MIDDLESBROUGH 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 town of Middlesbrough was situated at 1° 15' W 54° 33' N in the Cleveland Park area of Teesside. It operated under NGRC rules, although racing was managed by National Greyhounds (Middlesbrough) Ltd, and held its inaugural meeting on 19th May 1928 when a crowd of over 5000 enjoyed the 8 race card. One of the features of racing at the track is the inclusion of a number of exciting handicap races, often with only 5 dogs. The track had a circumference of 412 yards and operated a Mono-Rail hare in 1931. The meeting proved popular and races were held each Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evening. There was a Members Club which cost just 5 shillings in year 1, and just 1 shilling per year thereafter.
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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 extremely grateful to Tony Nash for providing the data.
SPRINT (up to 385m) STANDARD (386-549m) DISTANCE (550-699m) EXTENDED (700-999m)
Middlesbrough Cleveland Park Track Records at a snapshot in time:-
STANDARD 470 yards Brilliant Gambler 27.29 secs Rating 2
STANDARD 518 yards Dusky Guy 30.27 secs Rating 1
Track Records as of 1989
STANDARD 450 metres Ballynaught Five 27.82 secs Rating 9
STANDARD 462 metres Swift Linnet 28.36 secs Rating 16

It continued to race successfully until closing in 1986.

I am grateful to Jon Seddon for the following link to a map showing the whereabouts of the old track
http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html?txtXCoord=447644&txtYCoord=519111
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I am grateful to Colin Turner for the photo of the Cleveland Park greyhound track circa 1950.
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.

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If you have rare Middlesbrough badges and artefacts for sale then email johnslusar@fsmail.net