1969 Miscellany

Other Fixtures:  

The Dukes were involved in seven challenge matches during 1969 - home and away against Sheffield and Belle Vue at the start of the season - predictably winning at home and losing away.  A further mid-season home and away challenge was raced against Leicester, with the Dukes coming out on top overall, with a final end of season fixture against Sheffield seeing out the decade.  Halifax also hosted the fourth test match of the series between Great Britain and Sweden, with the hosts coming out as victors.  Details of each match can be found in the archive pages for 1969.

Individual Meetings:  

The Shay staged 4 individual meetings during 1969, full details of heats and scores available in the archives.  Incredibly, Eric Boocock, proving his status as one of the leading riders in the league, won 3 of the 4, his only defeat coming in the Dews Trophy at the end of April, where Sheffield's Jim Airey took the title with a 15 point maximum.  Otherwise, Boocock was not to be denied, winning the World Championship qualifier (15 points), the Dairy Festival Trophy (14) and the Halifax round of the Northern Riders Championship (15).

The Juniors/Second-Half Riders:  

During 1969, the following riders were involved in second half races - with Terry Lee and Ian Bottomley getting opportunities in the Dukes side on several occasions.  In addition to Lee and Bottomley, we were grateful to witness the efforts of Bob Tarbert, Glyn Blackburn, Dave Durham, Rob Jackson, Chris Blythe, Malcolm Mackay, Bernard Hammond, Dave Kumeta, Ian Armstrong, Flash Roberts, John Spilsbury and Tim Swales.

Silver Sash Match-Race Championship:

Dukes riders were involved in the Silver Sash match race on 9 occasions during 1969 - with skipper Eric Boocock winning on 4 occasions, most notably defeating Barry Briggs at Swindon at the start of the season.  On one rare occasion that Boocock did not top score for Halifax, away at Belle Vue, it was left to Greg Kentwell to take on World Champion Ivan Mauger.  Details of the various races are as follows:

The Silver Sash match race title was ended at the end of 1969, and was re-vamped for the 1970s as the Golden Helmet, with Ivan Mauger being the over-winter holder into the 1970s.