New Zealand and the World Team Cup 1984
By Tracy Holmes

TREVOR REDMOND with the same squad as last year, got them ready for the Kings Lynn staging of Round One. It was Sunday May 13, "Oh well George, it was 1984!"

NEW ZEALAND as usual faced England, Australia and the USA. The top two teams progressing to the Intercontinental Final in Sweden, later in June. The home team were without the injured Kenny Carter. Their manager, Carl Glover chose 43 year old John Louis as reserve. As Captain of Kings Lynn, the three time World Cup Gold medallist, was enjoying a 'purple patch' and was rewarded with this cap. Would the move prove inspiring? All in attendance that sunny afternoon were in for a real treat. Here we go;

Heat 1. S.Moran, Crump, Jessup, ROSS.
r/r 2. Sanders, Wigg, Cook. King inj ns. SHIRRA f/ex.
3. Sigalos, Lee, BARGH, Titman.
4. Guglielmi, Morton, Schwartz, MAUGER.
5. S.Moran, Guglielmi, SHIRRA, Lee.
6. King, Morton, Regeling, ROSS.
7. Sigalos, Louis, Sanders, MAUGER.
8. Wigg, Schwartz, Crump, BARGH ef.
9. S.Moran, Sanders, Morton, BARGH.
10. Lee, Crump, King, MAUGER.
11. Sigalos, Wigg, Guglielmi, ROSS.
r/r 12. Louis, Schwartz, Regeling. SHIRRA ex.
13. Louis, Guglielmi, King, BARGH.
14. Wigg, S.Moran, MASON, Regeling ef.
15. Sigalos, Crump, SHIRRA, Louis.
16. Lee, Sanders, ROSS, Schwartz.

1st USA 34
Dennis Sigalos 3 3 3 3 12
Shawn Moran 3 3 3 2 11
Lance King ns 3 1 1 5
Bobby Schwartz 1 2 2 0 5
res John Cook 1 - - - 1

2nd England 32
Simon Wigg 2 3 2 3 10
Mike Lee 2 0 3 3 8
res John Louis - 2 3 3/0 8
Chris Morton 2 2 1 - 5
Dave Jessup 1 - - - 1

3rd Australia 25
Billy Sanders 3 1 2 2 8
Gary Guglielmi 3 2 1 2 8
Phil Crump 2 1 2 2 7
res Steve Regeling - 1 1 ef 2
John Titman 0 - - - 0

4th NEW ZEALAND 5
MITCH SHIRRA f/x 1 ex 1 2
LARRY ROSS 0 0 0 1 1
DAVID BARGH 1 ef 0 0 1
res ALAN MASON - - - 1 1
IVAN MAUGER 0 0 0 - 0

John Louis certainly came up trumps for the boys! As expected, the Yanks and Poms booked their ticket for the next round but the Kangaroos put up a bigger fight than the scorechart suggests. Steve Regeling had the lead in heat 14 before his motor gave up the ghost. The KIWIS? MITCH SHIRRA brought the whole field down in heat 2. Lance King being unable to make the re-run.

MITCH was also excluded for knocking off Bobby Schwartz in heat 12. ALAN MASON cheerfully picking up a point thanks to the Regeling engine failure. And that's all I got to say about that.

A few weeks later, the career of Dennis Sigalos came to an end when he got smashed up in the American Final of the Individual World Championship. But the Yanks had depth and with Kelly Moran back in their squad, they won the Intercontinental Final, joining the seeded Poland for the Leszno Final later in August. Denmark and England would eventually join them. But not good news for the Brits as they had lost Mike Lee, who got into all sorts of bother with the authorities. He was banned for a year and never successfully came back from that. Big Brother was watching him too!

1984 World Team Cup Final. Leszno. Poland. 1st Denmark.
2nd England. Simon Wigg, Phil Collins, Chris Morton, Peter Collins, Neil Collins.
3rd USA.
4th Poland.

Yes, the 'Collins Clan' outdid the Boocock Brothers. The only question was, where was Les Collins?

With the following years Final being in California, the Yanks would have to up their game. Bring on the Valley girls, "for suuure!"

This article was first published on 26th February 2017