1990 National League season explained

Competition:	National League
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Poole Pirates
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Poole Pirates
Domesticcup3:	Individual
Domesticcup4:	Pairs
Domesticcup4 Winners:	Hackney Kestrels
Domesticcup5:	Fours
Domesticcup5 Winners:	Stoke Potters
Highest Average:	Steve Schofield
League Above:	1990 British League
Prevseason:	1989

The 1990 National League was the 16th since its establishment as a second tier in 1975, a renamed British League Division Two, and the last before it was again renamed British League Division Two.^[1]

Summary

The league was initially supposed to run with 18 teams - however, Mildenhall Fen Tigers were unable to form a team to the 42-point minimum average limit, and were expelled on March 22, 1990. Matches were once again run over a 16-heat formula, with seven riders per team.

Poole Pirates were again champions, and stepped up into British League Division One for the 1991 season.^[2]

League table

width=30 rowspan=2	Pos	Club	M	Home			Away			F	width=30 rowspan=2	A	width=30 rowspan=2	Pts
width=30	W	Club	width=30	D	width=30	L	width=30	W	width=30	D	width=30	L
1	Poole Pirates	32	16	0	0	13	0	3	1779	1224	58
2	Middlesbrough Bears	32	16	0	0	6	2	8	1701	1367	46
3	Ipswich Witches	32	13	2	1	9	0	7	1674	1387	46
4	Glasgow Tigers	32	13	0	3	6	0	10	1643.5	1419,5	38
5	Hackney Kestrels	32	13	0	3	6	0	10	1608	1451	38
6	Berwick Bandits	32	15	0	1	3	1	12	1575.5	1483.5	37
7	Wimbledon Dons	32	12	1	3	4	2	10	1376	1469	35
8	Stoke Potters	32	11	0	5	5	1	10	1573	1489	33
9	Exeter Falcons	32	14	0	2	1	1	14	1576	1489	31
10	Peterborough Panthers	32	13	0	3	2	0	14	1456	1613	30
11	Eastbourne Eagles	32	12	0	4	3	0	13	1426	1636	30
12	Newcastle Diamonds	32	11	0	5	3	0	13	1478.5	1586.5	28
13	Edinburgh Monarchs	32	10	1	5	2	0	14	1520.5	1539.5	25
14	Arena Essex Hammers	32	9	1	5	3	0	13	1380	1674	25
15	Rye House Rockets	32	7	0	9	1	0	15	1386	1672	16
16	Long Eaton Invaders	32	7	2	7	0	0	16	1372	1697	16
17	Milton Keynes Knights	32	5	0	11	1	0	15	1286	1770	12

M = Meetings; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; F = Race points for; A = Race points against; Pts = Total Points

National League Knockout Cup

The 1990 National League Knockout Cup was the 23rd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Poole Pirates were the winners of the competition.^[3]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
14/04	Berwick	62-33	Long Eaton
11/04	Long Eaton	57-39	Berwick

Second round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
21/07	Berwick	50-44	Poole
27/06	Wimbledon	62-33	Exeter
15/06	Hackney	64-32	Eastbourne
10/06	Eastbourne	40-56	Hackney
10/06	Rye House	51-45	Milton Keynes
07/06	Middlesbrough	51-44	Edinburgh
05/06	Milton Keynes	56-39	Rye House
05/06	Poole	56-40	Berwick
04/06	Exeter	61-35	Wimbledon
03/06	Edinburgh	51-45	Middlesbrough
03/06	Glasgow	54-41	Ipswich
03/06	Newcastle	61-35	Arena Essex
02/06	Arena Essex	41-55	Newcastle
02/06	Stoke	65-31	Peterborough
01/06	Peterborough	48-48	Stoke
31/05	Ipswich	60-36	Glasgow

Quarter-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
21/08	Poole	62-33	Hackney
10/08	Hackney	47-48	Poole
29/07	Newcastle	54-41	Ipswich
21/07	Stoke	51-45	Wimbledon
19/07	Middlesbrough	69-27	Milton Keynes
18/07	Wimbledon	57-37	Stoke
17/07	Milton Keynes	40-56	Middlesbrough
19/07	Ipswich	61-35	Newcastle

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
30/08	Ipswich	47-49	Poole
28/08	Poole	60-36	Ipswich
23/08	Middlesbrough	69-27	Wimbledon
22/08	Wimbledon	36-59	Middlesbrough

Final

First legSecond leg

Poole were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 107–85.

