League | British League Division Two |
---|---|
No. of competitors | 18 |
Champions | Boston Barracudas |
Knockout Cup | Boston Barracudas |
Individual | Arthur Price |
Highest average | Lou Sansom |
Division/s above | British League (Div 1) |
The 1973 British League Division Two season was the second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.[1]
The 1973 season saw the league expanded to 18 teams with the addition of Chesterton Potters.[2] The team had last raced during the 1963 Provincial Speedway League season under the name of the Stoke Potters.[3]
Boston Barracudas won their first title and went on to win the league and cup double.[4][5] Boston had finished runner-up to Crewe Kings the previous season, with decent season averages recorded by five riders Arthur Price, Jim Ryman, Carl Glover, Russ Osborne and Ray Bales. With a largely unchanged team, they went one place better by sealing the league title. Boston won easily, 14 points clear of their nearest rival, and four of the five riders improved their averages from 1972. Arthur Price also won the Riders' Championship.[6]
Pos | Team | PL | W | D | L | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Boston Barracudas | 33 | 29 | 0 | 4 | 58 |
2 | Workington Comets | 34 | 21 | 2 | 11 | 44 |
3 | Eastbourne Eagles | 34 | 19 | 2 | 13 | 40 |
4 | Peterborough Panthers | 34 | 19 | 1 | 14 | 39 |
5 | Birmingham Brummies | 34 | 19 | 0 | 15 | 38 |
6 | Teesside Tigers | 34 | 19 | 0 | 15 | 38 |
7 | Bradford Northern | 34 | 18 | 0 | 16 | 36 |
8 | Crewe Kings | 34 | 17 | 1 | 16 | 35 |
9 | Long Eaton Rangers | 33 | 16 | 1 | 16 | 33 |
10 | Barrow Bombers | 34 | 15 | 2 | 17 | 32 |
11 | Sunderland Stars | 34 | 15 | 2 | 17 | 32 |
12 | Hull Vikings | 34 | 13 | 5 | 17 | 31 |
13 | Chesterton Potters | 34 | 14 | 1 | 19 | 29 |
14 | Ellesmere Port Gunners | 34 | 14 | 0 | 20 | 28 |
15 | Canterbury Crusaders | 34 | 13 | 2 | 19 | 28 |
16 | Scunthorpe Saints | 32 | 12 | 1 | 21 | 25 |
17 | Berwick Bandits | 32 | 11 | 1 | 22 | 23 |
18 | Rayleigh Rockets | 34 | 9 | 3 | 22 | 21 |
Rider | Nat | Team | C.M.A. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lou Sansom | Workington Comets | 10.56 | |
2 | Alan Knapkin | Bradford Northern | 10.04 | |
3 | Jack Millen | Sunderland | 9.80 | |
4 | Carl Glover | Boston | 9.56 | |
5 | Ken McKinlay | Scunthorpe | 9.50 |
The 1973 British League Division Two Knockout Cup was the sixth edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Boston Barracudas were the winners of the competition.[7]
First round
Date | Team one | Score | Team two |
---|---|---|---|
19/05 | Canterbury | 44-34 | Eastbourne |
13/05 | Eastbourne | 37-41 | Canterbury |
Second round
Date | Team one | Score | Team two |
---|---|---|---|
03/06 | Boston | 58-20 | Crewe |
04/06 | Crewe | 44-34 | Boston |
08/06 | Peterborough | 56-22 | Barrow |
05/06 | Barrow | 45-32 | Peterborough |
13/06 | Bradford | 48-29 | Ellesmere Port |
05/06 | Ellesmere Port | 42-35 | Bradford |
04/06 | Birmingham | 46-32 | Scunthorpe |
03/06 | Scunthorpe | 38-40 | Birmingham |
08/06 | Workington | 45-33 | Berwick |
09/06 | Berwick | 42-36 | Workington |
31/05 | Teesside | 48-30 | Sunderland |
08/06 | Sunderland | 38-40 | Teesside |
09/06 | Rayleigh | 46-32 | Hull |
30/05 | Hull | 43-34 | Rayleigh |
07/06 | Long Eaton | 48-30 | Canterbury |
09/06 | Canterbury | 42-36 | Long Eaton |
Quarter-finals
Date | Team one | Score | Team two |
---|---|---|---|
24/06 | Boston | 50-28 | Peterborough |
29/06 | Peterborough | 37-41 | Boston |
04/07 | Bradford | 48-30 | Birmingham |
02/07 | Birmingham | 47-31 | Bradford |
27/07 | Workington | 53-25 | Teesside |
26/07 | Teesside | 44-33 | Workington |
21/07 | Rayleigh | 49-29 | Long Eaton |
26/07 | Long Eaton | 36-42 | Rayleigh |
Semi-finals
Date | Team one | Score | Team two |
---|---|---|---|
19/08 | Boston | 46-32 | Bradford |
22/08 | Bradford | 43-35 | Boston |
30/08 | Workington | 60-18 | Rayleigh |
18/08 | Rayleigh | 43-35 | Workington |
First leg
Boston Barracudas Carl Glover 15 Ray Bales 13 Arthur Price 10 Russ Osborne 10 Dave Piddock 5 David Gagen 5 Jim Ryman R/R | 58 – 19 | Workington Comets Lou Sansom 7 Malcolm Mackay 5 Kym Amundson 4 Steve Watson 3 Taffy Owen 0 Mitch Graham 0 Bernie Hornby 0 |
---|---|---|
[8] |
Second leg
Workington Comets Lou Sansom 12 Malcolm Mackay 10 Mitch Graham 7 Taffy Owen 6 Kym Amundson 5 Steve Watson 6 Bernie Hornby 1 | 47 – 31 | Boston Barracudas Carl Glover 16 Arthur Price 6 Ray Bales 4 Dave Piddock 2 Russ Osborne 1 David Gagen 1 Les Glover 1 Jim Ryman R/R |
---|---|---|
[8] |
Boston were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 89–66.
Rider | Nat | Team | C.M.A. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lou Sansom | Workington | 10.50 | |
2 | Alan Knapkin | Bradford Northern | 10.03 | |
3 | Jack Millen | Sunderland | 9.74 | |
4 | Ken McKinlay | Scunthorpe | 9.69 | |
5 | Carl Glover | Boston | 9.62 |
Arthur Price won the Rider's Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 6 October.[9]
Pos. | Rider | Pts | Total |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Arthur Price | 3 2 1 3 3 | 12+3 |
2 | Bobby McNeil | 2 3 3 1 3 | 12+2 |
3 | Lou Sansom | 3 1 2 3 3 | 12+1 |
4 | Bruce Forrester | 3 3 3 2 f | 11 |
5 | Dave Baugh | 3 2 3 3 f | 11 |
6 | Mike Broadbanks | 1 0 3 3 3 | 10 |
7 | Richard Greer | 2 3 1 2 2 | 10 |
8 | Graham Drury | 0 3 2 2 2 | 9 |
9 | Arthur Browning | 1 1 2 1 2 | 7 |
10 | Barney Kennett | 1 0 1 2 1 | 5 |
11 | Geoff Bouchard | 0 2 0 1 2 | 5 |
12 | Ken McKinlay | ef 2 2 0 | 4 |
13 | Dave Morton | 2 1 ex | 3 |
14 | Jim Wells (res) | 2 0 0 1 0 | 3 |
15 | Willie Templeton (res) | 1 0 1 1 | 3 |
16 | Tom Owen | fx 0 f 1 | 1 |
17 | Dave Mills | 1 f | 1 |
18 | Bob Young (res) | 1 f | 1 |
Barrow
Berwick
Birmingham
Boston
Bradford
Canterbury
Chesterton
Crewe
Eastbourne
Ellesmere Port
Hull
Long Eaton
Peterborough
Rayleigh
Scunthorpe
Sunderland
Teesside
Workington