The sport of speedway in the United Kingdom has changed little since the first meetings in the 1920s. It has three domestic leagues, its own Speedway Grand Prix, and an annual entry into the Speedway World Cup / Speedway of Nations.
Several meetings have been claimed to be the first in the UK. The meeting at High Beech on 18 February 1928, a meeting organized by R.J. Hill-Bailey of the Ilford Motor Cycle Club which attracted an estimated 30,000 spectators, is often described as the first British speedway meeting. [1] There were, however, also meetings in 1927 in Camberley in Surrey and Droylsden near Manchester. [2] Despite being described as 'the first British Dirt Track meeting' at the time, the meeting at Camberley on 7 May 1927 differed in that the races were held in a clockwise direction. Races at Droylsden, the first held on 25 June 1927, were held in an anti-clockwise direction and this meeting appears to have a strong claim to be the first Speedway meeting in the UK, but it is generally accepted that the sport properly arrived in the UK when Australians Billy Galloway and Keith McKay arrived with the intention of introducing Speedway to the Northern Hemisphere. Both featured in the 1928 High Beech meeting.
It is probable however that the first speedway meeting in the UK to feature bikes with no brakes and broadsiding round corners on loose dirt, probably the main tests of real speedway, was the second meeting held at High Beech on 9 April, where Colin Watson, Alf Medcalf and 'Digger' Pugh demonstrated the art for the first time in Britain.
The sport boomed in the early days with new tracks opening in England, Scotland, and Wales. Notable pioneer venues of 1928 were Stamford Bridge and Celtic Park. The sport contracted in the early 1930s but revived just before the war. A few tracks, notably Belle Vue, Manchester operated in these dark days and the end of the war signalled activity at a number of tracks such as Perry Barr in Birmingham, Odsal Stadium in Bradford, Brough Park in Newcastle, Owlerton in Sheffield, Cleveland Park in Middlesbrough and White City in Glasgow. The World Championship of Speedway was staged at Wembley Stadium, London from 1936 to 1960.
A post war boom came to an end in the early 1950s thanks to television and Entertainment Tax but a revival with the advent of the Provincial League in 1960 has been largely sustained ever since.
The Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA), part of the Auto-Cycle Union who oversee all forms of track racing, govern the domestic leagues in the United Kingdom. International events are directly governed by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM).
Green Sheet Averages are a list of riders Calculated Match Averages (CMA) issued or assessed periodically by the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA) and are used to determine the riders averages for team building. They are called Green Sheet Averages as traditionally they are printed on green paper.
For both the SGB Premiership and SGB Championship there is a points limit in place for team building purposes. This points limit is created to prevent teams becoming too powerful, therefore creating a competitive league. All Elite League and Premier League teams must declare 7 riders before the start of the season. For the 2008 Elite League, the combined averages of the 7 riders must not have exceeded 38.85, which increased to 39.9 for the 2009 season. A 2008 Premier League team's combined average must not have exceeded 41.5, increasing to 42.5 the following season. [3] At the start of a season, a rider retains their last recorded CMA (or assessed CMA if they have never previously established one) until they have competed in six home and six away matches. A new CMA is then issued that comes into effect seven days later.
In the early days of speedway in the UK, meetings consisted of individual tournaments, scratch and handicap races. [4] Team contests were introduced and became popular with supporters, leading to the introduction of the Southern Inter-track League (later the Southern League) in 1929, featuring teams of four riders competing over six heats, with two riders from each team in each heat. [4] This soon changed to teams of six competing over nine heats and the scoring system of three points for a win, two for second, and one for third was introduced. [4] 'Star' riders were initially banned from the league, but demand from supporters saw this rule relaxed. Northern tracks soon joined together to form the English Dirt Track League, but the league was beset with problems, with many fixtures not completed and several teams dropping out during the season. [4] The following year it was renamed the Northern League.
The closure of several tracks led the remaining teams to come together in the National League, which continued as the main league until 1964, with a hiatus during World War II. In 1960 a group of promoters, dissatisfied with how the league was being run formed the Provincial League. This ran from 1960 to 1964. 1963 Provincial League champions Wolverhampton Wolves' refusal to accept promotion to the National League brought tensions to a head, with Provincial League teams threatened with suspension by the ACU. [4] An RAC commission of enquiry led to the two leagues merging in 1965 to form the British League. [4] Initially a single division, interest from new teams led to the creation of a second division in 1968. [4] In 1975 this was renamed the New National League, the following year becoming the National League. In 1991 it reverted to the Division Two name and continued until 1994, after which the British League ended with the formation of the single-division Premier League. In 1997, with more teams wanting to join the league and to attract money from television coverage, the Elite League was formed as new top tier of ten teams, with the Premier League continuing as a second tier.
