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11 months ago

The following is an article originally published in Greyhound Star newspaper some six years ago. It is a posted history of the greyhound industry.

In was July 1926. George V was on the throne having become the grandfather of baby Elizabeth just two months earlier.
The mood is otherwise depressed, just six weeks after the General Strike, unless you were a Huddersfield Town fan – they’d just won the league.
Meanwhile Scottish inventor John Logie Baird is demonstrating his new invention to the Royal Institution.
In the North West, a 20 year old invention was about to change the face of British leisure and sporting habits in a way that is hardly comprehensible some 85 years later.
Greyhound racing, as we know it, was the brainchild of an American of County Cavan born parents, Owen Patrick Smith.
(There had been an experiment with an artificial at Hendon in the 1870s, though that was arguably better described as ‘artificial coursing’ than multiple dog racing around an oval track)
That concept was dreamed up by Tennessee born Smith who was the secretary of the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
He was an innovator and inventor and saw greyhound racing as a tourist attraction for the town.
Smith had originally filed a patent for a circular greyhound track in 1890 but had never built it.
However it was his successful invention of a working mechanical lure which made it all possible.
Such was its success that Smith went on to become a partner with George Sawyer in the first purpose built racetrack in Emeryville California which staged its first meeting in February 1920.
By 1925, Charles A Munn had bought the overseas rights to the patented hare system and the entrepreneur soon formed an association with three British partners.
They were an interesting bunch. Major L Lyne Dixson, had the greyhound interest in the group.
He was a 42 year old veterinary surgeon, coursing judge and active member of the Isle of Thanet Coursing Club.
(While most contemporary records suggest Munn was an American, there is some suggestion that both he and Dixson were Canadians)
60 year old Sir William Gentle was another former army officer who had served in South Africa.
Later a police officer, he had retired as Chief Constable of Brighton in 1920.
Sir William would be the GRA’s first chairman. His son Francis would later be the company’s managing director.
Calgary born Brigadier-General Alfred Cecil Critchley was a ‘Boys Own’ hero who achieved his rank as a cavalry officer at only 28 in World War I.
The former boxing and ath-letics champion then switched to the Royal Flying Corp and made Air Commodore.
If any one man was most responsible for the future growth of greyhound racing’s rise in popularity in Britain, it is surely ‘Critch’.
It is now part of racing folklore that the quartet raised £14,000 and created the Greyhound Racing Association (GRA).
They borrowed another £10,000 and secured a seven year lease (annual rent £276) for what is now Belle Vue Stadium from the zoological gardens that own the site.
Famously they printed 20,000 racecards but only 2,555 people tuned up for that first meeting on July 24 1926.
The dogs were largely low quality coursers, many of whom didn’t chase genuinely. There were also problems with the hare mechanism which delayed racing.
The first race on the six-race card was won by Mistley, trap one in a seven-runner field over ‘a quarter of a mile’.
The company lost money on the first meeting but such was the growth in interest that they repaid their loan back within a month.

Three months later a report in the Daily Express describes a greyhound meeting at Belle Vue: “There was far more betting than on any ordinary racecourse. I saw a woman with a baby in her arms laying her shillings.
“Children in their early teens betted as freely as their elders. Boys in school caps and knicker-suits, girls in hats with ribbons of secondary schools pushed their way from bookmaker to bookmaker asking odds and staking where they secured the best price.
“Working girls of the typist and shop-assistant class wagered by the half crown or five shillings. Admission prices were one shilling, half a crown or five shillings.
“There were six races, three on the flat and three hurdles events. There were 22,000 people present on the Saturday evening, a good proportion of them women and girls and a fair proportion of children.
“A representative of the American company which owns the patent rights of the device which makes racing possible forecast that within five years as many people would follow greyhound racing as were at the time interested in horse racing.”
The report announced plans for new tracks at London’s White City, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds or Bradford and Brighton or Portsmouth.
It added “This fact is certain. When greyhound racing spreads from its present headquarters in Manchester, there will arise a most intense controversy.
“Sermons will be preached against it because of the betting aspect of the game.”

