The 1954 Falcon's line up began where it left off following the success of 1953 with the only real alteration to the line up being the departure of Charlie May to Southampton in an exchange deal that brought former Falcon Hugh Geddes back to the County Ground.

St. Austell had fallen by the wayside during the winter months and they were to be followed part way through the 1954 season by the Plymouth Devils which brought to an end the relished Local Derby matches.

Vic Gent was transferred to Plymouth before their closure and Alf Webster joined from the defunct St.Austell club. Exeter had shown they could continue where they left off the previous season and strung together some very useful scores both home and away. But as often happens, problems began to set in when Alf Webster and Don Hardy both suffered fractured wrists, thus making the Falcon's line up very depleted. New signings Kevin Block and Jack Cunningham were brought in to help fill the gaps. Despite the problems, Exeter held on to win all their home matches, but points away were now non existent and eventually Exeter slid down the table to finish up in sixth place out of the eleven remaining teams.

The end of the season saw an experimental challenge match with the new second division Champions Bristol. It was staged to try out the "Tactical Substitute" ruling which Bristol used several times before losing 44-54 to Exeter who incidentally used Cyril Roger as a guest Speedway was suffering throughout the Country, thankfully the crowds still meant the Falcons would be turning out for the 1955 season, but hard times were ahed.

Elsewhere in 1954

The 1954 season started with the RAC Cup in Division 1. This was raced in two sections with the winners of each section racing off in a two leg final and Wimbledon emerged as winners over West Ham by 101-67. In Division II, there were 15 starters including Bristol who had stepped down from Div 1. Unfortunately, by the end of the season they were down to 11, Edinburgh, Plymouth, Glasgow (White City) and Wolverhampton all closed down either during or after the North and South Shield. and there was no Div III or Southern League in 1954.

The North Shield was won by Motherwell, but due to track closures the fixtures were not completed, whilst the South Shield went to Bristol and all teams completed their 14 fixtures with the exception of Poole and Plymouth.

In the League Div l, there were 8 teams and they raced each other twice at home and twice away. Wimbledon Dons won the title for the first time and this was their best performance since 1939 when they were runners-up. This win also saw the end of the long run by Wembley and could well have been a contributory factor in their closure two years later. Predictably, Bristol Bulldogs took the Div 2 title, their third title in post-war speedway and they had just spent the four previous seasons in Div 1. Of the four teams who dropped out, Edinburgh raced five league matches, Plymouth one and both White City and Wolverhampton withdrew before the league campaign got under way, the remaining 11 teams were a combination of the previous season's Div 2 and Southern League.

Wembley gained some compensation by winning the Daily Mail National Trophy when they defeated Norwich in both legs of the final and won by 123-92. This competition started in April at Swindon and finished in September after 21 ties. Poole and Coventry progressed to the Div 1 round but were knocked out by Belle Vue and Odsal (Bradford) respectively. Wembley 'also took the London Cup, beating Wimbledon in both legs of the final which they won by 130-85 whilst, in the Midlands, the Midland Cup was won by Birmingham by the smallest margin possible 96-95 and that was a remarkable performance by the Div 2 Bees against their Div 1 opponents.

Onto the World Final, and a surprise package came in the form of a young Swedish rider named Ove Fundin who qualified for his first final with 26 hard earned points. Jack Young was the leading scorer from the Championship Round scoring 29 out of 30 and was favourite for the title. Tommy Price also qualified for his 4th final and as it transpired, his last, but at 43 years of age that was expected.

For the first time since 1949, the Final itself was not a sell out, only 80,000 people turned out and Ronnie Moore was a fine and worthy winner against the odds. He had been out of action with a serious leg injury and his maximum points were gained whilst riding with a special appliance fitted to his leg. Brian Crutcher was runner-up and Olle Nygren was third. Ove Fundin was bottom of the pile with a meagre two points.

Other important individual results included the London Riders' Championship which was won by Jack Young at West Ham and the Div 2 Riders Championship which went to Ken Middleditch who won at the Belle Vue final. Southern Area League Champion was Alby Golden and he was the first ever winner of this event. Ron How won the Laurels, Brian Crutcher took the Champagne Derby, Arthur Wright the 100Gns Trophy and Harry Bastable the Perry Barr Cup, Tommy Miller won the Scottish Riders' Championship, Ken McKinlay the Geoff Revert Cup, Ken Middleditch the Jack Parker Trophy and that talented New Zealander Geoff Mardon annexed the Brandonapolis to round off a very fine season for him whilst Ron Mountford won the Midland Riders Championship at Birmingham from Ivor Davies.On the international scene, there were three matches in the England v Australasia series which England won 3-0., The matches were at West Ham, Belle Vue and Bradford, and the leading scorer for England was Brian Crutcher who scored 42 points. Arthur Forrest scored 38 and Eddie Rigg 30 to give him good support, while Geoff Mardon top scored for the Australasians.

There were two league matches not raced during the season. The weather was responsible and the season was not allowed to run into November in those days, the second home match Norwich v Belle Vue was one of these, the other being Motherwell v Leicester which was twice rained-off and eventually postponed with Leicester being awarded the points. The other competition raced for in 1954 was the Eastbourne Supporters Trophy this went to Steve Bole. A similar competition held at California went to Roy Bowers, a young Neil Street won the Aldershot Trophy' and Derek Clarke won the Easter Cup at Rye House. The Golden Helmet match race was held by Ronnie Moore at the start of the season. In May he beat off Jack Young's challenge, in June it was Alan Hunt's turn to feel the power of mighty Moore, however the previously mentioned injury sustained by Ronnie Moore occured at the end of June while racing in Denmark and he was unable to defend his title in July. Eric Williams and Arthur Forrest raced off for the title, Forrest was the winner and in August the Bradford rider beat Geoff Mardon but had to give best to Ronnie Moore in September when the Wimbledon man returned from injury, Moore held the title throughout the winter.