

First leg

11 October 1980

Belle Vue Aces Chris Morton 14 Rob Maxfield 14 Peter Collins 13 Pekka Hautamaki 10 Louis Carr 5 Steve Wilcock 5 Dave Allen 4 Derek Richardson 2	67 - 41	Cradley Heath Phil Collins 13 Alan Grahame 13 Erik Gundersen 7 Ila Teromaa 6 John Hack 1 Steve Lawson 1 Craig Featherby 0 Bruce Penhall R/R

Hyde Road Stadium

Second leg

29 October 1980

Cradley Heath Bruce Penhall 15 Erik Gundersen 13 Phil Collins 12 Alan Grahame 11 Andy Reid 9 Ila Teromaa 8 Steve Lawson 5 Craig Featherby 5	75 - 33	Belle Vue Aces Pekka Hautamaki 10 Louis Carr 10 Tony Boyle 6 John Williams 4 Chris Morton 2 (inj) Peter Collins 1 (inj) Dave Allen 0 Mark Lohmann R/R
	[6]

Dudley Wood Stadium

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 116-100.

Riders' Championship

Les Collins won the British League Riders' Championship, held at Hyde Road on 18 October and sponsored by Gauntlet (Leyland Used Cars). ^[9]

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Les Collins	3 3 3 3 2	14
2	Bruce Penhall	1 2 3 3 3	12
3	Larry Ross	3 3 1 2 2	11
4	Jan Andersson	2 1 3 3 1	10
5	Peter Collins	2 1 2 2 3	10
6	Hans Nielsen	3 2 2 1 2	10
7	Kenny Carter	3 3 0 0 3	9
8	Scott Autrey	2 2 1 0 3	8
9	Ole Olsen	2 3 1 1 0	7
10	Dennis Sigalos	0 0 2 2 2	6
11	Steve Bastable	0 1 1 2 1	5
12	John Louis	1 1 3 0 0	5
13	Bo Petersen	0 0 0 3 1	4
14	Michael Lee	1 2 0 - -	3
15	Malcolm Simmons	1 0 2 0 0	3
16	Bernie Collier (res)	1 1 - - -	2
17	Gordon Kennett	0 0 0 1 -	1
18	Mike Wilding (res)	0 - - - -	0

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

Final leading averages

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Hans Nielsen		Wolverhampton	10.69
2	Peter Collins		Belle Vue	10.67
=3	Dave Jessup		King's Lynn	10.39
=3	Bruce Penhall		Cradley	10.39
5	Bo Petersen		Hackney	10.27
6	Michael Lee		King's Lynn	10.14
7	Chris Morton		Belle Vue	10.09
8	Jan Andersson		Reading	10.04
9	Bobby Schwartz		Reading	10.00
10	Scott Autrey		Swindon	9.92

Midland Cup

Cradley Heath won the Midland Cup, sponsored by the Trustee Savings Bank. The competition consisted of six teams. ^[10]

First round

Team one	Team two	Score
Swindon	Wolverhampton	43–35, 39–39
Cradley	Birmingham	51–27, 48–30

Semi final round

Team one	Team two	Score
Swindon	Coventry	41–37, 36–42
Leicester	Cradley	35–43, 30–48

Final

First leg

2 October 1980

Coventry Ole Olsen 13 Tommy Knudsen 8 Mitch Shirra 7 Alf Busk 5 Rob Henry 3 Alan Molyneux 1 Kevin Hawkins 1	38–40	Cradley Heath Bruce Penhall 12 Alan Grahame 7 Phil Collins 6 Ila Teromaa 6 Erik Gundersen 6 John Hack 2 Andy Reid 1

Brandon Stadium

Second leg

9 October 1980

Cradley Heath Phil Collins 12 Erik Gundersen 11 Bobby Schwartz (guest) 10 Alan Grahame 9 Steve Lawson 4 Ila Teromaa 2 John Hack 0	48–30	Coventry Mitch Shirra 9 Ole Olsen 8 Kevin Hawkins 5 Tommy Knudsen 4 Alf Busk 2 Rob Hollingworth 2 Alan Molyneux 0

Dudley Wood Stadium

Cradley Heath won on aggregate 88–68

London Cup

Wimbledon won the London Cup but the competition consisted of just Wimbledon and Hackney. ^[11]

Results

Team	Score	Team
Wimbledon	43–35	Hackney
Hackney	42–36	Wimbledon

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• Peter Collins 10.67
• Chris Morton 10.09
• Rob Maxfield 7.69
• Mike Lohmann 6.33
• Derek Richardson 6.24
• Pekka Hautamaki 5.35
• Louis Carr 5.17
• Larry Kosta 4.91
• Dave Allen 4.25
• Steve Wilcock 4.22

Birmingham

• Steve Bastable 8.57
• Kelly Moran 8.24
• Andy Grahame 7.39
• Zdeněk Kudrna 6.22
• Phil Herne 6.09
• Ari Koponen 5.97
• Finn Jensen 5.93
• Alan Emerson 5.56
• Ladislav Hrádecký 3.70
• Mick Blaynee 2.70

Coventry

• Ole Olsen 9.52
• Mitch Shirra 8.54
• Tommy Knudsen 8.10
• Alan Molyneux 6.83
• Kevin Hawkins 6.27
• Gary Guglielmi 5.83
• Alf Busk 5.61
• Rob Hollingworth 4.00

