1989 British League season

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1989 British League season - Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1989 British League season
League	Sunbrite British League
Champions	Oxford Cheetahs
Knockout Cup	Cradley Heathens
Individual	Shawn Moran
Highest average	Hans Nielsen
Division/s below	1989 National League
← 1988 1990 →

The 1989 British League season (also known as the Sunbrite British League for sponsorship reasons) was the 55th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 25th known as the British League.^[1]

Summary

The Coventry Bees were the defending champions from 1988. The league was once again run over a 15-heat formula, with 7 riders per team.^[2]

Oxford Cheetahs bounced back to winning ways claiming their third title in five years. The team was led by their double world champion Hans Nielsen who by the end of the season would be world champion for the third time and top the averages for an incredible seventh season running. He was backed up by Simon Wigg, Martin Dugard, Andy Grahame, Marvyn Cox and Troy Butler, all of whom averaged from about 6 to 8 points for the season. The defending champions Coventry could only finish 5th after losing Tommy Knudsen for the season. Cradley Heath won thir 8th Knockout Cup in 11 years (it would also be their last).^[3]

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	Pts
1	Oxford Cheetahs	32	22	1	9	13	58
2	Wolverhampton Wolves	32	19	2	11	12	52
3	Cradley Heathens	32	19	3	10	10	51
4	Belle Vue Aces	32	19	2	11	10	50
5	Coventry Bees	32	15	3	14	8	41
6	Swindon Robins	32	12	1	19	8	33
7	Reading Racers	32	13	1	18	5	32
8	Bradford Dukes	32	9	2	21	3	23
9	King's Lynn Stars	32	8	1	23	3	20

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

British League Knockout Cup

The 1989 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 51st edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath Heathens were the winners for the fourth successive year if including the tied 1986 final.^[4]^[5]^[6]

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
21/04	Belle Vue	57-33	King's Lynn
08/04	King's Lynn	38-52	Belle Vue

Quarter-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
26/06	Reading	51-39	Belle Vue
10/06	Cradley Heath	50-40	Oxford
09/06	Belle Vue	45.5-44.5	Reading
09/06	Oxford	45-45	Cradley Heath
13/05	Coventry	45-45	Bradford
06/05	Bradford	46-44	Coventry
22/04	Swindon	45-45	Wolverhampton
10/04	Wolverhampton	49-41	Swindon

Semi-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
26/08	Bradford	57-33	Wolverhampton
19/08	Cradley Heath	42-48	Reading
07/08	Wolverhampton	60-30	Bradford
31/07	Reading	40-50	Cradley Heath

Final

First leg

16 October 1989

Wolverhampton Wolves Ronnie Correy 9 Robert Pfetzing 8 Andy Phillips 7 Graham Jones 7 Jan Stæchmann 3 Brian Karger (guest) 3 Neil Collins 3	41 - 49	Cradley Heath Kelvin Tatum (guest) 13 Greg Hancock 11 Jimmy Nilsen (guest) 10 Gert Handberg 6 Alan Grahame 6 Simon Cross 2 John Bostin 1
	^[7]

Monmore Green Stadium

Second leg

26 October 1989

Cradley Heath Shawn Moran (guest) 14 Simon Cross 12 Kelvin Tatum (guest) 7 Gert Handberg 5 Greg Hancock 5 Alan Grahame 3 John Bostin 0	46 - 44	Wolverhampton Wolves Jimmy Nilsen (guest) 10 Graham Jones 9 Andy Phillips 6 Robert Pfetzing 6 Ronnie Correy 5 Neil Collins 4 Jan Stæchmann 4
	^[7]

Dudley Wood Stadium

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 95-85.

Riders' Championship

Shawn Moran won the British League Riders' Championship. It was the held at Belle Vue Stadium on 1 October.^[8]

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Shawn Moran	3 3 3 3 3	15
2	Hans Nielsen	3 3 3 3 2	14
3	Brian Karger	2 3 2 2 3	12
4	Martin Dugard	1 2 1 2 3	9
5	Ronnie Correy	3 2 3 0 0	8
6	Jimmy Nilsen	0 1 3 1 3	8
7	Kelvin Tatum	2 0 1 3 2	8
8	Alan Grahame	0 2 2 2 2	8
9	Richard Knight	2 0 2 2 1	7
10	Rick Miller	3 1 1 1 1	7
11	Simon Wigg	1 1 2 3 0	7
12	Lance King	1 3 0 0 1	5
13	Jeremy Doncaster	1 2 0 1 1	5
14	Peter Ravn	2 0 0 1 2	5
15	Paul Thorp	0 1 1 0 0	2
16	Glenn Hornby (res)	0 0	0
17	Scott Smith (res)	0 0	0
18	Mitch Shirra	0 r(inj)	0

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

Leading final averages

Rider	Club	Average
Hans Nielsen	Oxford	10.91
Jan O. Pedersen	Cradley	10.22
Erik Gundersen	Cradley	9.97
Sam Ermolenko	Wolverhampton	9.85
Shawn Moran	Belle Vue	9.68
Kelvin Tatum	Coventry	9.49
Simon Cross	Cradley	9.13
Jeremy Doncaster	Reading	8.61
Jimmy Nilsen	Swindon	8.41
Kelly Moran	Belle Vue	8.29

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

Bradford

Coventry

Cradley Heath

Kings Lynn

Oxford

Reading

Swindon

Jimmy Nilsen 8.41
Brian Karger 8.09
Andrew Silver 7.38
John Davis 6.67
Peter Nahlin 6.24
Bart Bast 5.05
Gary Chessell 4.88
Tom P. Knudsen 4.00 (2 matches only)
David Smart 3.72

Wolverhampton

References

^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
^ "1990 league tables". Speedway GB.
^ "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
^ "1989 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
^ "Heathens scent cup glory". Sandwell Evening Mail. 17 October 1989. Retrieved 1 October 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "Speedway". Sandwell Evening Mail. 27 October 1989. Retrieved 1 October 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ ^a ^b "Cradley Speedway 1989 season". Cradley Speedway. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
^ "Sad day for Doncaster and Shirra". Reading Evening Post. 2 October 1989. Retrieved 5 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.

v t e Speedway in the United Kingdom
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Former leagues	Elite League Premier League National League (1932–1964) Provincial League (1960–1964) British League British League Division Two/National League Conference League National League Division Two National League Division Three English Dirt Track League/Northern League Southern League (1929–1931) Southern League (1952–1953) Provincial League (1936–1937) Southern Area League
Current team competitions	Knockout Cup League Pairs champions League Fours champions
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Former individual competitions	London Riders' Midland Riders' Northern Riders' Southern Riders' Olympique Internationale
See also	Speedway British Speedway Promoters' Association Speedway Control Bureau

v t e United Kingdom Speedway Seasons
Tier One League Top division	1929 1929 1930 1930 1931 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Tier Two League Second division	1934 1936 1937 1938 1939 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Tier Three League Third division	1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1994 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Champions	League champions Cup winners

v t e British League seasons
1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994		Speedway Elite League
Domestic cups: British League Knockout Cup		Speedway Elite League

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