Exetr Promoters Wally Mawdsley and Pete Lansdale gave Falcons supporters their finest ever individual meeting in September when many of the top British League riders joined the leading Falcons in The Westernapolis event.

The meeting was a great success, and it became an annual event. But the meeting also emphasised just how much the Falcons need bolstering-up if they were to be a force in the British League.

Their final placing of 15th was well below ninth spot in 1965 and 10th place in 1966, and it could have been a great deal better if their originally allocated Swedish star Bengt Jansson had finally made his home in the Devon County Town. But in order to sign Jansson the Falcons' management would have had to release one of their existing riders and prior to the season opening there was no one who wanted to move, and Mawdsley and Lansdale were the last people in the world to force a rider into a move against his wishes.

They paid heavily in their gamble on an unknown Swede and the expected improvement of their youngsters. Gunnar Malmqvist was the Swedish rider finally allocated to Exeter and after going through his first match for the Falcons at Poole unbeaten, hopes were high. But Gunnar was forced to return to Sweden after a couple of weeks and did not return until midseason.

Exeter replaced Malmqvist with another Swede, Per Gerhardsson, but "Paggy" was not in British League class and when Malmqvist indicated that he was again available, Gerhardsson's contract was cancelled. But Malmqvist wasn't the answer to Exeter's problems. He was allocated as a "Star" but against Star opposition in The Westernapolis he scored just five points.

EXETER: Mike Cake, Tommy Sweetman, Per-Ake Gerhardsson, Jimmy Squibb (captain), Dave Whittaker, Chris Blewett, Neil Street, Colin Gooddy, Jack Geran.

Exeter went someway to improving the situation during the year when a disagreement between himself and the Management saw Colin Gooddy leave for pastures new and a few weeks later Wayne Briggs joined the Falcons.

Over the whole season Malmqvist (PicturedRight) topped the Exeter averages at just over eight points a meeting with Briggs, from an equal number of matches (17) at 7.83.

Along with King's Lynn, they were the only British League side not to win away from home (although to give credit where it's due, they pushed quite a few sides before eventually going down) and twice lost at home-to Coventry and Newport.

Ever-present during the British League campaign were skipper Jimmy Squibb, Australian Neil Street and Tommy Sweetman, but none could recapture all of their past glories and were down on 1966 performances. Jack Geran, who finally retired from the sport had a 6 plus average but most of his points came from home meetings. Other than a great burst at Wimbledon his form away from home was poor indeed.

Chris Blewett had his usual run of injuries hut still managed over five and-a-half points from his 27 matches. During Blewett's absences from the track, former Falcon, Tim Bungay, made a short return but found the pace too hot and often showed the effects of his leg injuries of the previous year.

On the credit side the Falcons introduced three youngsters to the sport during the year-all from the Weymouth Training School. The most promising proved to be Mike Cake, who finished the season with an average of just under four points. He became a regular at the end of the season when Geran was injured and could well be contesting the number seven spot with Scrambles star "Badger" Goss for 1968. Along with Laurie Etheridge and Phil Woodcock Exeter's future is assured, but their immediate need is for a Star.

Elsewhere in 1967

B.Briggs wins the British league Riders championship ahead of N.Boocock,R.Wilson and E.Boocock He also won the British Final beating Ivan mauger and Eric Boocock Ove Fundin (14) crowned WC ahead of Bengt jansson (14) and Ivan Mauger (13) The World team Championship staged in Malmo was won by the home side Sweden. They scored 32pts to beat Poland 26, Gt.Britain 19, Soviet Union 19 Coventry win the Speedway Star KO Cup beating W.Ham 104-88

This was the third season of British League speedway, proof indeed that the big league launched in 1965 was a success. There were 19 teams in the league, identical to 1966 and one more than 1965 (King's Lynn).

Swindon finished as League. Champions, exactly 10 years after their last league success, and runners-up were Coventry just two points behind. The previous year the Bees had been runners-up to Halifax, and the home defeat by Swindon without doubt cost them the title. Swindon on the other hand were unbeaten at home during the league campaign.

The Knock Out Cup proved to be as exciting and unpredictable as in previous years. Coventry were the eventual winners after disposing of Newcastle, King's Lynn and Edinburgh on the way to the final. In the two-leg final they beat the Hammers from London by 104-88. The Coventry leg was crucial and, despite 15 points from Hammers skipper Ken McKinlay, the Bees gained the advantage by 18 points. A fighting 14 points by Nigel Boocock at Custom House ensured the trophy went to Coventry with only two points separating the teams in the second leg 49-47.

