Speedway Champions

 

 LEAGUE RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIPS

n.b. Update 2017: First & second tier leagues
   renamed as the Premiership and the Championship.

- Elite League Riders Championship
- Premier Lge Riders Championship
- National Lge Riders Championship
           plus  >
Nat'l Lge Div.2 & .3 Riders Chmpshps,
Southern Area Lge Riders Chmpshp,
Provincial League Riders Chmpshp,
British Lge I & II Riders Chmpshps.
Conference Lge Riders Chmpshp,



    Today's present three League Riders Championship competitions have their genesis in the LRCs of the Southern Area League in the 1950s. There had been odd instances of League Riders Championship stagings before and after WWII, at Nottingham in '36, at Belle Vue (as neutral Northern Lge. host) in '46, plus two National Lge Div'n III gathering of its top riders at neutral Walthamstow in 1951 and at Cardiff the following year.
     In their formation year of 1954 the Southern Area League started an annual championship which was fed by qualifying meetings at each of their participating tracks. Subsumed in 1960 into the much expanded country-wide Provincial Lge, eliminating rounds continued to be the qualification route to the LRC Final until the amalgamation of the Provincial Lge. with the National Lge. in 1965.  Thereon in, (with senior league riders now involved for the first time,) the premise for the British League Riders Championship, (BLRC), was that each team in the league was represented by its top scorer, as identified by his league points average, the number being made up to meeting complement, usually 16+2, by the riders with next highest averages, i.e. the second from their team, until the complement was filled. Held for almost 30 years at Belle Vue, the BLRC became the ELRC at the emergence of the Elite League.
     Concurrent with the then senior BLRC competition, the UK's second divisions during the '70s and '80s, (BL Div.2 > National League,) ran their own similar League Riders Championship, which morphed into the Premier Lge. RC in 1997, whilst from 1994 the junior UK league, - i.e. third tier league - , also operated a Riders Championship, initially known as the Conference League Riders Championship, (CLRC), - today's National League Riders Championship, NLRC.
        After 20 years as the Elite League and the Premier League, in 2017 UK speedway's two senior leagues were re-named as the 'Premiership' and the 'Championship', (thereby aligning with UK football's terminology,) and the end-of-season Riders Championships re-designated accordingly as the 'Premiership Individual' and Championship Individual', superseding the ELRC and PLRC and with participation being by invitation.

Early League Riders Championships
.
.           1950                            1951                          1954                           1957                               1959


   


1950 Line-up for the NL.Div.3 Riders Championship @ Walthamstow :
Harwood Pike (#10), Ken Middleditch (#11), Lionel Watling (#12), Basil Harris (#13), . . .
  Trevor Redmond (#14), Don Hardy (#15 Exeter.)       RESULT: 123 = P.Clarke, T.Redmond.K.Middleditch.


1957 Line-up for the SAL Riders Championship @ Eastbourne :
Stdg: Ron Walton, Maury Conway, Tommy Sweetman, Allen Lunn, Pat Flanagan, Bryan Meredith, Pete Mould, Les Searle, Brian Brett; knlg: Ross Gilbertson, Leo McAuliffe, Noel Conway, Bobby Croombs, Dave Still, Ronnie Rolfe, Jimmy Heard.      RESULT: 123 = L.McAuliffe, M.Conway, J.Heard



 Leo McAuliffe receives the 1956                              1,2,3  of the first Prv'l L.RC,  Cradley Heath, 1960:
SAL.LRC trophy from Al Sparrey.                                     Rt. to Lt, Trevor Redmond, Bristol, (1st),
                                                                                                          2nd. Ken Middleditch, Poole, 3rd. Eric Hockaday, Rayleigh.


Prvl.LRCs:  1960                1961,                            1962,                         1963,                            1964           
BLRC & ELRC  1965 - 2016
          

  Click thumbnail for full-size tables
 

     Held traditionally at Belle Vue for the first 30 years, (initially as the Prv.LRC, and to where, on a new track, the championship returned in 2017,) Barry Briggs dominated the competition in its British League period from the onset, with a record 6 consecutive wins. Olsen and Jason Crump have each total 4 wins (broken,)  the latter as Elite titles. Danish riders have totaled 13 wins through 6 men thus far: the Kiwis 9, but achieved by just 2 riders, - Briggs and Mauger.
    There have been no senior league Riders championships staged since 2018, though lower leagues have continued their events, as in the following section.


 ELRC 2014:    Maciej Janowski Poole, (2nd), Troy Batchelor (Swindon, 1st), Jason Doyle (Leicester 3rd) 

                               

   2017 League Riders Champions :
        Premiership - Freddie Lindgren             Championship - Nick Morris                 National Lge. - Drew Kemp
  CRC,  PLRC  &  NLRC

                   Present Day League Riders Championships : -
                   - PRC,   - Elite LRC,   - Premier LRC,    - National LRC 
                     plus  - British, - BL2, - BL3, - Br.Acy  - Provincial  LRCs

     Following the same premise as for the senior league, the British League Div'n 2 Riders Championship commenced with that league's formation in 1968. There was a league name change in 1975, and again in '97. It is presently termed the 'Championship Riders Individual'. The UK's third Riders Championship was first raced in 1994 and continues today as the National Lge Riders Championship.

    All Premier and Conference/National Lge. champions were first time winners, - understandably, as most could be expected to progress to a senior league level - , except for second wins for Carl Stonehewer, Sean Wilson and Simon Stead


      Phil Crump, Crewe Kings                     Lee Smart, Dudley Heathens                Jason Garrity, BelleVue Colts
       BL2RC Wimbledon 1972                         NLRC Rye House 2010                          NLRC Rye House 2011    
           

 More League Riders Championship programmes HERE  


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