2004 Elite League speedway season explained

Competition:	Sky Sports Elite League
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Poole Pirates
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Poole Pirates
Domesticcup3:	Individual
Domesticcup3 Winners:	Bjarne Pedersen
Domesticcup4:	Pairs
Domesticcup4 Winners:	Swindon Robins
Leagues Below:	Premier League Conference League
Prevseason:	2003
Nextseason:	2005

The 2004 Elite League speedway season was the 70th season of the top division of speedway in the United Kingdom and governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA).^{[1] [2]} Poole Pirates completed the double (league and cup winners) for the second year running. They were the first team to achieve this since Oxford Cheetahs in 1986.^[3]

Season summary

In 2004, the league increased to ten teams, with the Arena Essex Hammers and the Swindon Robins moving up from the Premier League. The title was decided by a play-off between the top five teams. The team that finished top of the table were seeded directly to the final and the next four met in quarter and semi final rounds. The winner of these rounds qualified for the final.^[4]

Poole Pirates dominated the season again and completed the 'double double' meaning winning the league and cup for two consecutive seasons. This had not been achieved since Oxford Cheetahs during the 1985 and 1986 seasons. Poole retained the majority of their 2003 squad, five time World Champion Tony Rickardsson, Magnus Zetterström, Antonio Lindbäck and Bjarne Pedersen but Ryan Sullivan was brought in from Peterborough to replace Leigh Adams who moved to Swindon.^[5]

Rickardsson topped the league averages but only raced part of the season returning to Sweden to spend more time with his family. Arguably Leigh Adams was the star rider of the season helping new Elite League side Swindon to a respectable mid-table position.^[6]

Final table

Pos		M	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Bon	Tot
1	Poole Pirates	36	23	2	11	1721	1603	48	13	61
2	Wolverhampton Wolves	36	21	0	15	1729	1586	42	16	58
3	Ipswich Witches	36	21	0	15	1701	1626	42	11	53
4	Eastbourne Eagles	36	18	3	15	1699	1632	39	11	50
5	Oxford Silver Machine	36	19	0	17	1679	1672	38	10	48
6	Swindon Robins	36	18	3	15	1657	1667	39	6	45
7	Belle Vue Aces	35	17	0	18	1630	1597	34	9	43
8	Arena Essex Hammers	36	16	0	20	1651	1679	32	8	40
9	Peterborough Panthers	35	12	2	21	1514	1722	23	3	26
10	Coventry Bees	36	9	0	27	1565	1762	18	3	21

• Belle Vue v Peterborough not held

	= Qualified for Play Off final
	= Qualified for Play Offs

'B' Fixtures

Play-offs

Quarter-final and Semi-final decided over one leg. Grand Final decided by aggregate scores over two legs.

Quarter-finals

• Wolverhampton Wolves 61-33 Oxford Silver Machine
• Ipswich Witches 55-39 Eastbourne Eagles

Semi-finals

• Wolverhampton Wolves 45-45 Ipswich Witches (Mikael Max beat Hans Andersen in run-off)

Final

First legSecond leg

The Poole Pirates were declared League Champions, winning on aggregate 112-71.

Elite League Knockout Cup

The 2004 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 66th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Poole Pirates were the winners of the competition. Poole had started the final second leg under protest because of the Ipswich team changes that included a late replacement rider Davey Watt, who Poole considered was ineligible.^[7]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
01/04	Coventry	42-54	Belle Vue
06/05	Swindon	56-38	Wolverhampton
22/03	Wolverhampton	50-43	Swindon

Quarter-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
23/09	Swindon	48-42	Belle Vue
11/09	Eastbourne	46-48	Ipswich
12/05	Kings Lynn	56-39	Isle of Wight
06/05	Swindon	56-38	Wolverhampton
07/04	Arena Essex	48-46	Oxford
02/04	Peterborough	44-46	Poole
01/04	Coventry	42-54	Belle Vue
26/03	Oxford	47-46	Arena Essex
25/03	Ipswich	51-42	Eastbourne
24/03	Poole	58-37	Peterborough

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
07/10	Ipswich	51-42	Arena Essex
07/10	Swindon	53-40	Poole
06/10	Arena Essex	43-46	Ipswich
06/10	Poole	61-30	Swindon

Final

First leg

Second leg

The Poole Pirates were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 99-87.

