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1973 British League Division Two season

British motorcycle speedway season

Field	Value
competition	British League Division Two
competitors	18
domesticcup1	Champions
domesticcup1 winners	Boston Barracudas
domesticcup2	Knockout Cup
domesticcup2 winners	Boston Barracudas
domesticcup3	Individual
domesticcup3 winners	Arthur Price
domesticcup4	North Eastern Trophy
domesticcup4 winners	Teesside Tigers
highest average	Lou Sansom
league above	British League (Div 1)
prevseason	1972
nextseason	1974

The 1973 British League Division Two season was the second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.

Summary

The 1973 season saw the league expanded to 18 teams with the addition of Chesterton Potters. The team had last raced during the 1963 Provincial Speedway League season under the name of the Stoke Potters.

Boston Barracudas won their first title and went on to win the league and cup double. 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.

Final table

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	34	12	1	21	25
17	Berwick Bandits	34	11	1	22	23
18	Rayleigh Rockets	34	9	3	22	21

Fixtures and results

v=Void at 39-36, not restaged

Top five riders (leading averages)

Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Lou Sansom	AUS	Workington Comets
2	Alan Knapkin	ENG	Bradford Northern
3	Jack Millen	NZL	Sunderland
4	Carl Glover	ENG	Boston
5	Ken McKinlay	SCO	Scunthorpe

British League Division Two Knockout Cup

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.

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

Final first leg Carl Glover 15 Ray Bales 13 Arthur Price 10 Russ Osborne 10 Dave Piddock 5 David Gagen 5 Jim Ryman R/R Lou Sansom 7 Malcolm Mackay 5 Kym Amundson 4 Steve Watson 3 Taffy Owen 0 Mitch Graham 0 Bernie Hornby 0

Final second leg Lou Sansom 12 Malcolm Mackay 10 Mitch Graham 7 Taffy Owen 6 Kym Amundson 5 Steve Watson 6 Bernie Hornby 1 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

Boston were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 89–66.

Leading final averages

Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Lou Sansom	AUS	Workington
2	Alan Knapkin	ENG	Bradford Northern
3	Jack Millen	NZL	Sunderland
4	Ken McKinlay	SCO	Scunthorpe
5	Carl Glover	ENG	Boston

Riders' Championship

Arthur Price won the Rider's Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 6 October.

Pos.		width=180px	Rider		width=100px	Pts		width=50px	Total
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

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

North Eastern Trophy

M	W	D	L	Pts
1	Teesside	6	5	1
2	Sunderland	6	2	1
3	Hull	6	2	0
4	Berwick	6	2	0

Riders and final averages

Barrow

Tom Owen 8.32
Mike Sampson 8.31
Terry Kelly 7.40
Sid Sheldrick 6.98
Chris Bailey 6.97
Craig Pendlebury 6.50
Joe Owen 6.21
Chris Roynon 5.69
Keith Evans 5.60

Berwick

Doug Templeton 8.12
Willie Templeton 7.38
Andy Meldrum 7.09
Graham Jones 4.81
Chris Quigley 4.55
Denny Morter 4.17
Ettienne Olivier 4.15
Rob Hollingworth 4.00
Geoff Davies 2.98
Dennis Jackson 2.14

Birmingham

Arthur Browning 8.85
Ted Howgego 8.62
George Major 8.29
John Hart 8.29
Phil Herne 7.59
Mike Lanham 7.23
Malcolm Corradine 7.21
Steve Wilson 5.78
Terry Shearer 5.26
Alan Grahame 3.29

Boston

Carl Glover 9.62
Arthur Price 9.14
Jim Ryman 8.42
Russ Osborne 7.85
Dave Piddock 7.81
Ray Bales 7.28
David Gagen 6.94
Tony Featherstone 6.88
Les Glover 3.40

Bradford

Alan Knapkin 10.03
Dave Baugh 9.23
Robin Adlington 7.93
Tony Featherstone 7.74
Brenton Langlois 5.71
Mick Fairbairn 5.65
Colin Meredith 5.37
Mike Fullerton 4.75
Tony Freegard 4.67
Rob Maxfield 4.40
Rod Chessell 3.45

