Andy Campbell can thank a knee injury for his breakthrough into National League racing. he had been waiting patiently in the wings in second half rides at Exeter's County Ground when he was drafted into their line-up for the long trip to his previous base Glasgow.

Falcons' young rising star John Barker had gone down with a bad knee and while he was having daily treatment from the club's glamorous physiotherapist Polly Evenett, the team were on their way to Blantyre with Campbell lined up for his debut. He scored double figures from six rides at the Scottish track - and a regular team place was his for the rest of the season.

Campbell's late introduction was all part of Exeter's policy of easing the newcomer into action. He'd been promised when he signed for Exeter that he would be given his chance even though he had to wait a few weeks for it. Campbell was a revelation in those early meetings and scored 53 points in his first six away matches. It was the sort of form that he couldn't be expected to keep up for the rest of the season but in his first full term of league racing he amassed more than 200 points and ended the campaign with a remarkable near six point average on his travels. They were figures which suggested that Campbell was ready to become a big name in N.L circles.

It was a season of considerable change for the Falcons who began without the previous year's skipper Nigel Boocock who ended a celebrated career in retirement in his adopted Australia. Les Sawyer came in from Stoke and Halifax as Nigel's immediate replacement with Campbell adding to the challenge for tail-end berths. Other new faces sprung up at the County Ground. British born Keith Wright, an Australian international had thirteen matches mid-season before breaking his leg in a curious clash along the straights. His misfortune gave extended opportunities to 16-year-old Keith Millard, a former British Schoolboy Grass-track Champion who was one of two bright new finds unearthed at Exeter's novel open-to-all pre-season trial.

Millard arrived at the March session on a grass-bike, returned the following week with a speedway machine, and never looked out of place when he was pressed into service ahead of several more experienced riders.

Pictured Right, the 1981 Falcons sqaud. L to R John Williams, Les Sawyer, Martin Hewlett, Phil Vance, Robert Maxfield,(on bike), Keith Wright, Andy Campbell, Dave Brewer, Tony Sanford and John Barker. (Front row) Simon Cross, Timothy Fey and Kevin Price.

The other youngster to be discovered at the trial was Welshman Kevin Price who had interval rides until his sixteenth birthday and made a promising debut during the summer. Both seemed certain to play a major part in Exeter's future with the winter defections of teenager Martin Hewlett (joining Swindon for full-time BL racing) and the retired John Williams.

Hewlett, in only his second season of league racing climbed to number two in the Falcons averages and was actually their highest-points scorer. Only six points short of the 300 mark he failed to score the opening league encounter of the season at Ellen Port but after that he never looked back.

Skipper Robert Maxfield would have finished even higher in the ratings but slumped after a frightening crash at Crayford in which his out of control bike careered crazily through a gap in the fence at the pits and was only prevented from ending up in the crowd by a parked machine.

John Barker, full of talent, spent a month out of action with a bad back and then was dropped after asking for a transfer after being withdrawn from a ride at Mildenhall. He was loaned to Milton Keynes, but at the end of the season made his peace with the Falcons and asked to return to the County Ground for the 1982 season. In his place Exeter swooped swiftly and tied up a £25-a-match deal with Weymouth to borrow former Falcon Bob Coles for the last nine matches of the year.

Coles's return to his hometown track more than made up for Barker's absence and the switch revived his flagging fortunes, so much so that he finished top of the Exeter averages with a nine-point plus figure for those handfull of outings.

Coinciding with the Coles boost was a fine spell by Sawyer who was handed the number one race jacket and seemed to react to such a psychological ploy by hitting the best form of his career.

Sadly though, Exeter's season was overshadowed by a tragedy that cost Tony Sanford his life in the first race of second half against Milton Keynes on Monday, Septem 7th. Even though he had never been able to hold down an automatic team place, Tony was immensely popular with team-mates and it was largely a tribute to his standing that the side could pull themselves together and turn in somt their best performances of the season (particularly at from home) after his death.

Elsewhere in 1981

First Trophy of the 1981 season up for grabs was the Daily Express Spring Classic which was won by Dave Jessup after a run of with Gordon Kennett, both having scored 13pts each. Another run off for third position saw Jan Andersson beat Billy Sanders.

Hans Nielsen (Denmark and Birmingham) cruised to a win in the Embassy Internationale scoring an unbeaten 15 point maximum to beat Kenny carter who in turn had beaten Jan Andersson in a run off for second place.

Bruce Penhall carried off the Inter Continental Final held in Vojens, Denmark. He scored a perfect 15pts on his way to defeating Erik Cundersen (12) and Hans Nielsen (11). In the Overseas Final held at White City, Bruce (10) had to settle for third spot behind runner up Chris Morton (11) and winner, Dave Jessup (13) whilst it was Egon Muller who took the overseas Final in Prague after an exciting run off situation with five riders having ended the meeting on 12pts. Eventual runner up was A.Dryml with E. Jancarz third, J.Stancl fourth and Z.Plech fifth.

Steve Bastable (13) took the British Final ahead of Kenny Carter (13) and John Louis (13), all three involved in a run off to decide final placings, but in the W.Final staged at Wembley, American Bruce penhall again proved triumphant scoring 14pts to beat Ole Olsen (12) and Tommy Knudsen (12) to claim the World Title.

Michael Lee (23pts) beacme the first Englishman to take the Longtrack Championship ahead of Christoph Betzl (21pts) and Anders Michanek (19pts). Rob Lightfoot won the British Junior Championship at Canterbury. He scored 14pts to beat P.Carr (13) and N.Evitts (11).

Kenny Carter scored a maximum 15 points, beating Chris Morton (13) and Shawn Moran (13) to win the B.L Riders Championship, whilst Mike Ferreira won the N.L Riders Championship, also scoring 15pts to beat runner up Simon Wigg (13) and third placed Bruce Cribb on 11.

Cradley (53pts) won the B.L Championship, runners up were Ipswich (46pts) and third Swindon (41pts). Middlesbrough (61pts) win the National League ahead of Weymouth (53pts) and Newcastle (51pts).

Ipswich took the S.Star KO Cup, Edinburgh claimed the N.L KO Cup (beating Berwick 101-89 on aggregate), Coventry the League Cup (beating K.Lynn 122-70 on aggregate) whilst Hackney won the London Cup. Canterbury took the N.L Best Pairs (beating Berwick in the Final) and Edinburgh claimed a double when they won the N.L Fours Title. They totalled 15pts to beat runners up Newcastle (13pts) and third placed Middlesbrough (11pts).

and Wolverhampton (9) Denmark won the World Team Championship held at Olching in W. Germany. They scored 36 pts to beat England 29, W.Germany 28, Soviet Union 3. Bobby Schwartz and Bruce Penhall win the World Best pairs for the USA. They scored 23pts topip runners up N.Zealand (22) by a single point. Third were Poland (21), fourth Czechoslovakia (18) 5th England (17) and 7th were W. Germany (3).

Bruce penhall topped the B.L averages on 11.08 ahead of Kenny Carter on 10.50 and Phil Crump's 10.39. Mike Fierra topped the N.L averages with 10.81 ahead of Steve Lawson's 10.53 and Mark Courtney on 10.41