19
63Midland League Champs & Another PL KO Cup
![]() Season
Review |
|
|
L to R. John Belcher, Alan Totney, John Edwards, |
They were officially recognized by the speedway authorities as
‘under-strength’ before a wheel was turned and attracted only one new
signing mid-season to bolster their ranks. Despite this, the battling Heathens showed all their fight and
determination at the right times to bag a hatful of silverware – conquering
the Midland League Championship, the Dudley-Wolves Trophy for the first time and
the Provincial League Knock Out Cup again! While
Ivor Brown continued to rule the league, lowering a clutch of track records
on his way to overall top points scorer again, the times were a-changing in
the middle and lower order of the team. Stan Stevens had left for a new start at New Cross and Nick Nicholls
had carried out his threat of retirement. Ivor Davies started the season still on the injury list, but John
Hart withdrew his transfer request and stayed on to become a much needed
extra-heatleader. If Hart was a
steady improver, then Alan Totney was breaking through like a steam train.
After holding down a reserve team place in 1962, he produced a string
of high scores to bolster the middle order in ’63. Heading in the other direction was Harry
Bastable, still captain and recognized
as one of the team’s top stars, he was appearing more often than not in
the lower half of the scorers. The
real difference was made when first Johnny Edwards was signed from Stoke in
May and a few weeks later, Ivor Davies was able to return from his long
injury. Edwards gradually
settled in and by the end of the season was contributing at the top end of
the scorechart. Davies made an
admirable comeback to further reinforce the middle order and Cradley went
cup crazy. They saw off the
challenge of Stoke, Brown
had faced stiff competition as PL top dog from a rising |
|
|
Riders Performance Chart
|
statistics taken from the Cradley Speedway database for PL matches only.
|
Final League Table
|
Midland League
|