Riders' Championship

Andy Grahame won the Riders' Championship. The final sponsored by Jawa Moto & Barum was held on 15 September at Brandon Stadium.^[4]

width=25px	Pos.	width=180px	Rider	width=100px	Pts	width=50px	Total
1		2 3 3 3 3	14
2		3 2 2 3 3	13
3		3 3 2 3 0	11+3
4		2 3 3 1 2	11+2
5		1 2 3 2 2	10
6		3 1 2 1 2	9
7		3 0 r 2 3	8
8		2 1 1 3 1	8
9		1 1 3 2 1	8
10		2 3 0 0 1	6
11		f f 2 0 3	5
12		1 2 1 1 1	6
13		1 2 fex 1 2	6
14		0 1 1 2 0	4
15		fex r 1 0 0	1
16		r - - - -	0
17	Andy Meredith (res)	0 0	0
18	Lee Coleman (res)	0 0	0

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

Pairs

The National League Pairs Championship was held at Shawfield Stadium Glasgow on 17 June. The event was won by Hackney Kestrels.^[5] ^[6]

Group A
width=20	Pos	width=80	Team	width=20	Pts	width=100	Riders
1	Hackney	18	Schofield Galvin
2	Ipswich	15
3	Poole	10
4	Rye House	9

Group B
width=20	Pos	width=80	Team	width=20	Pts	width=100	Riders
1	Newcastle	17	Bargh Carr P
2	Long Eaton	15	Hellsen 11 Smart 4
3	Wimbledon	12
4	Arena Essex	10

Group C
width=20	Pos	width=80	Team	width=20	Pts	width=100	Riders
1	Exeter	18	Regeling 11 Jeffrey 7
2	Stoke	18	Crabtree 10 Carr L 8
3	Peterborough	11
4	Eastbourne	5

Group D
width=20	Pos	width=80	Team	width=20	Pts	width=100	Riders
1	Middlesbrough	19
2	Berwick	14
3	Edinburgh	12
4	Glasgow	9

Semi finals

Hackney bt Middlesbrough
Exeter bt Newcastle

Final

Hackney bt Exeter

Fours

Stoke won the Fours championship final, held at the East of England Showground on 22 July.^[7]

Semi finals

SF1 = Ipswich 16, Stoke 11, Wimbledon 11, Glasgow 10
SF2 = Poole 16, Hackney 13, Berwick 10, Middlesbrough 9

Final

width=25px	Pos	width=150px	Team	width=50px	Pts	width=400px	Riders
1	Stoke	16	Monaghan 6, Carr 5, Crabtree 4, Cobby 1 Carlson 0
2	Poole	13	Rossiter 5, Langdon 4, Boyce 3, Allan 1
3	Hackney	10	Schofield 5, Galvin 3, Whittaker 2, Tagg 0
4	Ipswich	9	Louis 4, Parker 2, Standing 2, Mogridge 1

Final leading averages

The top ten rider averages in the National League as of October 31, 1990:

	Rider	Average	Team
1	Steve Schofield	10.51	Hackney
2	Craig Boyce	10.45	Poole
3	Steve Regeling	10.20	Exeter
4	Chris Louis	10.19	Ipswich
5	Rod Hunter	9.93	Middlesbrough
6		9.72	Newcastle
7	Mick Poole	9.58	Peterborough
8	Andy Grahame	9.40	Wimbledon
9	Jens Rasmussen	9.36	Rye House
10	Andy Galvin	9.27	Hackney

Riders & final averages

Arena Essex

Martin Goodwin 8.85
Rob Tilbury 8.09
Wayne Garratt 5.77
Troy Pratt 5.65
Kevin Brice 4.95
Adrian Stevens 4.48
Simon Wolstenholme 4.31
Kevin Teager 3.88
Robert Ledwith 2.86

Berwick

Mark Courtney 8.67
David Walsh 8.62
David Blackburn 7.87
Andy Campbell 6.39
Alan Rivett 6.04
Rob Grant Sr. 5.89
Scott Robson 5.77
Kevin Little 3.80
Steve Widt 3.47

Eastbourne

Gordon Kennett 8.94
Andy Buck 6.99
Tony Primmer 6.49
Paul Woods 6.24
Darren Standing 5.76
Brian Nixon 5.52
Keith Pritchard 5.52
Justin Walker 4.82
Darren Grayling 4.12

