The Dukes in the World Championship 1966

The 1966 World Championship format changed slightly from 1965, with an extra European Final stage being introduced, with only 10 places available to join the 6 seeded home Swedish riders in Gothenburg.  British and Commonwealth riders competed in 3 qualifying rounds, with each BL track hosting a round, with the top 32 riders going onto 2 semi finals at Cradley and Halifax.  The top 8 from each meeting would qualify for the British Final at Wimbledon, with the top 8 from that meeting going forward to the European rounds.  A total of 8 Halifax riders took part, with varying degrees of success:

Dennis Gavros:  Competed in the qualifying rounds at Newcastle (3 points) and Halifax (8 points) but declined to take his place in a third round.

Bert Kingston:  Like Gavros, only took part in 2 rounds having only recently returned to the UK - scored 5 points at West Ham, followed by 8 in his home round at Halifax.

Bob Jameson:  Was meeting reserve for the Halifax round, scoring 4 points.

Greg Kentwell:  Like Jameson, took part in the Halifax round as reserve, scoring 1 point.

Tommy Roper:  Scored 3 points at Sheffield, 6 at Wolverhampton and 10 at Halifax, but his total of 19 points was not quite enough to qualify in the top 32 for the British Semi Finals.

Eric Boothroyd:  Qualified for the British Semi Finals after scoring 7 points at Newcastle, 13 at Long Eaton and 14 (2nd place) in his home Halifax round.  Was drawn in the Cradley Semi Final, but could only score 2 points and was eliminated.

Dave Younghusband:  Scored 9 points at Poole, 10 at Sheffield and 12 at Halifax to comfortably qualify for the semi finals.  Was drawn to race at Cradley and qualified for the British Final by scoring 11 points to finish 6th.  In the British Final however he could only score 2 points and was eliminated.

Eric Boocock:  Qualified for the British Semi Finals despite only participating in 2 qualifying rounds - but only dropped one point - a 15 point maximum at Oxford and 14 at Halifax, winning both meetings.  Safely negotiated the Semi Final at Cradley with 11 points to qualify for the British Final at Wimbledon, but could only score 8 points, and lost a run-off for the final 2 places.  Went to the British/Scandinavian Final at Sheffield in July as reserve and actually scored 6 points from 4 starts, being left to rue what might have been.