1961 PL Qualifiers Scores in NL Rounds

PL Final introduced in 1962

In 1962 the path to Wembley was changed with the thirteen PL tracks each running a preliminary round from which the top sixteen scorers went through to the new Provincial League Final, from which the top seven scorers progressed to the NL First Round. Again, a number of NL reserves and tailenders got their chance of qualifying through the PL rounds, but only Pete Vandenberg made it through to the PL Final at Wolverhampton - highlighting the continuing increase in the riding standard of the PL – and winning it. Of the Wolverhampton qualifiers, only Brian Craven made it through to the British Final Rounds where he scored 2 at Wimbledon, 1 at Southampton and 4 at Norwich.

Curiously Leicester, a PL track, staged a First Round meeting although no PL riders were drawn to ride there.

1962 PL Qualifiers Scores in NL Rounds

1963

Of the fourteen NL riders included in the PL rounds, only three Peter Vandenberg, Brian Brett and Reg Luckhurst made the PL Final in Edinburgh. Jack Biggs, Jim Tebby, Les Owen, Ian Williams and Chum Taylor were among those NL riders who dropped out at this early stage. Vandenberg and Brett were among the eight qualifiers from Old Meadowbank.  Doug Templeton looked to have blown his chances, after finishing ninth on his home track. However when three qualifiers - Jack Kitchen (Sheffield), Alf Hagon (Oxford) and Dick Bradley (Southampton) – pulled out, Doug grabbed his chance with both hands, scoring an excellent, if perhaps fortuitous, 12 in his first meeting at Coventry, where Barry Briggs, Peter Moore and Ken McKinlay all experiencing motor problems in the  heats when he met them. Although he only added a further 5 at Oxford, his 9 at Belle Vue saw him through to the British Final Rounds, the only PL finalist to do so, although Len Silver (Exeter) and Brian Brett (Swindon) weren’t far behind him and were unfortunate not to make the “cut”. Sadly, the story ended there, as he finished bottom of the score charts in the meetings at Wimbledon, Southampton and Norwich, but a notable achievement none the less, given that the more fancied Ivan Mauger and George Hunter didn’t even get through to the British Finals.

1963 PL Qualifiers Scores on NL Rounds

Slimmed down World Championship rounds 1964

With the PL being “blacked” there were barely 40 riders eligible for the British rounds. After a preliminary round at non-league Rye House, each NL track, Belle Vue, Coventry, Norwich, Oxford, Swindon, West Ham and Wimbledon staged a meeting. Riders rode in three of these meetings with the top sixteen scores contesting the British Final at Wembley, which Barry Briggs won from Ken McKinlay and Ron How.

The BL era

The five non-league tracks (Middlesbrough, Rayleigh, King’s Lynn, Cowdenbeath and Ipswich) all staged a Preliminary Round meeting, generally featuring BL tracks number six and sevens, although how Tommy Sweetman (Wolves) and Harry Bastable (Cradley) got picked up for these meetings is hard to explain.  Strangely, despite heading the Preliminary Round qualifiers, Sweetman didn’t take his place in the First Round. Ross Nickisson, who scored eleven points at his home track, Cowdenbeath, is worthy of a mention.  None of the riders who took part in the Preliminary Round made it through to the semifinal stage and 1965 would be the last time that a preliminary round would be staged until 1972 when Canterbury, Rye House, Peterborough, Barrow and Workington ran meetings for Second Division riders, something that continued throughout the 70s and 80s.

1965 BL Preliminary Round Scorers

As the 60s ended

The 60s ended with the traditional World Final being staged at Wembley in the knowledge that it would be the last for three years with Poland getting their first World Final in 1970 and Sweden the following year by rotation. While it was still possible for minnows to go all the way, the road to the final was getting more and more protracted, but, far worse, the frequency of the valuable funding that Wembley provided to British Speedway was now being reduced to triennially.

The Path to the World Final