Maurice Buckland, the founder of Perry Barr, died earlier today following a lengthy illness.
A greyhound enthusiast, and father of Monmore trainer Stuart, Maurice Buckland was a man with deep roots in greyhound racing.
The owner of a successful engineering business, Maurice originally owned dog at Perry Barr with Paddy Hancox and later took out his own licence, racing initially at Norton Canes and Cradley Heath.
He also handled a number of successful open racers, most notably the track record breaking Ardralla Victory, who later became an influential stud dog, as sire of Flag Star.
Unhappy over closure of his beloved Perry Barr Stadium (Walsall Road) by Ladbrokes in 1984, Buckland set about finding a new site for a greyhound track in North Birmingham. He acquired the old Birchfield Harriers stadium in Aldridge Road which he opened for racing in 1990. He eventually sold it on to GRA.
Close family friend Mike Rowe said: “Maurice hadn’t been well for a while. But he recently had a fall from which he was unable to recover. We had been friends going back to our time when we both had dogs with Paddy Hancox in around 1979. I often went open racing with him and can remember taking Ardralla Victory to Wimbledon where he won after being backed from 14-1 down to 4-1.
“Maurice had many fine attributes but one of the most striking, was his never settling for second best. When he first opened the Perry Barr restaurant, it had the finest A la carte restaurants you could ever hope to find. He always did everything to an exceptional standard. A good greyhound man all his life, he will be sadly missed.”
Maurice leaves widow Mary, son Stuart and daughter Maxine.
