1969 Throughout a rain ruined season Newcastle did not have a full team. They lost the services of World Champion Ivan Mauger who went to Belle Vue and three riders who were allocated to replace him, Olle Nygren, Charlie Monk and then Bert Harkins, all refused the moves. Eventually Australian Garry Middleton, previously with Wimbledon, arrived but he lasted only five meetings before he moved to Hackney. Unable to sign a top rider promoter Mike Parker obtained permission to use a guest rider in every match. Goog Allan had returned to New Zealand and Alan Jay rode for Halifax. Dave Schofield, who also rode for Nelson in Division Two, only missed one match all season. Allan Butterfield suffered a broken ankle in May and retired. Norwegian Hilge Langli and then Dane Erik Tilgaard had short spells in the team. Tilgaard was seriously injured in the match against Hackney on 7 July and had to have an emergency operation after a steel wire had penetrated his throat. This put him out of action for the rest of the season but allowed Newcastle to use rider replacement. Mike Watkin was injured early in the season and did not reappear until late in May and Gary Peterson’s season was ended when he broke his jaw and suffered severe concussion in a crash during the World Championship Qualifying Round at Wolverhampton in May. Alan Knapkin, Murray Burt, Sid Sheldrick and Alan Bridgett who were all also with Nelson made up the side during the season. Peter Kelly made a brief return but went to Division Two side Berwick whilst another lower division rider, Tom Leadbitter of Teesside, performed admirably in four meetings. This was Mike Parker’s ninth and last season promoting at Brough Park. Ole Olsen qualified for the Nordic Final of the World Championship at Linkopping, Sweden on 4 June and was eliminated after scoring two points. Dave Gifford qualified as reserve for the British Semi Final held at Leicester on 24 June. He failed to score in his one ride and was eliminated from the World Championship. Ole Olsen represented Denmark in the World Best Pairs in Stockholm, Sweden on 25 September. He scored thirteen of Denmark’s seventeen point total to finish fourth. Ole Olsen represented Newcastle in the British League Riders’ Championship at Belle Vue on 18 October and scored six points. Ole Olsen and Dave Gifford qualified for the Northern Riders’ Championship Final at Sheffield on 28 August. Olsen scored ten points but Gifford failed to score. In qualifying Olsen had won the round at Newcastle with a fifteen point maximum score. Ole Olsen won the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy at Belle Vue on 26 July scoring a fifteen point maximum. Ex Newcastle rider Ivan Mauger scored fourteen points to retain the World Championship at Wembley on 5 September. British League Division One P W D L F A Pts Poole 36 26 1 9 1518.5 1284.5 53 Belle Vue 36 23 1 12 1533 1268 47 Wimbledon 36 22 2 12 1555.5 1248.5 46 Halifax 36 22 2 12 1483 1244 46 Leicester 36 21 2 13 1493 1312 44 Sheffield 36 19 1 16 1467.5 1336.5 39 Cradley Heath 36 18 2 16 1376 1426 38 Glasgow 36 17 3 16 1423 1380 37 King’s Lynn 36 18 0 18 1413 1390 36 Swindon 36 18 0 18 1391 1408 36 Coatbridge 36 17 1 18 1390 1418 35 Exeter 36 16 0 20 1377 