“I realise that the full shock is still to hit me, but Harry had a wonderful life. He lived it to the full and in the nicest possible way, he did exactly what he wanted.”
The death of Harry Forrester Williams (82), on Friday sees the loss of one of the most popular and influential men ever to grace the North East greyhound scene.
Harry’s death came as a terrrible shock. He and wife Rita had only recently returned from a holiday at Lake Maggiori in Italy and a week earlier he had been mowing two acres of grassland at home in Witton Le Wear, County Durham.
Rita said: “In the next few days, I noticed him keep rubbing his tummy. He said he was fine but then a week ago, we were about to walk the dogs. We got to the end of the drive and he asked me to take them, he didn’t feel well. He went into hospital for check-ups and we thought he just had a water infection.
“By Tuesday, the hospital were saying that he had kidney and liver failure and although he was kept alive on the machine, I think the hospitals do that to allow family to make a final visit, it was already too late.
“The thing was, despite all the tubes that he had in him, he lay in bed and still looked fabulous. He was tanned and slim and when I went to see him last week he said, ‘you see that little blonde nurse over there Rita? She really fancies me, I’m telling you.’
“But that was Harry. He made me promise that we would book for Barbados in January. He recently told me he was thinking about buying an Aston Martin. I told him he would never manage to get in it, even though he was as fit as a fiddle. So he changed his mind and suggested he might have a Bentley.
“He definitely had a weakness for nice cars. He loved nice clothes too. He had just spent a fortune on beautiful shirts including a ‘Guns & Roses’ shirt. I asked whether he was a bit old for it and he wasn’t having any of it.
“But that was Harry. He had such a great attitude to life. He was always looking forwards. He had a heart check up in April and the doctor told him, ‘you’re in great shape, you’ve got at least another ten years’, to which Harry replied ‘is that all?'”
Born in Jarrow in 1940, Harry Williams was a proud Geordie, with its compulsory devotion to Newcastle United FC.
His first job was an insurance clerk though it would be his next occupation that would allow his charm and charisma to blossom because Harry Williams was a born salesman. Though this early dream job could hardly be described as ‘hard sell’.
Rita said: “Harry told so many funny stories about his job working for WH Wills, the cigarette company. Him and three other young blokes were given a vehicle that looked like an ice-cream van but with an enormous cigarette on the roof. There job was to go to various seaside resorts and give away fags. You can imagine that it made them very popular. He would often joke about how many little Harrys might still be out there.”
Eventually Harry settled down, he married first wife Gloria, had a son Duncan and daughter Debra, and went into business on his own. It was at this stage that he returned to a love from his teenage years, greyhound racing.
Rita said: “He was working very very hard and one of his releases was going racing. He had dogs with Norman Oliver at Newcastle and used to be a regular there.”
But Harry’s love of greyhounds would eventually progress. Back in mid 1987 a photograph arrived in the Greyhound Star offices.
It was a small coloured photo of a beautiful litter of white and black saplings. It was accompanied by a short note with a phone number. I called and ended up speaking to the man who would become a good friend.
The August ’86 whelps were by Lindas Champion out of Soda Pop – all to be prefixed ‘Pond’ accompained by a second name of a famous fighter plane – would go on to achieve great things. Star star of the litter was Pond Hurricane who would win the All England Cup, the Edinburgh Cup, the Northern Flat and the Anglo-Irish International. The entire litter won opens with the fastest arguably being Pond Mirage who won his first seven opens before suffering a career ending injury and going to stud. Sister Pond Mosquito would also prove a fabulous brood.
It is only in writing this piece that I discovered the background to the story.
Rita said: “Harry had been owed money in a business deal with some wide boys in London. He was offered Soda Pop, who had been running at Wembley, as part of the payment. He brought her back from London in his Rolls-Royce despite the fact that she was in-season and he ended up with blood all over the back seat.”
What Harry hadn’t been aware of at the time was that the previous owners had promised to return Soda Pop to her breeder Matt Bruton as part of the deal in her sale.
As a gesture, Harry agreed to sell two cheap pups to Bruton from Soda Pop’s next litter. One of the bitches was named Well Plucked (One To Note-Soda Pop) and when she went for breeding, Harry was able to buy one of her sons for racing.
Having already made his name with Pond Hurricane, Harry was back in the big time with the brilliant New Level (Murlens Slippy-Well Plucked).
During a fabulous career, New Level won the Scottish Derby, the All England Cup and the Eclipse.
Over the years the runners would continue to flow as Harry’s training abilities became recognised by his peers.
There was the home bred Gorton Cup winner Pond Tornado, Summer Cup winner Pond Pavarotti, St Mungo Cup winner Pond Bogart and Anglo-Irish winner Pond Hamlet (all sons of Pond Mosquito).
There was Droopys Evelyn (Scottish Leger), Pond Imogen (Northern Oaks), Pond Neptune, Zigzag Kit. There was the brilliant sprinter Laser Beam (Scurry), Amolee Classic, Stormy Scholes, Pond Shefelia and Boherbradda Mac.
Rita said: “The owner of Mac had him running on the flaps and wanted to win the All England Cup. Harry watched him run and said, ‘he’ll never stay that far, but we’ll turn him into a sprinter.”
Mac duly landed the 2008 Scurry and after suffering an apparent career ending gracilis injury, returned to win the £5K Gold Cup at Pelaw.
Ask Rita about Harry’s career highlights and she will Blue Artisan’s victory in the Gymcrack and Racing Post Juvenile.
There was also a lot of satisfaction from the career of Mags Gamble
Rita said: “He was a dog who took a long time to settle in the kennel. He wouldn’t eat properly, he wouldn’t even touch red meat. The Scottish lads who owned him were understandably a bit frustrated. He was off for something like five months and just as Harry could see the dog starting to come right, they’d had enough and asked him to sell the dog.
