Exeter's 1970 season was often hailed as a one man outfit, a case of Ashby versus the rest. Things started out promising enough with Bruce Cribb moving to the County Ground from Poole, Jan Holub notching up a 12 point maximum in Exeter's opener against Poole and Exeter again looked to have a strong all round side.

The Falcon's lost that Easter Trophy encounter with Poole, the 43-35 home win not enouth to grab the aggregate win and lost by two points overall. And from then on in, things just got worse. After looking something of a sensation, Bruce Cribb suffered a broken thigh after just three matches when he was involved in a smash with Chris Pusey in a World Championship qaulifier at the County Ground.

With Bruce Cribb out, Exeter suffered a 61-17 humiliation at Wimbledon and then lost their next meeting at the County Ground, this time going down 37-41 to Oxford. Some confidence was restored when they handed out a 57-21 drubbing of King's Lynn at he County Ground at the end of May and narrowly lost at West Ham by 41-36 the following night where Ashby roared to an 18pt maximum. But the picture had been set, as illustrated in July when Martin Ashby scored 14pts away to Halifax, but the Falcons lost heavily 52-26, it was indeed becoming a case of Ashby versus the rest ..........

However, it was not all "Doom and Gloom" as the Falcon's maintained their usual format of winning well at home at the expense of a poor away record. Infact, so bad were they away that they came up with the worst record barring one in the entire league. Eighteen matches, eighteen defeats or nineteen if you want to throw in their KO Cup match. As it was, considering the up's and downs of the 1970 season, Exeter's tenth place in the BL out of 19 teams was as well as could be expected and one can only reflect on what might have been but for the injury to Bruce Cribb for most of the season.

Bruce Cribb, despite his severe injuries and despite being advised to go home for the rest of the season, he made an heroic comeback on August 10th to take over where he had left off scoring a nine point return. Indeed, his end of season average was just half a point short of Martin Ashby's, remarkable by any standards.

Pictured Left, the 1970 Falcon's: (L to R) Dave O'connor, Bob Coles, Neil Street, John Richards (Team Manager) Bengt Andersson Jan Holub, Chris Julian and Martin Ashby on machine (Bruce Cribb absent).

Martin Ashby also saw his end of term average increase, which is probably just as well with the remainder of the team finding 1970 a very difficult season. Jan Holub, who had looked like a sensation the previous season, slid down the scoring. Jan's problems mainly stemmed around illness, troubled all year with both stomach trouble and a shoulder injury. The result was to reduce him from heat-leader to secondstring, even though he still finished third in the averages.

Chris Julian quietened down a lot for him and remained on the 6-point mark on average. Trouble was, you were never quite sure with the happy going Cornishman and, particularly on the away tracks, he could find the points just weren't there for him to snatch. I say snatch, rather than gain, because even this quieter track version of CJ was still something to watch. Neil Street was, frankly, a disappointment, particularly to those who had watched Neil of old. Only infrequently did he bring out the sureness of touch and the smoothness of technique that was once ever-present.

As for Bengt Anderson, with whom the Falcons persevered, and with whom Wolverhampton had done the same the previous year, it looked as though he would finally come good until he suffered concussion and a badly-split nose. When he got back in action, after a short break, he went reasonably well at home, but was still struggling away. It was when he missed his plane and almost certainly, cost Exeter their first away win at Wembley that copromoter Wally Mawdsley cried "Enough" and vowed to stick to homebased men only.

If the season hadn't already been bad enough, more shock news was to hit Exeter in November when Martin Ashby handed in a transfer request stating he wished to ride on a more conventional track. Other Junior riders that showed in 1970 were George Barclay (1 meeting), Dave O'Connor (5 meetings) Stan Stevens (2 meetings), Mike Holt (1 meeting), Judd Drew (1 meeting) and Ian Gills (1 meeting)

Elsewhere in 1970

Ivan Mauger had clinched the British Final staged at West Ham where he scored 14 points to beat Ronnie Moore 13pts and Roy Trigg 12pts. The pairing of Moore and Mauger then went on to win the World Best Pairs title staged in Malmo. They scored 28pts to beat Runners up Ove Fundin and B.Jansson of Sweden who scored 25pts with Eric and Nigel Boocock collecting 19pts for England. In fourth place came Scotland's Jim McMilan and Bert harkins with 14pts.

Ivan Mauger completes a hat trick by winning his third World Championship in succesion as he wins the Final held in Wroclaw Poland. Ivan scored 15pts on his way to beating second placed man Pawel Waloszek 14pts, and Antoni Woryna 13pts.

In the World Team Championship staged at Wembley, Sweden scored 42pts to beat Gt.Britain 31pts, Poland 20pts and Czechoslovakia 3pts.

Speedway was rocked by a tragic accident that occured in Belgium when four riders and the legendary Phil Bishop were killed in a road accident. The riders were West Ham's Martyn Piddock and Pete Bradshaw, Wimbledon's Gary Everett and Australian newcomer Malcolm Carmichael.

Belle Vue are crowned British League Champions scoring 56pts to beat runners up Wimbledon on 46pts and third placed Coventry on 45pts. Canterbury took the Division 2 Title having totalled 47 points ahead of Eastbourne on 45pts and Rochdale on 44pts.

Barry Briggs won the BL Riders Championship after beating Anders Michanek and Eric Boocock in a run off after all three riders had totalled 13 points in the Final. This was the sixth time in succesion that barry had claimed the title.

In the Division 2 equivalent, Dave jessup (Eastbourne) won the Div 2 Riders Championship. He scored 14pts to beat runner up Barry Crowson and third place going to Eric Broadbelt.

Wimbledon win the Speedway Star KO Cup for the third time in succesion beating B.Vue 80-75, whilst Ipswich beat Berwick to win the Div 2 KO Cup and Wimbledon beat Hackney 42-36 to clinch the London Cup.

Barry Thomas won the Junior Championship of Great Britain, he scored 14pts to beat Dave Jessup also on 14pts and third place going to Mick Bell on 13pts. Terry Betts won the Southern Riders Championship, he beat Gary Middleton and Howard Cole to clinch the honours.

Ivan Mauger (Belle Vue) topped the averages on 11.31 ahead of Anders Michanek (Newcastle) on 10.98 and Jim Airey (Sheffield) on 10.82.