Eric Boothroyd (26 April 1927 – 16 August 2022) was an international

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider from England.

Speedway career

Boothroyd was introduced to motor bikes by

Geoff Duke Geoffrey Ernest Duke (29 March 1923 – 1 May 2015) was a British multiple motorcycle Grand Prix road racing world champion. Born in St. Helens, Lancashire, after retirement from competition he was a businessman based in the Isle of Man. He r ...

when he served six years with the 15th Parachute Brigade in Egypt as a despatch rider. He first sat on a speedway bike in 1949 and began his career for Tamworth Tammies during the

1950 Speedway National League Division Three The 1950 National League Division Three was the fourth season of British speedway's National League Division Three The league was reduced from 13 teams to 10. Halifax Dukes, Plymouth, Yarmouth and Hanley had all moved up to Division Two whilst ...

season. In 1951, he joined the

Birmingham Brummies Birmingham Brummies are a British speedway team founded in 1928. They were inaugural members of the Southern League in 1929. The team have twice finished runner-up in the highest tier of British speedway, during the 1952 Speedway National L ...

and would stay with them for seven years, winning the Midland Cup for three consecutive seasons from 1953 to 1955. Boothroyd reached the final of the

Speedway World Championship The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The first official championsh ...

in the

1956 Individual Speedway World Championship The 1956 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 11th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. The World final was sponsored by the Sunday Dispatch and was televised live. Despite being televised ...

and during 1957, he was suspended by the Auto Cyclist Union, along with Birmingham teammate

Ron Mountford Ronald George “Ron” Mountford (1927-1993) was an international speedway rider from England. Speedway career Mountford was a leading rider in the 1950s and 1960s and reached the final of the Speedway World Championship in the 1962 Individ ...

for riding in South Africa. Over the next three years (1958 to 1960) he rode in the top tier for

Oxford Cheetahs The Oxford Cheetahs are a British speedway teamLawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. based at Oxford Stadium, in Oxford, England. They were founded in 1939 and are five times champions of Britain, in 1964, 1985, 1986, 1989 and 200 ...

and

Leicester Hunters The Leicester Hunters were a motorcycle speedway team which operated from 1948 until 1962.Bamford, R & Jarvis J. (2001) ''Homes of British Speedway'', , p. 147-149 History Speedway had operated before the war at both Leicester Stadium and the Le ...

, before joining

Middlesbrough Bears The Middlesbrough Bears were a British speedway team which operated under various names from 1939 until their closure in 1996. History The team was initially nicknamed the Bears in 1939 by the club's general manager Vic Wieland. The track at ...

for three seasons, where he was one of the leading riders in the Provincial League. After a season with Long Eaton, he joined his home town club

Halifax Dukes The Halifax Dukes were a Speedway team which operated from 1949–1951 and again from 1965 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, whose tr ...

in 1965 and starred in their 1966 league and

Knockout Cup A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

double. At retirement he had earned 2 international caps for the

England national speedway team The Great Britain Speedway Team (also known as GB Speedway Team) is one of the major teams in international speedway. The team is managed by former Great Britain riders Oliver Allen and Simon Stead, and captained by the 2018 Speedway World Cha ...

and 1 cap for Great Britain.

Management

After retiring from riding he later became a promoter and ran his home club Halifax.

Personal life

He ran two greengrocer shops and died in 2022.

World Final Appearances

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

- London,

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

- 10th - 7pts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boothroyd, Eric 1927 births 2022 deaths British speedway riders Cradley Heathens riders Birmingham Brummies riders Bradford Dukes riders Halifax Dukes riders Leicester Hunters riders Long Eaton Archers riders Middlesbrough Bears riders Oxford Cheetahs riders Tamworth Speedway riders