Within a year, GRA had become a limited company and the directors realised what they have stumbled upon. Greyhound racing was already a national phenomenon.
The centrepiece was London White City which opened for business less than 11 months after that first meeting, on June 20 1927.
However even it had been beaten by Liverpool Breck Park (April) Kings Heath and, Darnall in Sheffield (both May). By year end, they would be joined by another 15 tracks.
Ireland was just as keen, Celtic Park in Belfast had opened in the April (1927), Shelbourne Park in Dublin would follow a month later.
Crowds were desperate to attend as some of the opening meeting attendances show: Burnley (5,000) Carntyne (10,000) Powderhall (10,000), Leeds (12,000) Harrringay (35,000) Southend (5,000), and Wembley (70,000).
White City had been the base for the 1908 Olympic Games, but rather like Wembley (built for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition) then found itself virtually redundant for almost 20 years.

Claims that 100,000 attended the first greyhound meeting have sometimes been disputed – but it was quite feasible given a report from London Evening News journalist WPR Fitzgerald.
“In all my years in greyhound racing I have never been so thrilled as I was that night.
“The sport had been going only a few months and had caught on well, but few expected the crowd that made their way to White City.
“All London, it seemed was going to the dogs. 100,000 people jam-packed the stadium, gangways were almost impassable, and it was nearly impossible to get near the layers to make a bet.
“Yet with all the discomfort, all were happy to be there ‘wasn’t Entry Badge running?’”

Cometh the hour, cometh the dog! It is a strange irony that Mick The Miller, the greatest racing greyhound Britain has ever seen, was born exactly 25 days before the sport was invented – well the staging of the first meeting at least!
The dual Derby winner’s life story has been re-counted on countless occasions and will not be repeated here.
Prior to his arrival on the scene, Master McGrath was the most famous greyhound known to the British public
However, with respect to the likes of Westmead Hawk or Ballyregan Bob, no greyhound has been idolised in quite the same way since.
Only Red Rum could possibly come close to the sort of national adoration that Mick enjoyed.
He won almost £10,000 in prize money, which is around £450,000 in today’s values plus another £2,500 in stud fees.
Mick won 51 (with 12 seconds) of his 68 races and in addition to appearing in the film ‘Wild Boy’ was the special guest at dozens of major events and race meetings.
His final race is recalled with in Professor A M Low’s book “Wonderful Wembley”.
“It was in this race that the champion of champions, the never-to-be-forgotten ‘Mick the Miller’ completed his magnificent career in a climax of astounding intelligence.
“A record crowd poured through the turnstiles on that evening of 3rd October 1931. It was known to be ‘Mick’s’ last race and ninety-nine per cent of them must have come to see him.
“It was a four-dog race- Mick the Miller, Virile Bill, Seldom Led’ (the 1931 Dog Derby winner), and Bradshaw Fold.
“An unrehearsed hush fell on the crowd as the stand lights dimmed out to leave a brilliant emerald green track lit by the twin lamps of the giant standards. Round came the hare – the traps leapt open … and they were off!
“’The Miller’ flew into the lead as the crowd roared in applause knowing their favourite was rarely headed once he was away in such style.
“But this was the sternest opposition of all his long career. The noise died down as Virile Bill darted level, shoulder to shoulder with ‘Mick’.
“Muzzle to muzzle they swept around the track until the final turn. It seemed that Virile Bill on the rails had the famous ‘Miller’ beaten at this killing pace. He began to race ahead …
“And then Bill swung slightly away from his tight hold on the rail. A gap of inches showed. Into this went ‘Mick the Miller’.
“He squeezed his lithe body into the inches-wide gap, whipped his rear end round like the thrash of a whip and put wings on his speed as Virile Bill, shocked and checked by this unexpected and supremely intelligent move, made a slight falter that cost him the race.
“Who but the judge saw the actual end of that classic race? Somehow everyone knew ‘Mick’ had won.
“Hats and race-cards were flung into the air. There was cheering, crying, shouting for five long minutes before the judge’s decision could be heard above the uproar.
“Most astonishing sight of all the bookmakers – the men who stood to lose thousands of pounds on the race – were dancing and applauding like maniacs.
“When the hysteria finally died down the great champion was led round on parade to receive his most remarkable ovation.
“He turned his head to grin up to the crowd and took his bow by wagging his tail in token of thanks. ‘Mick’ loved the crowds, was a real actor and probably the most intelligent dog every bred.

