The Year began with the good news that Exeter Speedway was to remain at the County Ground until at least the end of the century, as a new lease agreement was agreed with the landlords. This came after rumours that the track, one of the oldest in Britain was about to close.

The Pay Policy was in force in 1993, and deadlines were set to sign riders. With this background, Exeter formed their team early. Out went Peter Jeffery who wanted to concentrate on Grasstrack, but then ended up at Swindon where he was released in May. Richard Green was also out, as he feared the new pay deals would leave him out of pocket and also out of the side was Colin Cook.

Newcomers included veteran Gordon Kennett, who was already an Exeter asset but whom Exeter hadn't been able to fit into the 1992 line up, and having stressed that his move depended on sponsorship. David Steen joined from Reading and both Scott Pegler and Tommy Palmer were brought into the side as reserves. Frank Smart was back from Australia and Ian Humphreys was back in the side, as were Skipper Paul Fry and Mark Simmonds.

But on practice day, Fry walked out having changed his mind about the contract and missed a few opening matches whilst things were settled.

After some early high scoring, Steen was out when he injured his hand, by which time both Fry and Green had returned to the side. Steen returned in May, which meant Palmer had to be dropped. Humphreys then made way for Palmer's return. The usual crisis of injuries struck Exeter once again with Smart breaking a wrist and Fry breaking his ankle whilst Grasstracking.

The England v Swededn Test match was held at the County Ground and hailed a success by many despite condemnation of track conditions by others. Sweden won the match, and Joe Screen set a new Track record of 65.8 beating Tony Olsson's record set the previous Year.

Hill applied for a work permit for former Falcon Vaclav Verner in July as the results went badly for the Falcons and they started to slide down the League table.

Then tradgedy struck Richard Green, who suffered damaged vetabrae that was eventually to end his riding days. Steen was then out with a damaged knee and also Smart who damaged his foot.

Vaclav joined a very weakened side just in time for Newcastle to win at the County Ground and inflict Exeter's seventh home defeat of the season.

The results looked bad for Exeter. On July 29th they travelled to Sheffield and lost 80-28, and then lost by exactly the same score the next night at Edinburgh where M.Coles scored a paid maximum for the Monarchs. Later in the season, Middlesbrough went one better and beat Exeter 81-27, a score that was repeated by Peterborough in Exeter's final match ofthe season.

Gordon Kennett lost interest and later linked up with Wolverhampton. Then came the news that Verner had serious injuries riding in Holland, things were going from bad to worse. By the end of the season, exeter had just avoided the wooden spoon, but it was to herald a period of struggling days at Exeter for a couple of seasons.

Elsewhere in 1993

Belle Vue won the Division one title in dramatic fashion as they win a final decider at Wolverhampton by 53-54, indeed, the championship was still in the balance going into the last Heat. Eastbourne ended up third with Arena Essex in fourth.

Per Jonsson of Reading scored 14pts to win the Div 1 Riders Final ahead of Henka Gustafsson of K.Lynn, (13pts) and Chris Louis of Ipswich (13pts), whilst Gary Allan won the Div 1 Riders Final ahead of Mick Poole and Tony Langdon.

Glasgow beat Swindon 118-98 to take the Phonesport Cup Final and also won the Div 2 Title from Long Eaton, Peterborough and Swindon to make it a double.

The USA win the World team Cup, their 40 points beat Denmark 38pts, Sweden 28pts and England 14pts. Sweden win the World Pairs scoring 26pts ahead of USA 23pts, Denmark 21pts, England 18pts, Poland 15pts, Australia 13pts and Hungary 10pts.

Sam Ermolenko (USA) is crowned World Champion in Pocking as he beats Hans Nielsen (Denmark) Chris Louis (England) and Henrik Gustafsson (Sweden). Pictured Left, Sam holds the World Championship Trophy as Hans Neilsen looks on.

Reading overcame Wolverhampton, Belle Vue and Arena Essex to win the Div 1 Fours title, whilst in Div 2 it was Edinburgh who got the better of Swindon, Long Eaton and Rye House.

Andy Smith became British Champion, runner up was Joe Screen whilst Gary Havelock was third. Joes Screen was hailed british U21 Champion, beating Carl Stonehewer and Dave Norris in the final before going on to win the World U21 title in Pardubice after a run off for first place with Mikael Karlsson of Sweden. Third place went to Norwegian Rune Holta after he had won a run off with Piotr Baron of Poland.

Leigh Adams (Australia) had won the Commonwealth Final ahead of England's Andy Smith and Martin Dugard. Dugard however went on to win the Overseas Final, his 13pts beating Joes Screen (10pts) and Ronnie Correy (10pts).

Reading (27pts) won the Div 1 Fours Title from Wolverhampton (25pts), B.Vue (11pts) and A.Essex (9pts) and in Div 2 it was Edinburgh (22pts) Swindon (20pts) Long Eaton (18pts) and Rye House (12pts) whilst Bradford win the S.Star KO Cup final beating Arena Essex 111-105.

Pictured Right, Division 2 Champions Edinburgh celebrate after winning the Title. They completed a double having already won the Fours Title. Pictured far Right is Michael Coles.

Simon Wigg won his fourth World Longtrack Championship, Gary Allan (Swindon) won the Div 2 Riders Championship ahead of Mick Poole (Peterborough), Tony Langdon (Oxford) and Paul Thorp (Newcastle).

In Div 1, Sam Ermolenko (Wolverhampton) topped the end of season averages on 11.26 ahead of Per Jonsson (Reading) on 10.30 and Hans Nielsen (Coventry) on 10.11. In Div 2, Jason Crump (Swindon) is top on 10.67 ahead of R.Nagy (Glasgow) 10.24 and third Jan Staechmann (Long eaton) also on 10.24