This was the 75th Anniversary of Speedway at Exeter, and Colin Hills 20th year as Promoter of Exeter, and seemingly the last at the County Ground. With the lease due to Expire at the end of the season, everyone waited eagerly for news of a new site that was in the pipeline.

Australian Mark Lemon, a Poole assett joined the team from neighbouring Somerset having actually ridden second half races at the County Ground when he first came to England back in 1990 before signing up with Poole. Michael Coles was back in the side after his long spell out from the previous June with a back injury along with Seemond Stephens, Mark Simmonds, Roger Lobb, Graeme Gordon (from Somerset) and Nick Simmons.

The Falcons got the season underway with a 43-50 away win at Newport in the Premier Trophy and demolished the Wasps in the return leg winning 63-29 and early confidence was running high in the Exeter camp. They also went well at Rye House in the same trophy going down 51-39 before soundly beating Somerset at home by 60-35, where mechanical problems saw M.Coles score just 4 points. M.Lemon scored a full maximum to help the Falcon's win 44-45 at Somerset and a paid maximum the following Monday as the Exeter side demolished K.Lynn 65-29, both matches in the P.L Trophy competition. Mark also won the Westernapolis meeting scoring 14pts to beat Chris harris (13) and Craig Watson also on 13pts.

Mike Coles suffered another bad spill during a 58-36 defeat at Reading, but was still able to ride the following Monday as the Falcons were pushed hard, winning by just 48-45. A blow was struck when high flying Mark Lemon crashed heavily in the home match with Newcastle in the latter part of May and aggrevated a knee injury that later required surgery. Added to this, young Nick Simmons had been sidelined for a few weeks with a broken hand, his place being taken over by another youngster, P.Candy.

Mike Spearpoint had joined the management team and was placed as co-ordinator for the new proposed stadium as well as assisting Colin Hill in other areas.

Exeter repeated their double win over Newport to progress to the next round of the KO Cup and came close to a shock win at the IOW going down 45-44 in a thrilling encounter.

The injuries began to mount as Graeme Gordon (guesting for Poole) and Mark Simmonds recieve injuries promptly followed by Seemond Stephens who demolished the fence at Stoke. He was back in action the following Monday but in obvious discomfort. During this spell, Exeter lost at Stoke 36-57, and the following Monday, the depleted Falcons slumped again to Stoke at the County Ground by 43-50.

There was another heavy defeat at runaway league leaders Hull, where the Falcons crashed 27-65, before Exeter's fortunes changed and they took a stronghold on a Premier Trophy final place by beating Sheffield 64-30 in the first leg at the County Ground. The second Leg saw Exeter lose 56-38, and the Falcon's had clinched that Final showdon spot.

Meanwhile, in the KO Cup, another double over Sheffield saw Exeter progress to the semi Finals with Mark Lemon making his return with a paid maximum, Exeter winning 99-86 on aggregate.

In the Premier Trophy Final first leg, the Falcon's narrowly lost at Reading by 46-43 where Mark lemon again turned on the style to score a paid fourteen from five rides. Mike Coles's drop in averages saw him at reserve berth for the first time in many years, but it paid dividends as he scored a paid ten points. In the second leg at the County Ground the following night, a huge all round team performance saw Exeter win comfortably 59-35 to lift the Trophy.

One dark cloud hanging over Exeter's triumph was the news that Colin Hill's illness had worsened, and immediately the team dedicated their win to him.

Shortly afterwards it is announced that Exeter's new home for the 2005 season would be at the Westpoint Showground on the outskirts of Exeter - but the County ground wasn't going to go that easily as future events unfurled.

During their final P.L match of the season, the Falcons made a piece of history when they totally whitewashed Rye House 75-18, scoring 5-1's in every Heat. It had been done before, but the Falcon's were the first club to achieve it twice. In 2000, they beat Arena Essex by 75-15, and oddly enough, apart from Mark Lemon and Nick Simmons, the same riders were involved.

Some might say it was dissappointing of Former Falcon (now in charge of Rye House) Len Silver to blame the hiding on the condition of the track, many of us recall how well he rode it regardless of the conditions.

Exeter's Mark Lemon took second place in the P.L Riders Championship final behind the eventual winner Andre Compton of Sheffield.

Exeter failed to make the top eight in the League, thus missing out on a play off placing, and despite building a 23 point cushion in their first Semi Final Leg KO Cup tie against high flying Hull, they lost the away leg 35-62 and thus the curtain was brought down on the 2004 season.

The year saw the passing away of two former Exeter Greats in the form of Jimmy Squibb and Clif Cox, and then on the 30th October, Colin Hill sadly died after his long battle with cancer. Having kept Speedway at the County Ground for 20 seasons, the County Ground and Speedway had lost one of it's great characters.