The meteoric rise of the sport brought challenges and oppor-tunities in equal numbers.
One of the first was the recognition that a governing body was needed.
A group of respected aristocratic sportsmen with no direct financial involvement in the new industry were asked to draw up a rule book.
Those invited included the Earl of Westmorland, Lord Chesham, Sir Humphrey De Trafford and the Earl Of Kilmorey.
The National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) was formed on 1 January 1928 and 70 tracks instantly signed up.

The GRA management were keen to capitalise on their market position and looked at a new method for extracting cash from punters – the totalisator.
The tote was invented by George Julius, born in Norwich but bought up in Ballarat in Australia where his father was the archdeacon.
The first tote machine was used on horse race course in Auckland in 1913. The problem was, as ‘Critch’ would later admit, the GRA were not sure if it would be legal.
The solution was to buy a tote for an independent track, with less associated financial risk of penalty, and take the battle to court if the legality was challenged.
It was, and GRA won ‘its’ case. The first tote machinery was installed at Harringay in 1928.
It cost £250,000 to equip the whole group, but given the fantastic profits to be made, it was money well spent.
Other tracks soon follow suit. When the new track at Victoria Park in Bournemouth opens, they refuse to admit bookies and operate a tote monopoly.

The Second World War greatly restricted the growth of the greyhound industry, yet it continued.
Meetings were held in the afternoons a morale booster for the public.
However, with all foods on ration, greyhounds survived either without meat, or occasionally on meat unfit for human consumption.
1946, and indeed the following few years would present a mixed bag for greyhound racing.
While crowd numbers and tote turnover went through the roof, the reality was, much of it was ‘dirty’ money.
A piece written soon afterward say: “There was grave danger that the betting boom of ’46 would boil over the sport itself. For while the betting boomed, the racing slumped badly.
“The ‘cheap money’ prospectors that entered the field had little or no concern for the sport.
“It merely provided a convenient cover for their outside tax-dodging and black market activities.
“Any ne’re-do-well whose fantastic claims of earning or spending came under suspicion had only to attribute the cause to greyhound racing to obtain a sympathetic hearing.
“May we never see the return of 1946; a bleak year of low level racing, fantastic greyhound values and congested tote queues.”

