NZ in the 1973 World League - Part 3
By Tracy Holmes

This would be huge and a half hour delay to get all the spectators in reflected the occasion.

The venue was Swindon, June 30. NZ V Sweden. From the programme, the teams were;

New Zealand;
1 Ivan Mauger. 2 Graeme Stapleton. 3 Ronnie Moore. 4 Bill Andrew. 5 Barry Briggs. 6 Frank Shuter. 7 Gary Peterson. 8 Freddie Timmo. Team Manager; Trevor Redmond. Timmo replaced Peterson.

Sweden;
1 Anders Michanek. 2 Christer Lofqvist. 3 Bernt Persson. 4 Tommy Jansson. 5 Bengt Jansson. 6 Soren Sjosten. 7 Hasse Holmqvist. No number 8. Team Manager; Christer Bergstrom.

Speedway Star carried this report by Steven Calvey;

'Just about everything happened that could happen ... With the loudspeaker failure, the exclusion lights not working and the pits telephone out of order part of the time, it all added to the excitement. Kiwi team manager Trevor Redmond claimed Christer Lofqvist was responsible for the tapes being fouled in Heat 1. His protests failed and Christer established a new track record with Ivan Mauger not looking like catching him. NZ led after Heat 2 but the Swedes countered with three 5-1s to gain a commanding position. Frank Shuter was excluded for tape breaking in Heat 7 but with the exclusion lights out of action that was a bit difficult to communicate. Eventually the race was re-run. Heat 8 saw a tremendous discussion over the use of tactical substitutes and eventually referee Gordon Little agreed they were permitted. Mauger came in and was promptly beaten again by Lofqvist.'

Heat 1. Lofqvist, Mauger, Michanek, Stapleton.
Heat 2. Timmo, Shuter, Holmqvist, Sjosten.
Heat 3. T Jansson, B Jansson, Andrew. Briggs ef
Heat 4. Holmqvist, Persson, Moore, Shuter.
Heat 5. Michanek, Lofqvist, Briggs, Andrew.
Heat 6. Mauger, Persson, Timmo, Sjosten.
Heat 7. B Jansson, Moore, Timmo, T Jansson. Shuter ex/tapes
Heat 8. Lofqvist, Mauger, Shuter, Holmqvist.
Heat 9. Briggs, Sjosten. Persson ret. Andrew fall.
Heat 10. Andrew, Mauger, B Jansson, T Jansson.
Heat 11. Lofqvist, Michanek, Timmo, Moore.
Heat 12. Persson, Briggs, Mauger, B Jansson.
Heat 13. Michanek, Briggs, Stapleton. T Jansson f/ex

Sweden 42.
Christer Lofqvist 11. Anders Michanek 9. Bernt Persson 7. Bengt Jansson 6. Hasse Holmqvist 4. Tommy Jansson 3. Soren Sjosten 2.

New Zealand 35.
Ivan Mauger 10. Barry Briggs 8. Freddie Timmo 6. Bill Andrew 4. Frank Shuter 3. Ronnie Moore 3. Graeme Stapleton 1. Gary Peterson dnr.

Ronnie Moore lamented,

"Just about everything that could go wrong went wrong. For a while we put up a fight but towards the end we were well beaten. Ivan, still not his usual self, top scored with ten points. He had five rides after coming in as a tactical substitute and managed to win only one of them. Barry in spite of his motor troubles collected eight and I , failing to settle down again, scored another three points. This left us in a poor position. To reach the Semi-Finals we had to win all our remaining matches and in case there had to be a countback, we had to win them by the biggest possible margins. With the Poles, Australians and Russians to come, the task ahead was a tough one."

Could the Kiwis fly away from the Pole Vaulting Poles?

This article was first published on 4th July 2019