1988 British League season explained

Competition:	British League
Competitors:	11
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Coventry Bees
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Cradley Heath Heathens
Domesticcup3:	Individual
Domesticcup3 Winners:	Jan O. Pedersen
Highest Average:	Hans Nielsen
Leagues Below:	1988 National League
Prevseason:	1987
Nextseason:	1989

The 1988 British League season was the 54th season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the 24th known as the British League.^{[1] [2]}

Summary

Coventry Bees won the league for the second successive year and again by a 16 point margin. The Bees also reached the Knockout Cup final losing to Cradley Heath. Remarkably it was Cradley's seventh Cup win in 10 years. With the League Cup scrapped the Coventry team had less fixtures to ride and their pairing of Tommy Knudsen and Kelvin Tatum were once again the catalyst for the seasons success finishing 2nd and 4th respectively in the averages. Hans Nielsen topped the averages again for the sixth consecutive season.^[3]

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	Pts
1	Coventry Bees	40	31	2	7	18	82
2	Belle Vue Aces	40	26	1	13	13	66
3	Cradley Heath Heathens	39	22	1	16	15	60
4	Oxford Cheetahs	40	20	6	14	13	59
5	Reading Racers	40	20	3	17	12	55
6	Sheffield Tigers	39	19	2	18	8	48
7	Swindon Robins	40	17	1	22	8	43
8	Wolverhampton Wolves	40	15	3	22	8	41
9	King's Lynn Stars	40	14	3	23	7	38
10	Ipswich Witches	39	13	0	26	4	30
11	Bradford Dukes	39	10	0	29	2	22

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

British League Knockout Cup

The 1988 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 50th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath Heathens were the winners for the third successive year if including the tied 1986 final.^[4]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
09/07	King's Lynn	47-43	Ipswich
08/07	Ipswich	34-55	King's Lynn
23/06	Sheffield	43-47	Cradley Heath
18/06	Cradley Heath	51-39	Sheffield
03/06	Belle Vue	53-37	Bradford
28/05	Bradford	36-54	Belle Vue

Quarter-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
13/08	King's Lynn	40-50	Cradley Heath
10/08	Cradley Heath	53-37	King's Lynn
19/07	Coventry	53-37	Reading
15/07	Belle Vue	53-37	Wolverhampton
14/07	Oxford	48-42	Swindon
11/07	Reading	49-41	Coventry
11/07	Wolverhampton	45-45	Belle Vue

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
14/10	Belle Vue	48-42	Cradley Heath
13/10	Oxford	38-49	Coventry
08/10	Coventry	44-46	Oxford
14/09	Cradley Heath	49-41	Belle Vue

Final

First leg

Second leg

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 100-80.

Riders' Championship

Jan O. Pedersen won the British League Riders' Championship. It was the held at Belle Vue Stadium on 9 October.^[5]

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=70px	Heat Scores	width=50px	Total
1		3 2 3 3 3	14
2		3 3 3 1 3	13
3		0 3 3 3 3	12+3
4		2 2 3 2 3	12+2
5		1 3 2 2 2	10
6		2 3 1 2 1	9
7		1 2 2 3 1	9
8		2 1 0 3 2	8
9		2 0 2 2 1	7
10		3 2 0 0 0	5
11		1 1 0 1 2	5
12		1 1 1 1 1	5
13		0 0 2 1 2	5
14		3 1 1 0 0	5
15		0 1 0	1
16	Paul Smith (res)	0 0	0
17	Carl Stonehewer (res)	0 0	0
18		0 0 0	0

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

Leading final averages

width=200	Rider	width=200	Team	width=40	Average
	Oxford	11.03
	Coventry	10.08
	Cradley Heath	10.06
	Coventry	10.04
	Cradley Heath	9.88
	Sheffield	9.51
	Wolverhampton	9.40
	Ipswich	9.34
	Belle Vue	9.01
	Bradford	9.00

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• 9.01
• 8.18
• 7.70
• 7.22
• 6.92
• 6.83
• 4.97
• 3.12

Bradford

• 8.30
• 7.44
• 6.02
• 5.67
• 5.29
• 5.15
• 4.64
• 3.57

Coventry

• 10.08
• 10.04
• 7.49
• 7.02
• 5.00
• 4.85
• 4.79

Cradley Heath

• 10.06
• 9.88
• 8.22
• 6.92
• 5.10
• 4.50
• 3.45

Ipswich

• 9.34
• 6.87
• 6.75
• 6.19
• 6.07
• 5.40
• 4.97
• 2.50
• 2.40
• 1.45

King's Lynn

• 7.75
• 7.69
• 7.45
• 7.26
• 6.33
• 6.24
• 6.00
• 3.90
• 1.28

Oxford

• 11.03
• 8.64
• 7.24
• 6.97
• 4.32
• 3.91
• 3.81
• 2.80
• 2.65

Reading

• 8.98
• 8.93
• 8.20
• 6.95
• 5.63
• 5.22
• 3.09
• 2.81

Sheffield

• 9.51
• 8.67
• 7.16
• 5.78
• 5.30
• 4.58
• 4.00
• 3.60
• 3.60
• 3.38

Swindon

• 7.68 (6 matches only)
• 7.48
• 7.23
• 7.22
• 6.56
• 5.94
• 5.87
• 5.41

Wolverhampton

• 9.40
• 7.67
• 7.24
• 6.11
• 5.94
• 5.73
• 5.51
• 5.46
• 4.42

See also

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Historic league tables. Speedway Archive.
2. Web site: HISTORY ARCHIVE. British Speedway. 3 July 2021.
3. Web site: 1988 league tables. Speedway GB.
4. Web site: 1988 British League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive.
5. News: Pedersen powers to title joy . Sandwell Evening Mail . 10 October 1988 . 5 June 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .