Halifax Dukes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Club Information
Halifax Dukes
Track Address	The Shay Shaw Hill Halifax
Country	England
Founded	1949
Closed	1985
Website	Halifax Dukes Website
Club Facts
Colours	Red and Blue
Track size	400 yards
Major Team Honours
National Trophy (Div 2) Winner British League Champions KO Cup Winner	1950 1966 1966

The Halifax Dukes were a Speedway team which operated from 1949 until their closure in 1985 at The Shay Stadium in Halifax. The team were nicknamed the 'Dukes' after the local Duke Of Wellington's regiment stationed in the town, and even used their elephant symbol on the race jacket.^[1]

A team called Halifax Nomads operated racing a few fixtures in 1948 and speedway had been staged at Thrum Hall before WW2.

On 8 February 1949 construction began on a new speedway track at The Shay. The team enjoyed good support during the opening season with a crowd of over 18,000 attending one meeting in September. However attendances soon dropped and at the end of the 1951 season the club closed. On 31 March 1952, Dukes promoter Bruce Booth announced the end of speedway 'while rates and taxation remains at the present levels'.

After a lengthy absence, the sport returned to The Shay in 1965 when Reg Fearman moved his Middlesbrough promotion. By the early 1970s, the Dukes were enjoying higher attendances than the Shaymen (Halifax Town). However, by the mid 1980s, Halifax Dukes and Halifax Town had financial disagreements and in 1986 The Dukes left The Shay and Halifax, moving to Bradford.

1965 Season

The 1965 season saw a major transformation for the sport. Previously the old National and Provincial Leagues had run as separate organisations with the Provincial League initially being unrecognised by the sports controlling authorities, but the gradual decline in numbers of the "official" National League during the early Sixties led to a reconciliation between the two bodies and the merger of the two leagues leading to the establishment of a single British League for the 1965 Season.

At the same time Reg Fearman, one of the leading promoters in the Provincial League, took the opportunity of opening up a new track at the Shay Grounds Halifax and entered the new league. This was a big, fast track laid around the existing Halifax Town football pitch with high banking around all corners - just the recipe for high speeds and exciting racing and a considerable advantage for the home riders.

As a result of the merger of the two leagues prior to the start of the season, a control body had been set up to "equalise" the teams. This was needed because the remaining National League sides had team strengths way above those of the Provincial League sides and a certain redistribution of star riders from the stronger to the weaker sides was recognised by all as a necessity to ensure a competitive new league. As with all such exercises, the process was highly contentious as promoters tried to ensure the strongest possible line up and riders (naturally) had preferences about where they wanted to ride.

From a Halifax perspective, this looked like a poor result. Reg Fearman had decided to close his operation at Middlesborough (performing as a mid-table side in the Provincial League) at the end of 1964, and as a result was able to bring some of those riders to the new Halifax side - these consisted of the up-and coming Dave Younghusband and Eric Boocock, and a steady middle order man in Clive Hitch. He'd also been able to persuade ex-England international Eric Boothroyd (now running a Grocer's business in Halifax) to come out of retirement and captain the new side. The rider control process had allocated the Dukes another ex-England international, Bryan Elliott from Coventry and the team was made up by a number of young, inexperienced Australians - Bert Kingston, Bob Jameson and later Dennis Gavros.

Most experienced observers predicted a year of struggle for the new team.