2010 Elite League speedway season explained

Competition:	Sky Sports Elite League
Domesticcup1:	Champions
Domesticcup1 Winners:	Coventry Bees
Domesticcup2:	Knockout Cup
Domesticcup2 Winners:	Poole Pirates
Domesticcup3:	Elite Shield
Domesticcup3 Winners:	Wolverhampton Wolves
Domesticcup4:	Individual
Domesticcup4 Winners:	Freddie Lindgren
Domesticcup5:	Pairs
Domesticcup5 Winners:	Coventry Bees
Highest Average:	Freddie Lindgren
Leagues Below:	2010 Premier League 2010 National League
Prevseason:	2009
Nextseason:	2011

The 2010 Elite League speedway season (also known as the Sky Sports Elite League for sponsorship reasons) was the 76th season of the top division of UK speedway and the 14th since its establishment in 1997.^[1]

Summary

The first fixtures of the season took place on 29 March and the season ended on 27 October. The Wolverhampton Wolves were the defending champions from 2009.^[2]

The negative side of playoffs was experienced during the 2010 season when Coventry Bees claimed the title. Coventry had finished in the fourth and final play off spot, 26 points behind regular season table winners Poole Pirates, who in turn had finished 20 points ahead of their nearest rivals racking up 78 points in total. Coventry went on to win their semi final and then defeat Poole in the final. Although Poole won the Knockout Cup there was a distinct feeling of an injustice. Poole's Australian contingent of Chris Holder, Darcy Ward, Davey Watt and Jason Doyle had been consistent all season except during the play off final and Coventry's Polish duo of Krzysztof Kasprzak and Przemysław Pawlicki both hit great form on the night.^[3]

League table

width=30 rowspan=2	Pos	Club	M	Home				Away					F	width=30 rowspan=2	A	+/-	width=30 rowspan=2	Pts
width=30	3W		width=30	2W	width=30	D	width=30	L	width=30	4W	width=30	3W	width=30	D	width=30		1L	width=30	L
1		32	16	0	0	0	5	2	0	4	5	1667	1278		78
2	Wolverhampton Wolves	32	15	1	0	0	0	3	1	3	9	1527	1432		61
3	Peterborough Panthers	32	12	2	0	2	2	1	0	2	11	1495	1464		53
4		32	9	2	1	4	2	4	0	0	10	1469	1475		52
5	Lakeside Hammers	32	11	2	1	2	1	1	1	1	12	1447	1503		48
6	Swindon Robins	32	8	2	0	6	1	2	2	2	9	1476	1493		44
7	Eastbourne Eagles	32	9	3	2	2	0	1	0	3	12	1406	1533		41
	8	Belle Vue Aces	32	10	2	1	3	0	1	0	2	13	1413	1539		40
9	Ipswich Witches	32	4	5	0	7	0	0	1	2	13	1386	1569		26

Key:
Championship play-offs
Relegation play-offs

Home: 3W = Home win by 7 points or more; 2W = Home win by between 1 and 6 points
Away: 4W = Away win by 7 points or more; 3W = Away win by between 1 and 6 points; 1L = Away loss by 6 points or less
M = Meetings; D = Draws; L = Losses; F = Race points for; A = Race points against; +/- = Race points difference; Pts = Total Points

'B' Fixtures

Championship play-offs

Semi-finals

Leg 1

Leg 2

Grand final

First leg

	1	Krzysztof Kasprzak	3, 2, 3, X, 3	11
	2	Richard Sweetman	1, 1', 1	3+1
	3	Ben Barker	0, 3, 0, X	3
	4	Edward Kennett	2, 2', 2, 1'	7+2
	5	Chris Harris	2', 1', 1', 3, X	7+3
	6	Lewis Bridger	3, 2, 1, 2, 2	10
	7	Przemysław Pawlicki	2', 3, 3, 2	10+1
Manager: Alun Rossiter

width=25	!	width=25
	1	Chris Holder	2, 0, 3, 2, X	7
	2	Darcy Ward	X, 1, F, 0	1
	3	Artur Mroczka	1, 0, 0	1
	4	Bjarne Pedersen	3, 3, 4^, 3, 2	15
	5	Davey Watt	0, 3, 3, X	6
	6	Leon Madsen	0, 0, 1, 3	4
	7	Jason Doyle	1, 1, 2, 1, F	5
Manager: Neil Middleditch

Second leg

1 Chris Holder 1, 2, 1, 1, 0 5 2 Darcy Ward 3, 1', 2, 0 6+1 3 Artur Mroczka 2', 0, 0 2+1 4 Bjarne Pedersen 3, 2, 2, 0, 1 8 5 Davey Watt 3, 2', 3, 0 8+1 6 Leon Madsen 2, 3, 0, 1, 1 7 7 Jason Doyle 0, 1, 0, 3 4 Manager: Neil Middleditch width=25 ! width=25 1 Krzysztof Kasprzak 2, 3, 2, 3, 3 13 2 Richard Sweetman 0, 1, 1, 1' 3+1 3 Ben Barker 1, 0, 0, 2' 3+1 4 Edward Kennett R/R 5 Chris Harris Fx, 3, 3, 3, 2', 2' 13+2 6 Lewis Bridger 1, 0, 0, 1 2 7 Przemysław Pawlicki 3, 2, 1, 3, 2', 2, 3 16+1 Manager: Alun Rossiter

Coventry were declared Elite League Champions, on Aggregate 101-79.

