The Dukes in the World Championship 1970

The 1970 World Championship would culminate in the final in Wroclaw, Poland in September.  Before that, riders would have to negotiate several grueling rounds of eliminators, starting in the UK for the British and Continental riders with the usual rounds at each BL track at the end of April/beginning of May, with the top 32 qualifiers going to the semi finals at Sheffield and Leicester.  For the Dukes, it was a disappointing campaign, with a disastrous night at Sheffield ending the hopes of the three Halifax hopefuls.  Indeed, it was a bad qualifying campaign for most British riders, with only Trevor Hedge getting through to the final.  Six Halifax Dukes (plus Terry Lee as a reserve) started on the long road, their various exploits as follows:

Colin McKee:  Put his patchy Dukes form aside, as he scored 6 points at Sheffield, 13 at Glasgow and 12 at the Shay to qualify for the British semi-finals, where he was drawn at Sheffield.  But his road ended there, as he only managed to score 2 points.

Les Sharpe:  After being overlooked in the previous season, Sharpe was included in the qualifiers for 1970, and took his chance with three double-figure totals - 13 at Sheffield, 10 at Wolverhampton, and 14 at Halifax.  Like McKee, was drawn in the semi-final at Sheffield, and dipped out at that stage, having scored 7 points to finish 11th - although that made him the highest Duke for 1970.  Sharpe quit the sport less than 2 months later, so this was as far as he managed in the World Championship.

Alan Jay:  Two decent scores - 10 at Glasgow and 9 in his home leg - were ruined by a 2 point return in the Poole meeting, and Jay failed to make the top 32 qualifiers to progress.

Greg Kentwell:  Still affected by his ankle injury, the UK qualifiers came too early for Kentwell, as he failed to make the semi-finals.  Scores of 7 points at Poole and 6 at Oxford were followed by a disappointing 6 points at Halifax.

Terry Lee:  Lee was not included in the top 80 riders to be drawn in the qualifiers, but was used as reserve in the Halifax round, scoring 1 point.

Dave Younghusband:  Younghusband's 1970 challenge was ruined due to illness, when he was struck down by the flu, and was unable to take his place in his first two rounds at West Ham and Newcastle on consecutive nights.  Recovered to take his place and score 11 points in the Halifax round, but failed to make it to the semi finals.

Eric Boocock:  The Dukes main hope for honours, Boocock was in superb form for Halifax at the start of 1970, but mysteriously failed to convert that to a deep run in the World Championship.  10 points at Leicester, 15 at Wimbledon and 13 at Halifax saw him comfortably qualify for the semi finals, and drawn at Sheffield, he would have been among the favourites to qualify for the next round.  But like Sharpe and McKee, Boocock had a night to forget at Owlerton, scoring a mere 3 points, and that was the end of the road.

Wimbledon's Trevor Hedge was the only British rider to qualify for the World Final in Poland, where he failed to score and came 16th and last.  Belle Vue's Ivan Mauger won the title for the 3rd year running, the first rider to ever do so, beating the local challenge from Poles Waloszek and Woryna.