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Here is a review of Season One.
The inaugural season was dominated
by one team, Nottingham Knights. Their star man Jan Kirsten dominated
the season, their combined roll of honour for the year was:
Nottingham- Division One Champions, Pairs
Champions and Steve Hogson Memorial Trophy winners.
Kirsten- World Individual Rider's Champion, World Under 21 Rider's Champion and
Danish Champion.
When the League was created Nottingham were unwittingly issued with some
immensely talented riders, sure the team strengths started on a par but nobody
could have predicted their dominance.
The
League season kicked off in March but before the start the tapes went up on the World
Individual Riders' Championship rounds with the Australian Final and the
NZ/SA Final. The Aussie Final at Sydney saw a Waltham Abbey 1-2 with Peter
O'Brien winning and Cane Richardson 2nd, the NZ/SA Final was won by South
African Wayne Pareirra with a 15point maximum.
The England manager's job was awarded to
Evesham supremo Neil Clarke and he built a side for the World Cup that was
staged in the United States in the Summer. The Danes won the World Cup beating
surprise packet New Zealand in the Final. The
first EVER League match in Superleague Speedway was on Mon 5 Mar 2001 at Days
Park, Swanage. Swanage tumbled to a 43-47 defeat to Neil Clarke's
Evesham Stars. The meeting was dominated by visiting heat-leader Tony
French who registered 14 points from 5 rides. It may have been a good
indicator for what was to come as Swanage eventually slipped away and were
relegated at the end of season One. The scorers on this historic night were:
Swans- Olsen 13(6), Gustafsson 11+1(6), Polneczyck 7+1(3), Perryman 7+1(4),
Breeze 4+1(4), Gowshall 1(4), Lomax 0 (3).
Stars- French 14(5), O'Brien 9(5), Minski 7+1(4), Travis 6+1(4), Andrews 5+2(4),
Howe 3+1(4), Demetri 3 (4).
As the season went on Waltham Abbey emerged
as the team to beat in the Superleague, having invested heavily into the Stadium
and having riders such as O'Brien and Richardson in the septet Paul Tarry seemed
to be building the League's first Super Club. At
the
mid-way point of the season with 15 League matches completed Waltham Abbey
topped the Superleague on level points with Evesham, the relegation slots were
filled by Aisha's Motor, Bellchester, Cumbernauld and Hinckley. In
Division One, Nottingham were top with 15 wins out of 15, 8 points clear of
Kirkby, Walsall and Broom were 3rd and 4th. Bottom of the entire League
was Bayside with just 6 points. Top rider in
the Superleague was Cardiff's Danny Dickinson on 9.67, Jan Kirsten topped the
Division One averages with 9.71.
The eventual Superleague Champions were
Church Langley run by Martin Brooks after he took over from original Promoter
Kevin Taylor who left to pursue other business interests. At the half-way
stage the Crusaders sat in 10th, 8 points off the top so it's clear to see how
good a job Brooks did upon taking up the post. Kirsten
won the World Final and the Division One Rider's Championship, the Superleague
Rider's Champ was Cardiff's Darren Edwards and the Youth Development League
Champ was exciting youngster Nick Tyler.
Church Langley won the Superleague title just
2 points ahead of King's Lynn and Waltham Abbey. Relegated were Cardiff,
Swanage, Hinckley and Bellchester. Nottingham took Division One and were
joined in the Superleague by Kirkby, Walsall and Weymouth. Faircross
Fliers finished bottom of Division One.
Those were the main points of season one, but
there was a major human story too:
Steve Hogson managed Nottingham from the
birth of the game but was tragically killed in the atrocities of September 11th
in New York. The Steve Hogson Memorial Trophy is the game's tribute to a
gentleman who conducted himself impeccably during his time in the game. The
"trophy" is contested at the end of each season by the winners
of the respective divisions. We will continue
to remember Steve.
In summary, season one was exciting and a
good debut for the game, the majority of managers stayed on for season two (2002)
and it remained to be seen if the Nottingham side could dominate in the
Superleague as the franchise moved to Coventry.
Review by Mike Wright.
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