The 1968 Season

During the winter, there were changes on the teams front, with Leicester taking over the promotion of Long Eaton, and Glasgow switching to Coatbridge. A British League still consisting of 19 teams meant that team building plans should have been kept to a minimum for 1968, but at the end of 1967, Bert Kingston announced his retirement after 3 seasons with the Dukes, and his serious injuries during his final season.  

In the early weeks of 1968 Dave Younghusband stunned the Dukes promotion by handing in a transfer request.  And in the build up to the season, Dennis Gavros was injured in a work-place accident, his wrist injury would ultimately rule him out of the first 3 months of the season.  A compromise was reached with Younghusband to ensure the powerful heat-leader trio from the previous 3 seasons would remain, whilst Greg Kentwell, Bob Jameson and Maury Robinson would all return for 1968.  But there was no return for Les Bentzen, who stayed in Australia.

The Dukes moved to plug the temporary loss of Gavros with the signing of Alan Jay on loan from Sheffield.  They also moved to bring in promising young Aussie Les Sharpe, and he started the season at reserve, with Robinson waiting in the wings...

The season itself settled down into a regular pattern - the Dukes were often convincing winners at home around the banks of The Shay, whilst struggling on their travels, with the top three being too heavily relied upon.  Boocock was still the talisman for the Dukes, but with more demands on his services on the International front, his scoring inevitably dipped from his stellar performances of 1967.  The team managed an away win at Glasgow in June, but otherwise were well beaten away from home, save for an end of season narrow victory at Cradley.

As Gavros returned, Jay was released, and Sharpe, clearly struggling with away tracks and bouts of hay-fever, was replaced for a period by Robinson.  But Gavros was inconsistent: a maximum against King's Lynn but zero against Poole a fortnight later summed up his season, as he failed to be the "4th" heat leader the Dukes were looking for.  Instead, it was Greg Kentwell who looked like stepping up - after a slow start to the season, he finally started hitting some big scores from August onwards, ending the season almost unbeatable.  

Success in the Knock-out cup eluded the Dukes again - having narrowly beaten Exeter at home, Halifax were predicatbly beaten on the road at Wolverhampton with Jay, Jameson, Sharpe and Robinson contributing a mere 5 points between them.

Boocock and Younghusband progressed in the individual World Championship, with Younghusband reaching a career-best British/Nordic Final, whereas Boocock, looking to reach a second World Final, progressed from that round to the final hurdle, the European Final in Poland - but Boocock was taken ill on the way to Wroclaw and was unable to take his place.

In the end, The Dukes managed a respectable 7th place in the League for the second season in a row, and only 5 points adrift of winners Coventry - but a dropped home point to Sheffield in June and the lack of away success proved the difference.

At the end of the season, it was announced that veteran club captain Eric Boothroyd would be retiring from racing.  After 4 successful seasons with the Dukes, Boothroyd would be joining Reg Fearman in the promotion and management of Halifax Speedway into the future.  Fearman was intending to open a track further south, with Reading looking the likely takeover, and Boothroyd would be more involved in the day-to-day running and meeting arrangements at The Shay going forward.

The heat details, scorers and reports for each meeting through the season can be found by clicking on the pages for each month.