Riders' Championship

Bjarne Pedersen won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at Wimborne Road on 17 October.^[8]

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=100px	Pts	width=50px	Total	width=50px	SF	width=50px	Final
1		3 2 2 2 2	11	2	3
2		3 3 3 3 2	14	x	2
3		1 3 2 3 3	12	3	1
4		3 3 2 1 3	12	x	0
5		2 3 3 3 0	11	1
6		2 2 2 3 3	12	0
7		2 2 3 1 1	9
8		3 1 1 0 3	8
9		2 1 1 2 1	7
10		0 0 3 1 2	6
11		1 1 1 2 0	5
12		0 2 0 0 2	4
13		1 0 0 2 0	3
14		1 1 0 0 1	3
15		0 0 1 1 1	3
16		0 0 0 0 0	0

Pairs

The Elite League Pairs Championship, sponsored by Suzuki, was held at the Abbey Stadium on 11 April and was won by Swindon Robins.^[9] Group A

width=25px	Pos	width=100px	Team	width=50px	Pts	width=200px	Riders
1	Swindon		Adams & Gjedde
2	Belle Vue		Crump & Screen
3	Oxford	15	Ulamek 11, McGowan 4
4	Coventry		Jonsson & Janniro
5	Poole		Rickardsson & Lyons

Group B

width=25px	Pos	width=100px	Team	width=50px	Pts	width=200px	Riders
1	Peterborough		Richardson & Dryml
2	Eastbourne		Pedersen & Shields
?	Wolves		Max & Howe
?	Ipswich		Nicholls & Andersen
?	Arena Essex		Loram & Barker

Semi finals

• Swindon beat Eastbourne
• Belle Vue beat Peterborough 7–2

Final

• Swindon beat Belle Vue 5–4

Leading final averages

width=200	Rider	width=200	Team	width=40	Average
Tony Rickardsson	Poole	10.89
Leigh Adams	Swindon	10.83
Jason Crump	Belle Vue	10.67
David Norris	Eastbourne	9.95
Mark Loram	Arena Essex	9.87
Greg Hancock	Oxford	9.83
Nicki Pedersen	Eastbourne	9.48
Mikael Max	Wolverhampton	9.39
Scott Nicholls	Ipswich	9.33
Andreas Jonsson	Coventry	9.07

Rider & final averages

Arena Essex

• 9.87
• 6.67
• 6.57
• 6.18
• 6.06
• 6.02
• 5.82
• 5.66
• 4.44

Belle Vue

• 10.67
• 7.40
• 7.27
• 7.25
• 7.13
• 7.10
• 6.13
• 6.03
• 4.91
• 4.73
• 4.51
• 3.68
• 2.12
• 1.57
• 0.47

Coventry

• 9.07
• 7.11
• 6.68
• 6.49
• 6.00
• 5.85
• 5.67
• 4.76
• 2.29
• 1.05

Eastbourne

• 9.95
• 9.48
• 8.18
• 7.02
• 5.00
• 4.52
• 4.20
• 2.92
• 2.42
• 2.07

Ipswich

• 9.33
• 8.59
• 8.29
• 7.30
• 6.49
• 5.96
• 3.30
• 1.41

Oxford

• 9.83
• 6.74
• 6.60
• 6.25
• 6.25
• 5.96
• 5.20
• 4.91

Peterborough

• 8.62
• 7.86
• 6.86
• 6.55
• 5.40
• 4.55
• 4.00
• 2.21
• 2.00

Poole

• 10.89
• 8.77
• 8.66
• 8.63
• 7.65
• 6.29
• 5.86
• 5.43
• 4.80
• 4.72

Swindon

• 10.83
• 7.23
• 6.98
• 6.41
• 6.05
• 5.79
• 3.89
• 2.74

Wolverhampton

• 9.39
• 7.48
• 7.37
• 6.86
• 6.52
• 6.43
• 5.59
• 2.12

See also

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Historic league tables. Speedway Archive.
2. Web site: 2004 league tables. Speedway GB.
3. Web site: HISTORY ARCHIVE. British Speedway. 4 July 2021.
4. Book: Bamford, Robert. Tempus Speedway Yearbook 2005. NPI Media Group. 2005. 0-7524-3396-2 .
5. Web site: Speedway riders, history and results. wwosbackup. 1 August 2021.
6. Web site: Rickardsson says farewell to Poole as he puts family first. Sunday Times. 1 August 2021.
7. Web site: 2004 Elite League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive.
8. Web site: Elite League Riders' Championship . Speedway History . 9 June 2023.
9. Web site: Speedway: It's home sweet home for Robins . Oxford Mail . 1 July 2023.