1973 Miscellany

Other Fixtures:  

In addition to a full league programme the Dukes were involved in numerous other matches during 1973.  A home and away victory over Coatbridge in the Watson Cup looked to set the scene for a fine season ahead, whilst defeats at Sheffield and Belle Vue in the Northern Trophy set expectations back.  The home fixtures in the Northern Trophy were first postponed, and then abandoned later in the season, before being completed in September, with Sheffield winning at the Shay to take the trophy.

The 4-Team Tournaments and Pairs contests of previous seasons were lost, as the wet weather played havoc with the fixtures, although the Shay was chosen to stage 2 fixtures in the much-anticipated International Tournament, with Poland defeating the Soviet Union, but then being heavily beaten by eventual runners-up Sweden.  An England test side also defeated Scotland in a late-season fixture.

The details of the above matches can be found in the archive pages for the 1973 season.

Individual Meetings:

Halifax staged four individual meetings during 1973, with Dukes' stars successful in two of them.  John Titman won the early season round of the Northern Riders Championship (he also won at Coatbridge, and Eric Boocock won the round at Sheffield too).  Boocock, meanwhile, reclaimed the Dews Trophy after missing out to Ole Olsen for the previous two seasons, winning the trophy after a run-off with Ray Wilson.  Wilson's Leicester colleague John Boulger stormed to victory in the World Championship qualifier in May, whilst Reading number one Anders Michanek added to the league title his Racers had won by taking the season-end Autumn Classic with a 15 point maximum.  Details of individual heat results and scores can be found on the respective archive pages for 1973.

The Juniors/Second-Half Riders:  

During 1973, the following riders took part in various junior and second half races at The Shay - many thanks to:

Ian Cartwright, Billy Burton, Ken Ransley, Mick Newton, Ettienne Olivier, Ken Stafford, Andy Cusworth, Eddie Argall, Dave Kitchen, Dave Parkin, Dennis Gavros, Alan Davison and Col Rogerson.

Golden Helmet Match-Race Championship:

During the 1973 season, Dukes riders were involved in the match-races on numerous occasions, largely due to Eric Boocock's extended run as holder mid-season.  Boocock eventually lost the title in his wretched last 10 days of his season - out of the World Championship in controversial circumstances, he then lost the Helmet to Ivan Mauger, before his season-ending injury at Newport.  Changes to the format of the Golden Helmet match races from the start of 1974 meant that the contest would now be on a monthly challenger basis, and as such, no Dukes riders would be involved in the competition for several seasons. Details of the various races are as follows: