After the problems encountered in 1930, the Exeter fans were delighted when Fred Mockford decides to continue Speedway at Exeter.

Exeter could not have faced tougher opposition in what was to be their first official team fixture. High Beech, then racing in the Southern League, come to Exeter in the Daily Mail Nation Cup and win by 34-59. To speed up proceedings, the three minute warning is introduced and helmet colours are worn, Red and White for the Home side with the away Team wearing Blue and White.

Saturday, 13th June, and Speedway arrives to Plymouth's Pennycross Stadium operating under Western Speedway. Freddie Hore, the man who had first ridden the Exeter track became both Clerk of the Course and Technical Manager. Also in the Plymouth camp were Bert Spencer who had accompanied Hore and that first ride at Exeter and former Exeter rider Noel Johnson.

Exeter visit newcomers Plymouth and lose 32-21 but win the return leg 33-20 to win on aggregate.

Although no attendance figures had appeared that year, it began to look as if the Promotion was in trouble and no match reports appeared in the newspaper for several weeks. Meetings were switched back to Wednesday nights, and indeed, on Wednesday, 22nd July, the last meeting was held under the County Speedways banner.

Big names were in that meeting in the form of Lionel Van Praag (Left) and George Greenwood, both from Wembley. Van Praag, who was to make history by becoming the first World Champion in 1936, showed his different class to win both the Scratch event and the Big Four Final.

Despite the change of race nights, there were no noticeable increase in crowd size and two weeks later it was announced that Exeter Speedway had closed and the Promotion had gone into liquidation. Nothing could be done to save Exeter and Messrs Mockford and Smith went back to London where they comntinued to Promote at Crystal Palace.

And so Exeter's first spell of Speedway fizzled out, and it was to be 1934 before another attempt at Speedway at the County Ground got under way

Elsewhere in 1931

1931 saw Speedway start to take on a more proffesional look from it's earlier "Circus" type approach and took on a National look with the introduction of the British riders Individual Championship and the National Trophy togetherwith the linking of both the Northern and Southern Leagues who had only met previuosly in Test matches.

Belle Vue put out a team in both the Leagues due to last minute closures of tracks and having a surplus of riders having taken over from the defunct White City (Manchester) track. Leicester Stadium had closed and were taken over by Coventry whilst Hall Green initially took over from Harringay, but they in turn closed without riding a single meeting. Wembley, with riders such as Colin Watson, Jack Ormston and Lionel Van Praag won the Southern league on 59 points, whilst Stamford Bridge were runners up on 54 and West Ham finished third on 46.

Belle Vue won the Northern section (which was still seeing tracks such as Leicester and Glasgow close) with 24 points, whilst Leeds finished second only three points behind and Sheffield third on 20 pts. It is Worth noting that Northern matches only consisted of nine Heats.

Pictured Right is Colin Watson who helped Wembley to win the Southern League Title and win the Wimbledon Championship title. Wembley also beat Stamford Bridge 120-69 on aggregate to take the National Trophy and became the first side to take a double having wrapped up the league Title. But they were shocked by Crystal Palce who beat them in the final of the London Cup, going down 114-76 on aggregate. Belle Vue also won their version of a cup called the Northern KO Cup by beating Leeds 64-46

The British Individual Championship, which had been known as the World Championship during the season, was staged in a somewhat complex format which was eventually won by Jack Parker who beat Vic Huxley to clinch the title. The ACU had declared the term "World" title was unofficial and thus approved the term "British Title". Joe Francis won the London Rider's Championship, whilst Crystal Palace beat the 1930's winners Wembley to take the London Cup. The Star Championship staged at Wembley, was limited to riders from the Southern league and was won by Wimbledon's American rider Ray Tauser beating Vic Huxley and Tommy Croombs.

Other titles not mentioned included The Cundy Trophy and the Harringay Trophy- Jack Parker, Wimbledon Championship - Colin Watson, Coventry Championship - Syd Jackson, Stamford Bridge Championship and the West Ham Championship- Frank Arthur, Southampton Championship - Phil Bishop, Lea Bridge Championship - Reg Bounds,Leeds Championship - Gordon Byers, Essex Championship - Tommy Croombs and the South London Riders Championship - Vic Huxley.

Southern league

Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
Wembley	38	29	1	8	59
Stamford Bridge	38	27	0	9	54
West Ham	38	23	0	15	46
Crystal Palace	38	22	0	16	44
Wimbledon	38	19	1	18	39
High Beech	38	19	1	18	39
Southampton	38	18	0	20	36
Bell Vue (Res)	38	14	0	24	28
Lea Bridge	38	11	0	27	22
Coventry	38	8	1	29	17

Northern league

Team	PL	W	D	L	Pts
B.Vue	18	12	0	6	24
Leeds	18	10	1	7	21
Sheffield	17	10	0	7	20
Leicester	15	8	0	7	16
Preston	16	5	1	10	11
Glasgow	12	2	0	10	4