GBGB’s Quality Manager to return to medicine

GBGB’s Quality Manager, Amanda Duplock, will be leaving the role at the end of the month to re-join the NHS as a junior doctor.  

Amanda qualified as a doctor in 2006 before moving to work within greyhound racing, a sport she has been a fan of since an early age. She was a regular at Hove growing up and began her career in the industry parading dogs at the track before working part-time as a Tote runner at Belle Vue whilst at university in Manchester.

Since joining GBGB in 2007, Amanda has overseen GBGB’s UKAS accreditation and has been heavily involved in the annual Greyhound of the Year Awards. She has also edited the GBGB Calendar and has sat on the Open Race Planning Committee, using her extensive racing knowledge to help timetable the top-tier races across the country.

At the start of this year, Amanda harnessed her medical training and volunteered to help with the vaccine roll-out at the Excel centre, which reinvigorated her desire to return to the NHS.

Commenting on her move, Amanda said:

“I am excited to make this move although it will be hard to say goodbye to my brilliant and supportive colleagues at GBGB. We are a smaller team than some people may expect but both our office staff and wider field force are greyhound people who really do care about our sport and our greyhounds.  

“I have been involved with the GBGB Awards since the moment I joined, heading up a small team working on the 2007/2008 event when Spiridon Louis and Barnfield on Air battled it out for Greyhound of the Year. It has been hugely rewarding to see the event grow – so much work goes on behind the scenes to pull it off each year, but the buzz of watching the winning connections take to the stage makes it all worthwhile.  

“In much the same way, it is great to see competitions you’ve helped to schedule go on to get a great entry and be a success when everyone’s worked hard in the background to make sure they work. So much in greyhound racing is down to luck, but race planning is quite the opposite and I have really enjoyed being part of the team that makes it happen.  

“Despite moving into a very different field, greyhound racing is in my blood, and I will definitely stay involved as an owner and a fan. I will no doubt see many of the people I have got to know over the years at GBGB at a track soon.”  

Thanking her for all her work at GBGB, Mark Bird, Managing Director of GBGB, said:

“I have had the pleasure of working with Amanda since joining GBGB six years ago. She is known and respected by many people within the sport and she will certainly be missed. We are all, however, extremely proud that she is pursuing her vocation to become a doctor.  

“As part of her role, Amanda has ensured that we have everything in place to maintain our UKAS accreditation. We are the only sport to be UKAS accredited, and she has been central in this all-important work.  

“Likewise, through her position on the Open Race Planning Committee Amanda has shown meticulous detail and foresight to oversee the planning of these races. There is endless discussion, compromise, and movement to get the calendar together and Amanda has delivered this year-on-year.  

“Our whole sport has a lot to thank Amanda for and we all wish her the very best as she begins her exciting new journey.”