The rider control process had allocated the Dukes one 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.

This feeling was initially confirmed when the team failed to make an impression in their first away matches at the Belle Vue Aces and Newport Wasps before opening their gates at the Shay to an enormous 5-figure crowd on 17 April.

[1] Success at the Shay was not long in coming however and the Dukes soon beat off the challenge of the Newport Wasps and Coventry Bees before recording a comfortable 43-34 win over local rivals the Sheffield Tigers.

During this period the team forced home 39-39 draws with Swindon Robins and Glasgow Tigers before taking a narrow one-point win 39–38 against future champions, the West Ham Hammers.

[1] Substantial home wins were now becoming the norm, culminating in a 62-16 thrashing of a sorry Cradley Heath Heathens side on 10 July with Boocock, Younghusband, Roper and Elliott all gaining full or paid maximums.

[1] Overall, the weakish looking team at the start gelled over the early part of the season, added some strength in Roper midway through the year and finished almost as strongly as the League Champions, West Ham.

Boocock and Younghusband had justified the promotor's faith by developing into established British League stars, and Eric Boothroyd had taken on the mantle of captain with aplomb – both in encouraging the younger riders and in delivering match winning performances in support of the top two.

Success therefore looked like depending on the heat leaders from the previous season maintaining their progress, and for last years Aussies (Kingston, Gavros and Jameson) building on their experience from 1965 and taking significant steps forward.

However, after a good 41-37 win over last years champions the West Ham Hammers in their first home league encounter, the team surprisingly lost 38-40 in their next match at the Shay to the Newcastle Diamonds.

It began to look as though the bubble might have burst at the start of July when the Dukes lost heavily at both title rivals Coventry Bees (25-52) and Swindon Robins (29-49) in successive weeks - the ex-national sides heat leader strength proving too much even for the emerging Eric Boocock to master.

Despite the lack of the two Erics, sterling performances from Dave Younghusband and Tommy Roper plus significant contributions from guest riders Ron Mountford and Cyril Maidment brought two further away wins at the Oxford Cheetahs and Hackney Hawks.

The only cloud on the horizon were a couple of official protests after the wins at West Ham (about the use of Kingston at reserve) and Hackney (about the injury to Eric Boothroyd), but the authorities eventually found in favour of the Dukes so the points were secure.

Various rumours circulated at the start of the year, but Reg Fearman was clearly under pressure to make a concession and after some hard negotiations, Tommy Roper was whipped over the Pennines to bolster the Belle Vue Aces following the retirement of captain Dick Fisher.

Maurie Robinson and untried Aussie newcomer Les Bentzen had been drafted in to cover for the injured riders, but realistically were hard pressed to match the expected scores from Kingston and Jameson.

The month also saw the departure of Maurie Robinson from the team with a badly broken thumb following an horrendous smash at the Shay in the match against the Sheffield Tigers where the unlucky (or maybe very lucky) rider hit the fence hard and was thrown into the crowd.

After winning his opening ride, Younghusband joined fellow Halifax riders Eric Boocock and Dennis Gavros in walking out of the meeting in protest at the track conditions despite the referee ruling that the match should progress.

Only regular to miss out was Greg Kentwell, who had sailed back to Australia a couple of weeks earlier, and fittingly Bert Kingston scored his first league paid maximum for the club in what was to be his last match in England.

Complications then arose in the New Year when Dave Younghusband put in a transfer request, which was eventually resolved by promoter Reg Fearman and later, when Dennis Gavros damaged a wrist in a garage accident that would mean missing the start of the season.

Progress in the KO cup was brought to an abrupt end later in May as a full Dukes side lost to the Wolves by 47-60, the team again relying too heavily on their three heat leaders with the rest contributing just 10 points between them.

Eric Boocock was now a regular in the England team, and missed a number of Halifax matches due to fixture clashes, and with Younghusband also out for a couple of weeks through illness during July the promotion was kept busy making sure that the Dukes had effective sides out.

This included the only defeat of Ivan Mauger all night and an impressive last heat win to snatch the points for the Dukes when he came from the back to beat young Danish newcomer Ole Olsen and experienced Dave Gifford.

By co-incidence, the final away match was also against Cradley Heath and the Dukes brought their away campaign to an end with a good 41-37 victory to maintain their unbeaten record against the "Heathens" at Dudley and finish seventh again in the table.

As usual the season started with a 34-43 away defeat at Swindon, but there was encouragement in the way that Eric Boocock twice beat Barry Briggs, relieving him of the Silver Sash match race title in the process, and the consensus[according to whom?]

Good home wins against Wolves (43-35) in the Cup and Swindon (50-28) kept the momentum going but defeats at Belle Vue (28-50) and Exeter where the "Falcons" won by 43-35, despite an incredible 17 point haul by Boocock, held the team back.

May followed the same pattern with big home wins against West Ham and Newport before Coventry, who put up a much better showing than their first visit, were beaten again in the KO cup at the start of June by 43-35 as Dave Younghusband hit form with a good ten points.

During this difficult spell, the ultimately all-conquering Belle Vue "Aces" arrived at the Shay on 20 June and snatched a 41-37 win where the "Dukes" were handicapped by the loss of Dave Younghusband to an injury in an International match the previous night.

Not too much judging by the result of the first home match, a big 55-23 drubbing of the Poole "Pirates" with Boocock and Jay unbeaten by the opposition, Younghusband taking three wins and encouraging 8 and 6 point contributions from O'Neil and Bailey.

At the start of June, Halifax had climbed to sixth in the table, still well behind leaders Belle Vue, but handily placed if they could just get "on a roll", avoid injuries and get the best out of Jay, whose recent scoring had been badly affected whilst suffering from a mysterious virus.

This worked okay for most of the remaining home matches and gave additional opportunities for the promising Malcolm Mackay, but left the side weak on their travels where Boocock continued to score well, but had only sporadic support from the other riders.

Newcomer Paul O'Neil proved a gutsy trier, getting good points at home, and some pretty important ones at times too, but many of the first division tracks were new to him so it was no surprise that he couldn't be as effective away from the Shay.