1983 National League season

1983 National League season
League	National League
No. of competitors	18
Champions	Newcastle Diamonds
Knockout Cup	Exeter Falcons
Individual	Steve McDermott
Pairs	Weymouth Wildcats
Fours	Newcastle Diamonds
Highest average	Joe Owen
Division/s above	1983 British League
	← 1982; 1984 →;

The 1983 National League was the second tier of motorcycle speedway racing in the United Kingdom.^[1]

Summary

The winning team was Newcastle Diamonds.^[2]^[3]^[4]

After the tragedy of losing a rider the previous season Milton Keynes endured a second loss when their rider Craig Featherby was killed in a crash at Peterborough in a National League match on 16 September. Featherby hit a lamp standard after being thrown from the bike.^[5]

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
1	Newcastle Diamonds	34	25	1	8	51
2	Mildenhall Fen Tigers	34	23	2	9	48
3	Crayford Kestrels	34	23	0	11	46
4	Weymouth Wildcats	34	19	2	13	40
5	Scunthorpe Stags	34	19	2	13	40
6	Milton Keynes Knights	34	19	1	14	39
7	Middlesbrough Tigers	34	18	3	13	39
8	Berwick Bandits	34	17	0	17	34
9	Edinburgh Monarchs	34	16	1	17	33
10	Exeter Falcons	34	16	0	18	32
11	Rye House Rockets	34	15	1	18	31
12	Peterborough Panthers	34	14	2	18	30
13	Glasgow Tigers	34	14	1	19	29
14	Oxford Cheetahs	34	14	1	19	29
15	Canterbury Crusaders	34	12	2	20	26
16	Boston Barracudas	34	12	1	21	25
17	Stoke Potters	34	10	1	23	21
18	Long Eaton Invaders	34	9	1	24	19

Top Five Riders (League Averages)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Joe Owen		Newcastle	11.18
2	Martin Yeates		Weymouth	10.41
3	Rod Hunter		Newcastle	10.39
4	Bobby Beaton		Newcastle	10.12
5	Jim McMillan		Glasgow	10.03

National League Knockout Cup

The 1983 National League Knockout Cup was the 16th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Exeter Falcons were the winners of the competition.^[6]^[7]

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
19/04	Crayford	45-50	Mildenhall
17/04	Mildenhall	55-41	Crayford
01/04	Oxford	51-45	Milton Keynes
29/03	Milton Keynes	47-49	Oxford

Second round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
22/06	Long Eaton	58-38	Berwick
09/06	Oxford	45-51	Rye House
05/06	Berwick	61-35	Long Eaton
27/05	Peterborough	57-39	Mildenhall
25/05	Mildenhall	58-38	Peterborough
23/05	Newcastle	61-35	Scunthorpe
22/05	Rye House	51-45	Oxford
22/05	Scunthorpe	43-53	Newcastle
20/05	Edinburgh	50-46	Middlesbrough
30/04	Canterbury	45-51	Exeter
24/04	Boston	45-51	Weymouth
22/04	Glasgow	62-34	Stoke
19/04	Weymouth	58-38	Boston
16/04	Stoke	55-41	Glasgow
14/04	Middlesbrough	55-41	Edinburgh
11/04	Exeter	70-26	Canterbury

Quarter-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
15/08	Exeter	64-32	Rye House
14/08	Rye House	55-41	Exeter
23/07	Berwick	45-50	Newcastle
19/07	Weymouth	65-31	Glasgow
03/07	Mildenhall	67-25	Middlesbrough
27/06	Newcastle	53-42	Berwick
11/06	Glasgow	41-54	Weymouth
09/06	Middlesbrough	47-49	Mildenhall

Semi-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
02/10	Mildenhall	66-30	Exeter
12/09	Exeter	74-21	Mildenhall
12/09	Newcastle	54-42	Weymouth
02/08	Weymouth	55-41	Newcastle

Final

First leg

10 October 1983

Exeter Falcons Kevin Price 10 Rob Maxfield 9 Keith Millard 9 Steve Bishop 8 Rob Ashton 7 Bob Coles 6 Alun Rossiter 3	52 – 43	Weymouth Wildcats Martin Yeates 13 Steve Schofield 10 Simon Cross 9 Stan Bear 9 Gordon Humphreys 1 Chris Martin 1 David Biles 0
	^[8]

County Ground Stadium

Second leg

11 October 1983

Weymouth Wildcats Steve Schofield 15 Martin Yeates 12 Simon Cross 11 Stan Bear 6 Gordon Humphreys 3 David Biles 3 Chris Martin 2	52 – 44	Exeter Falcons Rob Ashton 10 Alun Rossiter 10 Keith Millard 9 Bob Coles 7 Rob Maxfield 5 Kevin Price 2 Steve Bishop 1
	^[8]

Wessex Stadium

Exeter were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 96–95.

