New Zealand
World Championships
Team (SWC) 1979
Pairs 1969, 1970

The New Zealand national speedway team are one of the teams in international motorcycle speedway. The team were champions of the world having won the sports premier team competition in 1979.[1][2]

History

The New Zealand team competed in the inaugural Speedway World Team Cup in 1960 and the following World Cup in 1961. However, in 1962 their leading riders rode for the British team.[3] This format continued until 1974, when New Zealand reverted to the competing as their own nation. The team were arguably denied the opportunity of winning the World Cup, because they had two of the all-time greats in Ivan Mauger and Barry Briggs within their ranks. New Zealand riders were part of the British teams that won the World Cup in 1968, 1971 and 1972.[4]

The team became the world champions after winning the 1979 Speedway World Team Cup at White City, with a team consisting of Ivan Mauger, Larry Ross, Mitch Shirra, Bruce Cribb and reserve Roger Abel.[5]

Despite the World Cup success, the team began to experience a decline in the number and quality of riders from New Zealand and this led to the team failing to field a team in various years of the Speedway World Team Cup. The situation did not improve for the rebranded Speedway World Cup in 2001 or the Speedway of Nations introduced in 2018.

Additionally, they won the defunct Speedway World Pairs Championship twice, in 1969 and 1970.

Major tournament wins

World Team Championship

Year Venue Standings (Pts) Riders Pts
1979 England
London
White City Stadium		 1. New Zealand New Zealand (35)
2. Denmark Denmark (31)
3. Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia (19)
4. Poland Poland (11)		 Larry Ross 11
Mitch Shirra 10
Ivan Mauger 13
Bruce Cribb 5

World Pairs Championship

Year Venue Standings (Pts) Riders Pts
1969 Sweden
Stockholm
Gubbängens IP		 1. New Zealand New Zealand (28)
2. Sweden Sweden (27)
3. England England (21)
4. Denmark Denmark (15)
5. Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia (12)
6. East Germany East Germany (9)
7. Bulgaria Bulgaria (9)		 Ivan Mauger 18
Bob Andrews 10
1970 Sweden
Malmö
Malmö Stadion		 1. New Zealand New Zealand (28)
2. Sweden Sweden (25)
3. England England (19)
4. Scotland Scotland (18)
5. Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia (11)
6. Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (7)
7. Denmark Denmark (nc)		 Ronnie Moore 16
Ivan Mauger 12

International caps (as of 2022)

Since the advent of the Speedway Grand Prix era, international caps earned by riders is largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence. This means that the number of caps earned by a rider has decreased in the modern era.[6]

Rider Caps
Abel, Roger1
Adlington, Robin8
Allan, Gary2
Allan, Goog2
Anderson, Cliff1
Anderson, Bob2
Andrew, Bill15
Andrews, Bob27
Bargh, Dave8
Black, Tom1
Bock, Kevin1
Boyle, Frank4
Briggs, Barry49
Briggs, Tony4
Briggs, Wayne5
Brown, Allan6
Max Brown1
Brown, Wayne3
Campbell, Dick6
Church, Paul2
Clark, Peter12
Clements, Brian2
Coombes, Graham1
Cribb, Bruce22
Duckworth, Bob8
Dunn, Maury16
Dykes, Peter5
Farquharson, Colin4
Gifford, Dave19
Goodall, John7
Holland, Mick3
Johnston, Ron16
Lawrie, John1
McKee, Colin5
McKeown, Brian3
Mardon, Geoff10
Martin, Chris2
Mason, Alan4
Mauger, Ivan43
Mauger, Kym5
Millen, Jack2
Moore, Ronnie50
Neil, Merv15
New, Charlie2
Ovenden, Bruce1
Peterson, Gary21
Redmond, Trevor17
Rivett, Alan1
Ross, Larry26
Shearer, Terry2
Shirra, Mitch17
Shuter, Frank14
Smith, Graeme2
Stapleton, Graeme20
Subritzky, Bryce28
Sweetman, Tommy*1
Thorpe, Mark2
Timmo, Rick19
Tucker, Colin2
Whitaker, Dave4
Wright, Roger8

Riders marked with an asterisk represented New Zealand but were not New Zealanders.

References

  1. ↑ Bott, Richard (1980). The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. p. 99. ISBN 0-09-141751-1.
  2. ↑ "1979 World Team Cup - New Zealand".
  3. ↑ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 134. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  4. ↑ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  5. ↑ "1979 WORLD TEAM CUP". International Speedway. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  6. ↑ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
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