1989 British League season

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The 1989 British League season (also known as the Sunbrite British League for sponsorship reasons) was the 55th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 25th known as the British League.^[1]

Summary

The Coventry Bees were the defending champions from 1988. The league was once again run over a 15-heat formula, with 7 riders per team.^[2]

Oxford Cheetahs bounced back to winning ways claiming their third title in five years. The team was led by their double world champion Hans Nielsen who by the end of the season would be world champion for the third time and top the averages for an incredible seventh season running. He was backed up by Simon Wigg, Martin Dugard, Andy Grahame, Marvyn Cox and Troy Butler, all of whom averaged from about 6 to 8 points for the season. The defending champions Coventry could only finish 5th after losing Tommy Knudsen for the season. Cradley Heath won their 8th Knockout Cup in 11 years (it would also be their last).^[3]

Final table

Pos	Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	Pts
1	Oxford Cheetahs	32	22	1	9	13	58
2	Wolverhampton Wolves	32	19	2	11	12	52
3	Cradley Heathens	32	19	3	10	10	51
4	Belle Vue Aces	32	19	2	11	10	50
5	Coventry Bees	32	15	3	14	8	41
6	Swindon Robins	32	12	1	19	8	33
7	Reading Racers	32	13	1	18	5	32
8	Bradford Dukes	32	9	2	21	3	23
9	King's Lynn Stars	32	8	1	23	3	20

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

Fixtures and results

A fixtures

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B fixtures

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British League Knockout Cup

The 1989 Speedway Star British League Knockout Cup was the 51st edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Cradley Heath Heathens were the winners for the fourth successive year if including the tied 1986 final.^[4]^[5]^[6]

First round

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
21/04	Belle Vue	57-33	King's Lynn
08/04	King's Lynn	38-52	Belle Vue

Quarter-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
26/06	Reading	51-39	Belle Vue
10/06	Cradley Heath	50-40	Oxford
09/06	Belle Vue	45.5-44.5	Reading
09/06	Oxford	45-45	Cradley Heath
13/05	Coventry	45-45	Bradford
06/05	Bradford	46-44	Coventry
22/04	Swindon	45-45	Wolverhampton
10/04	Wolverhampton	49-41	Swindon

Semi-finals

Date	Team one	Score	Team two
26/08	Bradford	57-33	Wolverhampton
19/08	Cradley Heath	42-48	Reading
07/08	Wolverhampton	60-30	Bradford
31/07	Reading	40-50	Cradley Heath

Final

First leg Template:Footballbox Second leg Template:Footballbox

Cradley Heath were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 95-85.

Riders' Championship

Shawn Moran won the British League Riders' Championship. It was the held at Belle Vue Stadium on 1 October.^[7]

Pos.	Rider	Heat Scores	Total
1	Template:Flagicon Shawn Moran	3 3 3 3 3	15
2	Template:Flagicon Hans Nielsen	3 3 3 3 2	14
3	Template:Flagicon Brian Karger	2 3 2 2 3	12
4	Template:Flagicon Martin Dugard	1 2 1 2 3	9
5	Template:Flagicon Ronnie Correy	3 2 3 0 0	8
6	Template:Flagicon Jimmy Nilsen	0 1 3 1 3	8
7	Template:Flagicon Kelvin Tatum	2 0 1 3 2	8
8	Template:Flagicon Alan Grahame	0 2 2 2 2	8
9	Template:Flagicon Richard Knight	2 0 2 2 1	7
10	Template:Flagicon Rick Miller	3 1 1 1 1	7
11	Template:Flagicon Simon Wigg	1 1 2 3 0	7
12	Template:Flagicon Lance King	1 3 0 0 1	5
13	Template:Flagicon Jeremy Doncaster	1 2 0 1 1	5
14	Template:Flagicon Peter Ravn	2 0 0 1 2	5
15	Template:Flagicon Paul Thorp	0 1 1 0 0	2
16	Template:Flagicon Glenn Hornby (res)	0 0	0
17	Template:Flagicon Scott Smith (res)	0 0	0
18	Template:Flagicon Mitch Shirra	0 r(inj)	0

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