2005 Elite League speedway season

2005 Elite League speedway season
League	Sky Sports Elite League
Champions	Coventry Bees
Knockout Cup	Belle Vue Aces
Craven Shield	Oxford Silver Machine
Individual	Nicki Pedersen
Pairs	Swindon Robins
Highest average	Nicki Pedersen
Division/s below	Premier League; Conference League
	← 2004; 2006 →;

The 2005 Elite League speedway season was the 71st season of the top division of speedway in the United Kingdom and governed by the Speedway Control Bureau (SCB), in conjunction with the British Speedway Promoters' Association (BSPA).^[1]^[2]

Season summary

In 2005, the league consisted of ten teams, with the title being decided by a play-off between the top four.^[3]

Belle Vue Aces topped the regular season table and won the Knockout Cup. Their world champion rider Jason Crump was in superb form throughout the season. Fellow Australian Leigh Adams topped the league averages for Swindon for arguably the second consecutive season but it was Coventry Bees that experienced their first title success since the glory days of the late 1980s. Coventry had finished bottom of the table during the previous season and with the exception of finishing runner-up in 2003 had been starved of success. The club made a change that proved instrumental, they brought in Scott Nicholls from Ipswich and supported by Andreas Jonsson and Chris Harris the team defeated Belle Vue in the Elite League Play off final.^[4]

Final table

Pos		M	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Bon	Tot
1	Belle Vue Aces	36	24	0	12	1766	1520	48	13	61
2	Coventry Bees	36	23	0	13	1739	1605	46	13	59
3	Peterborough Panthers	36	21	2	23	1709	1598	44	12	56
4	Eastbourne Eagles	36	19	1	16	1658	1646	39	10	49
5	Poole Pirates	36	18	1	17	1666	1647	37	10	47
6	Ipswich Witches	36	16	3	17	1661	1672	35	9	44
7	Swindon Robins	36	17	2	17	1617	1675	36	7	43
8	Wolverhampton Wolves	36	14	2	20	1682	1647	30	10	40
9	Oxford Silver Machine	36	11	1	24	1550	1773	23	3	26
10	Arena Essex Hammers	36	11	0	25	1539	1804	22	3	25

= Qualified for Play Offs

Play-offs

Semi-Final decided over one leg. Grand Final decided by aggregate scores over two legs.

Semi finals

Belle Vue Aces 53-40 Eastbourne Eagles
Coventry Bees 55-41 Peterborough Panthers

Final

First leg

19 September 2005

Coventry Bees Sebastian Ułamek 11 Scott Nicholls 10 Morten Risager 9 Billy Janniro 8 Joonas Kylmäkorpi 8 Chris Harris 5 Martin Smolinski 3	54 - 41	Belle Vue Aces Jason Crump 21 Joe Screen 9 Andy Smith 4 Simon Stead 4 Rusty Harrison 2 Jason Lyons 1 R/R

Brandon Stadium

Second leg

26 September 2005

Belle Vue Aces Jason Crump 10 Joe Screen 9 Andy Smith 9 Simon Stead 7 Jason Lyons 4 Rusty Harrison 3 R/R	42 - 47	Coventry Bees Scott Nicholls 11 Chris Harris 9 Billy Janniro 8 Morten Risager 6 Sebastian Ułamek 5 Joonas Kylmäkorpi 4 Martin Smolinski 4

Belle Vue Stadium

The Coventry Bees were declared League Champions, winning on aggregate 101-83.

Leading averages

Rider	Team	Average
Leigh Adams	Swindon	10.42
Jason Crump	Belle Vue	10.35
Nicki Pedersen	Eastbourne	10.30
Scott Nicholls	Coventry	9.45
Peter Karlsson	Peterborough	9.48
Hans Andersen	Ipswich	9.44
Mikael Max	Wolverhampton	9.39
Greg Hancock	Oxford	9.32
Bjarne Pedersen	Poole	9.27
Lee Richardson	Swindon	8.85

Elite League Knockout Cup

The 2005 Elite League Knockout Cup was the 67th edition of the Knockout Cup for tier one teams. Belle Vue Aces were the winners of the competition.^[5]

First Round

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
21/04	Swindon	60-36	Poole
20/04	Poole	51-41	Swindon
07/04	Ipswich	55-40	Wolverhampton
04/04	Wolverhampton	37-53	Ipswich

Quarter Finals

Date	Team One	Score	Team Two
15/06	Arena Essex	51-40	Ipswich
12/06	Swindon	55-39	Coventry
26/05	Ipswich	52-42	Arena Essex
21/05	Eastbourne	59-36	Peterborough
20/05	Coventry	51-41	Swindon
19/05	Oxford	49-41	Belle Vue
16/05	Belle Vue	59-35	Oxford
13/05	Peterborough	56-37	Eastbourne