Halifax Dukes - 1968 Season - Finished 7th (39pts) Out of 19

Finished 7th (39pts) Out of 19

During the Winter of 1967/8, it looked as though the Dukes would track an almost identical team in 1968 to the 1967 side. Definitely gone were Bert Kingston who’d retired back to Australia, and Les Bentzen who’d decided against another year with the team. Complications then arose in the New Year when Dave Younghusband put in a transfer request, which was eventually resolved by promoter Reg Fearman and later, when Dennis Gavros damaged a wrist in a garage accident that would mean missing the start of the season. Ironic really, as the promising young second-string had decided not to return to race in Australia during the Winter in order to be ready for the new season in England.

Fortunately, Fearman was able to come up with a ready made temporary replacement in Alan Jay, a very useful rider at Sheffield for the past few seasons, but who’d been allowed to leave by the Owlerton management. Throw in a late announcement of the capture of yet another exciting young Australian, Les Sharpe - and this was on the personal recommendation of the great Aub Lawson. Then add the excellent form of Greg Kentwell in the Winter test series Down Under against the England touring side and suddenly the Dukes were looking like having a side with real potential. But would that translate to results?

The season started at the end of March with another trip to a strong looking Swindon Robins side. The Robins comfortably saw off the Duke’s challenge by 48-30, but Eric Boocock inflicted an early defeat on Swindon legend Barry Briggs on his way to an excellent 14 points. Boothroyd aside with a creditable 9 points however, the rest of the team found the going tough.

April saw the Dukes kick-off the home campaign with a good win against the Wolverhampton Wolves by 49-29 setting a trend for solid, comfortable home wins against Swindon, Belle Vue and Leicester during the rest of the month. Away, the team seemed to find another gear after the Swindon drubbing to go down to relatively narrow defeats at Sheffield, Leicester and the Wimbledon Dons. The top three were piling in the points again and Alan Jay was giving better support where a 10 point haul around his old stomping ground at Owlerton almost brought the Dukes a first away win of the year. Of the Aussies, Greg Kentwell was scoring well at home but didn’t yet seem capable of carrying that form onto the away tracks. Bob Jameson was very inconsistent and newcomer Les Sharpe was predictably taking time to find his feet in English speedway.

The end of April saw the Dukes see off a strong-looking Exeter Falcons side in the KO cup 57-50, but were well and truly walloped in a league fixture at the Falcons County Ground home a few days later. The writing was on the wall when Dave Younghusband dropped out of the team for domestic reasons, but even so no one was expecting the team to muster only 19 points as the home riders ran riot.

Progress in the KO cup was brought to an abrupt end later in May as a full Dukes side went down to a disappointing defeat at the Wolves by 47-60, the team again relying too heavily on their three heat leaders with the rest contributing just 10 points between them.

Early in June, the promotion ran a double header to catch up on some previous rain-offs. The Dukes quickly dispatched the Glasgow Tigers by 50-27 in the first match, and this despite a lowly 4 points from Boocock, who was in the middle of a spell of mechanical trouble with his bikes. The second match brought on the Sheffield Tigers who proceeded to snatch a 39-39 draw and dent the club’s previous 100% home record. This time it was Younghusband who was off the pace with only 4 points, and the rest of the side were unable to compensate in an exciting match leading to a last heat decider won by ‘Tigers’ star Bob Paulson. Alan Jay contributed a well-earned paid 9 points in what was to be his last home match following the return of a fit again Dennis Gavros.

Just as the Dukes’ management were coming to terms with dropping the home point against one set of ‘Tigers’, the trip north to face the Glasgow Tigers in the return match a few days later brought the smiles back on their faces. With Jay getting a couple of wins in his last match for the Dukes, a rare away win from Kentwell and a solid 5 paid 6 from Les Sharpe, there was finally some support for the heat leaders and the Dukes came away with a solid 44-34 victory. Maybe this was a turning point?

The next couple of months were to prove that these hopes were unfounded. Dennis Gavros immediately setted into a high scoring run at home with a paid max in his second match against Oxford Cheetahs who were soundly dispatched 56-22 and then scored a full max against King’s Lynn ‘Stars’ a couple of matches later. Unfortunately, he couldn’t match this on the away tracks, and as before the Dukes were unable to get effective support to the top three. Reserve Maurie Robinson was brought in for a while to replace youngster Les Sharpe and although more effective at the Shay, was also struggling to score significantly on away tracks.

