The 1952

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

Division One was the 18th season of

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta *Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motor raceway in Speedway, Indiana Types of races and race cours ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and the seventh post-war season of the highest tier of

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

in Great Britain.

Summary

Norwich Stars Norwich Stars were a motorcycle speedway team based in Norwich, England which operated from 1930 until their closure in 1964.Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of British Speedway''. History Speedway racing was staged in Norwich both before ...

joined the league.

Wembley Lions The Wembley Lions were an English ice hockey team. History The team were founded in 1934 but showed a continuity with the London Lions team which had played at various venues since 1924. The Wembley team were based at the newly built Empire ...

won their fourth consecutive title and their seventh overall. Birmingham recorded their highest league finish to date by taking the runner-up spot. While riding for Wimbledon, on 22 July 1952 the American

Ernie Roccio Ernest Thomas Roccio (16 September 1927 – 22 July 1952) was a motorcycle speedway rider from the United States. Speedway career Roccio was a leading speedway rider in the early 1950s. He reached the final of the Speedway World Championship in ...

was killed after crashing into the fence at high speed at

West Ham Stadium West Ham Stadium was a stadium that existed between 1928 and 1972 in Custom House, in East London (it was in the County Borough of West Ham, in the county of Essex, at the time of the stadium's construction). The stadium was built in 1928 on Pri ...

, it has been reported that he died instantly but the newspaper report states he died in hospital.

Final table

Top Ten Riders (League only)

National Trophy Stage Three

The 1952 National Trophy was the 15th edition of the Knockout Cup. The Trophy consisted of three stages; stage one was for the third tier clubs, stage two was for the second tier clubs and stage three was for the top tier clubs. The winner of stage one would qualify for stage two and the winner of stage two would qualify for the third and final stage. Harringay won the third and final stage and were therefore declared the 1952 National Trophy champions. * For Stage One - see Stage One * For Stage Two - see Stage Two

First Round

Second Round

Semi Finals

Final

First leg

Second leg

Harringay were National Trophy Champions, winning on aggregate 123–92.

References

{{National League speedway seasons 1932–1964 Speedway National League 1952 in speedway 1952 in British motorsport