| DAGENHAM GREYHOUND STADIUM This site is not an official website for the track shown here and is neither approved or endorsed by the stadium. I am indebted to Richard English for the scans of badges on this page. |
The greyhound track in the Essex town of Dagenham was situated on the Ripple Road and operated under NGRC rules from 1930. The stadium was situated at 1° 53' W 50° 45' N. The track had a circumference of 380 yards and held Standard races over 460 yards and distance races over 650 yards. Before the Second World War they also ran 460 yard hurdle races and 550 yard races. The track closed for redevelopment in 1938 and reopened again in 1939. |
| The Essex track of Dagenham was the scene of
one of the most audacious coups of all time. Betting shops had barely been legalised for 3
years when a group of well organised punters attempted one of the best constructed coups
in the history of greyhound racing. They selected the 4.05 race at Dagenham on Tuesday
30th June 1964, a race over the marathon distance of 840 metres. Three of the runners were
unfancied at 25/1, 33/1 and 33/1, so it seemed as though it rested between traps 1,5 and
6, the 4/6 favourite Dancing Nell, the quietly fancied 2/1 Buckwheat and the third choice
Handsome Lass at 9/2. The members of the 'team' on the track completely dominated the tote windows and put huge sums on all combinations apart from 1&5 reversed, 1& 6 reversed and 5 & 6 reversed. They put just the one single bet on the 3 fancied reverse forecasts. The members of the 'team' off the track backed the fancied reversed forecasts in a significantly large number of betting shops and awaited the results. In the event Buckwheat ran out the easy 8 length winner in 48.78 secs from Handsome Lass with the favourite only managing fourth. The tote paid a massive £9867.59 for a 10 pence stake. Bookmakers off course had been stung and had huge liabilities. |
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The Big Bookmakers refused to pay out on the final result and declared the race null and void, although many of the smaller and independent bookmakers paid up, especially to their regular punters. The track closed within the year in March 1965. |
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Track Records, as of 1947, are shown below together with an indication of how fast the time is in comparison to other tracks, both for currently open and defunct tracks, in the UK. Ratings are between 0 and 100, where 100 is an extremely fast time and reflects the speed of the track, tightness of the circuit and quality of greyhound visiting the tracks. I am grateful to Tony Nash for providing the data. |
I am grateful to Jon Seddon for the following link to a map showing the whereabouts of the old track |
| This section gives a comprehensive picture of
the badges produced by the track throughout the ages, but only provides the briefest of
glimpses of its history. For those wishing to undertake further research we can recommend
a visit to http://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwgreyhoundd-21 where further reading can be undertaken. |
If you have rare Dagenham badges and artefacts for sale then email johnslusar@fsmail.net |