Everyone seemingly has a Maurice Newman memory, including myself, writes Floyd Amphlett.
My most powerful one concerns the time when GBGB Chairman Tom Kelly had seemingly decided that the industry could do without Greyhound Star. At a stroke he cut the Board’s advertising to zero. It was tough enough running a monthly newspaper and when Kelly’s board backed him – it became impossible for the Star to pay its print bill.
Somehow or other, Maurice found out and was distraught.
“You much keep going son. It’s important. Is there anything I can do to help?”
There wasn’t but the call meant a lot. It was a proper dog man saying Greyhound Star was worth saving, when he might have said, ‘cut your losses and leave it to Racing Post.’
I probably had another 50 conversations with Maurice and his first concern was always my and the Star’s welfare. He never did come to terms with an on-line Star but would have the articles printed out so he could read them.
Maurice’s down to earth attitude and willingness to embrace fellow greyhound lovers was appreciated by many, not least a Scotsman learning to live with the Sassenachs.
Rab McNair said: “Maurice was one of the first people that I got to know when we came to live in England and he became a sort of adopted dad. In fact I think he was the greyhound industry’s adopted dad. Everybody loved to see him and I spent hours and hours chattiing to him over the years, we had some fabulous banter.”
Maurice could be outspoken and loud and, if you didn’t know him, he might come across as being slightly aggressive. More ‘Jack Russell than Labrador”
Rab said: “I think we were a bit the same. It comes from being small I reckon. But this is ridiculous; he was the only man I could ever knew who whenever I saw him we used to have a cuddle.
“I will really miss him.”
GBGB Chief Executive Mark Bird said: “Maurice was very much the Elder Statesman of not only greyhound racing but also of football and boxing.
“At many of his charity fundraisers, he would wield John Conteh, Michael Watson or Terry Sheringham, in order to gain more money out of people’s pockets for GOSH.
“Even whilst having his treatment for cancer, it wouldn’t stop him from phoning me every other week, either to bend my ear about what the GBGB should be doing, but more likely to be saying what ‘we all’ should be doing for the betterment of the sport, but what was always evident was his deep-rooted passion for greyhound racing and its impact on people involved in the sport.
“When I announced Maurice’s sad passing to our staff yesterday, it was heartening how many of them came back to me with personal stories about Maurice with the over-riding reflections being that he was a caring and giving gentleman.
“It is a testament to Maurice that he put others always ahead of himself and for these reasons and many others he will be sorely missed.”
Champion trainer Mark Wallis said: “If you were to imagine what a dog trainer looked like it would be Maurice. I’ve known him pretty much since the days I was working for Linda.
“Maurice was such a great friend to greyhound racing and everyone in it. He spent his whole life looking to help everyone he could. People like that don’t come along very often. He will be a great miss to this industry.”
Maurice Newman was not only a loss to greyhound racing, but to charity too as per this letter from his fellow Great Ormond Street fundraisers.
“We were so saddened to hear of Maurice’s recent and unexpected passing. On behalf of GOSH, Jo and I would like extend our heart felt sympathies to Vera and Maurice’s family.
It would be fair to say though, that nobody in greyhound racing was closer to Maurice and former trainer Stan Kennett.
Following the 2022 English Derby Final, by chance I was given a lift home by the pair. It was a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half (we went the wrong way) intersperced by memories, banter, and abuse (of Stan’s navigating!). The following is a poignant and sometimes humerous recollection of the bubbly larger than life character who was Maurice Newman.
Stan said: “I had known Maurice for 50 years. He was talent scouting for lots of footbal teams at the time. I played for West Ham’s youth team and ended up playing in some of Maurice’s teams. I’m not sure that he always had my best interests at heart. One day I went up for a header and got my nose broken.
“Maurice told me to stop making such a fuss and made me play on. He gave me the old sponge in the face and told me to get on with it. I felt so rough after the game that I went to hospital and they gave me eight stitches beside my eye. Maurice used to do a bit of boxing when he was younger and thought I was being a bit of a fairy.
“He was such a character everyone knew him. Teddy Sherringham played for one of Maurice’s teams as an under-11. Maurice knew talent when he saw it and arranged for Teddy to get trials with Milwall. It all went on from there. He was on first name terms with so many celebrities and sportsmen. A friend of ours lived opposite the actor Ray Winston. Typical Maurice he got chatting to him and got him involved in the Great Ormond Street fund raising.
“A lot of people wouldn’t know that when Maurice was first taken ill, Ben Keith of Star Sports offered to pay privately for all his medical care. What a gesture that was! But Maurice had already started his treatment at Barts Hospital. He thanked Ben but carried on at Barts.
“But most of my memories of Maurice and happy ones and funny ones, and that is how I choose to remember him. I couldn’t repeat a lot of them. I first got to know him at Rye House when it was a flapper. He always had a few dog and his greatest claim to fame as a trainer was that he won the only NGRC handicapped open race that has ever been staged.
“It was run at Crayford and Maurice worked out how to fiddle the system. He won it with a dog called Pylon Power who was running off the front of the handicap and never got caught.
“We used to go racing together all the time but he even caught me out on occasion. One night I was sitting at home when I got a phone call from Maurice. He had been in an accident on his way to Harlow, could I get there as soon as possible.
“I knew the area and found him pretty quickly. It was entirely his fault, he had driven his van into the side of a BMW pulling out of its drive. His nephew was there too and they got the van towed away as a write-off. Thankfully nobody was hurt.
“A few days later I got a phone call from Maurice. Could I pop around and see him? I asked what about but he wouldn’t talk about it on the phone. When I got to his house he confessed that he didn’t have a driving licence. He had been driving on a provisional for 62 years. The insurance was obviously void and his nephew paid for the repairs so no harm was done.
“Suddenly it all made sense to me why, when we went flapping he would turn up at my house and ask me to drive. All those years and I never had a clue. Nomatter how long you knew Maurice he could always surprise you.
“I remember I had this little dog who had won four opens at Romford and Maurice kept on that we should take him flapping. So we headed up north, I hadn’t got a clue where we were, but we pulled in to Highgate flap in Yorkshire.
“As we walked into the track the woman at the gate shouted out, ‘Hello Maurice, how’s things?’
