The 2010 Elite League speedway season (also known as the Sky Sports Elite League for sponsorship reasons) was the 76th season of the top division of UK speedway and the 14th since its establishment in 1997.
Summary The first fixtures of the season took place on 29 March and the season ended on 27 October. The Wolverhampton Wolves were the defending champions from 2009.
The negative side of playoffs was experienced during the 2010 season when Coventry Bees claimed the title. Coventry had finished in the fourth and final play off spot, 26 points behind regular season table winners Poole Pirates, who in turn had finished 20 points ahead of their nearest rivals racking up 78 points in total. Coventry went on to win their semi final and then defeat Poole in the final. Although Poole won the Knockout Cup there was a distinct feeling of an injustice. Poole's Australian contingent of Chris Holder, Darcy Ward, Davey Watt and Jason Doyle had been consistent all season except during the play off final and Coventry's Polish duo of Krzysztof Kasprzak and Przemysław Pawlicki both hit great form on the night.
League table Pos Club M Home Away F A +/- Pts 3W 2W D L 4W 3W D 1L L1 Poole Pirates 32160005204516671278782 Wolverhampton Wolves32151000313915271432613 Peterborough Panthers321220221021114951464534 Coventry Bees 32921424001014691475525 Lakeside Hammers321121211111214471503486 Swindon Robins3282061222914761493447 Eastbourne Eagles32932201031214061533418 Belle Vue Aces321021301021314131539409 Ipswich Witches3245070012131386156926
Key: Championship play-offs Relegation play-offs
Home: 3W = Home win by 7 points or more; 2W = Home win by between 1 and 6 points Away: 4W = Away win by 7 points or more; 3W = Away win by between 1 and 6 points; 1L = Away loss by 6 points or less M = Meetings; D = Draws; L = Losses; F = Race points for; A = Race points against; +/- = Race points difference; Pts = Total Points
'A' Fixtures
'B' Fixtures
Championship play-offs
Semi-finals
Leg 1
Leg 2
Grand final
First leg
1 Krzysztof Kasprzak 3, 2, 3, X, 3 11 2 Richard Sweetman 1, 1', 1 3+1 3 Ben Barker 0, 3, 0, X 3 4 Edward Kennett 2, 2', 2, 1' 7+2 5Chris Harris 2', 1', 1', 3, X 7+3 6Lewis Bridger 3, 2, 1, 2, 2 107Przemysław Pawlicki 2', 3, 3, 2 10+1Manager: Alun Rossiter 1 Chris Holder 2, 0, 3, 2, X 7 2 Darcy Ward X, 1, F, 0 1 3 Artur Mroczka 1, 0, 0 1 4 Bjarne Pedersen 3, 3, 4^, 3, 2 15 5Davey Watt 0, 3, 3, X 6 6Leon Madsen 0, 0, 1, 3 47Jason Doyle 1, 1, 2, 1, F 5Manager: Neil Middleditch
Second leg
1 Chris Holder 1, 2, 1, 1, 0 5 2 Darcy Ward 3, 1', 2, 0 6+1 3 Artur Mroczka 2', 0, 0 2+1 4 Bjarne Pedersen 3, 2, 2, 0, 1 8 5Davey Watt 3, 2', 3, 0 8+1 6Leon Madsen 2, 3, 0, 1, 1 77Jason Doyle 0, 1, 0, 3 4Manager: Neil Middleditch 1 Krzysztof Kasprzak 2, 3, 2, 3, 3 13 2 Richard Sweetman 0, 1, 1, 1' 3+1 3 Ben Barker 1, 0, 0, 2' 3+1 4 Edward Kennett R/R 5Chris Harris Fx, 3, 3, 3, 2', 2' 13+2 6Lewis Bridger 1, 0, 0, 1 27Przemysław Pawlicki 3, 2, 1, 3, 2', 2, 3 16+1Manager: Alun Rossiter
Coventry were declared Elite League Champions, on Aggregate 101-79.
Elite League Knockout Cup The 2010 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 72nd edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Poole Pirates were the winners of the competition.
