The 1977 Season

The year of the Queen's silver jubilee, punk rock and the death of Elvis.  The Gulf British League would retain 19 teams, but with one change, as Newport were finally evicted from their Somerton Park home after a long battle with their landlords.  The Newport management moved the team over the Severn Bridge, setting up at Eastville in Bristol, to become the Bristol Bulldogs, although a Newport team would compete in the National League for one final season.

The Dukes looked to put the disappointment of 1976 behind them, retaining the bulk of the team, now injury free, but hopefully with some improvements.  Charlie Monk moved on, joining Berwick in the National League, after the injury and dispute with the Dukes in late 1976.  And Andy Cusworth opted to ditch his ties with both Halifax and Newcastle, taking a German licence and deciding to ride on the continent.  Chris Pusey was back to lead the team again, although he missed the start of the season - after spending some of the winter in the USA, his flight back to the UK was cancelled.  Mike Lohmann and Graham Plant, now fully fit, plus the returning Ian Cartwright and Henny Kroeze would make up a strong top five.  The Dukes brought in Pusey's brother Geoff, surplus to requirements at Belle Vue, and looked overseas to bring in promising Tom Godal from Norway.  Steve Finch would continue to double up for the Dukes as number 8, splitting his time between Halifax and Ellesmere Port.

The season opening Northern Trophy passed the Dukes by - they won their opening fixture against Hull, but lost the other five, the last at Sheffield coming in September after early season rain.  But the league was the important goal, and that is what the Dukes had set out to do well in... but they lost their first home fixture to Wolverhampton, and slumped to heavy defeats on the road, including a record loss at Swindon as the alarm bells started to ring.

Home form continued to be good, and with Pusey, Plant and Kroeze hitting maximums, hopes were high that the Dukes could push on.  But Lohmann broke a collar bone in a crash as the Dukes won at Coatbridge in the Inter-League Cup, and worse was to follow when Kroeze suffered a season-ending broken leg in the Continental Final in Russia in June.  Mick McKeon was signed on loan from Coatbridge to cover for Lohmann, and when the Dane returned, it was Geoff Pusey who was surplus to requirements, as Halifax struggled to get a settled 1-7.

From then on, the team collapsed - the Dukes were allowed a guest for the injured Kroeze, but conspired to lose at the Shay to Belle Vue, Exeter, Cradley Heath, White City and Reading, and with not a single win on the road all season, they tumbled down the league table, eventually finishing a worst ever 17th of 19 teams, with only struggling Birmingham and the unlucky Leicester below them, as they managed only 12 wins in the league all season.  

The Dukes made several attempts to strengthen the team, but nothing changed.  There was talk of promising American star Bruce Penhall - good friends with Chris Pusey - joining after travelling to the UK for a World Championship round, but despite the signing being announced, Penhall was on a plane back to the States, whilst Czechs Ales Dryml and Jan Verner were both on the verge of signing at one point - but neither actually pulled on a Dukes jacket.

Following the victory at Coatbridge, the Dukes were drawn against Ipswich in the Inter-League Cup, but in a saga that dragged on for months, no date could be found to stage the tie, and the Dukes eventually withdrew from the competition.  They fared no better in the Knock-out Cup, as Reading defeated them home and away, as an unlikely comeback to end all comebacks in the second leg was aborted by a deluge - Reading subsequently won the restaged leg.

As far as the World Championship was concerned, Kroeze was clearly the best hope for a World Final appearance, but that ended with his broken leg in Togliati.  And for the first time ever, the Dukes had no representative in the British Final, as both Chris Pusey and Steve Finch fell at the semi-final stage.

Like the previous season, Chris Pusey led from the front, missing only a handful of fixtures, and still hitting a 9 point-plus average, although his form and attitude was erratic, becoming disgruntled about the state of away tracks and some of the travelling.  Mike Lohmann improved to become the main back-up for Pusey, whilst Ian Cartwright put his 1976 troubles behind him to be an ever-present and boost his average to over 6 points.  Graham Plant returned well after his injury the previous season, but seemed to lose confidence after dislocating a shoulder in a challenge match, and no longer looked heat-leader material, slipping to fifth in the Dukes averages, with his away form causing particular concern.  Steve Finch and Mick McKeon impressed when called upon, and who knows what Kroeze would have been able to achieve had he avoided injury - a return to his 1976 scoring would certainly have boosted the Dukes in a way that guest riders could never hope to.  And the Tom Godal experiment didn't seem to work. A string of low scores landed him at reserve, from where, he never left for the rest of the season, although a couple of late season higher scores suggested there might be a rider there after all. After previous seasons of ditching overseas imports, to their credit, the Dukes stuck by Godal all season.  Overall, the worst season Halifax had seen.

Once again, no progress had been made, and if the Dukes wanted to return to the glory days of the mid-1960s, something was going to have to change as 1978 beckoned...

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