Cradley Heath

• Bruce Penhall 10.39
• Alan Grahame 8.32
• Phil Collins 8.17
• Dave Perks 8.13
• Erik Gundersen 8.09
• Ila Teromaa 5.32
• Steve Lawson 5.16
• Mike Sampson 4.84
• John Hack 4.23
• Derek Harrison 4.05
• Craig Featherby 1.78
• Paul Bosley 0.73

Eastbourne

• Gordon Kennett 9.71
• Kai Niemi 8.35
• Paul Woods 6.28
• Veijo Tuoriniemi 6.12
• Dave Kennett 5.57
• Trevor Geer 4.87
• Eric Dugard 4.64
• Richard Greer 4.24
• Steve Naylor 3.87
• Jan Davidsson 3.61
• Sigvart Pedersen 1.81

Hackney

• Bo Petersen 10.27
• Zenon Plech 8.12
• Finn Thomsen 7.76
• Sean Willmott 5.49
• Barry Thomas 5.29
• Roman Jankowski 5.19
• Keith White 4.94
• Andrzej Huszcza 4.24

Halifax

• Kenny Carter 8.92
• Ian Cartwright 7.92
• Mick McKeon 6.54
• Merv Janke 6.06
• Piotr Pyszny 5.80
• Craig Pendlebury 5.39
• Les Sawyer 3.50
• Alan Stansfield 2.86

Hull

• Dennis Sigalos 9.32
• Ivan Mauger 9.00
• Joe Owen 7.57
• Bobby Beaton 6.68
• Shawn Moran 6.47
• Frank Auffret 5.17
• John McNeill 4.84
• David Bargh 4.67
• Rod Hunter 4.65
• John Cook 4.17

Ipswich

• Kevin Jolly 9.09
• John Louis 8.80
• Billy Sanders 8.34
• Mike Lanham 7.20
• Preben Eriksen 6.37
• Nigel Flatman 5.82
• Tim Hunt 5.77
• Tony Davey 5.33
• Kevin Teager 4.80
• Andy Hines 4.72

King's Lynn

• Dave Jessup 10.39
• Michael Lee 10.14
• Richard Hellsen 8.95
• Melvyn Taylor 6.52
• Bent Rasmussen 5.22
• Pete Smith 4.26
• Nigel Sparshott 3.82

Leicester

• Les Collins 8.93
• John Titman 7.69
• Rolf Gramstad 7.42
• Andrzej Huszcza 6.38
• Mark Courtney 6.20
• Bob Garrad 5.91
• Colin Cook 5.60
• Ian Clark 5.23

Poole

• Malcolm Simmons 9.40
• Ron Preston 9.11
• Peter Prinsloo 7.26
• Neil Middleditch 6.96
• Vaclav Verner 6.76
• Danny Kennedy 4.95
• Martin Yeates 4.77
• John McNeill 4.00
• Kevin Bowen 1.11

Reading

• Jan Andersson 10.04
• Bobby Schwartz 10.00
• John Davis 9.59
• Jiří Štancl 7.37
• Bernie Leigh 5.87
• Martin Ashby 5.30
• Tony Briggs 4.98
• Ashley Pullen 1.80

Sheffield

• Reg Wilson 8.00
• Doug Wyer 7.11
• Eric Broadbelt 6.37
• Phil White 6.20
• Aleš Dryml Sr. 5.56 (6 matches only)
• Neil Collins 5.09
• Nicky Allott 5.04
• Klaus Lohmann 4.86
• Jan Ząbik 4.37
• Henny Kroeze 3.67
• Paul Stead 3.23

Swindon

• Scott Autrey 9.92
• Phil Crump 9.59
• Bob Kilby 7.41
• Steve Gresham 7.24
• Milan Špinka 6.53
• Steen Mastrup 5.54
• Mike Ferreira 5.42
• Malcolm Holloway 5.31
• Bob Humphreys 5.00
• John Barker 2.72
• Nigel Boocock 2.00

Wimbledon

• Larry Ross 9.12
• Roger Johns 8.22
• Edward Jancarz 8.08
• Colin Richardson 6.36
• Stefan Salomonsson 5.82
• Mick Hines 5.08
• Rudy Muts 3.06
• Peter Johns 2.46
• Dave Brewer 2.24

Wolverhampton

• Hans Nielsen 10.69
• Reidar Eide 7.08
• Jimmy McMillan 7.01
• Petr Ondrašík 5.85
• Bruce Cribb 5.73
• Dave Morton 5.36
• Hasse Danielsson 5.33
• Billy Burton 5.07
• Ivan Blacka 3.93
• Wayne Brown 3.68
• Hans Christensen 2.62

See also

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

References

1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
2. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 80. ISBN   0-86215-017-5.
3. "1979 league tables". Speedway GB.
4. "1980 league tables". Speedway GB.
5. "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
6. "Cradley are KO kings in glory night" . Birmingham Mail. 30 October 1980. Retrieved 21 January 2025– via British Newspaper Archive.
7. "1980 fixtures & results". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
8. "1980 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
9. "Speedway" . The People. 21 October 1979. Retrieved 4 June 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
10. "Schwartz is a cup hit for Cradley" . Sandwell Evening Mail. 10 October 1980. Retrieved 21 October 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
11. "1980 fixtures and results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 1 October 2023.