Doug Nicolson recalls the golden year of 1973 when a Speedway World Cup was held in the UK and its controversial climax which had everybody talking about it.

‘Twas Fifty Years Ago

July 1973 saw the final of the Daily Mirror International Tournament being raced at Wembley in front of a crowd of over 40,000. It was the culmination of three weeks of intense racing which featured seven national sides – England, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Poland, Russia and a Norway/Denmark select- the latter being contrived to allow 1971 World Champion Ole Olsen to ride in the tournament as Denmark at the time didn’t have enough riders to form a strong international side – how things changed!

Sides would race each other with the top four going forward to semi finals at Belle Vue and Coventry with the winners contesting the final at Wembley. Most Division One tracks were allocated a fixture. In fact some lucky ones got two – Cradley, Leicester and Halifax - but none were scheduled for Coatbridge. The BSPA felt that a shared event in Scotland would run at a loss and maybe there were right as no Tigers riders were likely to be involved. “Britain” was replaced by “England” for whom Scots Jim McMillan and Bobby Beaton were ineligible to ride and it seemed unlikely that Christer Sjosten could force his way into a strong Swedish side. Despite this the Scottish fans felt short changed.

The tournament got off to a bad start when the England v New Zealand and Australia v Norway/Denmark fell victim to the rain and weren’t rerun as there was no time in the condensed schedule. Teams were awarded a match point each and ultimately this meant that Norway/Denmark lost out on the fourth qualifying place on race point difference to Australia.

Perhaps predictably Poland and Russia, who didn’t have any riders racing in the BL at the time, finished at the bottom of the table, with Poland’s narrow 42-36 win over Russia at Halifax giving them their only win – again how things have changed!

England went unbeaten, though Sweden ran them close at Sheffield, where a last heat decider saw Peter Collins and Eric Boocock take a 4-1 over Anders Michanek and Tommy Jansson. The Swedes also lost to Australia at Newport but took second place with four wins and eight league points. New Zealand, for whom Ronnie Moore had flow over to ride, and Australia were the other qualifiers, each with three wins and six points from their five completed meetings.

The semi finals were raced at Belle Vue and Coventry on Wednesday July 11, with England comfortably beating New Zealand 48-30, while Sweden made short work of Australia 51-27 setting up an England V Sweden final at Wembley. And what a final it was! England took two 4-2s in the opening two heats, heat three was shared and Sweden’s 4-2 in heat four meant there was only two points between the teams, a lead Sweden pulled back in heat seven, leaving the scores tied at 21-21.Neither team could manage a heat advantage in the remaining and decidedly tense six heats so the meeting finished tied at 39-39 and a run off was required, a controversial race that will be remembered forever! The meeting had recorded highlights shown on TV later that evening so speedway fans the length and breadth of the country got to see Anders Michanek getting excluded for knocking Peter Collins off in an attempt to pass him, and England had won the meeting and the tournament – effectively the World Cup. Michanek later said that he hadn’t knocked him off but added “well not much anyway”

While Collins got the plaudits for the win reserves Betts and Simmonds tend to get overlooked for their crucial part in the victory, both scoring 10+1 from five rides.

This was speedway’s World Cup and sadly nothing quite like it was ever staged again, although a scaled down series in 1975 featured four teams – England, Australia, Sweden and Rest of the World. Truly this was speedways golden year.