First round Date Team one Score Team two12/04 Wolverhampton 56-39 Ipswich08/04 Ipswich 43-46 Wolverhampton Quarter-finals Date Team one Score Team two10/06 Swindon 49-41 Peterborough17/09 Peterborough 58-37 Swindon05/07 Belle Vue 50-40 Poole21/07 Poole 57-35 Belle Vue19/07 Coventry 48-42 Wolverhampton30/09 Wolverhampton 51-43 Coventry23/09 Eastbourne 53-41 Lakeside24/09 Lakeside 45-45 Eastbourne Semi-finals Date Team one Score Team two13/10 Poole 58-36 Peterborough11/10Peterborough 43-50 Poole11/10 Wolverhampton 44-46 Eastbourne10/10 Eastbourne 63-29 Wolverhampton
Final
First leg
Second leg
The Poole Pirates were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 95-90.
Riders' Championship Freddie Lindgren won the Riders' Championship. The final was held at East of England Arena on 16 October.
Pos. Rider Pts Total SF Final1 Freddie Lindgren 3 2 0 3 3 11x32 Chris Harris 2 3 3 2 3 13x23 Kenneth Bjerre 3 2 0 3 2 10214 Bjarne Pedersen 3 0 1 3 3 10305 Chris Holder 3 0 3 1 1816 Scott Nicholls 2 3 2 1 2 1007 Simon Stead 1 2 1 2 2 8 8 Kauko Nieminen 1 2 2 0 3 8 9 Niels Kristian Iversen 2 1 3 2 8 10 Hans Andersen 0 0 2 3 2 7 11 Joonas Kylmäkorpi 0 1 3 2 0 6 12 Danny King 1 3 2 0 0 6 13 Peter Karlsson 0 3 1 - 1 5 14 Tai Woffinden 2 1 0 0 1 4 15 Cameron Woodward 0 1 0 1 1 3 16 Krzysztof Kasprzak 1 0 1 1 - 3 17 Lewis Kerr (res) 0 0
Pairs The Elite League Pairs Championship was held at the Foxhall Stadium on 4 September and was won by Coventry Bees.
PosTeamPtsRiders1 Coventry 26 Kasprzak 14, Harris 122Poole 23 Pedersen 12, Holder 113 Lakeside 22 Shields 12, Davidsson 104 Peterborough 20 Bjerre 10, Iversen 105Swindon 18 Zengota 11, Korneliussen 76 Ipswich 17 King 9, Nicholls 87 Wolves 15 Klindt 12, Haines 38 Eastbourne 13 Kling 9, Woodward 49 Belle Vue 8 Wright J 6, Sitera 2
Semi finals Eastbourne 7 Peterborough 2 - Harris, Kasprzak, Iversen, Bjerre Poole 7 Lakeside 2 - Holder, Pedersen, Shields, Jacobs
Final Coventry 5 Poole 4 - Kasprzak, Harris, Holder, Pedersen
Final leading averages Rider Team Average Freddie LindgrenWolverhampton10.23 Leigh Adams Swindon 9.90 Kenneth Bjerre Peterborough 9.62 Lee Richardson Lakeside9.35 Scott NichollsIpswich9.34 Krzysztof KasprzakCoventry 9.02 Bjarne Pedersen Poole 8.83 Chris Harris Coventry8.80 Hans AndersenBelle Vue 8.70 Chris Holder Poole8.58
Riders & final averages Belle Vue
8.70 7.44 6.77 6.11 6.08 5.73 4.66 4.47 3.87 3.73 2.80
Coventry
9.02 8.80 7.25 7.08 7.00 6.56 6.29 6.11 4.39 3.65 3.38
Eastbourne
8.29 7.56 7.26 6.27 6.04 5.93 5.44 4.61 4.34
Ipswich
9.34 7.39 6.79 6.56 6.07 5.83 5.67 5.03 3.71 3.69 3.61 2.11
Lakeside
9.35 8.17 7.64 6.87 6.10 5.96 5.49 5.29 4.73 4.64
Peterborough
9.62 7.93 7.48 7.25 6.39 5.04 4.90 4.46 3.95 2.38
Poole
8.83 8.58 8.01 7.93 6.89 6.74 6.25
Swindon
9.90 8.21 6.81 6.62 6.52 5.91 4.39 3.86 3.55
Wolverhampton
10.23 7.54 6.91 6.89 6.72 6.52 5.30 5.26 3.55
See also Speedway in the United Kingdom List of United Kingdom Speedway League Champions Knockout Cup (speedway)
References