1962 Provincial Speedway League Explained

Competition:	Provincial League
Competitors:	13
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Poole Pirates
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Exeter Falcons
Domesticcup3:	Individual
Domesticcup3 Winners:	Len Silver
Highestaverage:	Ivor Brown
League Above:	1962 National League
Prevseason:	1961
Nextseason:	1963

The 1962 Provincial Speedway League was the third season of the Provincial League.^[1]

Summary

Thirteen speedway teams took part. Bradford, at their new venue at Greenfields Stadium, returned to the league after missing the previous season due to delays building their new track. The league season proved to be disastrous for Bradford and the club folded at the end of the year. New team Neath Welsh Dragons joined the league and Leicester joined after dropping down from the National League. Neath, near Port Talbot in Wales, was not a successful venue and many of their fixtures were raced at St. Austell. Rayleigh Rockets had withdrawn.^[2] ^[3]

Poole won the league championship for the second year in a row.^[4] The Neath Welsh Dragons achieved what was described as the impossible by finishing second in the league standings.^[5]

Final table

Pos	Team	M	W	D	L	Pts
1	Poole Pirates	24	17	0	7	34
2	Neath Welsh Dragons	24	14	1	9	29
3	Exeter Falcons	24	14	0	10	28
4	Stoke Potters	24	14	0	10	28
5	Edinburgh Monarchs	24	12	2	10	26
6	Plymouth Devils	24	12	2	10	26
7	Sheffield Tigers	24	12	1	11	25
8	Cradley Heath Heathens	24	12	0	12	24
9	Newcastle Diamonds	24	12	0	12	24
10	Wolverhampton Wolves	24	11	1	12	23
11	Middlesbrough Bears	24	11	0	13	22
12	Leicester Hunters	24	6	0	18	12
13	Bradford Panthers	24	5	1	18	11

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

Top Five Riders (League only)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Ivor Brown		Cradley	10.21
2	Clive Featherby		Sheffield	10.21
3	Eric Boothroyd		Middlesbrough	10.15
4	Geoff Mudge		Poole	10.04
5	Jimmy Squibb		Plymouth	9.74

Provincial League Knockout Cup

The 1962 Provincial League Knockout Cup was the third edition of the Knockout Cup for the Provincial League teams. Exeter Falcons were the winners.^[6]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
18/06	Newcastle	74–22	Sheffield
21/06	Middlesbrough	66–30	Cradley Heath
22/06	Leicester	32–64	Poole
22/06	Bradford	57–39	Neath
23/06	Edinburgh	71–25	Wolverhampton

Second round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
11/08	Edinburgh	54–42	Middlesbrough
11/08	Stoke	61–31	Newcastle
14/08	Bradford	44–52	Poole
27/08	Exeter	53–43	Plymouth

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
10/09	Exeter	57–39	Edinburgh
15/09	Stoke	49–47	Poole

Final

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
20/10	Stoke	60–36	Exeter
22/10	Exeter	70–26	Stoke

Riders' Championship

Len Silver won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at Hyde Road on 22 September in front of 20,000 spectators. Four riders finished on 11 points forcing a race off.^[7]

width=25px	Pos.	width=180px	Rider	width=100px	Pts	width=50px	Total
1		2 3 3 3	11+3
2		3 2 3 3	11+2
3		3 3 2 3	11+1
4		3 2 3 3	11+0
5		2 2 2 3	9
6		3 2 2 2	9
7		3 3 1 2	9
8		1 1 3 3	8
9		2 3 1 1	7
10		1 3 1 2	7
11		1 1 1 3	6
12		1 3 0 2	6
13		f 2 2 2	6
14		3 f 1 1	5
15		0 2 2 1	5
16		0 2 3 0	5
17		1 0 0 2	3
18		2 1 - -	3
19		2 0 1 0	3
20		2 ef 1 0	3
21		1 1 0 0	2
22		0 1 0 ef	1
23		0 1 0 0	1
24	Howdy Byford (res)	0 0 1	1
25	Ernie Baker (res)	0 1	1
26		0 - - - -	0

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

Riders & final averages

Bradford

7.10
6.23
5.89
5.82
5.66
5.60
5.40
3.56
3.40
2.67

Cradley Heath

10.21
7.91
6.80
6.59
6.56
6.45
5.49
3.82
3.13

Edinburgh

9.36
8.45
7.05
7.66
6.67
6.24
4.44
3.94
3.80

Exeter

8.97
8.00
7.31
6.68
6.20
6.04
5.64

Leicester

7.85
7.25
6.58
6.36
6.24
5.57
5.35
4.50
4.46
3.59

Middlesbrough

10.15
8.83
7.38
6.36
5.49
4.33
3.20
2.18

Neath

9.43
7.74
Howdy Cornell 7.47
7.44
6.73
5.78
5.26
2.46

Newcastle

9.60
7.76
6.70
6.38
6.15
(Jack Thorp) 5.79
5.09
4.25
George Glen 4.05
3.20

Plymouth

9.74
8.87
7.31
Chris Blewett 6.84
5.96
5.63
3.25
2.87
2.42

Poole

10.04
9.30
8.41
7.78
7.54
6.74
6.05
3.25

Sheffield

10.21
9.60
9.58
7.98
6.11
3.76
3.35
3.30
2.97

Stoke

8.69
8.67
7.95
7.65
6.20
5.66
4.93
(Kid Bodie) 4.56
3.43
3.38

Wolverhampton

8.67
8.13
7.28
6.52
6.26
6.16
4.70
4.47
3.85
1.47

Notes and References

Web site: Championship History . Poole Speedway . 2008 . 2008-05-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080516063211/http://www.poolespeedway.net/08-website/lgerecord.php . 16 May 2008 . dead .
Web site: Year by Year. Speedway Researcher. 13 August 2021.
Book: Rogers, Martin. The Illustrated History of Speedway. 1978. 129. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. 0-904584-45-3.
Web site: BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - POST-WAR ERA (1946-1964). Official British Speedway website. 13 August 2021.
News: Speedway Dragons second in P.L. Championship . Porthcawl Guardian . 19 October 1962 . 16 November 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
Web site: 1962 Provincial League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive. 13 August 2021.
News: Hunter out of Luck . Edinburgh Evening News . 24 September 1962 . 12 June 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .