READING 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 on Bennet road in Reading was situated at 0° 58' W 51° 25' N and first opened for racing in 1975. The track witnessed some classy races including the Hunt Cup and the Berkshire Cup.

Reading 1933 spare.JPG (6992 bytes)Reading 1934 spare.JPG (9316 bytes)

HG37.JPG (32680 bytes)HG38.JPG (31991 bytes)HG39.JPG (30950 bytes)
It continued to operate under rules until the final meeting on 18th October 2008.
HG40.JPG (32963 bytes)HG41.JPG (25276 bytes)HG42.JPG (32337 bytes)

Track Records, as of October 2008, 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)
Reading Track Records at a snapshot in time:-
SPRINT 275 metres Greenfield Fox 16.32 secs. Rating 47 23rd October 1982
STANDARD 465 metres Blue Merlin 27.56 secs Rating 48 28th April 1997
DISTANCE 660 metres Double Take 40.50 secsĀ  Rating 36 14th December 2003
EXTENDED 850 metres Greenacre Lyn 53.26 secsĀ  Rating 32 16th September 2004
MARATHON 1045 metres Souda Bay 67.58 secs Rating 65 3rd May 1998

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=470842&txtYCoord=170413

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.

Reading 1933RE.JPG (21021 bytes)Reading 1934RE.JPG (21418 bytes)Reading 1938RE2.JPG (25970 bytes)Reading 1940RE.JPG (28144 bytes)
Reading 1933RE2.JPG (36114 bytes)Reading 1934RE2.JPG (37821 bytes)Reading 1935RE.JPG (35267 bytes)Reading 1939RE.JPG (31680 bytes)
Reading 1934RE3.JPG (24691 bytes)Reading 1936RE.JPG (26240 bytes)Reading 1937RE.JPG (32280 bytes)Reading 1938RE.JPG (29327 bytes)Reading BPA.JPG (40174 bytes)

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