The need to develop new talent led to the creation of the British League Division Three in 1994, which became the Academy League in 1995, but proved to be financially unviable and in 1996 it was replaced with the amateur Conference League. This was renamed in 1997 as the British Amateur League, but it was replaced with a revised Conference League in 1998 which was not limited to amateurs and allowed Premier League riders with averages below 4.5 to compete. In 2009 the regulations were altered again and the Conference League was replaced by the National League, the third league to use that name.
Poole Pirates are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions.
Christopher Calvin Harris from Truro, Cornwall, nicknamed Bomber, is a Great Britain international motorcycle speedway rider from England.
The Ipswich Witches are a British motorcycle speedway club based at Foxhall Stadium near Ipswich, Suffolk. They compete in the British SGB Premiership. Meetings are staged on most Thursdays from March until October, normally commencing at 7.30pm.
The Sheffield 'Tru Plant' Tigers are a motorcycle speedway team based in Sheffield, England. They currently race in the British SGB Premiership, and their home meetings take place at Owlerton Stadium. They were founded in 1929 and were champions of Britain, in 2023.
King's Lynn Stars are a motorcycle speedway team who compete in the SGB Premiership. The nickname "Stars" comes from the defunct Norwich Stars team. The team was founded in 1965 and has been running continually since then, except for 1996 when King's Lynn failed to have a team competing in the British league system.
The Elite League was the top division of speedway league competition in the United Kingdom, governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). It was sponsored by Sky Sports until the end of the 2013 season. In 2016, the Elite League featured 8 teams, unlike 10 in 2014, during a season which ran between March and October. Each team had a designated race day on which they normally staged their home fixtures, and they regularly had home and away fixtures scheduled in the same week.
The Premier League was the second tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and governed by The Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). The Premier League was founded in 1995 when the two divisions of the British League were amalgamated. In 1997, the Elite League was created as a new top tier with the Premier League becoming the second tier. The league operated until 2016 when British speedway was restructured with the formation of the SGB Premiership and SGB Championship.
The Oxford Cheetahs are a British speedway team based at Oxford Stadium, in Oxford, England. They were founded in 1939 and are five times champions of Britain, in 1964, 1985, 1986, 1989 and 2001. The club folded in 2007 but returned to racing when participating in the SGB Championship 2022.
The Peterborough Panthers were a British motorcycle speedway team based in Peterborough, England. They were three times champions of the United Kingdom, winning the highest level league in 1999, 2006 and 2021.
Charles Martin Wright is a British speedway rider.
Leicester Lions are a speedway team which originally operated from 1968 until 1983. The club returned to speedway for the 2011 Premier League season, moving up to the Elite League for the 2014 season. Before the 2019 season, the club dropped down to the SGB Championship before returning to the Premiership in 2023.
Daniel Robert King is a British speedway rider. He earned six international caps for the Great Britain national speedway team.
The 2017 SGB Premiership was the 83rd season of the top division of British Speedway. It was the first time that it was known as the SGB Premiership after changing its name from the Elite League.
The Speedway Great Britain (SGB) Championship is the second division of speedway league competition in the United Kingdom, governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). It was introduced for 2017 following a restructuring of British speedway.
The SGB Premiership 2018 was the 84th season of the top division of Great British Speedway in 2018. The season ran between March and October 2018 and had eight teams participating. The line-up of teams remained the same as in 2017. The Swindon Robins were the defending champions after winning the title in 2017. BT Sport continued its TV coverage of the SGB Premiership in 2018. Poole Pirates defeated King's Lynn Stars in the Play off final. It was Poole's tenth tier one title, which brought them level in second place with the Wembley Lions in the historical records.
The 2021 British Speedway Premiership League was the 86th season of the top division of British Speedway, called the Premiership in 2021. Six teams participated.
The 2022 SGB Premiership was the 87th season of the top tier of British speedway and the 5th known as the SGB Premiership. Sheffield Tigers topped the regular season table and met Belle Vue Aces in the play off final but Belle Vue ran out the winners to claim their 13th league title.
The 2022 National Development League was the third division/tier of British speedway for the 2022 season. It is a semi-professional development league, containing the junior sides of many SGB Premiership and SGB Championship clubs.
The 2023 Sports Insure SGB Premiership was the 88th season of the top tier of British speedway and the 6th known as the SGB Premiership.
The 2023 National Development League was the third division/tier of British speedway for the 2023 season. 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. Oxford Chargers won the title, defeating Leicester in a one-off Grand Final.