Crime and greyhound racing were close companions given the huge money at stake.
The following article was written by Percy Worth MBE, a former Detective Chief Constable at New Scotland Yard, and at the time of this article, the Senior Security Officer with the National Greyhound Racing Society.
Published in 1949 and entitled 'The Security Side of Greyhound Racing' - it is something of a whitewash.
The former policeman attempts to underplay the drugs gangs as though there were defeated.
With the benefit of hindsight it could be argued that they were at their peak.
Nevertheless, it provides an interesting insight into the sheer breadth of wrong-going that even Mr Worth is prepared to concede.
“Stories of gang warfare and colossal coups are just a lot of rubbish,” said the S.S.O. very tersely, “that is dished up for credible and sensational consumption.”
Some of those things used to happen a long time ago, but now it is very rarely that you hear of a good thing “coming of,” as it is becoming increasingly difficult for the “wise boys” to find any loophole.
Malpractice in greyhound racing consists almost entirely of the elementary types of attempted fraud: tote ticket forgery, interfering with the running of greyhounds, and shady practices of that sort.
Forgery of the tote ticket has been the most tried of the petty crimes. Some have tried rubber stamps and inks to alter numbers on forecast tickets.
A well thought out forgery of this description did once come under notice, but the steps taken to thwart that trick have been most effective.
Others have concentrated on home kennels in remote places without any security measures.
They got in league with a corruptible member of the kennel staff and attempted one or another method of interfering with a greyhound's running. This attempt to slow down four of the six runners in a race and then they backed the unaffected two in forecasts.
A variety of drugs was used which affect the nerves and are quite brief in their duration.
But in addition to our careful watch for this sort of thing, there are informers among whom we have found the disappointed individuals whose rake-off was less than expected.
One scheme was worked for a time at provincial tracks. It was based on greyhounds that depended on a quick start for success, and was operated by two or three rogues.
They would come to a tote window just before “take-off” for £50 worth of tickets.
By the time twenty or thirty tickets had been punched the race would have started, and the confederate in view of the starting box would signal whether the dog broke clear. It did the man at the tote window would pay for his tickets.
If it didn't he would find some excuse for not paying. Either he had been robbed, lost his wallet, or claimed that he'd given the wrong number.
Despite the fact that they moved from one track to another these tricksters were linked up by their “excuses” and at the appropriate time the net was cast and they were hauled in. With a co-ordinated system of security the officer at each N.G.R.C. track knows what is happening elsewhere.
There are 77 member-courses of the Society, and all have their own security officer, who are ex-C.I.D. men with one or two exceptions.
The primary function of our work is prevention. That is the first consideration, as it is of every police force.
I have issued rules for guidance to all S.O.'s and created co-operation and supervision throughout all members and all stages of the sport - not only at tracks but at their kennels.
All should be in agreement with the essential points in the pursuance of efficient supervision and investigation.
We make the most careful investigation into the activities of suspects.
As in other sports, there are persons whose interest in greyhound racing is criminal, and the only effective measures to be taken against them are those which are likely to lead to their convictions and imprisonment.
Preventative steps alone will only permit them to switch their activities elsewhere, thus allowing the danger to remain.
Security officers look into the references of employees or applicants for employment on the kennel staff, pay frequent but unexpected visits to kennels, and see that adequate supervision is exercised at the kennels during the night.
They should b e able to read a race, interpret the movement in the betting market, and immediately bring to notice of the management their slightest suspicions of a betting coup.
We hole monthly conferences at Jermyn Street and all areas are represented.
Those officers who represent an area in turn hold local conferences on their return.
In addition to these talks I travel the country to have regional conferences thus keeping in touch and seeing that all security work is what it should be.
Queries are answered and advice is given. It is our duty to gather evidence to put before the Stewards of the N.G.R.C. in any cases of warning off.
Particulars of those warned off may be sent to the National Coursing Club, The Jockey Club and the Irish Coursing Club.
The “rogues gallery,” records, files and confidential reports in the Central Bureau keep track of unknowing suspects.
There is much to which it would be imprudent to refer here and which engages the attention of the Security Officer and contributes so successfully to the clean conduct of the sport.
A potential rogue is best kept in ignorance of the highly organized net awaiting to envelope him at his first crooked move.
Even at the end of the war, tracks were still suffering as a result of ongoing restrictions.
On the eve of the 1948 Laurels Final, journalist Leo W Smith prewarns punters about the limitations of Wimbledon Stadium. '. . .Laurels night at Wimbledon will be no exception and among the thousands that attend the meeting may be quite a number who have not been to the Wimbledon track for years.
If they happen normally to frequent a track that did not suffer war damage, they may find Wimbledon somewhat lacking in amenities.
Those who remember the old days at Wimbledon, when what is now the grandstand was the cheap enclosure, and the present cheap enclosure was graced by a restaurant and club, naturally regard the present Wimbledon and being but a travesty of the former stadium, but it would seem that years must pass before we can expect an improvement.
The recent relaxation on private house repair work that allows up to £100 to be spent without a licence is of little use to the greyhound tracks, for £100 goes nowhere on restoration work.
Some of the stadiums have managed to get permission to give the place a lick of paint and thus preserve the fabric, but the authorities are very strict and only give permits for dire necessities to be done.
Even when permission is given, difficulties arise in unexpected directions. Wimbledon, for example, have got permission to re-roof the stands, but have been informed that they will not be allowed to replace the corrugated iron with the same material and must perforce use corrugated asbestos.
This is in short supply and will have to be waited for, but the chief snag is that the stands were designed to carry a certain weight and the asbestos is considerably heavier than the corrugated iron.
A way will have to be found around this difficulty if Wimbledon is to have a new roof.
When the work does take place, the probability is that some of the girders that were left bare in the fire, will be taken down and re-erected over the popular side in order to give more protection where the crowd is thickest. .

