1967 British League season explained

Competition:	British League
Season:	1967
Competitors:	19
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Swindon Robins
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Coventry Bees
Domesticcup3:	Individual
Domesticcup3 Winners:	Barry Briggs
Domesticcup4:	London Cup
Domesticcup4 Winners:	West Ham Hammers
Domesticcup5:	Midland Cup
Domesticcup5 Winners:	Swindon Robins
Highest Average:	Barry Briggs
Prevseason:	1966
Nextseason:	1968

The 1967 British League season was the 33rd season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the third season known as the British League.^{[1] [2]}

Summary

The league was made up of the same 19 teams that competed in the previous year.^[3] Swindon Robins led by the world champion Barry Briggs won their first top tier league title but were pushed all the way by Coventry Bees and West Ham Hammers. Swindon finished with four riders with averages over eight, Briggs topped the entire league with 11.05 but the contributions from Martin Ashby (8.83), Bob Kilby (8.61) and Mike Broadbank (8.55) were pivotal in the Swindon's success.^[4] Coventry Bees gained some consolation for finishing runner-up two seasons running by winning the Knockout Cup.

Final table

			M	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1	Swindon Robins	36	24	0	12	1536	1266	48
2	Coventry Bees	36	22	2	12	1524	1275	46
3	West Ham Hammers	36	21	3	12	1514	1288	45
4	Edinburgh Monarchs	36	20	2	14	1485	1318	42
5	Hackney Hawks	36	20	1	15	1402	1400	41
6	Poole Pirates	36	17	3	16	1462	1339	37
7	Halifax Dukes	36	18	1	17	1456	1347	37
8	Wolverhampton Wolves	36	18	1	17	1423	1376	37
9	Sheffield Tigers	36	18	1	17	1333.5	1470.5	37
10	Newcastle Diamonds	36	18	0	18	1386	1417	36
11	Wimbledon Dons	36	16	3	17	1392	1409	35
12	Newport Wasps	36	17	1	18	1387	1413	35
13	Glasgow Tigers	36	16	2	18	1343	1457	34
14	Oxford Cheetahs	36	16	1	19	1368.5	1432.5	33
15	Exeter Falcons	36	16	0	20	1384.5	1418.5	32
16	Belle Vue Aces	36	16	0	20	1333.5	1463.5	32
17	Long Eaton Archers	36	14	3	19	1322	1481	31
18	Cradley Heath Heathens	36	12	0	24	1262	1533	24
19	King's Lynn Stars	36	11	0	25	1297	1505	22

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

Top Ten Riders (League averages)

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Barry Briggs		Swindon	11.05
2	Charlie Monk		Glasgow	10.72
3	Nigel Boocock		Coventry	10.43
4	Ray Wilson		Long Eaton	10.43
5	Eric Boocock		Halifax	10.38
6	Sverre Harrfeldt		West Ham	10.30
7	Torbjörn Harrysson		Newport	10.05
8	Gote Nordin		Poole	10.00
9	Bengt Jansson		Hackney	9.86
10	Terry Betts		King's Lynn	9.70

Knockout Cup

The cup was won by Coventry Bees.^[5]

See main article: article and British League Knockout Cup 1967.

Riders' Championship

Barry Briggs won the British League Riders' Championship for the third consecutive year, held at Hyde Road on 21 October.^[6]

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=70px	Heat Scores	width=50px	Total
1		3 3 3 3 3	15
2		2 3 3 3 3	14
3		3 3 3 2 1	12
4		2 0 3 3 2	10
5		3 3 2 2 0	10
6		1 2 2 3 2	10
7	Olle Nygren	1 2 2 1 3	9
8		3 1 0 1 3	8
9		1 1 2 2 0	6
10		2 0 0 2 2	6
11		2 0 1 1 2	6
12		ef 2 1 1 1	5
13		0 2 1 0 1	4
14		1 1 1 0 1	4
15		0 1 0 r n	1
16		0 0 0 0 0	0
17	Brian Brett (res)	0 - - - -	0

• ef=engine failure, f=fell, exc=excluded

Final leading averages

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Barry Briggs		Swindon	11.05
2	Nigel Boocock		Coventry	10.52
3	Charlie Monk		Glasgow	10.50
4	Ray Wilson		Long Eaton	10.43
5	Eric Boocock		Halifax	10.29
6	Sverre Harrfeldt		West Ham	10.25
7	Torbjörn Harrysson		Newport	10.05
8	Göte Nordin		Poole	9.99
9	Bengt Jansson		Hackney	9.87
10	Terry Betts		King's Lynn	9.74
11	Ove Fundin		Belle Vue	9.65
12	Arne Pander		Oxford	9.57
13	Ken McKinlay		West Ham	9.53
14	Olle Nygren		Wimbledon	9.52
15	Roy Trigg		Oxford	9.37
16	Ivan Mauger		Newcastle	9.32
17	Hasse Holmqvist		Wolverhampton	9.29
18	Bernt Persson		Edinburgh	9.19
19	Dave Younghusband		Halifax	9.12
20	Jim Airey		Wolverhampton	9.08

