2011 Double Derby winning champion Tony Meek hands over the trainer’s licence to wife Jayne.

2002 Kevin Wilde is in discussions with the chairman of Dewsbury Rugby Club about the possibility of introducing greyhound racing.

1992 Tom Smith takes over as promoter at Swaffham

1952 Following the death of King George VI, greyhound racing is cancelled in most of the major cities.

1974 Events in February – Cobb Hurdles (Catford 610H), Springbok (White City 525H), Chingford Marathon (Walthamstow 880), Coronation Stakes (Wembley 525 bitches).

2005 Shawfield announce that the Scottish Derby will not charge an entry fee for the first time (previously £100). In addition, all heat winners will earn £150 money. The winner of the final will again receive £25,000.

1952 A meeting of track owners are informed that a mechanism for automatically opening the starting traps which most rejected as being too expensive – at £115 – has been operating at Romford and Dagenham for three years. In over 5,000 races it has failed twice.

2006 A News of the World article on the use of cocaine, particularly concentrating on its use by celebrities, also suggested its use was rife for doping greyhounds. The paper failed to acknowledge the GBGB’s response which explained that in the period since 1999, when the laboratories were first able to detect cocaine, some 70,000 samples had been taken and only four returned positive and three of those were from human contamination and had not been administered to a greyhound.

1952 Ruston Smutty is voted Champion Greyhound of 1951 by a press panel in London. The Cheshire bred dog contested 40 opens, won 10 and finished in the first three on 39 occasions. His winning prize money totalled over £4,000 – equivalent to around £110,000.

1934 Wembley hold a gala evening to celebrate their 1,000th greyhound meeting. The feature event is a match race between top stars Deemster’s Lad and Hunted Courier. Following the meeting will be a dinner and cabaret

2012 Wimbledon’s pre-Juvenile trial session is held up by a bomb scare at Plough Lane.

1934 Wimbledon’s Popular Plate is contested by six littermates from a Mick The Miller and Toftwood Misery. ‘Mick The’ Cheerful, Cavalier, Commander, Curious, Cyclone and Courier are all owned by Mrs Arundel H Kempton and trainer Sidney Orton.

2000 The Golden Crest gets underway at Poole with the local management confessing that they cannot find the impressive perpetual trophy.

1997 Ballyline Prince, third in the Irish National Sprint, wins the Pakistan Derby

1949 Two Crayford kennellads are committed for trial on charges of conspiring to dope greyhounds. The two teenagers planned to drug eight dogs in two races by giving them capsules when the trainers went to lunch.

1934 West Ham’s first open race behind their new ‘trackless’ hare will have £100 prize money (equivalent to around £6,000 today) added to the £3 entry fees.

2012 BAGS launch a new intertrack competition, the BAGS/ SIS Easter Bunny.

1947 Joe Harmon, trainer at London White City, resigns because of his wife’s ill health and is replaced by Fred Taylor.

2009 Stud dog Droopys Woods dies following a short illness. The inferior brother of Droopys Vieri threw a number of top class hounds including Droopys Shearer, Ballymac Kewell and Wheres Yer Man.

1999 Top pup Sarah Dee breaks a hock in a trial at Milton Keynes and is retired. She had won 12 of her 19 races.