The SGB Premiership 2018 was the 84th season of the top division of Great British Speedway in 2018. The season ran between March and October 2018 and had eight teams participating. The line-up of teams remained the same as in 2017. The

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 l ...

were the defending champions after winning the title in 2017.

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of broadcasting of sports events, pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, Warner Bros. Dis ...

continued its TV coverage of the SGB Premiership in 2018.

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 l ...

defeated

King's Lynn Stars King's Lynn Stars are a motorcycle speedway team who compete in the SGB Premiership. The nickname "Stars" comes from the defunct Norwich Stars team. The team was founded in 1965 and has been running continually since then, except for 1996 when Kin ...

in the Play off final. It was Poole's tenth tier one title, which brought them level in second place with the

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 ...

in the historical records.

2018 teams

Regulation changes

At the Speedway AGM in November 2017, a number of changes were made to the rules and regulations for 2018. The biggest change was the introduction of fixed race nights: from now on, all Premiership meetings would be held on either a Monday or Wednesday, with Swindon Robins receiving special dispensation to continue to host home meetings on a Thursday. It was hoped that this would result in more of the world's top riders returning to UK racing. However, Premiership teams were only allowed to sign one rider per team with a Premiership average of over 8 points per match, and this rule prevented some of the world's best riders returning to Premiership teams in 2018. The change to race nights also eliminated the possibility of doubling up riders (riding in both of the top two divisions in British Speedway) by being scheduled to ride for two clubs on the same night. At the BSPA (British Speedway Promoters Association) annual conference, a decision was made to discontinue the end-of-season play-off for promotion and relegation between the bottom team of the

SGB Premiership The Speedway Great Britain (SGB) Premiership is the top division of speedway league competition in the United Kingdom, governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB) in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). It was in ...

and the

SGB Championship The Speedway Great Britain (SGB) Championship is the second division of speedway league competition in the United Kingdom, governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA). It ...

play-off winners.

Results

Teams faced each other four times: twice home and away. The first of the home and away meetings were called the 'A' fixtures, and the second were the 'B' fixtures.

'A' Fixtures

'B' Fixtures

Table

SGB Premiership Final League Table 4 July

Rye House Rockets The Rye House Rockets were a speedway team based at Rye House Stadium, Hoddesdon, England. They competed in various British speedway leagues from 1954 to 2018. History Rye House began life in 1934 hosting open meetings. Whilst at Hackney in 1 ...

had their membership of the 2018 SGB Premiership annulled by the Speedway Control Bureau. The league table has been updated to represent this news.

Play-offs

Home team scores are in bold
Overall aggregate scores are in red

Semi-finals

---- ---- ---- ----

Grand final

---- Home team scores are in bold

Knockout Cup

The 2018 Knockout Cup was the 76th edition and (second under its new name) of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Home team scores are in bold
Overall aggregate scores are in red Quarter-finals ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Semi-finals ---- ---- ---- ---- Grand final ----

Charity Shield

----

Riders' Championship

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 Leagu ...

won the Riders' Championship for the second time. The final was held at

Wimborne Road Poole Stadium is a speedway and former greyhound racing venue located in the town centre of Poole, Dorset in England. The stadium is owned by the Borough of Poole. It was built in the early 1930s in an attempt to provide a source of entertainme ...