Elite League Knockout Cup

The 2010 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 72nd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Poole Pirates were the winners of the competition.^[4]

First round

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
12/04	Wolverhampton	56-39	Ipswich
08/04	Ipswich	43-46	Wolverhampton

Quarter-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
10/06	Swindon	49-41	Peterborough
17/09	Peterborough	58-37	Swindon
05/07	Belle Vue	50-40	Poole
21/07	Poole	57-35	Belle Vue
19/07	Coventry	48-42	Wolverhampton
30/09	Wolverhampton	51-43	Coventry
23/09	Eastbourne	53-41	Lakeside
24/09	Lakeside	45-45	Eastbourne

Semi-finals

width=80	Date	width=250	Team one	width=80	Score	width=250	Team two
13/10	Poole	58-36	Peterborough
11/10	Peterborough	43-50	Poole
11/10	Wolverhampton	44-46	Eastbourne
10/10	Eastbourne	63-29	Wolverhampton

Final

First legSecond leg

The Poole Pirates were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 95-90.

Riders' Championship

Freddie Lindgren won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at East of England Arena on 16 October.^[5]

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

Pairs

The Elite League Pairs Championship was held at the Foxhall Stadium on 4 September and was won by Coventry Bees.^[6]

width=20	Pos	width=80	Team	width=30	Pts	width=200	Riders
1	Coventry	26	Kasprzak 14, Harris 12
2	Poole	23	Pedersen 12, Holder 11
3	Lakeside	22	Shields 12, Davidsson 10
4	Peterborough	20	Bjerre 10, Iversen 10
5	Swindon	18	Zengota 11, Korneliussen 7
6	Ipswich	17	King 9, Nicholls 8
7	Wolves	15	Klindt 12, Haines 3
8	Eastbourne	13	Kling 9, Woodward 4
9	Belle Vue	8	Wright J 6, Sitera 2

Semi finals

• Eastbourne 7 Peterborough 2 - Harris, Kasprzak, Iversen, Bjerre
• Poole 7 Lakeside 2 - Holder, Pedersen, Shields, Jacobs

Final

• Coventry 5 Poole 4 - Kasprzak, Harris, Holder, Pedersen

Final leading averages

width=200	Rider	width=200	Team	width=40	Average
Freddie Lindgren	Wolverhampton	10.23
	Swindon	9.90
	Peterborough	9.62
Lee Richardson	Lakeside	9.35
Scott Nicholls	Ipswich	9.34
Krzysztof Kasprzak	Coventry	9.02
	Poole	8.83
	Coventry	8.80
Hans Andersen	Belle Vue	8.70
	Poole	8.58

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue

• 8.70
• 7.44
• 6.77
• 6.11
• 6.08
• 5.73
• 4.66
• 4.47
• 3.87
• 3.73
• 2.80

Coventry

• 9.02
• 8.80
• 7.25
• 7.08
• 7.00
• 6.56
• 6.29
• 6.11
• 4.39
• 3.65
• 3.38

Eastbourne

• 8.29
• 7.56
• 7.26
• 6.27
• 6.04
• 5.93
• 5.44
• 4.61
• 4.34

Ipswich

• 9.34
• 7.39
• 6.79
• 6.56
• 6.07
• 5.83
• 5.67
• 5.03
• 3.71
• 3.69
• 3.61
• 2.11

Lakeside

• 9.35
• 8.17
• 7.64
• 6.87
• 6.10
• 5.96
• 5.49
• 5.29
• 4.73
• 4.64

Peterborough

• 9.62
• 7.93
• 7.48
• 7.25
• 6.39
• 5.04
• 4.90
• 4.46
• 3.95
• 2.38

Poole

• 8.83
• 8.58
• 8.01
• 7.93
• 6.89
• 6.74
• 6.25

Swindon

• 9.90
• 8.21
• 6.81
• 6.62
• 6.52
• 5.91
• 4.39
• 3.86
• 3.55

Wolverhampton

• 10.23
• 7.54
• 6.91
• 6.89
• 6.72
• 6.52
• 5.30
• 5.26
• 3.55

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: 2010 league tables. Speedway GB.
3. Web site: Speedway riders, history and results. wwosbackup. 1 August 2021.
4. Web site: 2010 Elite League Knockout Cup. Speedway archive.
5. Web site: Elite League Riders' Championship . Speedway History . 9 June 2023.
6. Web site: 2010 Elite League Pairs . Speedway Updates . 20 May 2023.