New Zealand national speedway team

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]

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

History

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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

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World Team Championship

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

World Pairs Championship

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

International caps (as of 2022)

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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, Roger 1
Adlington, Robin 8
Allan, Gary 2
Allan, Goog 2
Anderson, Cliff 1
Anderson, Bob 2
Andrew, Bill 15
Andrews, Bob 27
Bargh, Dave 8
Black, Tom 1
Bock, Kevin 1
Boyle, Frank 4
Briggs, Barry 49
Briggs, Tony 4
Briggs, Wayne 5
Brown, Allan 6
Max Brown 1
Brown, Wayne 3
Campbell, Dick 6
Church, Paul 2
Clark, Peter 12
Clements, Brian 2
Coombes, Graham 1
Cribb, Bruce 22
Duckworth, Bob 8
Dunn, Maury 16
Dykes, Peter 5
Farquharson, Colin 4
Gifford, Dave 19
Goodall, John 7
Holland, Mick 3
Johnston, Ron 16
Lawrie, John 1
McKee, Colin 5
McKeown, Brian 3
Mardon, Geoff 10
Martin, Chris 2
Mason, Alan 4
Mauger, Ivan 43
Mauger, Kym 5
Millen, Jack 2
Moore, Ronnie 50
Neil, Merv 15
New, Charlie 2
Ovenden, Bruce 1
Peterson, Gary 21
Redmond, Trevor 17
Rivett, Alan 1
Ross, Larry 26
Shearer, Terry 2
Shirra, Mitch 17
Shuter, Frank 14
Smith, Graeme 2
Stapleton, Graeme 20
Subritzky, Bryce 28
Sweetman, Tommy* 1
Thorpe, Mark 2
Timmo, Rick 19
Tucker, Colin 2
Whitaker, Dave 4
Wright, Roger 8

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

See also

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References

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  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.