Riders' Championship

Steve McDermott won the Riders' Championship, sponsored by the FSO Cars and held at Wimbledon Stadium on 24 September 1983.^[9]

Pos.	Rider	Pts	Total
1	Steve McDermott	32332	13+3
2	Richard Knight	23323	13+2
3	Martin Yeates	32133	12
4	Marvyn Cox	33230	11
5	Steve Wilcock	f 3133	10
6	Dave Perks	20222	8
7	Dave Trownson	01312	7
8	Keith Millard	32020	7
9	Nigel Crabtree	03211	7
10	Joe Owen	2ef32fexc	7
11	Barney Kennett	11211	6
12	Jim McMillan	22010	5
13	Barry Thomas	11101	4
14	Tom Owen	0 1102	4
15	Keith White	0 0003	3
16	Nigel Sparshott	10 000	1

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

Pairs

The National League Pairs was held at Hyde Road on 4 June and was won by Weymouth Wildcats for the second consecutive season.^[10]

Group B
Pos	Team	Pts	Riders
1	Glasgow	14	McMillan 9 Lawson 5
2	Peterborough	10	Allen 6 Pullen 4
3	Middlesbrough	9	Wilcock 5 Spink 4
4	Canterbury	3	Mullarkey 3 Kennett 0

Group C
Pos	Team	Pts	Riders
1	Weymouth	14	Yeates 7 Cross 7
2	Crayford	9	Bosley 5 Thomas 4
3	Rye House	6	Cox 4 Garrad 2
4	Edinburgh	5	Fiora 5 Hunter 0

Group D
Pos	Team	Pts	Riders
1	Mildenhall	11	Harrison 6 Knight 5
2	Boston	9	Lomas 6 Gagen 3
3	Milton K	9	McKinna 9 White 0
4	Long Eaton	6	Stead 6 Molyneux 0

Semi finals

Weymouth bt Newcastle
Glasgow bt Mildenhall

Final

Weymouth bt Glasgow

Fours

Newcastle Diamonds won the fours championship final for the second successive year, held at the East of England Arena on 24 July.^[11]

Semi finals

SF1 = Newcastle 15, Milton Keynes 13, Middlesbrough 13, Crayford 7
SF2 = Mildenhall 21, Long Eaton 11, Edinburgh 8, Weymouth 7

Final

Pos	Team	Pts	Riders
1	Newcastle Diamonds	21	Emerson 6, Hunter 5, Owen 5, Scarisbrick 3, Beaton 2
2	Mildenhall Fen Tigers	17	Knight 5, Harrison 5, Baldwin 4, Henry 3
3	Milton Keynes Knights	6	Pendlebury 2, White 1, Clarke 1, McKinna 1, Mallett 1
4	Long Eaton Invaders	4	Perks 2, Molyneux 1, Stead 1, Frankland 0, Evitts 0

Final leading averages

Rider	Team	Average
Joe Owen	Newcastle	11.10
Rod Hunter	Newcastle	10.51
Martin Yeates	Weymouth	10.39
Bobby Beaton	Newcastle	10.20
Steve Lawson	Glasgow	10.00
Jim McMillan	Glasgow	9.85
Marvyn Cox	Rye House	9.83
Barry Thomas	Crayford	9.69
Steve Wilcock	Middlesbrough	9.48
Steve McDermott	Berwick	9.43
Bob Garrad	Rye House	9.28

Riders & final averages

Berwick

Steve McDermott 9.43
Bruce Cribb 8.30
Brian Collins 6.33
Paul Thorp 6.20
Rob Grant Sr. 5.87
Mike Caroline 5.58
Phil Jeffrey 4.36
Robin Hampton 3.43

Boston

Steve Lomas 7.93
David Gagen 7.75
Billy Burton 6.40
Phil Alderman 5.67
David Blackburn 5.21
Dennis Mallett 4.94
Peter Framingham 4.37
Pete Chapman 4.31
Guy Wilson 3.92
Michael Holding 2.83

Canterbury

Denzil Kent 8.20
Barney Kennett 7.56
Kelvin Mullarkey 7.43
Andy Hibbs 6.70
Jamie Luckhurst 6.27
Dave Mullett 5.66
Laurie Etheridge 5.54
Kevin Brice 5.47
Keith Pritchard 4.91

