HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Poole Stadium is a speedway and former
greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tr ...
venue located in the town centre of
Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...
, Dorset in England. The stadium is owned by the
Borough of Poole Poole Borough Council was the unitary authority responsible for local government in the Borough of Poole, Dorset, England. It was created on 1 April 1997 following a review by the Local Government Commission for England (1992), becoming administ ...
. It was built in the early 1930s in an attempt to provide a source of entertainment to the residents of Poole during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. It is also often referred to as Wimborne Road, which is a road that runs adjacent to the stadium. During weekdays, the stadium's large car park is used to provide parking for Poole Hospital's
park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system ( ...
scheme. On 22 September 2020 the permanent closure of greyhound racing at the site was announced.


Football

In 1933 local semi-professional
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...
team
Poole Town F.C. Poole Town Football Club is a football club based in Poole, Dorset, England. They currently compete in the . The club was established in 1880 and they affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and are a Football Association (FA) Char ...
moved to Poole Stadium where they began to play their home games in the
Western Football League The Western Football League is a football league in South West England, covering Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, western Dorset, parts of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. The league's current main sponsor is Toolstation, so it is also known as ...
. In the 1946/47 season they had a run in the qualifying rounds of the
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...
which took them through to a first round match against
Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...
. Poole Town drew 2–2 at
Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...
, but lost 6–0 in the replay in front of a then record breaking Poole Stadium crowd of 10,224. They again reached the first round in the 1962/63 season and held Watford F.C. to a 2–2 draw at
Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of championship club Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from Cas ...
, but lost the replay at Poole Stadium in front of an 11,155 crowd. Poole Town were based at the stadium for 61 years until Poole Council forced them to leave in 1994, blaming low attendances. During their stay at the stadium, the club had financed improvements to the stadium such as a 1,100 seater
grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap al ...
on the east side of the football pitch built in 1960, and covered terracing on the west side.


Speedway

The stadium has been home to speedway team the
Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by ...
since the club was created in 1948 and speedway has taken place at the stadium every year since. Prior to 1948, a
cycle track A cycle track, separated bike lane or protected bike lane (sometimes historically referred to as a sidepath) is an exclusive bikeway that has elements of a separated path and on-road bike lane. A cycle track is located within or next to the r ...
had surrounded the football pitch until it was replaced with the larger speedway track.Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of British Speedway''. Stroud:
Tempus Publishing The History Press is a British publishing company specialising in the publication of titles devoted to local and specialist history. It claims to be the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher in this field, publishing approximately 300 ...
.
Poole Stadium was chosen to host the 2004 Speedway World Cup final by organiser Benfield Sports International (BSI). Poole hosted the qualifying race-off and the
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
which took place on 7 August with
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
becoming the 2004 World Champions. Temporary stands were erected around the corners of the track to provide 2,200 extra seats. The official attendance figure at the stadium for the final was 7,131. Poole Speedway is officially 299.1m long and the track record is 56.91 set by
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
's Antonio Lindback on 14 June 2006.


Sidecar Speedway

A number of top Sidecar meeting have been held at Wimborne Road. The British Championship was held in 2002 and 2003 and two Super Cup rounds were held in 2001. Gary Jackson and Carl Pugh won by British Championships. Craig Cheetham & Clive Reynolds won both rounds in the Super Cup.


Greyhound racing

Facilities included a modern glass fronted grandstand which incorporated a 312-seat restaurant, two bars, full Tote betting facilities and multiple viewing screens. Race nights used to take place on Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.


