Panthers' press officer and historian Dick Butler has reached 1983 in his trawl through the speedway archives...
PANTHERS lost one top rider but gained another ahead of this campaign.
Andy Hines waved goodbye after six years at the Showground to try his luck at British League level with Ipswich, but Panthers moved quickly to draft in Oxford ace Ashley Pullen
as a replacement.
There were no complaints about the majority of Pullen's performances when he did appear as he topped the averages, but a couple of no-shows blotted his copybook and led to a long suspension.
Panthers finished 12th in the National League standings and failed to register a single away success for the second successive season.
They managed just one draw on the road which came at Stoke.
WEYMOUTH WRECKERSPanthers started the season well until bogey team Weymouth inflicted a 49-47 Showground defeat in mid-April.
A KO Cup first round exit at the hands of Mildenhall followed before Dave Allen and Pullen were knocked out in the qualifiers at the National League Pairs Championship.
SCOTS TOO HOTPanthers embarked on the traditional Scottish tour made up of meetings at Edinburgh on Friday, Berwick on Saturday and Glasgow on Sunday – and returned south with their tails between their legs after three drubbings. The 37 points they managed at Edinburgh was their highest return.
Panthers' misery was compounded when they threw away a 14-point lead to be held to a draw by Middlesbrough on their return to Alwalton.
RAIN PAINPanthers lost five successive matches due to the British weather in the space of nine soggy days during May – two at home and three on the road
MAUGER HEADACHEKym Mauger, the son of legendary six-time world champion Ivan, made a cameo appearance for the city club.
He stepped in to the breach when Pullen failed to arrive for an away meeting at Exeter and scored four of the Panthers points during a disastrous 74-22 defeat.
Ian Barney was the only visiting rider to win a race that night and top-scored with a paltry seven points. Panthers conceded a dozen 5-1s during a then-record reverse.
MORE MISERYThat drubbing was not alone in a difficult season on the road. Panthers also got tanked 66-30 at Crayford, 65-31 at Weymouth and 64-32 at Rye House.
HOME HIGHSPanthers gave Exeter a dose of their own medicine by dishing out a 67-27 home thumping to the West Country side. A 64-32 win over Milton Keynes and a 63-33 success against Glasgow were also memorable.
