Middlesbrough staged their last PL fixture of the 1964 season on August 13 and it was no real surprise when it was subsequently announced that promoter Reg Fearman was moving the team to Halifax. He did however stage three open meetings in 1965. The Easter Trophy, with an excellent field, brought a good crowd. However the turnout for a preliminary World Championship round the following month was less well supported. Only one more meeting, a challenge against Newcastle was staged, and that looked like being the end of Fearman’s involvement on Teesside and the end of the sport there.

However Eric Boothroyd, Fearman’s captain at Halifax and formerly Middlesbrough’s skipper, decided to continue the Bears prowl in 1966, feeling he could cash in on the football team’s relegation to the Third Division. The Northern League competition would be run along the lines of its PL predecessor, with one match point being awarded for a win and a bonus point going to the aggregate winner of the home and away meetings.

Halifax, Newcastle and Sheffield had bought in to the idea of a league competition and fixtured the required home and away meetings. However Glasgow and Edinburgh only agreed to a one off meeting at Cleveland Park, indeed their supporters seemed unaware that they were to be part of this league and that BL meetings with the three participants should also count to this competition. Programmes for these meetings made no reference to this dual aspect.

Opening night

Pop star Adam Faith not only opened the first meeting but actually had a trial spin on Boothroyd’s bike earlier in the afternoon. The opening meeting against Newcastle saw the Bears heavily defeated. Perhaps strangely, Newcastle’s Brian Brett turned out for the Bears and along with fellow guest Peter Vandenberg were the only homesters to put up any real resistance. The rest of the Bears side comprised Ray Day and Vic Lonsdale who had ridden for Bradford and Middlesbrough a few years earlier, with juniors Derek Greaves, Dennis Jenkins and Terry Lee. It was obvious that, even if the visitors were to continue to be watered down, the Bears really needed three guest heat leaders and that became the template for future meetings.

Guests, guests, guests

The Bears got a welcome home win in their second meeting, beating Edinburgh 49-29, with former Monarch Kevin Torpie contributing seven points and Vic Lonsdale going one better with eight. Thereafter home defeats became the weekly norm, although an England v Scotland test match was a welcome addition to the schedule. However, weekly meetings  quickly exhausted their fixture list and rather strangely a second home meeting against Newcastle was run in early July, but this was to be the last senior meeting as “B” meetings were run throughout July.

Amongst others, the Bears used the services of Ken McKinlay (three times); Mike Broadbank, Gordon Guasco, Ron Mountford and Olle Nygren twice each and Terry Betts, Barry Briggs,Brian Brett, Peter Vandenberg, Jim Lightfoot, Nigel Boocock, Roy Trigg, Colin Pratt, Arne Pander, Peter Moore and Ray Wilson.

Footie and ambulance room

Promoter Boothroyd hoped to tap into the interest generated by the World Cup ties being staged in Middlesbrough and gave invitations to the competing teams – Chile, Italy, North Korea and Russia – to visit the speedway. It is not known whether any took advantage of this offer, but the North Koreans certainly captured the locals’ imagination and support – quite a contrast to today! Pak Do Ik was adopted as a local hero with his goal eliminating Italy before they went out of the tournament to Portugal. Dave Gifford, Bill Landels and Alan Jay, all on the fringes of a team place with their own sides were drafted into the Bears “B” side which ran up wins against their Hackney and Wolverhampton equivalents, before narrowly beating a Clive Hitch Select at the end of July. This looked to be the end of their season, a couple of weeks earlier than their 1964 finale but a subsequent report in the Speedway Star pointed out that the Control Board had told them they needed to get a separate ambulance room before they staged further meetings. This seemed to have been resolved when the stadium directors granted them the use of a room for the rest of the season. However no further meetings took place.

Shop window

 The outings with the Bears certainly proved a useful shop window for Jay, Torpie and Day who all attracted interest from injury hit Kings Lynn, while Bill Landels subsequently regained his Edinburgh place after ditching his ill fated Matchless engine. 

Lopsided league

With the Bears having raced Newcastle twice at home the league had a rather lopsided look, although Halifax were top by dint of taking the bonus point in all their head to head encounters. Glasgow and Edinburgh look a bit forlorn with just one meeting each. Possibly they would have fixed up home meetings against the Bears but ran out of blank dates with Cradley visits bringing the rain on a recurring basis. It would be two years before the sport returned to Cleveland Park with Allied Promotions’ Teessiders being founder members of the new Second Division.