A personal reflection by Star editor Floyd Amphlett

Around 250 people braved the worst that Storm Isha could throw at them to witness the last ever race meeting at Henlow Stadium writes Floyd Amphlett.

It was a bleak night, but the mood was reconciled and surprisingly upbeat considering the occasion. Many racegoers simply wanted to imprint one last mental picture.

There will be tens of thousands of memories of Henlow. Here are a few of mine, joined together by a short review of its history.

 

The Henlow story goes back to the early 1920s, when it is rumoured that owners of ‘racing dogs’ would race on 300 yard gallop on the site opposite the RAF Henlow Airbase. They were presumably coursers and whippets since greyhound racing ‘wasn’t a thing’ in Britain pre-1926.

Henlow ‘Camp’ as it was normally referred to by dog men – the track and airbase were interchangeable – opened officially as a greyhound track in August 1927 and has remained throughout the intervening period in the ownership of the same family.

Henlow, unlike the airbase which was bombed during the war, stayed under the radar for many years. It was one of a host of flapping tracks in the Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire area including the Skimpot track at Luton, and later added to by Bedford, Bletchley and Rye House.

We have no record of when Sid Smith took over the running of Henlow. He ran a book there for many years but it was possibly 1972 that he took on the lease following a whole string of occasions when the place had gone bust.

Sid was ‘a bit of a villain’ as he would gleefully tell anyone who asked. But a real character. I always wished I’d found the time to record his colourful life in greater detail.

I recall him telling me how he had escaped from the ‘glass house’ (the military prison) for offences that were never disclosed. He also served some time at His Majesty’s pleasure for black marketeering.

His stepson David, the hugely popular racing manager prior to his death around three years ago, recounted a tale of the unfortunate lady who asked Sid to manage her snooker hall in nearby Hitchin. Sid managed to fiddle so much out of the place that he eventually bought it off her.

On another occasion he was faced a lumpy fine for an undisclosed offense in court and reeled off the white fivers from a wad that would have choked a donkey. Sid was never short of readies.

But when he took over the running of the track, there were few better equipped to handle the dodgiest of dog men. The cunning old sod could sniff a coup coming a mile off and was one phone call away from calling in a local with a dog capable of either destroying a coup (from the split second that the traps opened), or simply outpacing any raider.

And not all the losers were good losers. . .

“If they ever kicked off, Sid would have a Stilsons (spanner) on a shelf about the bar and he would be around that bar before they knew what hit them.” David remembered.

Sid was certainly at the helm in 1973 when our archives showed that the NGRC were trying to woo the flaps to the ‘permit scheme’.

Like Len Franklin at Yarmouth, Sid wanted no part of it. That became even less necessary when Skimpot closed. The Luton venue was a favourite haunt of many greyhound men, including the aspiring young breeder/trainer Nick Savva. Henlow instantly gained another 100 dogs.

But many hounds came from further afield.

While it was known that Surrey bred English Derby winner Dolores Rocket and her littermates were schooled at Aldershot, litter brother Come On Wonder, who was disqualified for fighting on the NGRC tracks, switched to the flaps.

Having broken many track records ‘under rules’ including the prestigious West Ham 550yd clock, he continued burning up the flaps. His big race wins included the Henlow Derby. Come On Wonder was eventually exported to Australia and enjoyed a decent stud career.

When Bedford opened for racing in 1973, Sid decided to join the permit scheme and the track held its first NGRC meeting in January 1974.

A note from the archives suggests that first meeting would have had a remarkable similarity to the last: “Henlow’s first meeting under NGRC rules was abandoned after four races due to extreme gales. Wires were blown from track lighting, a tree fell in the racing paddock and the forecast board was smashed after being wrenched from a wall”

Our archives also threw up the following. From 1982. ‘The Times gives a glowing tribute to greyhound racing after visiting permit track Henlow. Their Chief Sports Writer and author Simon Barnes writes: “At the leading tracks, the dogs seem sometimes like furry roulette balls. But a sense of closeness, or involvement, of brutal reality makes Henlow a strangely pleasant place to spend an evening.” Within six months, Barnes sister Julia and brother-in-law John Sellers are joined by another two professional journalists, Barrie Dack and Nick Kent, to launch a new newspaper – Greyhound Star.’

Many of you will remember Barry Dack as the Star’s first editor. Julia Barnes went on to write the biographies of George Curtis, Ger McKenna, Linda Jones and Charlie Lister.

In 1986, John Sellers, a features editor on the Sunday Mirror, approached me and asked if I would join the Star. I had a monthly column in Greyhound Magazine. Although it had started off covering Cambridge, Ipswich and Yarmouth, I had eventually adopted Rye House, Henlow, Peterborough and Milton Keynes too.

After moving to Letchworth Garden City, Henlow became my local track – and it has been for the last 37 years.

Despite the change of racing code, Henlow always felt familiar to me. With its basic amenities and bars that reeked of ashtrays and liniment, it always reminded me of Aldershot where I mispent a decent chunk of my youth.

There have been plenty of Henlow memories since then. One that springs to mind was when Eastenders ran with a greyhound storyline and used the place for the location of a fictitious ‘Mile End’ track.

Unlike so many tracks that I visited, there was nothing ‘clicky’ about Henlow. A winner was invariably acknowledged in the bar. Where at some tracks you might have expected a resentful ‘it was fucking slung in’.

