1968 British League Division Two season

The 1968 British League Division Two season was the inaugural season of a second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.^[1][2]

The formation of a new division 2 was a success and attracted five new clubs to league speedway, the Nelson Admirals from Nelson in Lancashire,^[3] the Crayford Highwaymen from east London,^[4] the Canterbury Crusaders from Kent, the Berwick Bandits from Scotland and the Reading Racers. Additionally three other clubs, Middlesbrough, Plymouth and Rayleigh returned to league action having previously competed in the old defunct Provincial League and Weymouth returned after a 13 year absence.^[5][6]

Belle Vue Aces, members of the first division, fielded a reserve side known as Belle Vue Colts and won the first league title.^[7] Colt's riders Taffy Owen, Ken Eyre, Eric Broadbelt and John Woodcock all scored heavily and ended with impressive averages.^[8] Canterbury in their first season of existence won the division 2 Knockout Cup beating another new team Reading in the final.^[6]

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1=	Mick Handley		Crayford Highwaymen	10.22
1=	Mike Cake		Plymouth Devils	10.22
3	Chris Bass		Plymouth Devils	9.91
4	Dave Schofield		Nelson Admirals	9.82
5	Taffy Owen		Belle Vue Colts	9.59

The 1968 British League Division Two Knockout Cup was the first edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams and coincided with the newly formed league.^[9]

Previously the tier two and tier three teams had competed in the National Trophy until 1964, and although they held their own finals during some years it only served as qualification for the main competition. Canterbury Crusaders were the winners of the competition.^[10]

First round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

First leg

Second leg

Canterbury were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 112–80.

Graham Plant aged just 19, won the Rider's Championship. The final was held at Hackney Wick Stadium on 27 September. Several riders were involved in a crash, which resulted in Chris Bailey (broken wrist) and Barry Crowson (suspeted fractured thigh bone) going to hospital.^[12] However, Crowson after receving an all-clear rode for his parent club West Ham Hammers the following evening.^[13]

Pos.	Rider	Pts	Total
1	Graham Plant	3 3 2 2 3	13
2	Ken Eyre	2 3 3 3 1	12
3	Graeme Smith	1 2 3 2 3	11
4	Mick Handley	ex 3 2 3 3	11
5	Murray Burt	3 f 3 2 3	11
6	Allan Brown	ex 2 3 3 2	10
7	Mike Cake	3 1 1 3 2	10
8	Tony Lomas	2 2 0 1 2	7
9	John Poyser	2 r 1 2 1	6
10	John Woodcock	f 2 2 ef 1	5
11	Dave Schofield	1 1 1 1 1	5
12	Martyn Piddock	0 0 2 1 2	5
13	Barry Crowson	2 3 f	5
14	Chris Bailey	3 f f	3
15	Barry Duke (res)	1 1 ef	2
16	Roy Williams	1 1 0 0 0	2
17	Taffy Owen	0 1 0 0 0	1
18	Mike Vernam (res)	0 0 0	0

• f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

	Rider	Nat	Team	C.M.A.
1	Mick Handley		Crayford Highwaymen	10.48
2	Mike Cake		Plymouth	10.22
3	Chris Bass		Plymouth	10.15
4	Peter Murray		Canterbury	10.05
5	Allan Brown		Middlesbrough	9.63

Belle Vue Colts

Berwick

Canterbury

Crayford

Middlesbrough

Nelson

Plymouth

Rayleigh

Reading

Weymouth

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