The Dukes in the World Championship 1971

The road to the 1971 World Final, to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, would see 10 qualifiers join the 6 Swedish riders for the big night in September.  The British rounds started at Halifax in mid-April, and over the next 2 weeks, the 32 qualifiers for the British Semi Finals would be determined.  Thereafter, a long route to reach Gothenburg awaited, through the British Final at Coventry, British/Nordic Final at Glasgow and European Final at Wembley.  The top Dukes started their attempts to progress in the first round at the Shay - their various exploits are detailed as follows:

Alan Jay:  Scored only 4 points in the Halifax round, and suffering from a virus, opted to not take his place in the remaining rounds.

Terry Lee:  Included in the qualifying rounds for the first time.  Lee scored 5 points in the Halifax round and added a further 2 points at Leicester and 3 points at Oxford, but failed to progress to the semi finals.  It was Lee's only attempt at the World Championship, as he retired mid-way through the season.

Paul O'Neal:  Started his campaign well with 10 points at Halifax, but failed to capitalise, scoring only 2 at Exeter and 7 at Leicester, and didn't have enough to go forward.

Malcolm Mackay:  Was not included in the main draw, so only participated in the Halifax round as reserve, scoring 4 points.

Chris Bailey:  Despite being crowned New Zealand champion during the winter, Bailey was overlooked for a position in the UK qualifiers - however he would have been unable to participate in any event due to his early season wrist injury.

Greg Kentwell:  Agonisingly missed out on the semi finals by a point, having scored 6 points at Halifax, 7 at Reading and then an impressive 12 at West Ham.

Dave Younghusband:  Won the Halifax round with a 15 point maximum, and followed it up with 12 at Exeter and 8 at Sheffield to comfortably make the semi finals.  Was drawn in the Owlerton semi final, and progressed on 8 points to claim the final place in the final.  At Coventry, scored 7 points to progress (8th place) to the British/Nordic final at Glasgow.  This was to prove the end of the road, as he scored 7 points to finish 10th - but only 8 went forward to the European Final at Wembley.

Eric Boocock:  Once again, the Dukes' number one went all the way to the World Final.  Progressed from the UK qualifiers with 10 points at Halifax, followed by maximums at Exeter and Sheffield.  Like his team-mate Younghusband, returned to Owlerton and scored 13 points to finish 4th.  At the British FInal at Coventry, Boocock scored 6 points to finish 10th, but with 12 to qualify, he was safely through to Glasgow.  Whilst Younghusband's journey ended in Scotland, Boocock moved on, scoring 9 points at Hampden.  At Wembley, he ensured qualification for Gothenburg with 10 points and 5th place.  His hopes were high for success on the big night, but Boocock ultimately had a disappointing World Final, scoring only 4 points - pointless from his first 2 heats, he won heat 9, but then could only add a further point, ending the night in 11th place.  

Denmark's Ole Olsen capped a stellar season by taking the title for the first time with a perfect 15 point maximum at Gothenburg, with Ivan Mauger defeating Bengt Jansson in a run-off for 2nd place after both had finished on 12 points.