Misplaced Pages

The 1987 British League season was the 53rd season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the 23rd known as the British League.

Summary

Coventry Bees comfortably won the league finishing 16 points clear of Cradley Heath. The same five main riders who made up the 1986 team rode through the 1987 season but crucially four of them improved on their 1986 averages. Tommy Knudsen and Kelvin Tatum both hit over 10, while Rick Miller and David Bargh both improved by about 2 points on average. John Jørgensen also remained consistent for the Bees. Coventry also won the League Cup but lost to Cradley in the final of the Knockout Cup. The double defending champions Oxford Cheetahs were forced to release Simon Wigg to Hackney and Per Sorensen because of the 45 point limit. They finished second from bottom despite Hans Nielsen topping the averages once again.

The second leg replay of the League Cup final was the last ever meeting held at Hyde Road.

Final table

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

British League Knockout Cup

The 1987 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 49th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath Heathens were the winners for the second successive year if including the tied 1986 final.

First round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

First leg

Second leg

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 94-86.

League Cup

The League Cup was contested as a league format. Coventry Bees won the final over two legs defeating Belle Vue Aces 84–72 on aggregrate. It was the last time that the competition was contested.

Qualifying table

Semi-finals

Final

Replay first leg

Replay second leg

Coventry were declared League Cup winners, winning on aggregate 84-72.

Riders' Championship

Hans Nielsen won the British League Riders' Championship for the second successive year. It was the held at Hyde Road on 12 October, shortly before the venue closed for good.

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Hans Nielsen	3 2 3 3 3	14
2	Chris Morton	3 3 1 3 3	13
3	Kelly Moran	2 2 2 2 3	11+3
4	Kelvin Tatum	2 3 2 2 2	11+2
5	Tommy Knudsen	TX 2 3 3 2	10
6	Richard Knight	3 1 1 3 2	10
7	Jan Andersson	1 1 3 2 3	10
8	Mitch Shirra	1 3 3 0 1	8
9	Simon Wigg	1 2 2 1 1	7
10	Jan O. Pedersen	2 3 0 1 0	6
11	Sean Willmott	2 1 1 1 1	6
12	Jimmy Nilsen	0 TX 0 2 2	4
13	Preben Eriksen	1 0 2 1 0	4
14	Erik Gundersen	3 0 0 0 1	4
15	Bernie Collier (res)	0 0 1 1 0 0	2
16	Louis Carr	0 - - - - -	0
17	Shawn Moran	0 0 0 0 0	0

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

Pairs

The British League Pairs Championship was held at Smallmead Stadium on 12 July and was won by Oxford for the third consecutive year.

Final

In the final Nilsen fell and was excluded and Shirra touched the tapes and was excluded, leaving Nielsen and Grahame to complete a 7-0 (pts) uncontested heat.

Leading final averages

Rider	Team	Average
Hans Nielsen	Oxford	11.38
Erik Gundersen	Cradley Heath	10.44
Tommy Knudsen	Coventry	10.25
Kelvin Tatum	Coventry	10.06
Sam Ermolenko	Wolverhampton	9.86
Jeremy Doncaster	Ipswich	9.67
Jimmy Nilsen	Swindon	9.61
Jan O. Pedersen	Cradley Heath	9.60
Shawn Moran	Sheffield	9.47
Simon Wigg	Hackney	9.38

Midland Cup

Cradley Heath won the Midland Cup. The competition consisted of six teams.

First round

Semi final round

Final

Because of cancellations due to bad weather the final of the competition doubled up as the Knockout Cup final (see above for details).