1426 32 Newcastle 36 15 2 19 1348 1447 32 Coventry 36 14 3 19 1419.5 1383.5 31 Oxford 36 15 1 20 1290 1436 31 Wolverhampton 36 13 1 22 1311 1494 27 Newport 36 13 1 22 1256 1546 27 West Ham 36 11 3 22 1276 1527 25 Hackney 36 10 2 24 1230 1572 22 Averages (British League & Knock Out Cup) M Rds Pts BP TPts Full Paid Avge Ole Olsen 34 157 377 9 386 7 1 9.83 Dave Gifford 37 166 276 24 300 1 1 7.23 Mike Watkin 29 118 127 12 139 4.71 Gary Peterson 8 36 37 5 42 4.67 Alan Knapkin 19 60 47 13 60 4.00 Dave Schofield 36 122 89 16 105 3.44 Murray Burt 13 49 34 3 37 3.02 Also rode Alan Bridgett 1 2 0 0 0 0.00 Allan Butterfield 5 19 17 1 18 3.79 Peter Kelly 1 3 2 0 2 2.67 Hilge Langli 4 15 12 4 16 4.27 Tom Leadbitter 4 11 18 3 21 7.64 Garry Middleton 5 21 31 3 34 6.48 Sid Sheldrick 5 10 4 2 6 2.40 Erik Tilgaard 3 8 4 0 4 2.00 Guests Jim Airey 3 13 28 3 31 9.54 Bob Andrews 1 5 8 0 8 6.40 Martin Ashby 2 12 30 2 32 10.67 Glyn Blackburn 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 James Bond 3 12 18 4 22 7.33 John Boulger 1 5 12 2 14 11.20 Tony Clarke 2 10 24 1 25 10.00 Phil Cole 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 Bruce Cribb 1 5 13 0 13 10.40 Russ Dent 1 4 8 1 9 9.00 Arnold Haley 2 7 12 2 14 8.00 Bert Harkins 5 23 36 2 38 6.61 George Hunter 2 9 11 0 11 4.89 Norman Hunter 1 5 9 1 10 8.00 Dave Jessup 1 3 2 2 4 5.33 Sandor Levai 3 13 22 4 26 8.00 Ken McKinlay 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 Jim McMillan 1 6 10 1 11 7.33 Garry Middleton 1 5 3 1 4 3.20 Charlie Monk 1 4 9 1 10 10.00 Ronnie Moore 2 9 22 0 22 9.78 Norman Strachan 1 5 8 1 9 7.20 Dave Younghusband 2 9 14 1 15 6.67 4 April – Newport 51 Newcastle 26 (British League) Ht 1: Erskine, Strachan, Gifford, Butterfield 70.0 Ht 2: Golden, Schofield, Peterson, Shearer 71.2 Ht 3: Hughes, Levai, Watkin, Harkins 70.2 Ht 4: Julian, Middleton, Golden, Peterson 71.8 Ht 5: Hughes, Gifford, Levai, Harkins 72.0 Ht 6: Erskine, Strachan, Middleton, Schofield 71.4 Ht 7: Harkins, Julian, Golden, Watkin 72.4 Ht 8: Peterson, Gifford, Strachan, Shearer 73.0 Ht 9: Hughes, Middleton, Levai, Schofield 72.0 Ht 10: Watkin, Strachan, Peterson, Erskine, Harkins (fns) 73.6 Ht 11: Julian, Shearer, Gifford(fex), Middleton(fex) 75.4 Ht 12: Hughes, Erskine, Schofield, Middleton 72.0 Ht 13: Julian, Levai, Schofield, Watkin(fex) 73.2 Newport - Bob Hughes (3,3,3,3) 12, Chris Julian (3,2,3,3) 11, Jon Erskine (3,3,0,2) 8+1, Norman Strachan (2,2,1,2) 7+2, Sandor Levai (2,1,1,2) 6+2, Alby Golden (3,1,1) 5+1, Terry Shearer (0,0,2) 2+1 Newcastle - Gary Peterson (1,0,3,1) 5+1, Dave Gifford (1,2,2,f) 5+1, Garry Middleton (2,1,2,f,0) 5, Mike Watkin (1,0,3,f) 4, Dave Schofield (2,0,0,1,1) 4, Bert Harkins (0,0,3) 3, Allan Butterfield (0) 0 7 April - Newcastle 45 Coatbridge 33 (Challenge) Ht 1: Olsen, Eide, Butterfield, Templeton 73.6 Ht 2: Peterson, Dent, Collins, Hughson(ef) 75.4 Ht 3: Larsson, Hunter, Schofield, Harkins 74.6 Ht 4: Olsen, Briggs, Dent, Hughson 73.0 Ht 5: Larsson, Eide, Templeton, Schofield 75.0 Ht 6: Briggs, Butterfield, Peterson, Collins(f) 74.8 Ht 7: Olsen, Hunter, Dent, Harkins(ef) 74.0 Ht 8: Butterfield, Peterson, Templeton, Hughson 75.2 Ht 9: Larsson, Briggs, Collins, Schofield 75.0 Ht 10: Hunter, Butterfield, Briggs, Dent 74.6 Ht 