Crayford

Barry Thomas 9.69
Paul Bosley 7.88
Kevin Teager 7.56
Andy Galvin 6.72
Alan Sage 6.63
Alan Mogridge 6.59
Trevor Banks 6.46

Edinburgh

Dave Trownson 8.74
Mark Fiora 7.77
Brett Saunders 7.44
George Hunter 6.96
Chris Turner 6.90
Roger Lambert 6.10
Glyn Taylor 6.07
Sean Courtney 4.68
Chris Kelly 2.83
Scott Cook 2.35

Exeter

Keith Millard 8.73
Rob Maxfield 7.88
Rob Ashton 7.35
Alun Rossiter 7.12
Steve Bishop 7.03
Kevin Price 6.28
Bob Coles 5.74

Glasgow

Steve Lawson 10.00
Jimmy McMillan 9.85
Kenny McKinna 9.00
Andy Reid 8.23
Colin Caffrey 5.64
David Cassels 4.95
Jim Beaton 4.00
Martin McKinna 3.74
Geoff Powell 3.57
Miles Evans 3.40
David Walsh 2.88

Long Eaton

Dave Perks 8.14
Alan Molyneux 8.09
Paul Stead 7.86
Paul Evitts 5.64
John Frankland 5.21
Mark Stevenson 4.63
Nicky Allot 3.50
David Tyler 2.58
John Proctor 1.18

Middlesbrough

Steve Wilcock 9.48
Mike Spink 8.66
Geoff Pusey 6.72
Brian Havelock 6.16
Rob Woffinden 5.92
Paul Price 5.48
Ashley Norton 4.77
Peter Nightingale 2.98
Mark Crang 2.88

Mildenhall

Derek Harrison 9.22
Richard Knight 8.98
Carl Baldwin 8.23
Robert Henry 7.00
Carl Blackbird 6.42
Dave Jackson 4.78
Andy Warne 4.11
Ian Farnham 2.34
Rob Parish 1.80

Milton Keynes

Craig Featherby 8.66
Keith White 8.56
Steve Payne 8.51
Charlie McKinna 7.84
Chris Pidcock 6.09
Paul Clarke 5.57
Dennis Mallett 5.02
Peter Framingham 5.00
Steve Mildoon 2.78
Rob Wall 2.37

Newcastle

Joe Owen 11.10
Rod Hunter 10.51
Bobby Beaton 10.20
Alan Emerson 7.20
Martin Scarisbrick 5.74
Bernie Collier 3.60
Dave Wild 3.05
Lawrie Bloomfield 2.52
Paul McHale 2.47
Neal Barnsley 1.80
Greg DeKok 1.63

Oxford

Nigel Sparshott 8.06
Graham Drury 7.79
Ian Clark 7.28
Mike Wilding 7.13
Kevin Smart 6.35
Wayne Jackson 5.40
Nigel De'ath 5.36
Steve Crockett 4.71
Mark Summerfield 4.17
Mark Chessell 1.65

Peterborough

Ashley Pullen 8.74
Dave Allen 8.09
Mick Hines 7.22
Ian Barney 6.53
Andy Buck 6.44
Mike Spinks 5.37
Neil Cotton 4.89
Dale Watson 2.36

Rye House

Marvyn Cox 9.83
Bobby Garrad 9.28
Steve Naylor 8.00
Peter Johns 7.03
Kerry Gray 5.73
Steve Bryenton 5.70
Andrew Silver 4.69
Kevin Bowen 4.60
Chris Chaplin 2.89
Terry Broadbank 2.87
John Barclay 1.27

Scunthorpe

Nigel Crabtree 9.10
Andy Fisher 7.59
Rob Hollingworth 7.15
Craig Pendlebury 6.91
Julian Parr 6.56
Derek Richardson 6.28
Ian Gibson 5.68
Kevin Armitage 5.29
Mark DeKok 4.00

Stoke

Tom Owen 8.98
Pete Smith 7.35
John Jackson 6.66
Ian Robertson 5.16
Gary O'Hare 4.91
Jim Burdfield 4.80
Steve Sant 3.95
Gary Johnson 3.00
Richie Owen 2.60

Weymouth

Martin Yeates 10.39
Steve Schofield 8.97
Simon Cross 8.35
Stan Bear 7.18
Rob Mather 5.83
Gordon Humphreys 4.40
Chris Martin 4.11
David Biles 2.87
Ian Humphreys 2.17

References

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[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

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