The 2012 Elite League speedway season (also known as the

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

Elite League for sponsorship reasons) was the 78th season of the top division of UK speedway and took place between March and October 2012.

Summary

The

Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by ...

were the defending champions after winning in 2011. Poole nearly repeated the success of the previous season but fell just short. They topped the regular season table for the third year running and won the Knockout Cup for the third year running but lost in the play off final to

Swindon Robins The Swindon Speedway team, also known as the Swindon Robins, are an English motorcycle speedway team established in 1949 that have competed primarily in the top division of speedway league competition in the United Kingdom. They are five times ...

Darcy Ward Darcy Stephen Ward (born 4 May 1992 in Nanango, Queensland) is an Australian former motorcycle speedway rider who won the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Australian Under-21 Championships as well as the 2009 and 2010 World Under-21 Championships. His ...

and

Chris Holder Christopher Robert Holder (born 24 September 1987 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian speedway rider currently riding for Lejonen in the Swedish Elitserien and for Apator Toruń in the Polish Speedway Ekstraliga. He became the Austra ...

were exceptional for the Pirates again but Swindon's triumph (their first since 1967) was put down to a group of riders all maintaining consistent scores. They were Danes Hans Andersen and

Peter Kildemand Peter Kildemand (born 1 September 1989) is a motorcycle speedway rider from Denmark. Career He is a member of the Danish national team. He was a member of the Swindon Robins Elite League Championship winning side of 2012 and was named "Rider o ...

, Australians Troy Batchelor,

Nick Morris Nick Morris is a British film maker better known for directing music videos in the 1980's. Career Nick Morris began writing and making amateur films at school, one of which was shown at the NFT. His professional career began in the 1980s with ...

and

Jason Doyle Jason Kevin Doyle (born 6 October 1985) is an Australian motorcycle speedway rider. He became World Champion in 2017. He won the 2015 Australian Solo Championship. He has also won the South Australian Championship in 2014, and the Elite Le ...

(the latter recruited from Poole) and Sheffield born Simon Stead.

Lakeside Hammers The Lakeside Hammers were a speedway team who most recently raced in the SGB Championship in 2018. They were founded (as the Arena-Essex Hammers) by promoter Wally Mawdsley and stock car promoter Chick Woodroffe. The team were nicknamed the Ham ...

and British speedway was rocked by the news that one of their leading riders Lee Richardson had been killed in a race at the Olympic Stadium in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

, Poland on 13 May. The Hammers did well to finish in a play off place without their main heat leader. Richardson was the 1999 World Under-21 champion and a leading British international. Richardson died of injuries he suffered after touching the wheels of the rider just in front and being thrown into the fence. In recent years fatal accidents had become less frequent and this accident highlighted the dangers still involved in the sport. In part the accident was the catalyst for the decision to make air fences mandatory at tracks the following season.

League table

Home: 3W = Home win by 7 points or more; 2W = Home win by between 1 and 6 points
Away: 4W = Away win by 7 points or more; 3W = Away win by between 1 and 6 points; 1L = Away loss by 6 points or less
M = Meetings; D = Draws; L = Losses; F = Race points for; A = Race points against; +/- = Race points difference; Pts = Total Points

Championship play-offs

Semi-finals

Leg 1 Leg 2

Grand final

First leg Second leg The Swindon Robins were declared Elite League Champions, winning on aggregate 95-89.

Elite League Knockout Cup

The 2012 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 74th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams.

were the winners of the competition for the third consecutive year. The Knockout Cup was then suspended for four years until it was held again under the new name 2017 SGB Premiership Team KO Cup. Quarter-finals Semi-finals Final ---- The Poole Pirates were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 102-78.

Riders' Championship

won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at

Abbey Stadium Abbey Stadium is a football stadium in Cambridge, England. It has been the home ground of Cambridge United F.C. since 1932, and currently has a maximum capacity of 8,127 spectators. Cambridge Regional College F.C., Cambridge United's feeder cl ...

on 20 October. *f=fell, exc=excluded, ret=retired

Leading averages

Riders & averages

Belle Vue * 7.59 * 7.51 * 7.49 * 5.68 * 5.47 * 5.18 * 5.09 * 4.88 * 4.87 * 2.97 Birmingham * 7.84 * 7.68 * 7.29 * 7.18 * 6.63 * 6.26 * 4.63 * 2.06 Coventry * 8.59 * 8.54 * 7.19 * 6.87 * 6.27 * 6.03 * 5.42 * 4.61 * 4.60 * 4.00 Eastbourne * 8.00 * 7.29 * 7.09 * 6.95 * 6.59 * 6.51 * 5.58 King's Lynn * 9.51 * 7.24 * 6.97 * 6.79 * 6.23 * 6.05 * 5.96 * 5.76 * 5.68 Lakeside * 8.76 * 8.74 * 8.33 * 6.94 * 6.21 * 5.89 * 5.67 * 5.12 * 5.12 * 4.00 Peterborough * 8.55 * 8.29 * 7.42 * 7.19 * 7.18 * 5.42 * 5.16 * 4.21 Poole * 10.90 * 10.31 * 10.18 * 8.08 * 6.58 * 4.34 * 4.29 * 4.25 * 3.87 * 3.62 * 3.17 Swindon * 8.95 * 8.41 * 7.97 * 7.89 * 6.79 * 6.42 * 5.83 * 5.52 Wolverhampton * 9.09 * 9.08 * 7.04 * 6.34 * 6.28 * 5.83 * 3.66 * 2.64 * 1.27

References

{{United Kingdom Speedway Seasons SGB Premiership Elite League Speedway Elite