The 2004 Elite League speedway season was the 70th season of the top division of speedway in the United Kingdom and governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA).^[1][2] Poole Pirates completed the double (league and cup winners) for the second year running. They were the first team to achieve this since Oxford Cheetahs in 1986.^[3]

Season summary

In 2004, the league increased to ten teams, with the Arena Essex Hammers and the Swindon Robins moving up from the Premier League. The title was decided by a play-off between the top five teams. The team that finished top of the table were seeded directly to the final and the next four met in quarter and semi final rounds. The winner of these rounds qualified for the final.^[4]

Poole Pirates dominated the season again and completed the 'double double' meaning winning the league and cup for two consecutive seasons. This had not been achieved since Oxford Cheetahs during the 1985 and 1986 seasons. Poole retained the majority of their 2003 squad, five time World Champion Tony Rickardsson, Magnus Zetterström, Antonio Lindbäck and Bjarne Pedersen but Ryan Sullivan was brought in from Peterborough to replace Leigh Adams who moved to Swindon.^[5]

Rickardsson topped the league averages but only raced part of the season returning to Sweden to spend more time with his family. Arguably Leigh Adams was the star rider of the season helping new Elite League side Swindon to a respectable mid-table position.^[6]

Final table

_{* Belle Vue v Peterborough not held}

Play-offs

Quarter-final and Semi-final decided over one leg. Grand Final decided by aggregate scores over two legs.

Elite League Knockout Cup

The 2004 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 66th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Poole Pirates were the winners of the competition. Poole had started the final second leg under protest because of the Ipswich team changes that included a late replacement rider Davey Watt, who Poole considered was ineligible.^[7]

First round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Riders' Championship

Bjarne Pedersen won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at Wimborne Road on 17 October.^[8]

Pos.	Rider	Pts	Total	SF	Final
1	Bjarne Pedersen	3 2 2 2 2	11	2	3
2	Ryan Sullivan	3 3 3 3 2	14	x	2
3	Hans Andersen	1 3 2 3 3	12	3	1
4	Rory Schlein	3 3 2 1 3	12	x	0
5	Matej Ferjan	2 3 3 3 0	11	1
6	Mikael Max	2 2 2 3 3	12	0
7	Leigh Adams	2 2 3 1 1	9
8	Scott Nicholls	3 1 1 0 3	8
9	Adam Shields	2 1 1 2 1	7
10	David Howe	0 0 3 1 2	6
11	Davey Watt	1 1 1 2 0	5
12	Gary Havelock	0 2 0 0 2	4
13	Rafał Dobrucki	1 0 0 2 0	3
14	Chris Harris	1 1 0 0 1	3
15	Josh Larsen	0 0 1 1 1	3
16	Sebastien Trésarrieu	0 0 0 0 0	0

Pairs

The Elite League Pairs Championship, sponsored by Suzuki, was held at the Abbey Stadium on 11 April and was won by Swindon Robins.^[9]

Semi finals

• Swindon beat Eastbourne
• Belle Vue beat Peterborough 7–2

Final

• Swindon beat Belle Vue 5–4

Leading final averages

Rider	Team	Average
Tony Rickardsson	Poole	10.89
Leigh Adams	Swindon	10.83
Jason Crump	Belle Vue	10.67
David Norris	Eastbourne	9.95
Mark Loram	Arena Essex	9.87
Greg Hancock	Oxford	9.83
Nicki Pedersen	Eastbourne	9.48
Mikael Max	Wolverhampton	9.39
Scott Nicholls	Ipswich	9.33
Andreas Jonsson	Coventry	9.07

Rider & final averages

Arena Essex

Belle Vue

Coventry

Eastbourne

Ipswich

Oxford

Peterborough

Poole

Swindon

Wolverhampton

See also

• Speedway in the United Kingdom
• List of United Kingdom Speedway League Champions
• Knockout Cup (speedway)

References