2023 National Development League speedway season

2023 National Development League speedway season

League	National Development League
Champions	Oxford Chargers
Knockout Cup	Mildenhall Fen Tigers
Riders' Championship	Connor Bailey
Highest average	Dan Thompson
Division/s above	SGB Premiership SGB Championship
← 2022 2024 →

The 2023 National Development League was the third division/tier of British speedway for the 2023 season. ^[1] It was a semi-professional development league, containing mainly the junior sides of SGB Premiership and SGB Championship clubs. Leicester Lion Cubs were the defending champions having won the title in 2022. ^[2] Oxford Chargers won the title, defeating Leicester in a one-off Grand Final. ^[3]

Summary

Eight clubs competed for the National Development League Championship ^[4] after the addition of the Workington Comets to the league, ^[5] who raced on the new Northside track. ^[6] Armadale Devils were renamed Edinburgh Monarchs Academy, ^[7] while the Plymouth Centurions did not return.

The league points system changed in-line with the SGB Premiership and SGB Championship, with teams scoring two points for a win (home or away), with a bonus point scored for an aggregate win. A 'Super Heat' was also introduced in the event of a tied meeting, with the winners scoring two league points and the losers gaining one point. ^[8] The top two in the league qualified for the Grand Final. The rider points limit for team construction was 42 points.

Edinburgh

Belle Vue

Berwick

Kent

Leicester

Mildenhall

Oxford

Workington

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Locations of the 2023 National Development League teams

Defending champions Leicester Lion Cubs topped the table, however they lost a one-off Grand Final to the Oxford Chargers. The final was initially supposed to be a two-legged affair, however Leicester were unable to stage their home fixture due to bad weather and the BSPA ruled the title would be decided on the outcome of the Oxford leg. Oxford won the final 34-32, with the meeting ending after just 11 heats due to rain. It was the first major trophy Oxford had won since the Cheetahs claimed the Craven Shield in 2005.

Mildenhall Fen Tigers were controversially awarded the NDL KO Cup after Leicester were also unable to host the home leg of the final. Leicester had won the away leg, but the BSPA ruled a 75-0 walkover for Mildenhall in the second leg.

Workington's Connor Bailey won the Riders' Championship, while Leicester's Dan Thompson topped the averages for the second year running.

League

^[9]

League table

Pos.	Club	M	Home			Away			F	A	B	Pts	+/−
			W	SHL	L	W	SHL	L
1	Leicester Lion Cubs (Q)	14	7	0	0	5	0	2	708	543	7	31	+165
2	Oxford Chargers (Q)	14	7	0	0	4	0	3	710	542	5	27	+168
3	Belle Vue Colts	14	6	0	1	2	0	5	675	583	6	22	+92
4	Mildenhall Fen Tigers	14	6	0	1	2	0	5	592	632	3	19	-40
5	Monarchs Academy	14	5	0	2	1	0	6	614	641	4	16	-27
6	Workington Comets	14	4	0	3	1	0	6	575	648	2	12	-73
7	Kent Royals	14	5	0	2	0	0	7	545	684	1	11	-139
8	Berwick Bullets	14	1	0	6	0	0	7	540	686	0	2	-146

Fixtures & results

Home \ Away	BEL	BER	EDI	KEN	LEI	MIL	OXF	WOR
Belle Vue		61–29	54–36	67–23	41–49	52–38	56–33	49–41
Berwick	44–46		38–51	43–23	30–59	43–46	44–46	38–48
Edinburgh	50–40	46–44		52–37	43–47	54–36	32–57	59–31
Kent	54–36	54–34	48–41		38–50	47–43	39–51	50–40
Leicester	51–39	47–42	53–37	56–34		61–28	50–38	61–29
Mildenhall	47–43	49–41	48–41	53–37	44–46		45–43	30–29
Oxford	49–40	60–30	55–35	64–26	50–39	54–36		59–31
Workington	39–51	50–40	53–37	54–35	50–39	41–49	39–51

