1982 British League season

1982 British League season

League	British League
No. of competitors	15
Champions	Belle Vue Aces
Knockout Cup	Cradley Heath Heathens
League Cup	Cradley Heath Heathens
Individual	Kenny Carter
Midland Cup	Coventry Bees
Highest average	Kenny Carter
Division/s below	1982 National League
← 1981 1983 →

The 1982 British League season was the 48th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 18th known as the British League. ^{[1] [2]}

Summary

Hull Vikings had disbanded following the loss of their home at the Boulevard. ^[3]

After a ten-year drought Belle Vue Aces won the league pushing defending champions Cradley Heath into second place. A special performance was going to be needed to finish ahead of the star-studded Cradley Heath team and it was the consistency of the support riders which helped Belle Vue achieve this. England international Chris Morton was the heat leader but he was supported by a group of consistent scorers throughout the season that included Larry Ross (a former 5 times New Zealand champion), the former world champion Peter Collins, the Carr brothers Louis and Peter, Dane Peter Ravn and Scot Jim McMillan. ^{[4] [5]} Cradley Heath went on to win their third Knockout Cup in four years and the League Cup.

Hackney Wick Stadium was subject to a second fatal accident within two years when American Denny Pyeatt lost his life in a league match on 16 July. Pyeatt riding for Reading Racers crashed into a lamp standard. ^{[6] [7]} Swindon rider Martin Hewlett suffered a stroke after the Swindon v Birmingham fixture in September and died four days later.

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Belle Vue Aces	28	23	0	5	46
2	Cradley Heath Heathens	28	20	0	8	40
3	Ipswich Witches	28	16	2	10	34
4	Coventry Bees	28	16	2	10	34
5	Sheffield Tigers	28	14	3	11	31
6	Birmingham Brummies	28	13	1	14	27
7	Hackney Hawks	28	12	3	13	27
8	Swindon Robins	28	13	1	14	27
9	Reading Racers	28	12	2	14	26
10	Leicester Lions	28	13	0	15	26
11	Wimbledon Dons	28	12	2	14	26
12	Eastbourne Eagles	28	11	3	14	25
13	Halifax Dukes	28	10	1	17	21
14	King's Lynn Stars	28	9	3	16	21
15	Poole Pirates	28	3	3	22	9

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

Top Ten Riders (League Averages)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Kenny Carter		Halifax Dukes	11.05
2	Erik Gundersen		Cradley Heathens	10.75
3	Hans Nielsen		Birmingham Brummies	10.49
4	Bruce Penhall		Cradley Heathens	10.39
5	Dennis Sigalos		Ipswich Witches	10.26
6	Bobby Schwartz		Reading Racers	10.11
7	Chris Morton		Belle Vue	9.98
8	Shawn Moran		Sheffield Tigers	9.98
9	Kelly Moran		Eastbourne Eagles	9.97
10	Billy Sanders		King's Lynn Stars	9.93

British League Knockout Cup

The 1982 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 44th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath Heathens were the winners. ^[8]

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
08/06	Leicester	45-33	Kings Lynn
06/06	Eastbourne	46-32	Swindon
05/06	Kings Lynn	48-30	Leicester
29/05	Halifax	45-33	Hackney
28/05	Hackney	38-40	Halifax
28/05	Ipswich	46-31	Coventry
27/05	Sheffield	42-36	Cradley Heath
22/05	Coventry	40-38	Ipswich
22/05	Cradley Heath	43-35	Sheffield
22/05	Swindon	38-40	Eastbourne
17/05	Reading	38-40	Belle Vue
15/05	Belle Vue	57-18	Reading
12/05	Poole	44-34	Birmingham
30/04	Birmingham	48-30	Poole

Quarter-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
19/08	Wimbledon	40-38	Eastbourne
09/08	Cradley Heath	41-37	Ipswich
01/08	Eastbourne	43-35	Wimbledon
29/07	Ipswich	38.5-39.5	Cradley Heath
19/07	Birmingham	43-35	Kings Lynn
17/07	Kings Lynn	43-35	Birmingham
11/07	Halifax	41-37	Belle Vue
10/07	Belle Vue	44-34	Halifax
25/09	Kings Lynn	42-36	Birmingham
13/09	Birmingham	40-38	Kings Lynn

Semi-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
03/10	Kings Lynn	36-42	Belle Vue
02/10	Belle Vue	49-29	Kings Lynn
19/09	Eastbourne	41-36	Cradley Heath
18/09	Cradley Heath	48-30	Eastbourne

Final

First leg

23 October 1982

Cradley Heath Erik Gundersen 15 Lance King 13 Phil Collins 7 Simon Wigg 5 Andy Reid 3 Alan Grahame 3 Wayne Jackson 0	46 - 32	Belle Vue Aces Chris Morton 12 Peter Collins 6 Peter Ravn 6 Larry Ross 4 Louis Carr 2 Peter Carr 1 Jim McMillan 1
	[9]

Dudley Wood Stadium

Second leg

30 October 1982

Belle Vue Aces Chris Morton 10 Peter Collins 7 Peter Ravn 7 Larry Ross 6 Rod Hunter 6 Louis Carr 5 Andy Smith 2	43 - 35	Cradley Heath Erik Gundersen 15 Lance King 8 Alan Grahame 8 Simon Wigg 2 Phil Collins 1 Andy Reid 1
	[9]

Belle Vue Stadium

Cradley were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 81-75.

