1987 National League season

1987 National League season
LeagueNational League
No. of competitors16
ChampionsEastbourne Eagles
Knockout CupEastbourne Eagles
IndividualAndrew Silver
PairsMildenhall Fen Tigers
FoursMildenhall Fen Tigers
Highest averageAndrew Silver
Division/s above1987 British League

In 1987 the National League, also known as British League Division Two, was the second tier of speedway racing in the United Kingdom.[1]

Team changes

Glasgow Tigers were without a home so they joined the 1987 season based at Workington's Derwent Park.[2][3]

Mid-season withdrawals

On 31 July, Glasgow Tigers (now called Workington Tigers held their last fixture against Stoke.[2] The following day on 1 August, Boston Barracudas withdrew after a heavy home defeat to Eastbourne.[4] Both Glasgow-Workington and Boston had their results expunged.[5]

Summary

The league champions that year were Eastbourne Eagles.[6][7]

Final table

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Eastbourne Eagles 30 22 0 8 44
2 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 30 20 1 9 41
3 Milton Keynes Knights 30 19 1 10 39
4 Stoke Potters 30 18 1 11 37
5 Peterborough Panthers 30 18 0 12 36
6 Berwick Bandits 30 17 1 22 35
7 Wimbledon Dons 30 14 2 14 30
8 Poole Pirates 30 15 0 15 30
9 Middlesbrough Tigers 30 13 3 14 29
10 Edinburgh Monarchs 30 13 2 15 28
11 Newcastle Diamonds 30 12 2 16 26
12 Arena Essex Hammers 30 12 1 17 25
13 Canterbury Crusaders 30 11 1 18 23
14 Exeter Falcons 30 11 1 18 23
15 Long Eaton Invaders 30 8 1 21 17
16 Rye House Rockets 30 8 1 21 17

National League Knockout Cup

The 1987 National League Knockout Cup was the 20th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Eastbourne Eagles were the winners of the competition for the third successive year.[8]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
24/05 Mildenhall 66-30 Rye House
17/05 Rye House 24-24a Mildenhall
25/04 Berwick 64-32 Newcastle
20/04 Newcastle 51-44 Berwick

a=Abandoned

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
10/07 Peterborough 57-39 Middlesbrough
21/06 Glasgow 47-49 Edinburgh
21/06 Peterborough 34-32a Middlesbrough
20/06 Berwick 65-31 Long Eaton
19/06 Edinburgh 65-31 Glasgow
18/06 Middlesbrough 56-40 Peterborough
17/06 Long Eaton 51-45 Berwick
17/06 Mildenhall 64-31 Exeter
16/06 Poole 51-45 Eastbourne
15/06 Exeter 51-45 Mildenhall
14/06 Eastbourne 62-33 Poole
01/06 Arena Essex 52-44 Wimbledon
30/05 Canterbury 61-35 Boston
25/05 Rye House 47-48 Mildenhall
20/05 Wimbledon 48-48 Arena Essex
16/05 Stoke 60-36 Milton Keynes
12/05 Milton Keynes 50-46 Stoke
10/05 Boston 50-46 Canterbury

a=Abandoned

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
01/08 Stoke 49-29 Peterborough
31/07 Edinburgh 45-50 Eastbourne
25/07 Berwick 46-50 Mildenhall
25/07 Canterbury 54-42 Arena Essex
25/07 Eastbourne 56-40 Edinburgh
24/07 Peterborough 50-46 Stoke
09/07 Arena Essex 60-36 Canterbury
01/07 Mildenhall 61-35 Berwick

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
31/08 Mildenhall 60-36 Arena Essex
23/08 Eastbourne 57-39 Stoke
20/08 Arena Essex 51-45 Mildenhall
15/08 Stoke 53-42 Eastbourne

Final

First leg

Mildenhall Fen Tigers
Melvyn Taylor 12
Dave Jessup 11
David Jackson 10
Glen Baxter 8
Eric Monaghan 5
Richard Green 4
Lee Farthing 0		50 – 46Eastbourne Eagles
Martin Dugard 14
Gordon Kennett 13
Andy Buck 9
Dean Standing 5
Dean Barker 2
Keith Pritchard 2
Darren Standing 1
[9][10]

Second leg

Eastbourne Eagles
Dean Standing 11
Andy Buck 11
Gordon Kennett 10
Martin Dugard 9
Dean Barker 6
Keith Pritchard 5
Darren Standing 2		54 – 41Mildenhall Fen Tigers
Melvyn Taylor 12
Dave Jessup 11
David Jackson 11
Richard Green 5
Eric Monaghan 1
Paul Blackbird 1
Glen Baxter 0
[9][10]

Eastbourne were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 100–91.

