1965 Walthamstow introduce an injury compensation scheme for all graded runners at the track. The owner of any dog that breaks a leg in a race will receive a sum equal to ten times the win prize money of that race, up to a maximum of £250. The scheme extends to a flat £250 (approx £4,000 at current values) to the owner of any greyhound that breaks a leg in a Watlthamstow open or any dog representing Walthamstow in an inter-track at another stadium.
1985 Oxford racing manager Mick Wheble confidently predicted a whitewash when his team took on Coventry in an intertrack. His opposing manager Gary Woodward was so outraged that he promised to strip naked to make the presentation if Wheble’s prediction came true – providing Wheble would reciprocate, should the opposite occur. The Oxford man turned pale after seeing the first three legs go to Coventry runners. However his modesty was spared when Little Weston (not Little Hampton!) landed the final leg for the Cowley visitors.
2011 Eye Onthe Storm, ante post favourite for the 2010 English Derby prior to a broken hock makes a successful return to the track when clocking 18.13 in a sprint trial at Nottingham. He follows up with a 16.80 for Yarmouth’s 277m but suffers a reaction and is retired as a pet.
1993 Catford boss Mike Raper reports recent Saturday night crowds in excess of 2,000 and a fortnight waiting list for restaurant bookings. Raper believes the surge in attendance was due to positive publicity from two TV shows featuring the stadium, London’s Burning and Big City.
1970 Bookmakers Margolis & Ridley publish the most open ante post Derby betting seen in years. Kilbelin Style and Moordyke Spot are 20-1 joint favourites. 120 dogs are listed but eventual ’70 Derby winner John Silver is not among them, nor are the Derby second and third, Little County and Coral Romeo.
2010 Charlie Lister, the 5-4f to win the Betfair Trainers Championship at Doncaster but was turned over by Mark Wallis. The two kennels won seven of the eight heats. It was the fourth member of Team Wallis, Eye Onthe Storm who finally secured a two point victory in the final heat. His other winners were Directors Wit, Dalcash Scolari and Eye Onthe Pickle. Final scores 49-Mark Wallis, 47-Charlie Lister, 30-Barrie Draper, 28-Dean Childs, Seamus Cahill, 27-Chris Allsopp.
1993 A promotion run by Ladbrokes shops in the region saw 1,100 customers attend a meeting at Belle Vue. Many arrived on the specially chartered coaches – 10 single deck vehicles and two double-deckers.
1983 Romford are to erect a 15 foot high fence following the latest incident of race wrecking. In fact, the track were tipped off by an East London betting shop that an attempt to stop a race would occur if the striped jacketed Deputy Devine was not leading. Although they posted security staff around the track, they could not prevent a number of orange rugby balls being thrown onto the track from the adjacent railway line. Although the leader was unaffected, the second placed dog was distracted by the balls and the race was declared void.
1933 Catford staged a whole meeting – seven races – entirely over hurdles
2002 Jerry Desmond, in his role as Chief Executive of the Irish Coursing Club is appointed president of the World Greyhound Racing Federation. Desmond attends the inauguration meeting in Macau, representing the Northern Irish tracks, Ballyskeagh and Derry. The Federation announce that the ICC will host the following year’s conference in Cork, even though the Irish Greyhound Board and its British counterpart the BGRB have both left the organisation.
1990 Welsh born and bred One for Lloyd (Brief Candle-One For Barrie) causes the biggest upset of the year to date when winning the £1,500 Monmore Puppy Derby at 20-1. The Bernard Davies trained brindle clocked 29.97 in the 484 metre final some 67 spots slower than fastest semi final winner Phantom Flash (1-3f).
1986 Ballintuber One, who spent the first half of the year in Britain, is voted as Ireland’s track greyhound of the year. In Britain he won the Circuit and Select Stakes, as well as setting track records for 434m at Slough and 490m at Wembley. He then joined Matt O’Donnell and won the Irish Leger.
1971 The locally trained Linmaree (Spectre II-Nevasca) survives a three-way photo finish to land the Wood Lane Stakes by a neck from creep Prince the black’s half brother Sherrys Prince wins the supporting hurdle open.
1986 Greyhound authorities hail the jailing of a race-wrecker for si months as an important precedent following a series of similar incidents. Ian Gullefer (22) from Chadwell Heath, jumped onto the track at Romford when a runner he had backed was in third place and unlikely to win. However, for the first time, instead of prosecuting under ‘public order’ offenses, Essex Police charged Gullefer with attempted theft.
1951 J Hough-Chadwick of Duntisbourne Lee, near Cirecencester is unveiled as Britain’s most successful breeder for 1950. British bred dogs won around 29% of the 1,226 opens staged during the year with Hough-Chadwick’s ‘O’Leer’ prefix being the most successful. Second on the table was Mrs D Ash, whose ‘Denver’ runners were reared at Denver Lodge near Waltham Abbey (later the home of Pam Heasman). Mr D Marsh, formerly of Cheshire but now based at Ewhurst in Surrey finished third on the table with his ‘Behattan’ runners.
1986 From now on, trainers must complete a kennel book determining the names, status and treatment of all dogs in their care. Previously they were required to make quarterly returns.
1992 Newry trainer Brendan Matthews beats the Irish Coursing Club in a court battle over the result of the 1990 Irish Cup. Matthews trained runner-up Needham Bar though the winner Flashing Crystal failed a dope test with traces of amphetamine and niketamide. At the initial inquiry, Flashing Crystal was disqualified and fined £1,000. That was overruled by the executive committee who ordered Crystal to be reinstated with a fine of £4,000. The judge found with Matthews who had seen three of his dogs beaten by Crystal during the competition. He ordered the ICC to pay Matthews the full £8,000 prize money and the record books be altered to show Flashing Crystal as disqualified. The news is a double blow for the ICC who have a similar case to answer in the case of 1991 Coursing Derby winner Silent Swank.
1949 The racing press begin a campaign to encourage tracks to seed wide runners and notify punters that they are doing so. The Greyhound Express report “Of London’s 18 tracks, ten claim to seed wide runners, and an eleventh seeds them but omits to publish the fact on the racecard. At this track however, as at some others, no secret is made to the press of the identity of dogs classified as wide runners; indeed three of them add a refinement to the Club’s requirements by printing a ‘W’ or star against such dogs on their racecards.”
1992 Romford grader Labour Candidate finally wins a race at his 28th attempt.
