Speedway Champions

MIDLAND RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP

     Although there was a 'Midlands Individual Championship' held at Leicester in 1932, won by Syd Jackson, and post-war Third-Division Tamworth staged Midlands Riders Championships for two years, it was 1952 before a fully embracing MRC competition, with qualifying rounds and a Final, was first held. The last senior event was staged in 1986, but Junior championships continued periodically thru to '98, plus Development Lge. events in the present decade.

Graham Warren 1953             Ron Mountford 1954                      Ken McKinlay 1956                            Barry Briggs 1966

 LONDON  RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP

      The London Riders' Championship is one of the oldest speedway championships and was an individual competition for top riders of teams from London. It was a very prestigious competition, especially in its early days. However, as the number of teams from London dwindled, so did interest in the competition: eligibility was extended to include London-born riders, and the last competitions, of 1996 and 2010, were Open Invitation events.
     No one rider has dominated the event, - 8 riders have taken the trophy twice, including Trevor Hedge, but outstanding is Ronnie Moore's performance. His 2 wins were 20 years apart, - 1952 and 1972. It is also noted that within the same decades, both Norman Hunter and Colin Pratt won the Midland junior title and the London senior championship after returning South to home territory from PL tracks on which they had made their name.
                         Above Rt: Ronnie Moore & Bruce Abernethy in the New Cross pits at the 1951 LRC.

         Jack Young 1953              Sverre Hardfeldt 1965          Trevor Hedge 1969       Joonas Kylmakoopi 2010

    The first 'Scottish Championship' was held at Marine Gardens, Edinburgh in 1928. The trophy, a victorian pure silver twin-handled cup retained by Harry Whitfield after his 1930 success, was sold for £2,200 in January 2014 and can be seen top right of this page.

    Post-war Old Meadowbank hosted the meeting. which became an Open event with the 1960 return of speedway to the capital. The Scottish Open has been won on 4 consecutive occasions by New Zealander Ivan Mauger and for the same number of times at Armadale by Lancs-born Monarchs' hero of latter years, Peter Carr, (photo rt.).

 left: Jack Young, 3x Scottish champion.

  

     In the 'nineties a number of 'Scottish Riders Championships' were held in addition to the Open.
         The winners were:-
                   - 1991, 1994:     Scott Lamb,          (  @ P'hall; @ Linlithgow)
                   - 1992, '93, '97: Kenny McKinna,    (2@ P'hall; @ Armadale)
                   - 2000:                Kevin Little,          (  @ Armadale)   
         n.b: In  '95 & '01 tournaments were scheduled but subsequently cancelled.             

    A 'Northern Championship' was held annually at Belle Vue during the war years plus 2 further events until the advent of the Provincial Lge. era, when the competition was re-introduced at Sheffield and Newcastle. Although an unexpected venue, the 1946 NRC at Bristol did feature only Northern based riders, whilst the Wigan event a year later included riders of the visiting Bristol team, that year's Championship being re-run to a modified format in the 2nd Half of Wigan's final league meeting after the first staging two weeks prior had been abandoned because of fog.

    Norman Parker was twice a war-time winner, whilst 2 Aussies, - their one-time Test skipper Bill Longley and Doug McLachlan (above) who later had his best period at Brum, followed up.

    From 1967 the event became an annual event in the Sheffield programme, supported by Qualifying Rounds throughout the North, and featured once more riders of the top tier of speedway.

  Tony Robinson (left) had 2 consecutive wins in the Prov’l. Lge. before Ivan Mauger then took the trophy 4 times, plus 2 more later wins, his 6 successes topping a winners table. Mssrs. Collins and Morton have had 3 wins.

      

Rt: 2010 winner,  

Ricky Ashworth.

JUNIOR REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 

    Results of junior regional championships are included in the above tables alongside the senior title holders.  In these areas a number of title variants have been used over the years. In Scotland all identified competitions for junior championships including track championships have been included, (tabled separately under 'other championships,) for such titles may be considered to be national equivalents if-and-when they included the full spread of Scottish juniors and/or there was no defined ScJC held that year. Note that the term 'junior' may refer to riders abilities, i.e. non-team riders, rather than age: first champion Norman Evans was in his 40s: George Wells' two ScJC wins were 14 years apart.
     Similarly in the North, other titles shown include junior or lower league events, e.g. the Northern Star Championships. The designated titles of the day are given in the tables.

Junior programmes from NRC and SOC meetings