Source: ^[10]
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Grand Final

31 October	[11]	Oxford Chargers Ryan Kinsley 8 Henry Atkins 7 Jordan Jenkins 6 Jody Scott 5 Luke Killeen 3 Jacob Clouting 3 Jason Garrad 2	34–32	Leicester Lion Cubs Dan Thompson 8 Joe Thompson 8 Tom Spencer 5 Ashton Boughen 4 Vinnie Foord 4 Max James 3 Max Perry 0	Oxford Stadium Referee(s): Simon Humphrey-Kennett

Knockout Cup

The 2023 National Development League Knockout Cup was the 24th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier three teams. It was limited to teams that were not also running promotions in the SGB Championship. It ended in controversial circumstances as Leicester were unable to stage their home leg of the final, and the competition was therefore awarded to Mildenhall. ^[12]

	Semi-finals						Grand Final
	Kent Royals	44	29	73
	Mildenhall Fen Tigers	46	60	106
							Mildenhall Fen Tigers	38	75	113
							Leicester Lion Cubs	49	0	49
	Workington Comets	37	23	60
	Leicester Lion Cubs	53	49	102

Home team scores are in bold
Overall aggregate scores are in red

Final

First leg

8 October	[13]	Mildenhall Fen Tigers George Congreve 11 Ben Trigger 10 Kai Ward (guest) 9 William Richardson 3 Arran Butcher 3 Alfie Bowtell 2 Jody Scott (guest) 0	38–49	Leicester Lion Cubs Ashton Boughen 15 Jacob Hook (guest) 13 Max Perry 12 Tom Spencer 5 Max James 4 Jack Smith (guest) 0 Vinnie Foord 0	Mildenhall Stadium Referee(s): Wayne Jarvis

Second leg

30 October	[14]	Leicester Lion Cubs	0–75 (awarded)	Mildenhall Fen Tigers	Beaumont Park

Riders' Championship

The 2023 National League Riders' Championship took place on Sunday 15 October, at Northside Speedway, Workington and was won by Connor Bailey. ^[15]

Pos.	Rider	Pts	Total
1	Connor Bailey (Workington)	3,3,3,3,3	15
2	Max Clegg (Edinburgh)	2,2,2,3,3	12+3
3	Jacob Hook (Edinburgh)	1,3,3,2,3	12+2
4	Ashton Boughen (Leicester)	2,3,3,0,3	11
5	Ben Morley (Kent)	2,1,2,3,2	10
6	Sam McGurk (Workington)	1,2,3,2,1	9
7	Freddy Hodder (Belle Vue)	3,2,2,1,1	9
8	Ben Trigger (Mildenhall)	0,3,0,3,2	8
9	Max Perry (Leicester)	3,0,1,2,0	6
10	Danny Phillips (Berwick)	X,1,2,2,1	6
11	Lee Complin (Mildenhall)	3,2,X,-,-	5
12	Tom Woolley (Kent)	2,0,1,0,2	5
13	Jamie Halder (Berwick)	0,0,1,1,2	4
14	Luke Muff (Belle Vue)	1,1,1,1,-	4
15	Jacob Clouting (Oxford)	1,1,0,1,1	4
16	Jody Scott (Oxford)	0,0,0,0,R	0
17	Callum Foy - res (Workington)	-,-,-,0,0	0
18	Ben Rathbone - res (Berwick)	-,-,-,-,0	0

• F=fell, R=retired, X=excluded TM=two minute warning excluded

Leading averages

	Rider	Team	Average
1	Dan Thompson	Leicester	10.64
2	Jordan Jenkins	Oxford	10.43
3	Henry Atkins	Oxford	10.17
4	Connor Bailey	Workington	10.03
5	Joe Thompson	Leicester	9.82
6	Alfie Bowtell	Mildenhall	9.80
7	Max Clegg	Edinburgh	9.57
8	James Pearson	Belle Vue	9.24
9	Jack Smith	Belle Vue	9.15
10	Adam Roynon	Edinburgh	9.02

