The 1986 British League season was the 52nd season of the top tier of speedway in the United Kingdom and the 22nd known as the British League.

Summary

Oxford Cheetahs won the league for the second consecutive year and the treble by sharing both the Speedway Star Knockout Cup and League Cup with Cradley Heath Heathens. Despite the easy manner of their 1985 league success Oxford made critical changes which ensured domination for a second consecutive season. They were forced to make changes due to the averages points limit that applied to all teams. Hans Nielsen and Simon Wigg were retained, as were

Andy Grahame Andrew George Grahame (born 10 September 1957 in Birmingham, England) is a former motorcycle speedway rider. Career Grahame began his British leagues career when he joined his older brother Alan Grahame at Birmingham Brummies for the 1976 Brit ...

and Marvyn Cox but Jens Ramussen was replaced with Per Sorensen and

Nigel De'ath Nigel ( ) is an English masculine given name. The English ''Nigel'' is commonly found in records dating from the Middle Ages; however, it was not used much before being revived by 19th-century antiquarians. For instance, Walter Scott published ...

was brought in as full time reserve. Both Sorensen and De'ath maintained good form throughout the season and combined with the heavy scores of the heat leaders the team were able to win the league again. Cradley returned to form and provided Oxford with their main challenge, the rivalry between the Nielsen of Oxford and Erik Gundersen of Cradley was memorable. Nielsen also replaced Gundersen as the world champion by the end of the season and the pair were World Pairs and

World Cup winners The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the ' (FIFA, the International Federation of Association Football), the sp ...

. One of the Danish pairs main rivals was Englishman Kenny Carter, regarded as a potential world champion and who at the age of just 21 nearly won the 1982 world title. He was riding for Bradford Dukes and ten matches into the season, on the morning of 21 May the speedway world was subject to another shock. Following on from the Billy Sanders tragedy the season before Carter shot his wife dead and then killed himself.

Final table

M = Matches; W = Wins; D = Draws; L = Losses; Pts = Total Points

British League Knockout Cup

The 1986 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 48th edition of the

Knockout Cup A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

for tier one teams. Oxford Cheetahs and Cradley Heath Heathens were declared joint winners because the second leg of the final was not held and the first leg had ended 39-39. First round Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final The title was shared after two failed attempts to hold the second leg due to rain. First and only leg

League Cup

The League Cup was contested as a league format. The cup was shared following two failed attempts to stage the second leg of the final at Oxford due to rain. Oxford had won the first leg at Cradley Heath 40-38. Qualifying table Semi-finals Final First and only leg

Leading final averages

+rode 10 matches before his death

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue * 9.34 * 7.37 * 6.93 * 6.48 * 6.10 * 5.43 * 4.28 * 2.67 * 2.65 * 1.60 * 1.06 Bradford * 10.05 * 9.32 * 8.20 * 7.26 * 6.30 * 6.01 * 4.16 * 3.88 Coventry * 9.68 * 8.74 * 8.69 * 6.41 * 5.68 * 5.60 * 3.50 * 1.71 Cradley Heath * 11.03 * 8.58 * 7.80 * 7.17 * 6.08 * 3.74 * 3.23 * 2.06 Ipswich * 10.38 * 8.00 * 7.79 * 5.69 * 4.90 * 4.71 * 4.57 * 4.17 * 3.79 King's Lynn * 9.06 * 7.74 * 6.73 * 5.38 * 4.91 * 4.70 * 4.60 * 4.21 * 4.15 * 2.28 * 1.11 Oxford * 11.57 * 10.20 * 8.11 * 6.14 * 6.05 * 5.34 * 4.33 * 2.43 Reading * 9.34 * 8.72 * 7.90 * 7.36 * 5.89 * 5.47 * 5.33 * 1.35 * 1.27 Sheffield * 9.65 * 8.76 * 7.89 * 7.53 * 7.24 * 5.83 * 5.46 * 4.62 * 3.27 Swindon * 8.77 * 8.45 * 7.82 * 6.79 * 6.64 * 6.07 * 5.16 * 4.58 * 3.16 Wolverhampton * 9.72 * 7.70 * 7.04 * 6.18 * 5.23 * 2.97 * 1.07

References

{{British Speedway League seasons British League 1986 in speedway 1986 in British motorsport