Canterbury

Barney Kennett 7.38
Peter Murray 6.90
Ted Hubbard 6.75
Derek Cook 6.41
Trevor Jones 6.33
Graham Banks 5.96
Dave Piddock 5.71
Les Rumsey 5.71
Gary Cottham Sr. 4.61
Dave Gooderham 4.30

Chesterton

Mike Broadbank 9.24
Mick Handley 6.70
Geoff Pusey 6.20
Alan Bridgett 5.90
Roger Parker 5.70
Brian Woodward 5.52
Cyril Francis 5.11
Martin Yeates 4.76
Nigel Wasley 4.15

Crewe

John Jackson 8.55
Geoff Ambrose 8.50
Dave Morton 8.44
Wayne Forrest 5.44
Glyn Taylor 5.29
Ian Cartwright 4.88
Keith White 4.68
Peter Thompson 3.78
Cliff Anderson 3.26

Eastbourne

Bobby McNeil 9.34
Roger Johns 8.59
Paul Gachet 7.32
Trevor Geer 6.26
Mike Vernam .5.62
Neil Middleditch 4.82
Eric Dugard 4.54
Jimmy Squibb 4.17

Ellesmere Port

Graham Drury 9.03
Paul O'Neal 7.94
Robbie Gardner 6.99
Colin Goad 6.51
Chris Morton 6.29
Barry Booth 4.35
Gerald Smitherman 4.24
Roger Austin 4.14
Wayne Hughes 3.40
Paul Callaghan 2.29

Hull

Dave Mills 9.29
Tony Childs 8.49
Alan Cowland 7.66
Robin Amundson 7.60
Dennis Gavros 5.55
Pete Boston 4.58
Dennis Wasden 4.42
Kelvin Mullarkey 4.31
Clark Facey 4.00
Grahame Dawson 3.17
Roger Austin 2.80
Eddie Argall 1.94

Long Eaton

Roger Mills 8.28
Geoff Bouchard 8.20
Norman Strachan 7.41
Phil Bass 6.93
Dave Harvey 6.18
Alan Molyneux 5.55
Alan Witt 5.55
Joe Hughes 4.51
Steve Bass 4.00
Mick Moore 3.65
Ian Teale 2.48

Peterborough

Richard Greer 8.96
John Davis 8.86
Frank Smith 7.31
Brian Clark 7.27
Ted Howgego 6.40
Roy Carter 6.07
Jack Walker 5.72
Roy Sizmore 4.00
Ken Matthews 2.63

Rayleigh

Peter Moore 8.30
Bob Young 7.04
Trevor Barnwell 6.59
Dave "Tiger" Beech 6.12
Les Ott 5.87
Brian Foote 5.75
Terry Stone 5.27
Peter Cairns 4.96
Pete Wigley 4.56
Dingle Brown 4.29
Steve Clarke 3.58

Scunthorpe

Ken McKinlay 9.69
Ian Hindle 8.18
Dingle Brown 6.18
Rod Haynes 5.87
Jack Bywater 5.40
Doug Underwood 4.64
Rex Garrod 4.58
Chris Emery 3.30

Sunderland

Jack Millen 9.74
Dave Gatenby 7.56
Jim Wells 7.44
Russ Dent 6.21
George Barclay 6.10
Terry Barclay 4.66
Brian Havelock 4.64
Peter Wrathall 4.07
John Robson 1.14

Teesside

Bruce Forrester 9.15
Frank Auffret 8.61
Roger Wright 7.47
Pete Reading 6.85
Dave Durham 6.35
Tim Swales 6.12
Russ Hodgson 5.38
Tom Black 4.95
Mick Moore 4.00

Workington

Lou Sansom 10.50
Malcolm MacKay 8.88
Mitch Graham 8.07
Taffy Owen 7.44
Kym Amundson 5.51
Steve Watson 5.41
Bernie Hornby 3.57
Darryl Stobbart 3.53

References

"Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
Rogers, Martin. (1978). "The Illustrated History of Speedway". Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd.
"Stoke Speedway (Loomer Road)".
"BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)".
Oakes, Peter. (1981). "1981 Speedway Yearbook". Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd.
"teams".
"1973 fixtures & results". Speedway Researcher.
"1973 British League Division Two Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
"1973 KO cup final".
(9 October 1973). "Price takes Crump's crown". Lynn Advertiser.
"1973 fixtures & results". Speedway Researcher.

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