Riders' Championship

Andrew Silver won the Riders' Championship. The final sponsored by Jawa Moto & Barum was held on 12 September 1987 at Brandon Stadium.[11]

Pos. Rider Pts Total
1 England Andrew Silver 3 3 3 3 3 15
2 England Nigel Crabtree 3 3 3 3 2 14
3 England David Blackburn 2 2 1 3 2 10+3
4 England Les Collins 1 3 3 2 1 10+2
5 England David Biles 1 2 2 2 3 10+1
6 England Dave Mullett 2 1 2 2 2 9
7 England Martin Dixon 3 2 2 1 0 8
8 England Dave Jessup ef 3 3 2 0 8
9 England Kevin Jolly 2 0 1 1 3 7
10 England Martin Dugard 3 2 0 fr 2 7
11 England Trevor Banks 0 1 2 3 0 6
12 England Paul Woods 1 1 1 0 3 6
13 England Steve Lawson 2 0 0 1 1 4
14 England Nigel Sparshott 0 0 1 0 1 2
15 England Ian Barney 0 1 0 0 1 2
16 England Rob Woffinden 1 tex ef 1 0 2
17 England Wayne Broadhurst r 0
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure t-touched tapes

Pairs

The National League Pairs was held at Wimborne Road on 26 July and was won by Mildenhall Fen Tigers.[12][13]

Semi finals

  • Peterborough (Hawkins & Barney) bt Stoke (Crabtree & Stead) 6-3
  • Mildenhall (Jessup & Taylor) bt Eastbourne (Kennett & Dugard) 6-3

Final

  • Mildenhall bt Peterborough 6-3

Fours

Mildenhall won the fours championship final. The first semi final was held at Peterborough on 9 August but the remaining semi final and final were cancelled due to heavy rain. The re-run was not held until 16 October at Hackney.[14]

Semi finals

  • SF1 = Mildenhall 18, Arena Essex 16, Berwick 8, Poole 6
  • SF2 = 1 Eastbourne, 2 Wimbledon, 3 Middlesbrough 4 Peterborough

Final

Pos Team Pts Riders
1 Mildenhall Fen Tigers 31 Taylor 10, Monaghan 9, Jackson 6, Jessup 6
2 Arena Essex Hammers 30 Silver 12, Goodwin 10, G Chessell 5 M Chessell 3
3 Eastbourne Eagles 27 Buck 8, Kennett 8, Dean Standing 4, Pritchard 4 Dugard 3
4 Wimbledon Dons 7 Tatum 5, Johns 1 Simpson 1, Jolly 0, Mussett 0

Leading averages

Rider Team Average
Andrew Silver Arena Essex 10.66
Martin Dugard Eastbourne 10.40
Melvyn Taylor Mildenhall 10.38
Nigel Crabtree Stoke 10.20
Martin Dixon Middlesbrough 10.01
Les Collins Edinburgh 9.96
Dave Jessup Mildenhall 9.92
Steve Schofield Poole 9.54
Kevin Jolly Wimbledon 9.48
Gordon Kennett Eastbourne 9.40

Riders & final averages

Arena Essex

Berwick

Boston (withdrew from league)

  • Andy Hines 8.17
  • Carl Baldwin 6.35
  • Phil White 5.81
  • Andy Fisher 4.96
  • Wally Hill 3.60
  • Jonathan Cooper 3.32
  • Gary Clegg 3.29
  • Jamie Young 3.27
  • Chris Mulvihill 1.75

Canterbury

  • Dave Mullett 8.62
  • Mike Spink 7.51
  • Rob Tilbury 7.15
  • Paul Whittaker 6.93
  • Paul Evitts 6.33
  • Mark Lyndon 5.63
  • Richard Pettman 3.95
  • Carl Chalcraft 3.76
  • Jimmy Goodsell 2.00

Eastbourne

Edinburgh

Exeter

Glasgow/Workington (withdrew from league)

  • Steve Lawson 8.48
  • Gordon Whitaker 7.16
  • Martin McKinna 5.35
  • Jacko Irving 4.63
  • Derek Cooper 3.35
  • Geoff Powell 3.10
  • Jim Graham 2.59

Long Eaton

Middlesbrough

Mildenhall

Milton Keynes

Newcastle

Peterborough

Poole

Rye House

Stoke

Wimbledon

See also

References

  1. ^ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ^ a b "Workington Speedway". Defunct Speedway. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Speedway". Daily Record. 13 May 1987. Retrieved 3 May 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ "Speedway shutdown". Sleaford Standard. 13 August 1987. Retrieved 29 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ "Year by Year". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  6. ^ Oakes, P.(2006). Speedway Star Almanac. ISBN 0-9552376-1-0
  7. ^ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  8. ^ "1987 National League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  9. ^ a b "1987 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  10. ^ a b "Mildenhall 1987 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  11. ^ "Nigel makes up for NLRC second". Staffordshire Sentinel. 14 September 1987. Retrieved 21 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "1987 fixtures" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  13. ^ "Tigers triumph". Cambridge Daily News. 27 July 1987. Retrieved 25 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ "Fantastic Fours!". Cambridge Daily News. 31 October 1987. Retrieved 8 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.