PORTSMOUTH (TARGET ROAD) 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 helping to construct this page. 

The first greyhound track to open in the naval town of Portsmouth was at Copnor, but this track closed on 29th November 1930. The new track on the Target Road was situated at 1° 5' W 50° 49' N and opened on 25th May 1931.

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The track was run under NGRC rules, but closed on 26th March 2010.
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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)
Portsmouth Track Records at a snapshot in time:-
STANDARD 470 yards Clam 27.30 secs Rating 3
DISTANCE 655 yards Shaggy Lass 38.34 secs Rating 7
Track Records as of 1970
STANDARD 470 yards Hey There Merry 26.68 secs Rating 15
DISTANCE 655 yards Laurdella Guest 37.63 secs Rating 24
Track Records as of 1989
SPRINTS 265 metres Lissadell Tiger 15.55 secs Rating 58
STANDARD 438 metres Beaver Dip 26.37 secs Rating 34
DISTANCE 610 metres Crohane Lucy 38.26 secs Rating 16

Track Records, as of March 2010, 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.
SPRINTS (up to 385m) STANDARD (386-549m) DISTANCE (550-699m) EXTENDED (700-999m)
Portsmouth Track Records at a snapshot in time:-
SPRINT 246 metres Toe Head Lass 15.00 secs. Rating 22 4th April 2009
STANDARD 430 metres Blakes World 26.16 secs Rating 24 6th November 2006
DISTANCE 601 metres Bills Paid 37.51 secs  Rating 21 2nd June 2006
EXTENDED 784 metres Active Pearl 50.43 secs  Rating 9 4th August 2006
MARATHON 955 metres Zuzus Petal 62.18 secs Rating 6 2nd June 2006

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=464333&txtYCoord=103147
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 Portsmouth Target Road racecards, badges, results, information, favourite stories or artefacts then email johnslusar@fsmail.net