King's Lynn Stars - History

History

The team has operated with a few different nicknames, including: the Knights; Silver Machine (as an additional nickname to the Knights) and the Stars. The team colours were originally green and yellow, taken directly from the Norwich Stars but in 1994 the green was replaced with blue, to match the blue and yellow of the King's Lynn official town crest. During their time as the Knights, silver and black became the prominent colours, but since reviving the Stars nickname they returned to using blue and yellow.

The promotion is run by Buster Chapman, a former junior rider at King's Lynn, who also owns the stadium (renamed the Norfolk Arena) at Saddlebow Road on the outskirts of King's Lynn. The team manager is Rob Lyon who in 2009 was selected to be Team Manager for the Great Britain team.

King's Lynn finished top of the Premier League table in 2006 but were the first such team not automatically crowned champions because it was the first season that the Premier League used the play-off system to decide the championship. However, the Stars beat the Sheffield Tigers in the play off final to be crowned champions. King's Lynn Stars also won the 2006 Premier Trophy and the 2006 Premier League Knockout Cup completing the treble for the year.

In 2007 the Stars once again won the Premier Trophy and Premier League Knock-out Cup. They also finished top of the Premier League table but that year the Stars were beaten by the Sheffield Tigers in the play-off semi-final. Rye House were ultimately crowned Premier League champions.

In 2008 the Stars were eliminated from the Premier Trophy and the Premier League Knockout Cup, but eventually finished third in the league. They then participated in the play-off promotion battle, where they lost on aggregate to Edinburgh in the final.

In 2009, for the second time in three years, the Stars won the treble: the first club ever to achieve this feat twice. The Stars were crowned league champions on 16 September 2009 but then lost on aggregate to the Edinburgh Monarchs in the promotion play-off final. The Stars also won the Premier Trophy on 30 September beating the Edinburgh Monarchs 99–92 on aggregate over two legs and in October the Stars won the Knock-Out Cup, beating the same Edinburgh Monarchs again on aggregate over two legs.

The 2010 season was hard hit by injuries to nearly all Stars riders and a dramatic drop off in form from the established heat leaders. King's Lynn ended up the season, trophy-less and left ownership pondering whether to make a move up from the Premier League.

The 2011 season saw King's Lynn move up to the Elite League, marking a return to the top flight of speedway for the Stars. Only Kozza Smith, Olly Allen and Tomas Topinka were kept on the squad, with the rest of the team brought in from other Elite squads. The Stars proved very competitive home and away and finished third in the League and qualified for the playoffs. They drew the Poole Pirates in the semi-finals but were crushed by the all conquering and eventual title winning Pirates. The season was a huge success on and off the track with crowds up from 2010 and the club competing with a team that most experts had deemed to finish close to the bottom of the pile before the season started

For the 2012 season, the Bjerre brothers returned to their parent club, Peterborough Panthers and the Stars and declined to renew with Olly Allen, who also joined the Panthers. The Stars picked up the highly rated young German, Kevin Woelbert who had shown great form when riding at Lynn with Edinburgh in the Premier League. Also the season sees the return of former Premier League favourite Daniel Nermark. To round out the starting 7 the Stars signed David Howe to double up and Polish flyer Maciej Janowski.