The London Cup was raced as a mini-league between Hackney, Wimbledon and West Ham and the Hammers were undisputed winners with four wins from their four matches. Swindon won the six-team Midland Cup, which was run on a knockout basis, when they beat Coventry in a close two-leg final by 88-68. Edinburgh took the Scottish Cup in a two-leg battle with Glasgow. The Monarchs won both legs to record a 106-85 victory.

On the individual front, there was the World Championship again at Wembley. To reach the final there were numerous qualifying rounds and the British rounds started on May 12 and, after semi-finals at Sheffield and Wimbledon, the British Final was raced at West Ham on August 22. In Europe there were qualifying rounds in Sweden, West Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary and East Germany, semi-finals in Denmark, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and USSR and the qualifiers moved on to the Nordic Final at Selskov in Denmark and the Continental Final was raced at Kempton in West Germany.

The top eight from each of these meetings went to the European Final at Wroclaw in Poland where shock man Andrzej Wyglenda won the European title. The top ten went on to Wembley where they joined the top six from the British Final and on the night it was Ove Fundin who won after a run-off with fellow Swede Bengt Jansson after both had finished on 14 points. Fundin dropped his point to the Russian Igor Plechanov and of course Jansson was beaten by Fundin. Ivan Mauger was 3rd with Plechanov in 4th place.

Other important individual events included the Internationale which was won by Gote Nordin, the British League Riders Championship which went to Barry Briggs, the Brandonapolis was won by Anders Michanek, who set some sort of record by winning the Olympique, East Midlands Open and the Brandonapolis on Consecutive nights in September, Ivan Mauger won the Peter Craven Memorial Trophy, Barry Briggs the Superama, Pride of the Midlands, Scottish Open and Champion of Champions Ray Wilson took the Laurels, Alby Golden the Welsh Open and Bengt Larsson the Pride of the East Eric Boocock was the Westernapolis winner and there were many other less important.

There were two test match series in 1967. During June the Swedish test team beat Great Britain by 3 matches to 2, and in July it was the turn of the Polish riders to try their skills against Great Britain. This time the home side won the series 4-1. The Polish team also rode at Edinburgh against a Scottish Select and lost 64-44, this time with Andrzej Pogorzelski scoring a hard earned 15 points. For the Scots it was Bernt Persson with 16.

Apart from the test series there was also a' Czechoslovakian touring team riding as Prague, They raced six matches, lost the first four then finished the tour by winning at Oxford and Cradley. Antonin Kasper with 57, Antonin Svab 48 and Jan Holub 37 were the leading scorers while the late Lubos Tomicek managed only 16 points from five matches. Another touring side were the Vikings spearheaded by Olle Nygren. They raced six challenge matches, winning only at Poole. Nygren scored 35 from five matches, Sverre Harrfeldt 28 from three and Reidar Eide 18 from his two matches.

The eighth World Team Cup was raced at Malmo in Sweden and, predictably the Swedes won, but not before the Polish team had given them a fright.

Gore Nordin, Bengt Jansson, Ove Fundin and the spectacular Torbjorn Harrysson (Pictured Left in the colours of Newport) were the winning combination but for Great Britain, it was a poor performance and third place and only Barry Briggs with 8 points could be classed as successful. Eric Boocock 5, Ray Wilson 4 and Ivan Mauger 2 were the other British scoters. The other finalists were Russia who scored just 19 points with Igor Plechanov getting 9.

A few other 1967 highlights include Colin Pratt's triumph in the London Riders' Championship, Ivan Mauger's win in the Northern Riders Championship, Barry Briggs, the Midland Riders Championship and England beating Scotland in a representative match at Edinburgh.

As it transpired, Long Eaton and Edinburgh were about to spoil the continuity of the B.L. by moving to Leicester and Coatbridge respectively for 1968. However, they had both been involved in British speedway since, even if it was in a different league and, in the case of Edinburgh, a different venue.

There were two open licence tracks in 1967, Nelson and Brafield. Nelson raced only one match against a Sheffield B team and won 58-37, Brafield had four challenge matches and won them all. Tyburn Gallows top scored with 37 points, Pete Seaton 35 and Ted Spittles with 28 were the leading scoters from these.

Barry Briggs (Swindon) topped the averages with 11.05 ahead of Charlie Monk (Glasgow) on 10.72 and Nigel Boocock (Coventry) on 10.46.