New Zealand national speedway team

New Zealand
New Zealand
World Championships

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	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

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
1969	Stockholm Gubbängens IP		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
1970	Malmö Malmö Stadion		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, 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.

References

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

[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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