League Cup

The League Cup was split into North and South sections. The two-legged final was won by Cradley Heath Heathens beating Ipswich Witches in the final 83–73 on aggregate.

South Group

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Ipswich Witches	14	12	0	2	24
2	Eastbourne Eagles	14	8	2	4	18
3	Wimbledon Dons	14	8	1	5	17
4	Poole Pirates	14	6	0	8	12
5	Hackney Hawks	14	6	0	8	12
6	Reading Racers	14	6	0	8	12
7	King's Lynn Stars	14	5	0	9	10
8	Swindon Robins	14	3	1	10	7

North Group

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Cradley Heathens	12	8	2	2	18
2	Coventry Bees	12	9	0	3	18
3	Belle Vue Aces	12	6	2	4	14
4	Halifax Dukes	11	6	1	4	13
5	Birmingham Brummies	12	3	1	8	7
6	Leicester Lions	11	3	1	7	7
7	Sheffield Tigers	12	2	1	9	5

Final

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
19/06	Cradley Heath	42–36	Ipswich
24/06	Ipswich	37–41	Cradley Heath

Riders' Championship

Kenny Carter won the British League Riders' Championship for the second consecutive year, held at Hyde Road on 16 October. ^[10]

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Kenny Carter	3 3 3 3 3	15
2	Shawn Moran	2 3 3 3 3	14
3	Hans Nielsen	3 2 3 2 3	13
4	Erik Gundersen	2 3 2 0 3	10
5	Bobby Schwartz	3 1 2 2 1	9
6	Les Collins	0 1 3 3 2	9
7	Jan Andersson	3 0 2 1 2	8
8	Steve Bastable	2 3 1 1 0	7
9	Billy Sanders	0 2 2 1 2	7
10	Ole Olsen	0 1 1 3 1	6
11	Chris Morton	1 2 1 2 0	6
12	Finn Thomsen	1 1 0 2 1	5
13	Dennis Sigalos	2 0 r -	4
14	Dave Jessup	1 0 1 0 1	3
15	Gordon Kennett	1 0 0 0 2	3
16	John Davis	0 - - - -	0
17	Andy Smith (res)	0 0 1 0 -	1
18	Lee Edwards (res)	0 0 - - -	0

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

Final leading averages

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Kenny Carter		Halifax	11.03
2	Bruce Penhall		Cradley	10.74
=3	Erik Gundersen		Cradley	10.18
=3	Chris Morton		Belle Vue	10.18
5	Dennis Sigalos		Ipswich	10.10
6	Jan Andersson		Reading	9.96
7	Hans Nielsen		Birmingham	9.89
8	Bobby Schwartz		Reading	9.83
9	Gordon Kennett		Eastbourne	9.72
10	Michael Lee		King's Lynn	9.65

Midland Cup

Coventry won the Midland Cup for the second consecutive year. The competition consisted of five teams. ^[11]

First round

Team one	Team two	Score
Swindon	Birmingham	44–34, 41–37

Semi final round

Team one	Team two	Score
Coventry	Leicester	37–41, 44–34
Cradley	Swindon	49–29, 54–24

Final

First leg

4 October 1982

Cradley Heath Erik Gundersen 15 Phil Collins 7 Lance King 6 Simon Wigg 6 Alan Grahame 5 Andy Reid 4 Bruce Penhall r/r	43–35	Coventry Tommy Knudsen 13 Gary Guglielmi 9 Ole Olsen 5 Mitch Shirra 3 Kevin Hawkins 2 Alf Busk 2 Charlie McKinna 1

Dudley Wood Stadium

Second leg

11 October 1982

Coventry Mitch Shirra 12 Tommy Knudsen 11 Ole Olsen 11 Gary Guglielmi 5 Alf Busk 3 Kevin Hawkins 2 Charlie McKinna 0	44–34	Cradley Heath Erik Gundersen 9 Simon Wigg 7 Lance King 5 Alan Grahame 5 Andy Reid 5 Phil Collins 3 Bruce Penhall r/r

Brandon Stadium

Coventry won on aggregate 79–77

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• Chris Morton 10.18
• Larry Ross 9.37
• Peter Collins 8.78
• Louis Carr 6.01
• Peter Ravn 5.65
• Jimmy McMillan 5.44
• Peter Carr 4.98
• Andy Smith 4.40

Birmingham

• Hans Nielsen 9.89
• Andy Grahame 9.03
• Ari Koponen 6.20
• Aleš Dryml Sr. 6.03
• John Eskildsen 6.03
• John Jorgensen 5.65
• Zdeněk Kudrna 5.23
• Neil Evitts 5.03
• Karl Maier 4.72
• Bruce Cribb 3.56
• Armando Dal Chiele 0.80

