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The New Zealand national speedway team are one of the teams in international motorcycle speedway. The team were champions of the world having won the sports premier team competition in 1979. [1] [2]
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The New Zealand national speedway team are one of the teams in international motorcycle speedway. The team were champions of the world having won the sports premier team competition in 1979. [1] [2]
The New Zealand team competed in the inaugural Speedway World Team Cup in 1960 and the following World Cup in 1961. However, in 1962 their leading riders rode for the British team. [3] This format continued until 1974, when New Zealand reverted to the competing as their own nation. The team were arguably denied the opportunity of winning the World Cup, because they had two of the all-time greats in Ivan Mauger and Barry Briggs within their ranks. New Zealand riders were part of the British teams that won the World Cup in 1968, 1971 and 1972. [4]
The team became the world champions after winning the 1979 Speedway World Team Cup at White City, with a team consisting of Ivan Mauger, Larry Ross, Mitch Shirra, Bruce Cribb and reserve Roger Abel. [5]
Despite the World Cup success, the team began to experience a decline in the number and quality of riders from New Zealand and this led to the team failing to field a team in various years of the Speedway World Team Cup. The situation did not improve for the rebranded Speedway World Cup in 2001 or the Speedway of Nations introduced in 2018.
Additionally, they won the defunct Speedway World Pairs Championship twice, in 1969 and 1970.
| Year | Venue | Standings (Pts) | Riders | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 |  London White City Stadium | 1.  New Zealand (35)2.  Denmark (31)3.  Czechoslovakia (19)4.  Poland (11) | Larry Ross | 11 |
| Mitch Shirra | 10 | |||
| Ivan Mauger | 13 | |||
| Bruce Cribb | 5 |
| Year | Venue | Standings (Pts) | Riders | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 |  Stockholm Gubbängens IP | 1. New Zealand (28) 2. Sweden (27)3. England (21)4. Denmark (15)5. Czechoslovakia (12)6.  East Germany (9)7.  Bulgaria (9) | Ivan Mauger | 18 |
| Bob Andrews | 10 | |||
| 1970 | Malmö Malmö Stadion | 1. New Zealand (28) 2. Sweden (25)3. England (19)4.  Scotland (18)5. Czechoslovakia (11)6.  Yugoslavia (7)7. Denmark (nc) | Ronnie Moore | 16 |
| Ivan Mauger | 12 | |||
Since the advent of the Speedway Grand Prix era, international caps earned by riders is largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence. This means that the number of caps earned by a rider has decreased in the modern era. [6]
| Rider | Caps |
|---|---|
| Abel, Roger | 1 |
| Adlington, Robin | 8 |
| Allan, Gary | 2 |
| Allan, Goog | 2 |
| Anderson, Cliff | 1 |
| Anderson, Bob | 2 |
| Andrew, Bill | 15 |
| Andrews, Bob | 27 |
| Bargh, Dave | 8 |
| Black, Tom | 1 |
| Bock, Kevin | 1 |
| Boyle, Frank | 4 |
| Briggs, Barry | 49 |
| Briggs, Tony | 4 |
| Briggs, Wayne | 5 |
| Brown, Allan | 6 |
| Max Brown | 1 |
| Brown, Wayne | 3 |
| Campbell, Dick | 6 |
| Church, Paul | 2 |
| Clark, Peter | 12 |
| Clements, Brian | 2 |
| Coombes, Graham | 1 |
| Cribb, Bruce | 22 |
| Duckworth, Bob | 8 |
| Dunn, Maury | 16 |
| Dykes, Peter | 5 |
| Farquharson, Colin | 4 |
| Gifford, Dave | 19 |
| Goodall, John | 7 |
| Holland, Mick | 3 |
| Johnston, Ron | 16 |
| Lawrie, John | 1 |
| McKee, Colin | 5 |
| McKeown, Brian | 3 |
| Mardon, Geoff | 10 |
| Martin, Chris | 2 |
| Mason, Alan | 4 |
| Mauger, Ivan | 43 |
| Mauger, Kym | 5 |
| Millen, Jack | 2 |
| Moore, Ronnie | 50 |
| Neil, Merv | 15 |
| New, Charlie | 2 |
| Ovenden, Bruce | 1 |
| Peterson, Gary | 21 |
| Redmond, Trevor | 17 |
| Rivett, Alan | 1 |
| Ross, Larry | 26 |
| Shearer, Terry | 2 |
| Shirra, Mitch | 17 |
| Shuter, Frank | 14 |
| Smith, Graeme | 2 |
| Stapleton, Graeme | 20 |
| Subritzky, Bryce | 28 |
| Sweetman, Tommy* | 1 |
| Thorpe, Mark | 2 |
| Timmo, Rick | 19 |
| Tucker, Colin | 2 |
| Whitaker, Dave | 4 |
| Wright, Roger | 8 |
Riders marked with an asterisk represented New Zealand but were not New Zealanders.
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