on 9 May. *f=fell, exc=excluded, ret=retired

Leading averages

Riders & final averages

Belle Vue Aces * 8.73 * 8.13 * 8.00 * 7.89 * 7.56 * 6.35 * 5.49 * 5.14 * 4.75 * 4.13 * 3.54 20 March Paul Starke replaced the injured Damian Dróżdż in the Belle Vue team
26 April Damian Dróżdż replaced Paul Starke in the Belle Vue team
13 June Jason Garrity replaced the injured Steve Worrall as a short-term replacement in the Belle Vue Aces team
11 July Steve Worrall returned to the Belle Vue after injury replacing short-term replacement Jason Garrity in the side.
1 August Mark Riss replaced Jye Etheridge in the Belle Vue team
10 August Dimitri Bergé replaced Damian Dróżdż in the Belle Vue team King's Lynn Stars * 9.93 * 7.87 * 7.24 * 7.22 * 7.08 * 6.57 * 6.43 * 6.40 * 4.07 * 3.45 * 2.67 30 April Michael Palm Toft replaced Lewis Rose in the King's Lynn team
11 July Simon Lambert replaced the injured Kasper Andersen in the King's Lynn team
17 July Jason Garrity replaced the injured Lewis Kerr in the King's Lynn team
6 August Erik Riss replaced short-term signing Jason Garrity in the King's Lynn team Leicester Lions * 8.00 * 7.23 * 6.97 * 6.79 * 6.29 * 6.23 * 6.22 * 5.98 * 4.86 * 4.43 * 4.17 * 4.16 * 3.66 4 April

Michael Palm Toft Michael Palm Toft (born 26 July 1990) is a Danish speedway rider. Career Palm Toft began his British career riding for the Scunthorpe Scorpions in 2011. The following year he helped Scunthorpe win the 2012 Premier League title In 2017, he capta ...

replaced the injured Josh Bates in the Leicester team
20 April Kenneth Bjerre and Todd Kurtz replaced the injured

Martin Vaculik Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

and Michael Palm Toft in the Leicester team
29 June Ricky Wells and Charles Wright replaced the injured Danny King and Kyle Newman in the Leicester team
18 July Scott Nicholls, Stuart Robson, Josh Auty and Connor Mountain replaced Kenneth Bjerre, Krystian Pieszczek, Todd Kurtz and James Sarjeant in the Leicester team Poole Pirates * 8.07 * 7.60 * 7.48 * 7.41 * 7.28 * 6.88 * 6.83 * 6.65 * 6.32 * 6.12 * 6.00 * 3.38 * 1.33 2 April Peter Kildemand replaced

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 Austral ...

in the Poole team
4 May Stefan Nielsen replaced James Shanes in the Poole team
12 May Richie Worrall replaced Peter Kildemand in the Poole team
28 May Paul Starke was used as a short-term replacement replaced the injured Stefan Nielsen in the Poole team until Nicolai Klindt is available
29 June Frederik Jakobsen replaced Mateusz Szczepaniak in the Poole team
12 July Chris Harris replaced Linus Sundström in the Poole team Rye House Rockets * * * * * * * 21 March Aaron Summers replaced Ben Barker in the Rye House team
3 May Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen replaced the injured Stuart Robson in the Rye House team
12 June Stuart Robson replaced the injured

Edward Kennett Edward David Kennett (born 28 August 1986 in Hastings, England) is a motorcycle speedway rider. He was the British Under-21 Champion in 2005 and has appeared in two Speedway Grand Prix as a wild card. Kennett's father Dave, was a motorcycle s ...

in the Rye House team
4 July Rye House had their membership of the 2018 SGB Premiership annulled by the Speedway Control Bureau. Somerset Rebels * 9.79 * 7.97 * 6.97 * 6.29 * 6.24 * 6.15 * 5.64 * 5.53 * 3.81 * 1.14 18 June Claus Vissing and Nicolás Covatti replaced Charles Wright and Jonas Jeppesen in the Somerset team
7 July Aaron Summers replaced Claus Vissing in the Somerset team Swindon Robins * 8.54 * 7.93 * 7.10 * 7.07 * 6.60 * 5.27 * 1.03 * 0.89 14 May Jack Smith replaced the injured Mitchell Davey in the Swindon team Wolverhampton Wolves * 8.43 * 8.42 * 7.91 * 6.09 * 5.88 * 4.87 * 4.76 * 4.13 3 August Jonas Andersen replaced Cameron Heeps in the Wolverhampton team

References

{{United Kingdom Speedway Seasons SGB Premiership

Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

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