2005 Elite League speedway season explained

Competition:	Sky Sports Elite League
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Coventry Bees
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Belle Vue Aces
Domesticcup3:	Craven Shield
Domesticcup3 Winners:	Oxford Silver Machine
Domesticcup4:	Individual
Domesticcup4 Winners:	Nicki Pedersen
Domesticcup5:	Pairs
Domesticcup5 Winners:	Swindon Robins
Highest Average:	Nicki Pedersen
Leagues Below:	Premier League Conference League
Prevseason:	2004
Nextseason:	2006

The 2005 Elite League speedway season was the 71st 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] [3]}

Season summary

In 2005, the league consisted of ten teams, with the title being decided by a play-off between the top four.^[4]

Belle Vue Aces topped the regular season table and won the Knockout Cup. Their world champion rider Jason Crump was in superb form throughout the season. Fellow Australian Leigh Adams topped the league averages for Swindon for arguably the second consecutive season but it was Coventry Bees that experienced their first title success since the glory days of the late 1980s.^[3]

Coventry had finished bottom of the table during the previous season and with the exception of finishing runner-up in 2003 had been starved of success. The club made a change that proved instrumental, they brought in Scott Nicholls from Ipswich and supported by Andreas Jonsson and Chris Harris the team defeated Belle Vue in the Elite League Play off final.^[5]

Final table

Pos		M	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Bon	Tot
1	Belle Vue Aces	36	24	0	12	1766	1520	48	13	61
2	Coventry Bees	36	23	0	13	1739	1605	46	13	59
3	Peterborough Panthers	36	21	2	23	1709	1598	44	12	56
4	Eastbourne Eagles	36	19	1	16	1658	1646	39	10	49
5	Poole Pirates	36	18	1	17	1666	1647	37	10	47
6	Ipswich Witches	36	16	3	17	1661	1672	35	9	44
7	Swindon Robins	36	17	2	17	1617	1675	36	7	43
8	Wolverhampton Wolves	36	14	2	20	1682	1647	30	10	40
9	Oxford Silver Machine	36	11	1	24	1550	1773	23	3	26
10	Arena Essex Hammers	36	11	0	25	1539	1804	22	3	25

= Qualified for Play Offs

'B' Fixtures

Play-offs

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

Semi-finals

• Belle Vue Aces 53-40 Eastbourne Eagles
• Coventry Bees 55-41 Peterborough Panthers

Final

First legSecond leg

The Coventry Bees were declared League Champions, winning on aggregate 101-83.

Elite League Knockout Cup

The 2005 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 67th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Belle Vue Aces were the winners of the competition.^[6]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
21/04	Swindon	60-36	Poole
20/04	Poole	51-41	Swindon
07/04	Ipswich	55-40	Wolverhampton
04/04	Wolverhampton	37-53	Ipswich

Quarter-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
15/06	Arena Essex	51-40	Ipswich
12/06	Swindon	55-39	Coventry
26/05	Ipswich	52-42	Arena Essex
21/05	Eastbourne	59-36	Peterborough
20/05	Coventry	51-41	Swindon
19/05	Oxford	49-41	Belle Vue
16/05	Belle Vue	59-35	Oxford
13/05	Peterborough	56-37	Eastbourne

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
21/09	Arena Essex	52-41	Eastbourne
18/08	Swindon	37-35	Belle Vue
27/07	Belle Vue	61-32	Swindon
23/07	Eastbourne	55-40	Arena Essex

Final

First leg

Second leg

The Belle Vue Aces were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 97-83.

Riders' Championship

Nicki Pedersen won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at Abbey Stadium on 28 August.^[7]

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

Pairs

The Elite League Pairs Championship was held at the East of England Arena on 27 March and was won by Swindon Robins for the second consecutive year.^[8]

Group A
width=20	Pos	width=80	Team	width=30	Pts	width=200	Riders
1	Arena Essex	26	Rickardsson 15, Havelock 11
2	Wolves	19	Max 11, Howe 8
3	Eastbourne	18	Pedersen N 15, Norris 3
4	Poole	17	Sullivan 8, Pedersen B 9
5	Oxford	10	Hancock 10, McGowan 0

Group B
width=20	Pos	width=80	Team	width=30	Pts	width=200	Riders
1	Swindon	27	Adams 14, Richardson 13
2	Belle Vue	18	Crump 9, Screen 9
3	Wolves	19	Max 11, Howe 8
4	Ipswich	16	Andersen 9, Protasiewicz 7
5	Coventry	15	Nicholls 13, Jonsson 2
6	Peterborough	14	Karlsson 10, Ermolenko 4

Semi finals

• Belle Vue 5 Arena Essex 4 - Rickardsson, Screen, Crump, Havelock
• Swindon 7 Wolves 2 - Adams, Richardson, Max Howe

Final

• Swindon 6 Belle Vue 3 - Adams, Crump, Richardson, Screen

Leading final averages

width=200	Rider	width=200	Team	width=40	Average
Leigh Adams	Swindon	10.42
Jason Crump	Belle Vue	10.35
Nicki Pedersen	Eastbourne	10.30
Scott Nicholls	Coventry	9.45
	Peterborough	9.48
Hans Andersen	Ipswich	9.44
	Wolverhampton	9.39
Greg Hancock	Oxford	9.32
Bjarne Pedersen	Poole	9.27
	Swindon	8.85

Riders & final averages

Arena Essex

• 10.06
• 8.14
• 6.43
• 6.21
• 6.05
• 5.94
• 5.66
• 5.09
• 4.96
• 4.48
• 4.20

Belle Vue

• 10.35
• 7.87
• 7.69
• 7.35
• 6.95
• 6.36
• 5.09
• 4.43
• 1.50
• 1.43

Coventry

• 9.45
• 8.76
• 7.20
• 7.20
• 6.79
• 6.43
• 6.22
• 6.00
• 4.20

Eastbourne

• 10.30
• 7.75
• 7.22
• 7.11
• 6.45
• 4.76
• 4.65
• 2.56

Ipswich

• 9.44
• 8.43
• 7.91
• 6.99
• 5.91
• 5.27
• 3.82
• 3.28
• 3.16

Oxford

• 9.32
• 7.95
• 7.45
• 6.36
• 6.24
• 6.22
• 5.09
• 4.15
• 4.00
• 3.06
• 2.67
• 1.28

Peterborough

• 9.48
• 8.19
• 7.38
• 7.21
• 7.10
• 6.62
• 6.05
• 2.95
• 2.05

Poole

• 9.27
• 8.13
• 7.78
• 7.38
• 6.26
• 5.28
• 4.35
• 3.69
• 2.13

Swindon

• 10.42
• 8.85
• 8.48
• 4.59
• 4.38
• 4.10
• 3.93
• 3.89
• 3.76
• 1.67

Wolverhampton

• 8.82
• 7.44
• 6.98
• 6.65
• 6.36
• 5.61
• 5.23

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: 2005 league tables. Speedway GB.
3. Web site: A Year in Summary : 2005 . Speedway Plus . 9 June 2023.
4. Book: Bamford, Robert . Tempus Speedway Yearbook 2006 . NPI Media Group . 2006 . 0-7524-3692-9 .
5. Web site: Speedway riders, history and results. wwosbackup. 1 August 2021.
6. Web site: 2005 Elite League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive.
7. Web site: Elite League Riders' Championship . Speedway History . 9 June 2023.
8. Web site: 2005 Elite League Pairs . Speedway Updates . 20 May 2023.