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• Chris Morton 8.92
• Paul Thorp 8.41
• Peter Ravn 8.38
• Andy Smith 6.35
• Kenny McKinna 5.82
• Carl Blackbird 5.55
• David Blackburn 3.92
• Glenn Hornby 2.65

Bradford

• Neil Evitts 8.58
• Lance King 8.47
• Sean Willmott 7.35
• Gary Havelock 7.31
• Steve Bastable 5.73
• Randy Green 5.71
• Michael Graves 4.97
• Anthony Hulme 1.48

Coventry

• Tommy Knudsen 10.25
• Kelvin Tatum 10.06
• Rick Miller 8.20
• John Jørgensen 7.80
• David Bargh 7.46
• David Clarke 3.44
• Andy Hackett 2.58
• Wayne Broadhurst 2.18
• Darren Slater 2.13

Cradley Heath

• Erik Gundersen 10.44
• Jan O. Pedersen 9.60
• Simon Cross 9.33
• David Walsh 5.10
• Alan Grahame 4.94
• Jan Jakobsen 3.94
• Dean Barker 3.79
• Paul Fry 3.47
• Wayne Garratt 1.18

Hackney

• Simon Wigg 9.38
• Roland Danno 7.03
• Andy Galvin 6.10
• Allan Johansen 5.60
• Malcolm Simmons 5.40
• Alan Mogridge 5.22
• Barry Thomas 5.20
• Mark Loram 5.08

Ipswich

• Jeremy Doncaster 9.67
• Armando Castagna 8.00
• Kai Niemi 7.61
• Gerd Riss 6.39
• Andy Hines 5.03
• Louis Carr 4.58
• Martin Hagon 4.05
• Robbie Fuller 3.97
• Jamie Luckhurst 2.20

King's Lynn

• Richard Knight 8.35
• John Cook 6.67
• Steve Regeling 6.42
• Ian Barney 6.25
• Andy Campbell 5.34
• Stephen Davies 5.27
• Einar Kyllingstad 4.94
• Mick Poole 4.93
• Ray Morton 4.39

Oxford

• Hans Nielsen 11.38
• Marvyn Cox 8.53
• Andy Grahame 7.87
• Jens Rasmussen 5.68
• Nigel De'ath 4.39
• Kevin Smart 3.72
• Alastair Stevens 3.63
• Jon Surman 3.04

Reading

• Per Jonsson 9.34
• Jan Andersson 8.99
• John Davis 6.95
• Tony Olsson 6.60
• Peter Glanz 6.45
• Malcolm Holloway 6.02
• Gary Tagg 2.57
• Rodney Payne 1.33

Sheffield

• Shawn Moran 9.47
• Kelly Moran 9.23
• Neil Collins 7.59
• Peter Carr 7.26
• Sean Wilson 5.50
• Ian M Stead 4.72
• Adrian Stevens 3.88

Swindon

• Jimmy Nilsen 9.61
• Mitch Shirra 9.36
• Andrew Silver 7.35
• Richard Hellsen 6.73
• Brian Karger 6.55
• Alun Rossiter 6.37
• Conny Ivarsson 5.73
• Matthew Cross 1.54
• Stephen Rose 0.63

Wolverhampton

• Sam Ermolenko 9.86
• Preben Eriksen 7.28
• Ronnie Correy 6.33
• Jan Stæchmann 6.01
• Lars Munkedal 5.48
• Andy Phillips 4.74
• Chris Cobby 3.20
• Andy Sumner 1.26
• Torben Hansen 0.40

See also

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

References

1. "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
2. "1987 league tables". Speedway GB.
3. Bamford/Shailes, Robert/Glynn (2007). The Story of Oxford Speedway. Tempus Publishing Ltd. pp. 137–138. ISBN 978-0-7524-4161-0.
4. "1987 British League Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
5. ^ "Coventry Bees 1987 season" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
6. "Coventry Bees results" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
7. "Nielsen retains title after scare". Sandwell Evening Mail. 12 October 1987. Retrieved 5 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
8. "Oxford Wins Hans Down". Reading Evening Post. 13 July 1987. Retrieved 18 May 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
9. ^ "Speedway". Daily Mirror. 22 October 1987. Retrieved 21 October 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.

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
• 1987 in British motorsport
• 1987 in speedway