“He was eventually sold for £8,000 to Kevin Collier’s uncle and then won the Gold Cup and All England Cup, each worth £10,000. Thankfully, the lads who owned Gamble understood that they were just unlucky.”
The last Cat 1 win for the kennel was with Allowdale Bruno, a Sunderland A1 grader who Harry bought off Jackie Teal for £3,000.
Rita said: “Harry was convinced that he would win the (£25K) Sunderland Classic. Everyone was telling him ‘he is just a good grader’ but Harry was proved right.”
And the last major open race winner was Pond Natalya, successful in the 2019 British Bred Oaks at Doncaster, a sixth generation daughter of Soda Pop.
So what was the secret to Harry’s success.
Rita said: “He was a stickler for two things really. The best possible food and routine. Harry was absolutely meticulous about both. He would never cut corners.”
Over the years, Harry built a number of hugely successful businesses in the cosmetics world and it was through one of them that his private life would be changed forever.
Back in 1980, the divorcee planned to do a business deal with a vivacious rep from a beauty company, keen to sell suntan lotion and haircare products but he got a bit more than he bargained for.
“Harry had two loves in his life” says close friend Ian Lavery, “greyhound racing and Rita”.
“That was 42 year ago” recalls Mrs Williams. “We remained very much in love throughout all that time. We might have an occasional argument, but I don’t ever remember us having a proper row.”
Rita embraced Harry’s love of greyhounds and jump racing, and the popular pair could be found at greyhound and National Hunt meetings around the country. Wherever they went, they invariably attracted a crowd of friends and wellwishers.
But while Harry was most comfortable with a quiet chat, Rita was an absolute party animal and at industry functions would spend most of the evening on the dance floor.
So where’s Rita?
“I think you can guess” Harry would say with a gesture and a smile.
Harry made several aborted attempts to retire from greyhound racing, a habit which earned him the title of ‘greyhound racing’s Frank Sinatra’ by writer John Forbes. There would always be another comeback.
“He had no choice” recalled Rita. “Greyhound racing ate up most of our money and Harry had to go back into business to support it”
But even the shrewd businessman displayed an occasional Achiles Heel in relation to his greyhounds. On several occasions he was stung after loaning money and would often undersell his greyhounds, deeming he wasn’t in the industry to make money.
Rita recalls one particular occasion when he was taught a basic lesson in selling by the late Wanny Fenwick.
Rita said: “Harry had a very fast dog for sale. He had tons of ability but just lacked a bit of guts going around the bends at Sunderland. Harry decided to put him over hurdles, but because there were no hurdle races in this area, he knew he would have to sell him. Harry was chatting to Wanny about selling him and when Wanny asked how much he was going to advertise him for, Harry answered “about £2,000”.
“Wanny said, ‘You’ll never sell him at that. He’s too cheap. Everybody will think there is something wrong with him’. Harry did have faith in the dog so took Wanny’s advice and advertised him for £10,000. Wanny was right, there was plenty of interest.”
The dog is question was (a son of Pond Mirage) Arfur Daley who went on to become the best hurdler of his generation winning the 1993 Springbok and Grand National and dozens of opens for Bert Meadows.
Rita said: “They got their money back and plenty more too. I remember them saying that after winning one of the competitions at Wimbledon, they had won so much on the night and on ante post bets, that they had to ask the management to put the money in the safe.”
While Harry Williams will be remembered as a charming guy, and successful breeder and trainers, his real legacy is so very much greater.
Back in 1988 Harry was unhappy about the racing surface at Newcastle (or Brough Park as will remain for many of the locals). He made his feelings known to promoter Kevin Wilde and was duly banned from trialing dogs there.
With no other NGRC options in the area, Harry decided to take matters into his own hands. He formed a four-man syndicate with his old friend Lloyd Milligan, plus another businessman and a builder and set about trying to buy the run-down flapping track at Sunderland.
Rita said: “The owner seemingly wasn’t the easiest to deal with. But he was a market trader and I believe Harry had been very decent with him in dealings over cosmetics. Basically, Harry was the only one who he would deal with.”
The deal was eventually hammered out and the syndicate bought the track in East Boldon. It was demolished and although the local council refused planning permission for the grander scheme which included a motel and pub complex, the modern Sunderland Stadium was born.
As the consortium eventually broke up, they agreed to sell the stadium to Kevin Wilde in 1994.
The story then takes an unpleasant twist. Wilde then attempted to get planning permission for houses on the Brough Park site.
Harry was outraged and made contact with the local MP, who also just happened to be a big fan of Harry’s breeding and racing achievements, Ian Lavery.
The pair set up ‘Save Our Brough’, a well organised campaign to lobby local politicians. Indeed, Lavery was even able to get the issue debated in Westminster, where Lavery laid into the housing plan with great passion and the housing application was thrown out.
Although Harry and Rita had retired from greyhound racing, they visited Pelaw Grange as recently as June of this year.
Rita said: “We went along for Sunday lunch. It was nice to see Jeff McKenna, but I think Harry only knew about four other people at the track. I think he left feeling a bit dispirited. He had been talking about having another litter of pups but he didn’t mention it again afterwards.”
He might no longer be with us, but every single greyhound fan in the North East owes a debt of gratitude to Harry Williams. Without him there would be no Newcastle or Sunderland greyhound tracks. A fabulous human being and a Geordie gentleman. It was a privilege to have called him a friend.
Floyd Amphlett – Editor Greyhound Star
A number of people have expressed a desire to pay tribute to Harry and we will be publishing a selection of those views tomorrow.
Harry and Rita Williams with Harry’s award for Services to Greyhound Racing. GBGB Awards, London Lancaster Hotel, Sunday 27th January 2013
Pic Steve Nash
