Midway through the 1972 season, Exeter had abandoned their age old policy of importing ready made stars. It was something that was forced upon them, when despite scouring the continent, they could not find any replacements for the injured New Zealand Champion Bruce Cribb and Norwegian star Edgar Stangeland who had moved to the County Ground for the start of the 1972 season.

It certainly wasn't a policy that brought results, and the month of August typified the racing action when the Falcon's failed to win a league match home or away. But it was a policy that was reaping rewards by the end of September, and Exeter fans rallied round as they saw on the horizon, a genuine chance of their team being able to feild a nearly all local side within the next couple of seasons. As it transpired of course, the direct opposite was to be forthcoming within a couple of seasons, but back to 1972 .......

The first discovery for Exeter was 21 year old Kevin Holden who had been displaying useful, but by no means exceptional form with 2nd Division West Ham. With the closure of the Custom House Track, Kevin refused to remain in that League, opting instead to try his hand at British League level. As it was, he was a revalation and forced Phil Woodcock to seek pastures new, and by the close of the season, had taken over the third Heat Leader spot, scoring well over a century of points from 21 outings.

Pictured left is Edgar Stangeland who was to appear in 29 matches for Exeter during 1972 finishing on an average of 8.31, second onlt to Bob Kilby who notched up a very impressive 9.82 Calculated Match Average.

The second discovery was in fact a rediscovery. Three years before, local man Bob Coles was signed by Exeter from the then second Division Plymouth camp, but failed to make the grade and slipped back in to the Junior league. He spent a season at Romford, half a season at West Ham and a similar period at Barrow and was a better rider for it. When recalled to the Exeter line up towards the tail end of 1972, he was brimming with confidence and averaged more than six points a meeting that included double figures at Coventry. Both riders would be in the team from the off for the start of the next season.

Discoveries 3 and 4 were the Facey's, Clark and Glyn and with another Exeter junior Mike Sampson among the top 20 in Div 2, Exeter's future prospects of local talent looked good.

Bringing youngsters on takes patience which was supplied in full by Bob Kilby, whose prolific scoring kept Exeter off the foot of the league and ensured a respectable 11th position by the close of the season. Also backing up Bob was popular Norwegian star Edgar Stangeland who ended on an average of 8.23.

Exeter's season had been badly hampered by bad luck with only Kevin Holden and Peter Ingram avoiding injury. At one point in the season, Exeter had Kilby, Stangeland, Bruce Cribb and Chris Julian out with injuries whilst Dave hemus was riding against Doctors orders.

Bob Kilby ended the season winning the Jack Unstead memorial Trophy with a flawless 15pts to beat Pete Smith and Graham Plant.

Other riders who rode that are not mentioned are Christer Sjosten (4 meetings) Robin Amundson (2 meetings), Clark Facey (7 meetings) Dave Mills (2 meetings) Kjel Gimre, John Davis and Bryan Loakes all on 1 ride apiece.

Elsewhere in 1972

Looking back to the seventies, one could say that 1972 was one of the Good Years. The season started with the shock news that Wembley and West Ham were dropping out of the British League Division 1, reducing the London teams from four to two. Wembley's licence was "put on ice" while West Ham transferred their licence to Ipswich who moved up from Division 11. The British League Division 1 started with 18 teams instead of the 19 present in 1971.

The position in Division II was very similar with Rochdale and Romford dropping out and Ipswich moving up. Ellesmere Port and Scunthorpe were newcomers and Romford moved down the road to West Ham, however after just twelve league and three challenge matches they had to move again, this time to Barrow-in-Furness.

Belle Vue were Division I champions for the third successive year, and Crewe became Division II champions. The Aces finished 12 points clear of Reading at the top, while Crewe managed a two point advantage over Boston. These teams also won their respective K.O. Cup competitions.

Pictured Right is that Belle Vue side, from Left to Right
(Back Row) Eric Broadbelt, Peter Collins, Ivan Mauger, Chris Pusey, Dent Oliver.
(Front Row) Ken Eyre, Alan Wilkinson and Soren Sjosten.

A larger than usual number of challenge matches was evident during the season, with less regional Cup matches. The main trophies at stake here were the Midland Cup won by Leicester who beat Wolverhampton 82-74, the Spring Gold Cup which was won by Reading and the North East Trophy was taken by Teesside who won five and drew one of their six matches.

England were winners of the World Team Cup in Olching, however the team was labelled Great Britain because of the inclusion of Ivan Mauger. He joined John Louis, Ray Wilson and Terry Betts and Great Britain scored 36, USSR 21, Poland 21 and Sweden 18. To make it a double, England were also winners of the World Pairs held in Boras Sweden where once again Ray Wilson was in evidence and, with Terry Betts, took the title with 24pts to beat New Zealand 24, Sweden B 22, Sweden A 22, Poland 15, Czechoslovakia 12, Hungry 6.

There were two international series at Division 2 level. England beat Sweden 3-2 but lost to Australia 3-0. Richard Greer, Malcolm Ballard and Arthur Price were the England big guns while Phil Crump scored 51 out of a possible 54 for Young Australians.

There was non-league action at Barrow before they took over West Ham Bombers fixtures in mid-season, Newtongrange and Motherwell were Scottish open licence tracks while in England Rye House and new venture Ashington staged a few meetings.

On the individual front the World Championship was again the highlight. The Final was at Wembley and an 80,000 crowd saw Ivan Mauger become World Champion for the fourth time. This equalled the record of Barry Briggs but left him one victory short of the all-time champion Ove Fundin whose win in 1967 had given him the title for the fifth time. The final was marred by an unfortunate incident in Heat five when Briggs fell and was hit by Valeri Gordeev. The New Zealander was rushed to hospital where a finger was amputated, this obviously ruled him out of the meeting and his chance to equal Fundin's record. Mauger did not have it all his own way in the final. He was forced to a run off by surprise packet Bernt Person. The crowd waited as Ivan inspected the track for a much longer time than it took him to win to run off. Ole Olsen finished in third place.

Other notable individual events were the British League Riders' Championship which was won by Ole Olsen from Martin Ashby and at Division 2 level, Phil Crump beat Arthur Price in a run-off after both had finished with 12 points with Bob Coles third on 11.

The Midland Riders' Championship was won by Ole Olsen, as was the Laurels, Ivan Mauger took the Internationale, Alan Emmett was the surprise winner of the Junior Championship of the British Isles, Ole Osen also won the Golden Gauntlets but had to give best to Terry Betts whose maximum score secured the Littlechild Trophy from Olsen and Gote Nordin won the Bass Open Championship.

In Division 2, Dave Baugh won the Northern Star Championship, and John Jackson won the Teesside Silver Helmet. Barry Thomas won the Individual Gold Cup at Hackney while Ivan Mauger took the Manpower Trophy at Reading.

Ivan Mauger (Belle Vue) topped the averages on 11.42 ahead of Ole Olsen (Wolverhampton) and Anders Michanek (Reading) on 10.51.