Coventry

• Tommy Knudsen 9.22
• Ole Olsen 9.09
• Mitch Shirra 7.38
• Gary Guglielmi 6.69
• Kevin Hawkins 5.79
• Alf Busk 5.19
• Sam Nikolajsen 3.48
• Charlie McKinna 3.25

Cradley Heath

• Bruce Penhall 10.74
• Erik Gundersen 10.18
• Alan Grahame 9.22
• Phil Collins 7.29
• Simon Wigg 6.67
• Lance King 6.30
• Ian Gledhill 3.45
• Andy Reid 3.02
• Wayne Jackson 3.00
• Jan Verner 2.69
• Bill Barrett 1.78

Eastbourne

• Gordon Kennett 9.72
• Kelly Moran 9.62
• Ron Preston 9.18
• Paul Woods 6.62
• Lillebror Johansson 3.55
• Dave Kennett 3.55
• Lars Hammarberg 3.37
• Borge Ring 3.36
• Keith Pritchard 3.27

Hackney

• Bo Petersen 9.38
• Finn Thomsen 7.29
• John Titman 6.59
• Antonín Kasper Jr. 6.53
• Sean Willmott 5.96
• Jens Rasmussen 5.53
• Bob Garrad 4.00
• Martin Hagon 3.52

Halifax

• Kenny Carter 11.03
• John Louis 7.52
• Ian Cartwright 7.28
• Merv Janke 6.39
• Martin Dixon 5.51
• Doug Wyer 5.36
• Steve Baker 4.98
• Rob Ashton 4.71
• Rob Tate 0.80

Ipswich

• Dennis Sigalos 10.10
• Preben Eriksen 8.53
• John Cook 7.77
• Kevin Jolly 6.98
• Jeremy Doncaster 6.07
• Nigel Flatman 5.79
• Andy Hines 5.67
• Mike Lanham 5.16
• Carl Baldwin 4.40

King's Lynn

• Michael Lee 9.65
• Billy Sanders 9.09
• Richard Hellsen 7.00
• Melvyn Taylor 5.78
• Colin Richardson 4.90
• Rob Hollingworth 4.04
• Peo Gudmundsson 3.00
• Keven Dye 1.76
• Jiří Hnidak 1.58
• Peter Framingham 0.44

Leicester

• Les Collins 8.77
• Neil Collins 7.07
• Phil Herne 6.42
• Joe Owen 5.93
• Colin Cook 5.87
• Mark Courtney 5.57
• Finn Jensen 5.41
• Steve Regeling 5.09

Poole

• John Davis 8.68
• Scott Autrey 8.13
• Neil Middleditch 6.01
• Václav Verner 5.86
• Kevin Smith 5.83
• Danny Kennedy 5.30
• Peter Prinsloo 4.49
• Les Sawyer 4.20
• Pete Ellams 3.29

Reading

• Jan Andersson 9.96
• Bobby Schwartz 9.83
• Steve Gresham 5.57
• Denny Pyeatt 5.28
• Jiří Štancl 5.23
• Tim Hunt 5.08
• Dave Trownson 4.66
• Colin Ackroyd 4.00
• John Grahame 3.87
• Uno Johansson 2.78

Sheffield

• Shawn Moran 9.55
• David Bargh 6.84
• Dave Morton 6.50
• Reg Wilson 6.48
• Wayne Brown 6.46
• Phil White 5.57
• Zenon Plech 4.95
• Mark Fiora 3.82
• Robbie Foy 1.71

Swindon

• Phil Crump 9.47
• Steve Bastable 7.58
• Bjorn Andersson 6.46
• Malcolm Holloway 5.97
• Mike Ferreira 5.26
• Steen Mastrup 5.19
• Martin Yeates 4.18
• Martin Hewlett 4.13
• Jan Verner 3.26

Wimbledon

• Dave Jessup 8.77
• Malcolm Simmons 8.75
• Kai Niemi 8.04
• Edward Jancarz 5.82
• Anders Eriksson 5.37
• Roger Johns 5.37
• Brad Oxley 5.09
• Richard Knight 4.08
• Alan Mogridge 2.06

See also

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

References

1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
2. "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
3. "Speedway battle is destined for courts" . Hull Daily Mail. 17 October 1981. Retrieved 21 September 2024– via British Newspaper Archive.
4. "1982 league tables". Speedway GB.
5. "1982 FactFile" (PDF). Retro Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
6. "Denny Pyeatt". Speedway Bikes. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
7. "Speedway Star Cover Men". wwosbackup. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
8. "1982 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
9. "Coventry Bees 1982 season". Cradley Speedway. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
10. "Carter's maximum" . Sunday Sun (Newcastle). 17 October 1982. Retrieved 4 June 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.
11. "Heathens Misery" . Sandwell Evening Mail. 12 October 1982. Retrieved 21 October 2023– via British Newspaper Archive.