Henlow looked set for closure again in 1994 before publican and owner/trainer Jock McNaughton stepped forward and signed a 12 year lease. He promised a number of changes including plans to build a new restaurant. None of which happened, though the highlight was undoubtedly 1994 when Henlow won the final of the National Super-Track Championship, beating Stainforth in the final in the old ‘Twin Towers’ Wembley.

Our archive reads: “Henlow (evens) take on Stainforth (8-11f) in the final of the BGRF/Daily Star Supertrack at Wembley. Henlow land the spoils 32-22 amid a huge crowd of 4,100 people (the St Leger final drew 2,200) and the party went back to Henlow and concluded at 6.45am the following morning.“

By 1997 McNaughton was gone and the place closed again. Landlord Tony McDonnell reluctantly took over the running of the stadium and changes were afoot including replacing the old inside hare with a new ‘Swaffham’. The 318m and 484m starts became 277m and 460m.

Then in October 2004, a new, enthusiastic, but naive young promoter arrived on the scene, Kevin Boothby.

(As I often reminded him – only the second promoter I had seen wearing an earring. The other was Rachel Corden. Or maybe Roger Cearns???)

It was a daunting task breathing life into a dead duck. As an example, that year Walthamstow received a BGRB prize money grant of £148K, Henlow’s was £37K.

What was never missing was the quality of hound. The training force that had landed the National Inter-track were still in situ but the best known of them all, hadn’t been seen in a while.

Incensed by his treatment by the NGRC, local trainer Nick Savva had given up his training licence for more than a year. Without his knowledge, owner Bob Morton had paid his fine, over a disputed positive test, and persuaded Nick to train again.

His first runner was a pup who he had sent to Hall Green to gain some experience. He contested a puppy open at Henlow and won it. His name was Westmead Hawk.

Many fabulous British bred hounds began their racing careers at Henlow including many of the top Westmeads, notably Hawk’s half brother Westmead Lord. Henry Chalkley’s Greyhound of the Year Midway Skipper began life in Henlow A9.

There were few tracks kinder to pups than Henlow – and few racing managers who cared more than Paul Mellor.

The track seemed to have turned a corner and in 2006, Boothby delivered on one of his promises, a £450K restaurant, which included a BGRB grant of £150K.

But despite Boothby’s best intentions, by 2008 the figures weren’t adding up with a shortage of dogs and patrons. Bob Morton came to rescue by buying a half share in the business, and miraculously, Henlow managed to stay open.

Then in August 2016, a whole new lifeline was created from the most unexpected source.

SIS had gone for broke by suggesting they required a smaller streamlined industry. Henlow certainly wasn’t part of those plans. But nor were they wanted to by a group of tracks who opposed the SIS plan, the Greyhound Media Group (GMG).

But in the autumn of 2016, SIS were short of racing partners. ‘Tatty little Henlow’ – one of the disparagingly named ‘Shanty tracks’ as labeled by Jarvis Astair – actually had a value and would have continued to be a part of the SIS service.

It was the start of the ‘media rights war’ that still rumbles on.

Unfortunately, in the background, the long term threat that has been scourge of greyhound tracks throughout the last 98 years, struck again.

Land values.

For years, the McDonnell family have been pushing the local planners to change the Lower Stondon ‘village envelope’. In other words, a wider plan to what can be built in the village before a planning application can even be made.

I remember it being granted. Kevin Boothby had just taken over the running of Towcester. It would have been the winter of 2019. The forums seemed to be buzzing with the prospect of another track closing.

“It will be closed within three months”, they predicted/hoped.

Four years later and the battle has finally been lost. Last month’s court judgement, which would allow for the building of 75 homes on the site, killed off any hopes of Henlow surviving. A figure of £6m for the site had been mooted though I certainly don’t know that to be fact.

Kevin Boothby had promised that had the court case gone his way, he would have re-opened the restaurant for Friday and Saturday night meetings and he was planning to bring back the Henlow Derby.

Those dreams are over.

 

To many, even within the industry, Henlow was rough and ready.

A dog man’s dog track.

It was never a showpiece stadium with plush facilities.

It was long past its build-by date

But as Simon Barnes once noted, it was also “a strangely pleasant place to spend an evening”.

Standing room only at Henlow’s bar. That’s owner Peter Band (who with partner Wendy Prince had two winners) in the foreground chatting.
Henlow 21st January 2024 (Final meeting) Photo: © Steve Nash

MURROW ENCANTO – one of two winners for Richard Fitch – lands an A6 with ease. Henlow 21st January 2024 (Final meeting) Photo: © Steve Nash

Happy bookie at Henlow’s final meeting. Although this was taken just before the hot favourite went in… Photo: © Steve Nash

Packed Henlow crowd of varying ages cheers home A7 winner Cheriana Roisin at the track’s final meeting. Photo: © Steve Nash

That’s all folks…and the last dog about to cross the Henlow line is Slider McCoy (trap 3) as Savana Lioness wins for Kevin Boothby and Frank Gray Photo: © Steve Nash

The last Henlow winner: Savana Lioness and trainer Frank Gray. Photo: © Steve Nash

Kevin Boothby, flanked by his mum June and trainer Frank Gray, brave the elements to celebrate the very last Henlow winner, Savana Lioness, at the track’s final meeting. Henlow 21st January 2024 Photo: © Steve Nash