Edinburgh

Les Collins 8.76
Frede Schott 7.81
Carl Blackbird 7.14
Brett Saunders 6.98
Michael Coles 6.09
Scott Lamb 5.59
Mick Powell 4.02
Nigel Alderton 2.75

Exeter

Steve Regeling 10.20
Peter Jeffery 7.71
Richard Green 7.68
Colin Cook 6.61
Andy Sell 5.73
Steve Bishop 5.19
Mark Simmonds 4.79
Ian Barney 3.86

Glasgow

Steve Lawson 8.83
Kenny McKinna 8.54
Shane Bowes 8.42
Charlie McKinna 6.68
Sean Courtney 6.58
Phil Jeffrey 5.87
Jason Lyons 5.79
Geoff Powell 3.57
Martin McKinna 3.04

Hackney

Steve Schofield .10.51
Andy Galvin 9.27
Paul Whittaker 8.18
Gary Tagg 5.96
Michael Warren 5.45
Dave Hamnett 4.41
Tim Korneliussen 3.96
Shawn Venables 3.80
Ian Humphreys 2.91

Ipswich

Chris Louis 10.18
David Norris 8.30
Dean Standing 8.02
Alan Mogridge 7.81
Shane Parker 6.45
Robbie Fuller 5.07
Colin White 2.53
Craig Hyde 2.47

Long Eaton

Richard Hellsen 8.43
Nigel De'ath 6.91
Kevin Smart 6.03
Paul Fry 6.02
Jon Surman 4.63
Gary O'Hare 4.60
Peter Lloyd 4.20

Middlesbrough

Rod Hunter 9.93
Daz Sumner 8.62
David Cheshire 7.42
Jamie Luckhurst .7.36
Steve Wilcock 7.32
Paul Bentley 7.26
Duncan Chapman 3.62
Dave Edwards 3.41

Milton Keynes

Peter Glanz 7.24
Jonathan Cooper 6.00
Mark Blackbird 5.52
David Clarke 5.47
Trevor Banks 5.45
Mark Lyndon 5.33
Andy Hines 5.03
Rob Woffinden 4.59
Thierry Hilaire 3.68

Newcastle

David Bargh 9.72
Peter Carr 8.35
Martin Dixon 7.40
Simon Green 5.97
Mark Thorpe 5.37
Ian Stead 4.42
Paul Smith 3.95
Spencer Timmo 2.60
John Wainwright 2.46

Peterborough

Mick Poole 9.58
Craig Hodgson 8.04
Frank Andersen 7.83
Scott Norman 6.91
Ian Barney 6.72
Nigel Flatman 5.77
Mark Lyndon 4.46
Wayne Bridgeford 3.70
Sean Barker 2.98

Poole

Craig Boyce 10.44
Tom P. Knudsen 8.72
Alun Rossiter 8.64
Tony Langdon 8.23
Gary Allan 7.51
Gary Chessell 6.87
Rod Colquhoun 5.73
Steve Langdon 4.38

Rye House

Jens Rasmussen 9.36
Melvyn Taylor 8.86
Glen Baxter 7.70
Roger Johns 6.08
Jamie Fagg 5.71
Trevor O'Brien 5.39
Scott Humphries 4.69
Wayne Baxter 3.56
Nigel Sparshott 3.14
Kelvin Mullarkey 2.81
Wayne Bridgeford 2.62
Linden Warner 2.26

Stoke

Eric Monaghan 9.00
Nigel Crabtree 8.78
Louis Carr 8.28
Chris Cobby 5.74
Mark Pearce 4.83
Rob Woffinden 4.61
David Clarke 4.00
Mark Carlson 1.88
Richard Davidson 1.88

Wimbledon

Andy Grahame 9.40
Nathan Simpson 8.00
Ray Morton 7.52
Neville Tatum 7.38
Nigel Leaver 5.41
Pete Chapman 4.99
Deon Prinsloo 3.48
Justin Pryor 3.34

Notes and References

Web site: Historic league tables. Speedway Archive.
Web site: BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990). Official British Speedway website. 11 September 2021. 25 August 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210825113627/https://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/history/leaguetables1965-1990. dead.
Web site: 1990 National League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive.
News: Grahame's title . Staffordshire Sentinel . 17 September 1990 . 22 June 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
Web site: 1990 fixtures . Speedway Researcher . 26 May 2023.
News: Potters pairs bid comes unstuck . Staffordshire Sentinel . 18 June 1990 . 26 May 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
News: Potters capture fours title for the first time . Staffordshire Sentinel . 6 August 1990 . 8 May 2023 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .