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The 1980 British League season was the 46th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 16th season known as the British League.

Summary

The league comprised 17 teams - one fewer than the previous season. Exeter Falcons had dropped down to the National League. Hackney Hawks underwent a dramatic transformation from being the bottom side in 1979 to title contenders in 1980, but their challenge faded in the last few weeks and Reading Racers were crowned champions for the second time.

Reading's success came down to three strong heat leaders, Swedish champion Jan Andersson, their new American signing Bobby Schwartz and England international John Davis. All three produced season averages around the 10 mark, which enabled the team to constantly pick up victories. Cradley Heathens successfully retained their Knockout Cup crown overcoming a huge first leg deficit in the final.

Final table

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

Top Ten Riders (League Averages)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Peter Collins		Belle Vue	10.70
2	Hans Nielsen		Wolverhampton	10.70
3	Dave Jessup		King's Lynn	10.52
4	Bo Petersen		Hackney	10.46
5	Bruce Penhall		Cradley	10.46
6	Michael Lee		King's Lynn	10.17
7	Chris Morton		Belle Vue	10.11
8	Jan Andersson		Reading	10.08
9	Scott Autrey		Swindon	9.97
10	Bobby Schwartz		Reading	9.95

British League Knockout Cup

The 1980 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 42nd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath were the winners.

First round

Second round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

First leg

Second leg

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 116-100.

Riders' Championship

Les Collins won the British League Riders' Championship, held at Hyde Road on 18 October and sponsored by Gauntlet (Leyland Used Cars).

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Les Collins	3 3 3 3 2	14
2	Bruce Penhall	1 2 3 3 3	12
3	Larry Ross	3 3 1 2 2	11
4	Jan Andersson	2 1 3 3 1	10
5	Peter Collins	2 1 2 2 3	10
6	Hans Nielsen	3 2 2 1 2	10
7	Kenny Carter	3 3 0 0 3	9
8	Scott Autrey	2 2 1 0 3	8
9	Ole Olsen	2 3 1 1 0	7
10	Dennis Sigalos	0 0 2 2 2	6
11	Steve Bastable	0 1 1 2 1	5
12	John Louis	1 1 3 0 0	5
13	Bo Petersen	0 0 0 3 1	4
14	Michael Lee	1 2 0 - -	3
15	Malcolm Simmons	1 0 2 0 0	3
16	Bernie Collier (res)	1 1 - - -	2
17	Gordon Kennett	0 0 0 1 -	1
18	Mike Wilding (res)	0 - - - -	0

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

Final leading averages

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Hans Nielsen		Wolverhampton	10.69
2	Peter Collins		Belle Vue	10.67
=3	Dave Jessup		King's Lynn	10.39
=3	Bruce Penhall		Cradley	10.39
5	Bo Petersen		Hackney	10.27
6	Michael Lee		King's Lynn	10.14
7	Chris Morton		Belle Vue	10.09
8	Jan Andersson		Reading	10.04
9	Bobby Schwartz		Reading	10.00
10	Scott Autrey		Swindon	9.92

Midland Cup

Cradley Heath won the Midland Cup, sponsored by the Trustee Savings Bank. The competition consisted of six teams.

First round

Semi final round

Final

First leg

Second leg

Cradley Heath won on aggregate 88–68

London Cup

Wimbledon won the London Cup but the competition consisted of just Wimbledon and Hackney.

Results

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• Peter Collins 10.67
• Chris Morton 10.09
• Rob Maxfield 7.69
• Mike Lohmann 6.33
• Derek Richardson 6.24
• Pekka Hautamaki 5.35
• Louis Carr 5.17
• Larry Kosta 4.91
• Dave Allen 4.25
• Steve Wilcock 4.22

Birmingham

• Steve Bastable 8.57
• Kelly Moran 8.24
• Andy Grahame 7.39
• Zdeněk Kudrna 6.22
• Phil Herne 6.09
• Ari Koponen 5.97
• Finn Jensen 5.93
• Alan Emerson 5.56
• Ladislav Hrádecký 3.70
• Mick Blaynee 2.70

Coventry

• Ole Olsen 9.52
• Mitch Shirra 8.54
• Tommy Knudsen 8.10
• Alan Molyneux 6.83
• Kevin Hawkins 6.27
• Gary Guglielmi 5.83
• Alf Busk 5.61
• Rob Hollingworth 4.00

Cradley Heath

• Bruce Penhall 10.39
• Alan Grahame 8.32
• Phil Collins 8.17
• Dave Perks 8.13
• Erik Gundersen 8.09
• Ila Teromaa 5.32
• Steve Lawson 5.16
• Mike Sampson 4.84
• John Hack 4.23
• Derek Harrison 4.05
• Craig Featherby 1.78
• Paul Bosley 0.73

Eastbourne

• Gordon Kennett 9.71
• Kai Niemi 8.35
• Paul Woods 6.28
• Veijo Tuoriniemi 6.12
• Dave Kennett 5.57
• Trevor Geer 4.87
• Eric Dugard 4.64
• Richard Greer 4.24
• Steve Naylor 3.87
• Jan Davidsson 3.61
• Sigvart Pedersen 1.81

Hackney

• Bo Petersen 10.27
• Zenon Plech 8.12
• Finn Thomsen 7.76
• Sean Willmott 5.49
• Barry Thomas 5.29
• Roman Jankowski 5.19
• Keith White 4.94
• Andrzej Huszcza 4.24

Halifax

• Kenny Carter 8.92
• Ian Cartwright 7.92
• Mick McKeon 6.54
• Merv Janke 6.06
• Piotr Pyszny 5.80
• Craig Pendlebury 5.39
• Les Sawyer 3.50
• Alan Stansfield 2.86

Hull

• Dennis Sigalos 9.32
• Ivan Mauger 9.00
• Joe Owen 7.57
• Bobby Beaton 6.68
• Shawn Moran 6.47
• Frank Auffret 5.17
• John McNeill 4.84
• David Bargh 4.67
• Rod Hunter 4.65
• John Cook 4.17

Ipswich

• Kevin Jolly 9.09
• John Louis 8.80
• Billy Sanders 8.34
• Mike Lanham 7.20
• Preben Eriksen 6.37
• Nigel Flatman 5.82
• Tim Hunt 5.77
• Tony Davey 5.33
• Kevin Teager 4.80
• Andy Hines 4.72

King's Lynn

• Dave Jessup 10.39
• Michael Lee 10.14
• Richard Hellsen 8.95
• Melvyn Taylor 6.52
• Bent Rasmussen 5.22
• Pete Smith 4.26
• Nigel Sparshott 3.82

Leicester

• Les Collins 8.93
• John Titman 7.69
• Rolf Gramstad 7.42
• Andrzej Huszcza 6.38
• Mark Courtney 6.20
• Bob Garrad 5.91
• Colin Cook 5.60
• Ian Clark 5.23

Poole

• Malcolm Simmons 9.40
• Ron Preston 9.11
• Peter Prinsloo 7.26
• Neil Middleditch 6.96
• Vaclav Verner 6.76
• Danny Kennedy 4.95
• Martin Yeates 4.77
• John McNeill 4.00
• Kevin Bowen 1.11

Reading

• Jan Andersson 10.04
• Bobby Schwartz 10.00
• John Davis 9.59
• Jiří Štancl 7.37
• Bernie Leigh 5.87
• Martin Ashby 5.30
• Tony Briggs 4.98
• Ashley Pullen 1.80

Sheffield

• Reg Wilson 8.00
• Doug Wyer 7.11
• Eric Broadbelt 6.37
• Phil White 6.20
• Aleš Dryml Sr. 5.56 (6 matches only)
• Neil Collins 5.09
• Nicky Allott 5.04
• Klaus Lohmann 4.86
• Jan Ząbik 4.37
• Henny Kroeze 3.67
• Paul Stead 3.23

Swindon

• Scott Autrey 9.92
• Phil Crump 9.59
• Bob Kilby 7.41
• Steve Gresham 7.24
• Milan Špinka 6.53
• Steen Mastrup 5.54
• Mike Ferreira 5.42
• Malcolm Holloway 5.31
• Bob Humphreys 5.00
• John Barker 2.72
• Nigel Boocock 2.00

Wimbledon

• Larry Ross 9.12
• Roger Johns 8.22
• Edward Jancarz 8.08
• Colin Richardson 6.36
• Stefan Salomonsson 5.82
• Mick Hines 5.08
• Rudy Muts 3.06
• Peter Johns 2.46
• Dave Brewer 2.24

Wolverhampton

• Hans Nielsen 10.69
• Reidar Eide 7.08
• Jimmy McMillan 7.01
• Petr Ondrašík 5.85
• Bruce Cribb 5.73
• Dave Morton 5.36
• Hasse Danielsson 5.33
• Billy Burton 5.07
• Ivan Blacka 3.93
• Wayne Brown 3.68
• Hans Christensen 2.62

See also

• List of United Kingdom Speedway League Champions
• Knockout Cup (speedway)

References

1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
2. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 80. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
3. "1979 league tables". Speedway GB.
4. "1980 league tables". Speedway GB.
5. "HISTORY ARCHIVE". British Speedway. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
6. "1980 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
7. "Speedway". The People. 21 October 1979. Retrieved 4 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
8. "Schwartz is a cup hit for Cradley". Sandwell Evening Mail. 10 October 1980. Retrieved 21 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
9. "1980 fixtures and results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 1 October 2023.

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 2025
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 2025
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 2025
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
Domestic cups: British League Knockout Cup

• British League
• 1980 in British motorsport
• 1980 in speedway