Catford's gone to the dogs

The traps first opened at Catford Stadium on 30 July, 1932. They closed for the last time on 5 November, 2003. Or, to be more exact, the previous afternoon when Redders Senorita became the last winner of a greyhound race at the famous old venue.

The next day, the track's owners, the Greyhound Racing Association (GRA), issued a press release stating that Catford was to close "with immediate effect". Even those who worked there had no idea, no notice.

"It's like losing a close friend or family member, without having the opportunity to say goodbye," said one Catford regular of 30 years on hearing that the turnstiles had shut at what was the home of greyhound racing in the south-east for 70-plus years.

The GRA's decision has incensed large sections of the sport, and especially those who lived and breathed greyhound racing at Catford. Racking up losses year-on-year, the track's demise had been long predicted, but just as any bereavement, it came as a shock.

While greyhound tracks up and down the country invested in plush bars, restaurants and other creature comforts, Catford was left behind to rot. Unlike other south-east London institutions, it was not a listed building - maybe it should have been.

The rich and famous, Hollywood stars and those from the world of sport all visited this corner of Adenmore Road, underneath Catford Bridge. The Gold Collar trophy, its most prestigious race, regularly had a ' personality' to present the winning trophy.

In 1934, in its first running, film star Tallulah Bankhead greeted the successful owners in style, and it was a tradition that lived on in the modern day when, under the sponsorship of local bookmaker John Humphreys, the likes of Henry Cooper, Lester Piggott, Lennox Lewis, Frank Bruno, Leslie Grantham and even Red Rum stepped across the famous sand track to the presentation podium, where starstruck owners, trainers and well-wishers celebrated before being joined by their heroes in a lap of honour. The following race would always be delayed by half an hour!

But behind the scenes all was not well. The GRA stopped spending money on Catford, as it chose to plough money into its other stadia - Wimbledon, with its 'Mick the Miller' enclosure, Hall Green (Birmingham) and Oxford, with their 'executive' boxes - in the largely successful search for the corporate pound, and the recent purchase of another track in Birmingham, Perry Barr.