11: Olsen, Peterson, Eide, Templeton 74.0 Ht 12; Briggs, Hunter, Larsson, Butterfield 75.0 Ht 13: Eide, Olsen, Hunter, Schofield 74.2 Newcastle - Ole Olsen (3,3,3,3,2) 14, Bengt Larsson (3,3,3,1) 10, Gary Peterson (3,1,2,2) 8+3, Allan Butterfield (1,2,3,2,0) 8, Russ Dent (2,1,1,0) 4+1, Dave Schofield (1,0,0,0) 1 Coatbridge - Wayne Briggs (2,3,2,1,3) 11, George Hunter (2,2,3,2,1) 10+1, Reidar Eide (2,2,1,3) 8, Brian Collins (1,f,1) 2+1, Doug Templeton (0,1,1,0) 2+1, Bert Harkins (0,ef) 0, Alec Hughson (ef,0,0) 0 Reserves Scratch Race: Peterson, Schofield, Hughson, Brady 76.2 Welcome Back Scratch Race Ht 1: Hunter, Templeton, Schofield, Dent(f) 77.0 Ht 2: Larsson, Peterson, Briggs, Collins 75.8 Ht 3: Olsen, Eide, Butterfield, Brady 74.6 Final: Olsen, Larsson, Peterson, Hunter 75.4 12 April - Cradley Heath 50 Newcastle 28 (British League) Ht 1: Olsen, Persson, Butterfield, Coombes(ef) 69.6 Ht 2: Bass, Peterson, Wrathall, Schofield(f) 70.2 Ht 3: Trigg, Wakefield, Burt, Middleton(fex) 71.0 Ht 4: Andrews, Bass, Gifford, Schofield 70.4 Ht 5: Olsen, Trigg, Butterfield, Wakefield 69.0 Ht 6: Peterson, Persson, Coombes, Gifford 70.8 Ht 7: Andrews, Olsen, Bass, Burt 69.6 Ht 8: Coombes, Butterfield, Wrathall, Schofield, Peterson(ex) 73.0 Ht 9: Trigg, Wakefield, Schofield, Peterson 70.8 Ht 10: Persson, Olsen, Coombes, Gifford 69.8 Ht 11: Andrews, Olsen, Bass, Butterfield 70.0 Ht 12: Persson, Wakefield, Butterfield, Gifford 71.4 Ht 13: Olsen, Andrews, Trigg, Peterson 69.8 Cradley Heath - Bob Andrews (3,3,3,2) 11, Bernt Persson (2,2,3,3) 10, Roy Trigg (3,2,3,1) 9+1, Chris Bass (3,2,1,1) 7+1, Ken Wakefield (2,0,2,2) 6+3, Graham Coombes (ef,1,3,1) 5+1, Pete Wrathall (1,1) 2 Newcastle - Ole Olsen (3,3,2,2,2,3) 15, Gary Peterson (2,3,0,0) 5, Allan Butterfield (1,1,2,0,1) 5, Murray Burt (1,0) 1, Dave Gifford (1,0,0,0) 1, Dave Schofield (f,0,0,1) 1, Garry Middleton (f) 0 Stadium Scratch Race Ht 1: Olsen, Bass, Andrews, Peterson 70.4 Ht 2: Trigg, Coombes, Gifford, Hawkins 71.2 Ht 3: Persson, Wakefield, Butterfield, Tucker 70.8 Final: Persson, Bass, Trigg, Olsen(ef) 70.8 Talent Stakes: Shakespeare, Hawkins, Smith, Tucker(ns) 78.6 Reserves Stakes: Bass, Wrathall, Burt, Schofield(nf) 71.2 Late Night Scurry: Wrathall, Tucker, Burt, Hawkins(f) 73.0 14 April - Newcastle 41 Wolverhampton 36 (British League) Ht 1: Olsen, Hunter, Butterfield, Jackson 76.6 Ht 2: Peterson, Handley, Schofield 77.4 Ht 3: Bond, Burt, Langli(f), Francis(fex) 76.4 Ht 4: Peterson, Gifford, Andrews, Handley 75.4 Ht 5: Hunter, Jackson, Langli, Burt 78.2 Ht 6: Olsen, Andrews, Butterfield, Handley 75.0 Ht 7: Bond, Peterson, Schofield, Francis(ex) 76.6 Ht 8: Schofield, Butterfield, Jackson, Handley 77.2 Ht 9: Langli, Andrews, Handley, Burt 77.6 Ht 10: Olsen, Bond, Butterfield, Francis 75.0 Ht 11: Hunter, Gifford, Jackson, Schofield 76.8 Ht 12: Bond, Olsen, Andrews, Langli 76.0 Ht 13: Hunter, Gifford, Francis, Peterson(ef) 76.2 Newcastle - Ole Olsen (3,3,3,2) 11, Gary Peterson (3,3,2,ef) 8, Dave Gifford (2,2,2) 6+1, Dave Schofield (1,1,3,0) 5+1, Allan Butterfield (1,1,2,1) 5+1, Hilge Langli (f,1,3,0) 4, Murray Burt (2,0,0) 2 Wolverhampton - James Bond (3,3,2,3) 11, Norman Hunter (2,3,3,3) 11, Bob Andrews (1,2,2,1) 6, Peter Jackson (0,2,1,1) 4+1, Mick