The World Championship rounds had seen four Dukes riders through to the Semis, with Greg Kentwell joining Boocock, Younghusband and Boothroyd, but he found the going at Poole a little too tough and dropped out along with a disappointing performance from skipper Eric Boothroyd. Both Boocock and Younghusband represented Halifax in the British Final at Wimbledon where Eric was in fine form to clinch 3rd place with 13 points behind the formidable New Zealand pair of second place Barry Briggs and champion Ivan Mauger. Dave Younghusband had to fight hard for 6 points to see him through as last qualifier for the next round. This was as far as he went however, scoring just 1 point in the Nordic-British final and, although Boocock qualified easily for the European Final, he went down with travel sickness on his way to the event in Wroclaw, Poland and was unable to compete. A sad end to his world championship hopes.

Mid-Summer saw a plethora of international matches. First against the Russian tourists closely followed by internationals against Sweden and Poland leading up to the newly formed World League. Eric Boocock was now a regular in the England team, and missed a number of Halifax matches due to fixture clashes, and with Younghusband also out for a couple of weeks through illness during July the promotion was kept busy making sure that the Dukes had effective sides out. They were almost undone at the end of July when the Ivan Mauger led Newcastle Diamonds arrived at the Shay and left on the back of a very close 38-40 defeat. Fortunately Eric Boocock was back for this one and scored an impressive 15 point maximum as the Dukes used rider replacement for the missing Younghusband. This included the only defeat of Ivan Mauger all night and an impressive last heat win to snatch the points for the Dukes when he came from the back to beat young Danish newcomer Ole Olsen and experienced Dave Gifford. This match also heralded the return of a rejuvenated Les Sharpe to the team.

A bit of a spat with the landlords, the local Football Club, at the end of August enlivened things for promoter Reg Fearman. They seemed keen to take a bigger share of the proceeds from the healthy crowds still flocking to the Shay every Saturday, but he was able to fall back onto the original contracts and the Town directors backed down before anything serious could transpire.

The remainder of the season then settled down into the familiar pattern of generally comfortable home wins, and equally comfortable away defeats. Exeter, Poole and West Ham kept things reasonably close at the Shay before the Dukes embarked on season ending scoring spree seeing off Coatbridge Monarchs 51-27 and Hackney Hawks 54-24. The final home match was against regular ‘whipping boys’ of the time, Cradley Heath, and the team didn’t disappoint racing to a 56-22 win with Gavros, Younghusband and Boocock hitting paid maxima and Greg Kentwell scoring his second consecutive home full maximum to finish the season off in real style.

The reverse was true away from home, with big defeats at Newcastle (28-50) and Coatbridge (26-52) followed by a better performance at Waterden Road where they went down to the Hackney Hawks by 32-46. By co-incidence, the final away match was also against Cradley Heath and the Dukes brought their away campaign to an end with a good 41-37 victory to maintain their unbeaten record against the ‘Heathens’ at Dudley and finish seventh again in the table. Boocock and Younghusband were unbeaten by the home riders and Les Sharpe had a couple of seconds to emphasize his strong performances at the bottom end of the team as the season petered out.

So, all in all, it was an ‘as you were’ year for the Dukes. Seventh place again in the league was respectable and solid performances at home had kept the faithful happy. In the main, the team had avoided the injury plague of the previous year, but the lack of support for the top three away from home meant that a serious challenge for the top of the table never materialised. Boocock, Younghusband and Boothroyd were all slightly down in the averages from 1967, but were still as effective a heat leader trio as most teams could muster. Alan Jay had performed well while deputising for Gavros in the early months and had shown signs of providing the away support required. The promotion tried hard to keep him when Gavros finally returned, but the control board insisted on moving him to Newcastle. As in previous seasons the Aussie contingent were good at home but generally weak away. Dennis Gavros did well to come back mid-season and score competitively from the off, but he couldn’t drive on from his 1967 level, and Bob Jameson too seemed to stagnate. The red leathered Greg Kentwell was the one rider to significantly improve his average, and he finished off strongly which augured well for 1969. Les Sharpe too was a much more effective novice than Les Bentzen and his away performances in particular were very encouraging. Maurie Robinson had had another brief fling in the team mid-season, but had failed to establish himself, despite some encouraging meetings here and there.

At the end perhaps, we were left with more questions than answers. It was difficult to know where the promotion would take team building for the following year.

1968 Averages (League and Cup matches) :