London Cup

West Ham won the three team London Cup for the third consecutive year.^[7]

width=20	Pos	width=150	Team	width=20	P	width=20	W	width=20	D	width=20	L	width=20	F	width=20	A	width=20	Pts
1		4	4	0	0	230	154	8
2		4	1	0	3	181	202	24
3		4	1	0	3	164	219	2

Results

width=100	Team	width=70	Score	width=100	Team
Wimbledon	62–33	Hackney
Hackney	42–54	West Ham
West Ham	60–36	Wimbledon
Wimbledon	37–59	West Ham
Hackney	50–46	Wimbledon
West Ham	57–39	Hackney

Midland Cup

Swindon won the Midland Cup, which consisted of six teams.^[8]

First round

width=150	Team one	width=150	Team two	width=120	Score
Long Eaton	Oxford	40–37, 35–43
Cradley	Wolverhampton	40–38, 29–49

Semi final round

width=150	Team one	width=150	Team two	width=120	Score
Swindon	Oxford	48–30, 40–38
Wolverhampton	Coventry	38–40, 29–49

Final

First leg

Second leg

Swindon won on aggregate 88–68

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• 9.65
• 9.03
• 8.32
• 7.83
• 6.42
• 5.89
• 3.56
• 3.31
• 2.75
• 2.72
• 2.60
• 2.55

Coventry

• 10.52
• 8.97
• 8.66
• 6.33
• 6.25
• 4.89
• 4.08
• 3.23

Cradley

• 7.54
• 7.34
• 7.32
• 7.04
• 6.37
• 6.04
• 5.67
• 3.76
• 3.39
• 3.16
• 2.60

Edinburgh

• 9.19
• 8.99
• 8.13
• 6.50
• 6.46
• 5.84
• 5.31
• 5.14
• 3.56

Exeter

• 8.21
• 7.83
• 7.38
• 7.25
• 6.78
• 6.66
• 6.57
• 6.42
• 5.55
• 3.90
• 3.28

Glasgow

• 10.50
• 6.90
• 6.47
• 6.41
• 6.36
• 5.98
• 5.40
• 4.68
• 4.00
• 3.80
• 3.07

Hackney

• 9.87
• 8.95
• 6.25
• 5.82
• 5.33
• 5.05
• 4.97
• 4.66

Halifax

• 10.29
• 9.12
• 8.42
• 6.00
• 4.78
• 4.76
• 4.34
• 4.14
• 2.75

King's Lynn

• 9.74
• 7.95
• 6.27
• 6.05
• (Kid Bodie) 5.72
• 4.39
• 4.00
• 3.39
• 2.73
• 2.73

Long Eaton

• 10.43
• 8.74
• 7.10
• 5.77
• 4.82
• 3.97
• 2.92
• 2.72

Newcastle

• 9.32
• 7.54
• 6.10
• 6.04
• 6.00
• 5.98
• 5.93
• 5.63
• 1.65

Newport

• 10.05
• 8.27
• 6.63
• 6.29
• 6.08
• 4.76
• 4.24

Oxford

• 9.57
• 9.37
• 8.29
• 7.51
• 6.06
• 4.95
• 4.68
• 4.00
• 2.40

Poole

• 9.99
• 8.25
• 8.00
• 8.00
• 6.29
• 5.91
• 4.94
• 4.68

Sheffield

• 7.08
• 7.04
• 6.97
• 6.65
• 6.22
• 6.02
• 5.82
• 5.45
• 3.78

Swindon

• 11.05
• 8.83
• 8.61
• 8.55
• 4.46
• 4.41
• 4.25

West Ham

• 10.25
• 9.53
• 7.54
• 7.09
• 7.03
• 4.76
• 4.46
• 4.36
• 0.80

Wimbledon

• 9.52
• 8.49
• 8.23
• 6.00
• J 5.86
• 5.23
• 4.56
• 3.19
• 2.06

Wolverhampton

• 9.29
• 9.08
• 8.21
• 7.92
• 5.56
• 5.04
• 4.72
• 1.95

See also

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Historic league tables. Speedway Archive.
2. Book: Oakes, Peter. 1981 Speedway Yearbook. 1981. 100. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. 0-86215-017-5.
3. Book: Rogers, Martin. The Illustrated History of Speedway. 1978. 129-133. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. 0-904584-45-3.
4. Web site: HISTORY ARCHIVE. British Speedway. 29 June 2021.
5. Web site: Coventry Speedway 1967 season. Speedway Researcher. 25 June 2021.
6. News: Briggs wins title for third time . Sunday Sun (Newcastle) . 22 October 1967 . 1 June 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
7. Web site: West Ham Hammers 1967 . Speedway Researcher . 30 September 2023.
8. News: Speedway Trophy won by Swindon . Bristol Evening Post . 5 October 1967 . British Newspaper Archive. 19 October 2023 . subscription .