1989 British League season

The 1989 British League season was the 55th season of the top tier of motorcycle speedway in the United Kingdom and the 25th known as the British League.

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.
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.

Final table

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

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.
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
Second leg
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.

Pos.

Rider

Heat Scores

Total

1

Gold Cup

North Group

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	Pts
1	Cradley Heath	6	4	0	2	8
2	Bradford	6	3	0	3	6
3	Belle Vue	6	3	0	3	6
4	Wolverhampton	6	2	0	4	4

South Group

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	Pts
1	Oxford	8	6	1	1	13
2	Reading	8	5	0	3	10
3	Coventry	8	2	2	4	6
4	King's Lynn	6	2	2	4	6
5	Swindon	8	2	1	5	5

North Group
South Group
Final

Team one	Team two	Score
Cradley	Oxford	42–48, 36–54

Riders and final averages

Belle Vue

Shawn Moran 9.68
Kelly Moran 8.29
Peter Ravn 7.54
Gary Hicks 7.17
Chris Morton 6.75
Joe Screen 6.40
Carl Stonehewer 5.50
Gordon Whitaker 3.41
Paul Smith 2.09
Mike Lewthwaite 1.85

Bradford

Paul Thorp 7.79
Neil Evitts 7.51
Andy Smith 7.27
Bryan Larner 5.40
Henrik Kristensen 4.94
Glenn Doyle 4.76
Antal Kocso 4.60
Michael Graves 4.17

Coventry

Kelvin Tatum 9.49
Rick Miller 6.93
Sean Wilson 6.52
John Jørgensen 6.39
Andy Hackett 5.49
Roman Matoušek 5.27
Kai Niemi 4.69
Mike Bacon 2.95
Paul Smith 2.55

Cradley Heath

Jan O. Pedersen 10.22
Erik Gundersen 9.97
Simon Cross 9.13
Gert Handberg 6.52
Greg Hancock 6.06
Alan Grahame 5.78
John Bostin 3.00

Kings Lynn

Richard Knight 7.83
Lance King 7.67
John Davis 6.74
Allan Johansen 6.65
Armando Dal Chiele 5.03
Stephen Davies 4.93
Dennis Löfqvist 4.82
Adrian Stevens 3.56
Paul Smith 3.14
Roger Horspool 1.50

Oxford

Hans Nielsen 10.91
Simon Wigg 7.69
Martin Dugard 7.61
Andy Grahame 6.91
Marvyn Cox 6.80
Troy Butler 5.96
Paul Dugard 2.56
Kevin Pitts 1.64

Reading

Swindon

Jimmy Nilsen 8.41
Brian Karger 8.09
Andrew Silver 7.38
John Davis 6.67
Peter Nahlin 6.24
Bart Bast 5.05
Gary Chessell 4.88
Tom P. Knudsen 4.00
David Smart 3.72

Wolverhampton