• averages include league, play offs & knockout cup, min 6 matches

Squads & final averages

Belle Vue Colts

• James Pearson 9.24
• Jack Smith (C) 9.15
• Sam Hagon 8.63
• Freddy Hodder 7.31
• Matt Marson 7.21
• Luke Muff 6.00
• Paul Bowen 4.39
• Jack Shimelt 1.00

Berwick Bullets

• Connor Coles 7.86
• Steve Boxall ^[16] 7.73
• Danny Phillips 7.21
• Greg Blair (C) ^[17] 6.75
• Jamie Halder 5.97
• Josh Embleton 4.80
• Mason Watson 4.48
• Ben Rathbone 4.00
• Kieran Douglas 2.80

Edinburgh Monarchs Academy

• Max Clegg 9.57
• Kyle Bickley 9.05
• Adam Roynon 9.02
• Jacob Hook 8.75
• Alex Spooner 6.40
• Mickie Simpson 5.27
• Dayle Wood 5.17
• Kyran Lyden 3.40
• Mark Parker 1.94

Kent Royals

• Nathan Ablitt 8.38
• Ben Morley 8.26
• Jack Kingston 6.91
• Tom Woolley (C) 6.58
• Rhys Naylor 6.10
• Joe Alcock 4.57
• Connor King 4.00
• Ashton Vale 3.56

Leicester Lion Cubs

• Dan Thompson 10.64
• Joe Thompson (C) 9.82
• Ashton Boughen 8.61
• Max Perry 8.15
• Max James 6.77
• Tom Spencer 6.70
• Vinnie Ford 5.43

Mildenhall Fen Tigers

• Alfie Bowtell 9.80
• Lee Complin (C) 8.50
• Ben Trigger 7.16
• George Congreve 6.67
• Arran Butcher 5.94
• Josh Warren 5.33
• William Richardson 2.07

Oxford Chargers

• Jordan Jenkins (C) 10.43
• Henry Atkins 10.17
• Luke Killeen 8.49
• Ryan Kinsley 8.31
• Kelsey Dugard 7.43
• Jody Scott 6.69
• Jacob Clouting 6.06
• Jason Garrad 5.85
• Jacob Fellows 0.86

Workington Comets

• Connor Bailey 10.03
• Luke Harrison 7.01
• Ace Pijper ^[18] 6.90
• Sam McGurk ^[19] 6.77
• Luke Crang (C) 4.80
• Elliot Kelly 4.68
• Harry McGurk ^[19] 2.82
• Callum Foy 0.00

See also

• List of United Kingdom speedway league champions
• Knockout Cup (speedway)

References

1. "BRITISH SPEEDWAY AGM STATEMENT". British Speedway. 17 November 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
2. "Lion Cubs complete". British Speedway. 19 December 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
3. "Chargers' win title". British Speedway. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
4. "NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE STATEMENT". British Speedway. 27 November 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
5. "Comets taking shape". British Speedway. 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
6. "Workington Comets will ride again next year". Cumbria Crack. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
7. "Edinburgh Monarchs Academy enter NDL". SCB. 18 January 2023.
8. "National Development League statement". SCB. 29 November 2022.
9. "2023 NDL Table, Fixtures & Results - British Speedway Official Website". 17 June 2023.
10. "2023 National Development League Table, Fixtures & Results - British Speedway Official Website". 1 May 2023.
11. "Oxford Chargers vs Leicester Lion Cubs scorecard" (PDF). Speedway GB.
12. "NDL GRAND FINAL/KO CUP FINAL UPDATE". Speedway GB. 30 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
13. "Mildenhall Fen Tigers vs Leicester Lion Cubs scorecard" (PDF). Speedway GB.
14. "Fen Tigers awarded KO Cup". Speedway GB. 31 October 2023.
15. "NDL Riders' Championship scorecard" (PDF). Speedway GB.
16. "Steve ticks box for Bullets". Berwick Speedway. 6 July 2023. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
17. "Blair to skipper Bullets". British Speedway. 12 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
18. "Comets Make Ace Move". British Speedway. 18 December 2022. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
19. "Comets move for McGurk brothers". British Speedway. 22 December 2022. Retrieved 23 December 2022.