Successive Governments had practically choked the life out of greyhound racing.
In 1932, greyhound totalisators were made illegal. The decision was not reversed for two years.
However, by any standards, 1948 will go down as the year that set greyhound racing on its downward traill.
On-course betting duty is introduced for the first time on August 9.
All punters will be deducted two and a half per cent of their winnings.
Bookmakers must pay too, though it will vary according to how many enclosures the tracks have.
In the case of three rings, bookies in the cheap ring will each be charged £6 (roughly £172 at todays rates) and in the most expensive ring, £24 (£690) for a night's racing.
On the first night at Brighton, their 30 bookies alone contributed £432 (£12,420) to the Treasury.
Within a month of the introduction of betting tax, half of all on-course bookies have ceased trading. Chancellor Sir Stafford Cripps justified the introduction of tax on on-course betting as it gave parity with the tote which was already taxed.
Figures reveal that in 1947, the London greyhound tracks alone turned over £64,315,855 in tote betting. After tax they were left with £3,851,963.
Their maximum retention, by law, was 6 per cent.
To put those first two figures into modern equivalents, the tote turnover would equate to £1.9bn and the track's rake-off would be £118.4m. In 1947 there is no tax of any kind on horse racing.

It is hard to imagine the colossal wealth created during those early years but they were comparatively short-lived.
We don't have a date for the following article, but it was probably written around 1951 by Barnard Harris.
It is entitled' They lost £20,000,000 at 'the dogs'
Profits around £20,000,0000 made by shareholders in greyhound tracks have vanished in a slump which is wiping out dividends and reducing share values to a tenth of what they were five years ago.
Attendances at the great stadiums now rarely exceed 15,000, but promoters say they are large enough to show that “the dogs” are still popular.
What then has happened to the stream of money which no longer flows into their hand?
The man they blame is Sir Stafford Cripps.
He clamped a 2s. in the pound tax on greyhound totalisators in January 1948.
Most dog betting is done on the Tote.
Now there is much less betting and the tracks share of Tote takings is down heavily.
Who are the men to whom Cripps dealt such a blow?
Hardest hit is 68-year-old Mr Sidney Edward Parkes, former builder.
Who could claim that his home in Wandsworth had the largest private garden in London.
His family fortune has been clipped by more than £1,600,000.
When Mr Parkes floated London Stadiums to take over his tracks at Park Royal, Charlton and Wandsworth, he sold 2,000,000 1s. shares to the public at 9s. 6d. bringing him the best part of £1,600,000 in cash.
He retained control of 3,980,000 shares, now transferred to his wife, Mrs Genevieve Parkes.
But their value has shrunk from £1,890,000 to £225,000, for London Stadiums shares are now worth only 1s. 1 1/2d. each against 9s. 6d.
In 1946 Mr Parkes admitted to an income of £430,000 - qll but £10,000 of which, he said, went in taxation.
Mr Bill Cearns, another of the greyhound kings, did not live to see his shares topple from a peak of 28s. 6d. to 3s. 1 1/2d. - present price of the 1s. shares of the company owning Wimbledon Stadium, which he built.
His original investment included 200,000 one shilling deferred shares, which at one time were worth only thrupence each.
Their value in 1946 was £285,000.
By the end of 1949 - a few weeks before his death - he held only 70,000 Deferred shares.
Greyhounds brought wealth to William Chandler, a bookmaker, when he developed Walthamstow Stadium on a derelict plot.
Mr Chandler could easily have sold the stadium for £1,000,000 before he died in 1946. He six sons and Irene, their sister, now own it.
Shopkeepers, farmers, brewers, retired civil servants are among the investors in the great Wembley track.
There are no outstanding big holdings.
Wembley dividends have slumped from 125 per cent in 1946 to 25 per cent, bringing the 1s. Deferred shares down from £1 to 4s.
Sir Arthur Elvin, who runs this track, is shown as holding 15,000 shares.
Brigadier-General A C Critchley, who became the top executive of the Greyhound Racing Association Trust, at one time held 255,000 GRA Ordinary shares.
If he still had them in 1946 they would have been worth over £280,000.
But Critchley is now shown as holding only 866 shares, worth a little over £100.
His main interest, is in 55,096 8per cent, £1 Preference shares, quoted at 15s. 3d. each.
The GRA chairman, Mr Frank Gentle, has no ordinary shares in his own name.
But the executors of his father, the late Sir William Gentle, are shown as holding 50,000 Ordinary and 25,349 8 per cent, preference.
Ten years ago Sir William was among the biggest shareholders with 192,955 Ordinary shares.

IT was a whole different world don’t you think? - Ed ...

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