New Zealand and the World Team Cup 1977
By Tracy Holmes

With the UK qualifying round date of Sunday, June 19, IVAN MAUGER made himself unavailable for the team. TREVOR REDMOND named his side that included JACK MILLEN but injury cost him the place. DAVE GIFFORD stepped up and a new reserve, JOHN GOODALL came into the squad.

So along with BRUCE CRIBB, LARRY ROSS and ROBIN ADLINGTON, the Kiwis were ready to rocknroll.

They would take on defending World Champions Australia, England and Scotland. Only the winners would go to the World Team Cup Final in Poland. And so to the action;

Heat 1. Jessup, Herne, GIFFORD, Beaton ef.
2. Simmons, Sanders, McMillan, ADLINGTON.
3. Crump, P.Collins, ROSS, B.Collins.
4. CRIBB, Davis, Boulger, Harkins.
5. Simmons, Herne, ROSS, Harkins.
6. Jessup, Sanders, CRIBB. B.Collins ex.
7. Crump, McMillan, Davis, GOODALL.
8. P.Collins, Beaton, Boulger, ADLINGTON.
9. P.Collins, Herne, McMillan, CRIBB.
10. Sanders, Beaton, Lee, ROSS.
11. Jessup, Crump, Harkins, ADLINGTON.
12. Simmons, Boulger, B. Collins, GIFFORD.
13. P.Collins, Sanders, Harkins, GOODALL.
14. Davis, Herne, B.Collins, ADLINGTON.
15. Simmons, Crump, CRIBB, Beaton.
16. Jessup, Boulger, McMillan, ROSS.

1st England 42
Malcolm Simmons. 3 3 3 3 12
Dave Jessup. 3 3 3 3 12
Peter Collins. 2 3 3 3 11
John Davis. 2 1 - 3 6
res Mike Lee. - - 1 - 1

2nd Australia 33
Phil Crump. 3 3 2 2 10
Billy Sanders. 2 2 3 2 9
Phil Herne. 2 2 2 2 8
John Boulger. 1 1 2 2 6
res Mitch Shirra. dnr

3rd Scotland 13
Jim McMillan. 1 2 1 1 5
Bobby Beaton. ef 2 2 0 4
Brian Collins. 0 ex 1 1 2
Bert Harkins. 0 0 1 1 2
res Benny Rourke. dnr

4th NEW ZEALAND 8
BRUCE CRIBB. 3 1 0 1 5
LARRY ROSS. 1 1 0 0 2
DAVE GIFFORD. 1 - 0 - 1
ROBIN ADLINGTON. 0 0 0 0 0
res JOHN GOODALL. - 0 - 0 0

England sent Matilda waltzing and that was a shame. The two teams should have faced each other in the Final but the system of the day, denied the Speedway world that spectacle.

On the other side of the coin, Scotland had it over NEW ZEALAND, beating the KIWIS in ten of the sixteen heats. A wonderful win by CRIBBY in heat 4, being the only highlight of their afternoon. Through sharper bifocals, LARRY ROSS should have had two more points from heat 10, but it would have made little difference. At the end of day, they had all tried their hardest. So good on 'em !

England went on to win their 3rd World Team Cup but any complacency would prove dangerous indeed.

1977 World Team Cup Final. Wroclaw. Poland.
1st England. Peter Collins, Mike Lee, Dave Jessup, Malcolm Simmons, John Davis.
2nd Poland. 3rd CZ. 4th Sweden.

This article was first published on 30th December 2016