David Short, who had been Co-Promoting during Colin's illness took over the reins and the County Ground was to see one more season of action after a temporary lease had been negotiated. Team building began for the 2005 season with the return of Mark Lemon and Seemond Stephens and the signing of Pavel Ondrasik and Jernej Kolenko soon followed. Popular Lee Smethills was returning and also rejoining were Nick Simmons and Antonin Svaab who had made his debut with Exeter back in 1994.

As the 2005 season approached to bring the final curtain down on the County Ground, two of its most loyal servants in Michael Coles and Mark Simmonds found themselves without a team placing after both had held the record for the most appearances and highest point scores during the County Grounds long history.

Track record 64.3 by M.Loram on April 1996

Elsewhere in 2004

In the E.L Pairs staged at Swindon, it was the Swindon pairing of Leigh Adams and Charlie Gjedde who took the trophy beating B.Vues Jason Crump and Joe Screen in the Final.

Tony Rickardsson (Poole) quit British Speedway as did Ronni Pedersen of A.Essex whilst Ritchie Hawkins won the British U-21 Championship. He beat Steve Boxall and Edward kennett in the Final. Robert Miskowiak won the Final of the World U-21 Championship, beating Kenneth Bjerre and Matej Zagar in a Final where no Brits were involved.

Readings Danny Bird and Phil Morris take the P.L Pairs title, they beat the Stoke pairing of Paul Pickering and Alan Mogridge with Chris Neath and Scott Robson of Rye House claiming third spot.

Joe Screen won the Championship of Great Britain. He beat Dave Norris into second place with Mark Loram third. Craig Watson won the P.L Champions Chase, he beat John Jorgensen and Matej Zagar. Roy Schlein won the Scottish open from Dave Howe, Shane Parker T.Piper.

Mildenhall were crowned Conference league Fours Champions scoring 16 points to beat Newcastle (13), Wimbledon 13 and Stoke 6. Workington scored 29pts to take the P.L Fours Title ahead of runners up Stoke (20), Glasgow (12) and Rye House (11).

Team Gt Britain powered into the World Cup Final when they won their group meeting on 58pts to comfotably beat Sweden (50pts), Poland (39pts) and Hungary (6pts). Top man for Gt Britain was Mark Loram scoring a full 18pt maximum. But they had to be content with runners up spot in the Final as Sweden clinch the trophy. The Swedes scored 49 pts to pip Britain who scored 48 with Denmark third on 32pts and Poland Fourth on 22pts.

Andre Compton won the Final of a very contraversial P.L riders final ahead of Exeter's Mark Lemon, whilst in the Conference League Riders Championship, Buxton's James Wright dropped a single point to score 14pts ahead of Mark Burrows(12) and Richard Hall (12), sfter a run off for second place.

Jason Crump was at last crowned World Champion, finishing the Grand Prix series with 158pts ahead of Tony Rickardson on 155pts, Greg Hancock on 137pts and Leigh adams fourth on 131pts.

Poole beat Wolverhampton 112-71 on aggregate to win the Elite League title having won both the legs, and then went on to win the E.L KO Cup final beating Ipswich 99-87 on aggregate.

Bjarne Pedersen took the E.L Riders Championship. In the Final, he beat Ryan Sullivan, Hans Andersen Rory Schlein amidst some contraversay when several top riders decided not to partake.

Whilst Poole were dominating the Elite League, Hull were masters of the Premier League winning the P.League Championship, beating the I.O.W 99-91 to win the P.L K.O Cup and won the Young Shield when they beat Reading 104-85 over two Legs.

Mildenhall beat Boston 116-58 on aggregate to win the Conference League K.O Cup that completed the double having won the League Title on 42 pts ahead of runners up Rye House on 38pts and third placed Oxford on 34pts.

Kelvin Tatum finished runner up to Gerd Riss in the World Longtrack Final after a last lap engine failure with Tatum's machine handed Riss the Title. Jon Armstrong won the Yorkshire Junior open after a run off with Joel Parsons, both having scored 14 points whilst Third place went to Paul Cooper who scored 13pts.

In other domestic titles, M.Lemon won the Westernapolis (Exeter) and Pride of the Potteries (Stoke), Adam Shields the 16 Lap Classic (Ipswich) and the Euphony Classic (Reading) Stuart Robson the Ace of hearts (Rye House), Simon Stead the Northern Classic (Sheffield), David Howe the Olympique (Wolverhampton) Davey Watt the Pride of the East (K.Lynn), Carl Stonehewer the Ashfield Classic (Glasgow), Sam Ermolenko the Bordernapolis (Berwick), Jason Lyons the Cumberland Classic (Workington), and Craig Watson the Welsh Open (Newport).