Smederna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Club Information
Smederna

Track Address	Smedstadion Tommy Janssons väg Eskilstuna
Country	Sweden
Founded	1951
League	Elitserien
Website	Official site
Club Facts
Colours	Red, Black and White
Track size	335 metres
Track record time	58,3
Track record date	2005
Track record holder	Nicki Pedersen
Major Team Honours
League champions Pairs champions	1973, 1977 1972

Smederna is a motorcycle speedway club based in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The club competes in the highest speedway league in Sweden, Elitserien and race its home matches at Smedstadion outside of Eskilstuna. Smederna has won two Swedish team championships, in 1973 and 1977, and has been the home club of three individual world champions, Billy Hamill, Mark Loram and Nicki Pedersen.

1 History
2 Swedish team championships
3 Riders 2008
4 Former top riders
5 External links

[edit] History

In 1948 the speedway team Griparna (English: the Griffins) started to race in the Swedish leagues. The team was co-run by motorcycle sport clubs SMK Södermanland, Nyköpings MS and Eskilstuna MK and was based in Nyköping, however some of their home matches took place in Eskilstuna. 1951 the team changed name to Smederna (English: the Blacksmiths) and started to race all home matches in Eskilstuna. Until 1953 the home track had been Tunavallens B-plan which was not an actual speedway arena. But that year Smederna moved to the new speedway arena Snälltorpet. But Smederna would only race at Snälltorpet for a few years before closing the team down in 1955.

After eight years SMK Södermanland decided take up speedway again and in 1963 Smederna started in the third and lowest division in Swedish speedway. In 1967 the club advanced to the second division and in 1971 to the first and highest division. In the seventies Smederna would have its first and biggest time of glory with a couple of team championship medals. In 1973 Smederna managed to win the club’s first championship and in the following three years the team was participating in the medal fight with a silver medal in 1975 as highest result. In the spring of 1976 Smederna and the whole town of Eskilstuna was hit by a big tragedy when local superstar Tommy Jansson crashed to death in a world championships qualification at Gubbängen, Stockholm. It was a big blow for the speedway sport in the city and there was a big decrease in the attendance figures. In spite of the tragedy Smederna continued to be one of Sweden’s best speedway clubs for a couple of years with the gold medal in 1977 as best result.

In the eighties the interest for speedway decreased in Eskilstuna as well as in Sweden. Smederna had some internal problems in the beginning of the decade ending up with the club splitting up in two separate clubs, Smederna and Tuna Rebels. Smederna struggled to keep its place in the highest division (since 1982 called Elitserien)and was relegated to the second division in 1985 to 1986, 1988 to 1989 and 1992. In 1993 Smederna had once again advanced to Elitserien and this time the team finished on second place which was the best result in ten years. Smederna has since the season in 1993 managed to maintain their place in Elitserien. In 2002 the club moved to a new home track, Smedstadion, outside of Eskilstuna and in the first season Smederna had problems to make advantage of the new track but already in the following season Smederna won all but one of their home matches. The loss came in the Swedish team championship final against Kaparna. Smederna had to once again settle for a silver medal.

In the recent years Smederna has struggled with financial problems which has forced the club to downsize the squad and release a few top riders like Nicki Pedersen, Billy Hamill and Scott Nicholls

[edit] Swedish team championships

Gold: 2 (1973, 1977)
Silver: 5 (1951, 1952, 1975, 1993, 2003)
Bronze: 4 (1953, 1972, 1978, 1982)

[edit] Riders 2008

Name	Avg	Comment
Wiesław Jaguś	8,32
Jonas Davidsson	8,20	New from Rospiggarna
Krzysztof Kasprzak	6,84
Rory Schlein	6,10
Krzysztof Buczkowski	5,78
Kim Jansson	5,09	New from Kaparna
Robert Miskowiak	4,42
Linus Eklöf	2,70
Nicolai Klindt	2,28	New from Team Bikab

[edit] Former top riders

Name	Years	Notes
Olle Segerström	1951-1954
Bernt Persson	1964, 1966-1968, 1977-1983
Tommy Jansson	1969-1976	Swedish Champion 1974
Göte Nordin	1972-1973
Bengt Jansson	1973-1978
Olli Tyrväinen	1985-1997
Peter Nahlin	1986-1996, 2001-2004	World Junior Champion 1988
Billy Hamill	1991, 1993-2006	World Champion 1996
Mark Loram	1999-2000	World Champion 2000
Scott Nicholls	1998-2006
Nicki Pedersen	2002-2005	World Champion 2003