History

Greyhound racing was introduced to the stadium in 1960 after the Southampton Greyhound Stadium owners Charlie Knott Sr. & Charlie Knott Jr. initiated plans to construct a track around the football pitch and speedway track. Charlie Jr. The venue underwent considerable change with a grandstand and terracing being introduced on both sides of the stadium. On 8 May 1961 the opening meeting took place with the Mayor of Poole Alderman Bill Cole conducting the opening ceremony. There was an eight race card featuring five dogs in each race set up around a 380-yard circuit. The first ever winner was 'Count on Chippelgaun' a 5-1 shot in a time of 29.7 secs. The Racing Manager was aptly named D.J Poole before T.H.Pickett took over the hot seat. The Knott's remained involved in Poole until 1980 when they sold their interest in the stadium. The leading trainers were Rita Randall and Pat Clarke and Ernie Walsh became the new Racing Manager. Following the sale the greyhound operation ran into difficulties and on 1 January 1985 closed down before the racing was brought back by TGV Ltd headed by Terry Bentham on April 5 of the same year. Simon Cross took over as Racing Manager from Ernie Walsh and TGV Ltd took the opportunity to conduct some renovations. Cross was soon to be replaced by Geoff Lee. Scurlogue Champ appeared on 12 July 1986 and broke the track record. Facilities included a restaurant for 100 covers, a car park for 800 vehicles and two bars with all-sand circuit and an 'Outside Sumner' hare. Racing continued on Thursday and Saturday nights until the ownership changed again to a company called Playbell Ltd who then removed the greyhound track to accommodate a larger
football pitch A football pitch (also known as soccer field) is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is typically made of natural t ...
on 30 June 1990. In February 1992 hopes were revived that greyhound racing could return to Poole after plans were announced by the Derek Block owned Poole Stadium Development Corporation that they were looking to emulate a track such as
Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium Brighton & Hove Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track located in the Hove Park area of the city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The stadium also has a restaurant and a number of bars and is owned by the Gala Coral Group and race meet ...
and
Romford Greyhound Stadium Romford Greyhound Stadium, referred to as Coral Romford Greyhound Stadium is a greyhound racing track located in Romford town centre in the London Borough of Havering in east London which is owned and operated by the Ladbrokes Coral group. The ...
. This sparked interest from the BS Group and they had discussions with the local authorities regarding the re-opening of Wimborne Road. Even the
Greyhound Racing Association The Greyhound Racing Association was a UK-based private company founded in 1925 and existed until 2019. It was involved in the management of sports venues, notably greyhound racing stadia. The GRA was responsible for introducing Greyhound racing ...
made it clear that they were monitoring the situation. The BS Group won the race and secured a long time lease from the Poole Borough Council in 1994 and racing finally returned with the football ceasing. The owners constructed a modern glass fronted grandstand on the east side of the stadium in 1997 which incorporated a 312-seat restaurant, two bars, full Tote betting facilities and multiple viewing screens. The
Golden Crest The Golden Crest was a greyhound racing competition held annually at Poole Stadium. It was inaugurated in 1937 at Eastville Stadium in Bristol. Eastville closed in 1997 and the event was suspended until Poole resurrected it in 2000. With the clos ...
which had been hosted by the track since 2000 had become the principal event surpassing the significance of the tracks previous main feature competition 'The Wessex Vase'. A major boost for arrived in 2012 when the track was awarded a BAGS contract for the first time. In 2018 the stadium signed a deal with ARC to race every Tuesday and Sunday evening. In 2020, the stadium was closed due to
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, following the easing of restrictions of the lockdown, Poole Stadium Ltd (under parent company Gaming International) decided not to re-open and later, on 5 August, announced it was under a consultation period with the staff with the possibility of redundancies and the end of the greyhound racing at the venue. On 22 September 2020 the permanent closure of greyhound racing at the site was announced leaving Gaming International with one remaining site at
Swindon Stadium Swindon Stadium, also known as the Abbey Stadium, is a Greyhound Board of Great Britain regulated greyhound racing track and former speedway track in Blunsdon, Swindon, England. Greyhound racing currently takes place every Monday, Wednesday ...
.


Competitions

*
Golden Crest The Golden Crest was a greyhound racing competition held annually at Poole Stadium. It was inaugurated in 1937 at Eastville Stadium in Bristol. Eastville closed in 1997 and the event was suspended until Poole resurrected it in 2000. With the clos ...


Track records

Current Former


References


External links


Stadia UK Poole Greyhound Racing

Poole Speedway official website

Unofficial Poole Stadium website
{{English greyhound tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Speedway venues in England Poole Stadium Sports venues in Dorset Sport in Poole