Slough Stadium originally known as the Dolphin Stadium was a

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. Tra ...

stadium in Uxbridge Road,

Slough Slough () is a town and unparished area in the unitary authority of the same name in Berkshire, England, bordering west London. It lies in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4 ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

Origins and opening

George Bennett Sr. a resident and entrepreneur of Slough bought and sold a cinema in

Chalvey Chalvey () is a former village, which is now a suburb of Slough, in the unitary authority of Slough in Berkshire, England. It was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire in 1974. It was first recorded in 1217 by an Old English word meaning ...

before purchasing the Dolphin Hotel in Slough in May 1914. The hotel was next door to the Dolphin ground which had hosted cricket, bowls and football in the nineteenth century. Slough Town AFC took over the ground in 1890 and Bennett became their owner. Bennett decided that the ground required more activity and after watching the new sport of greyhound racing he made the decision to construct a greyhound track around the pitch. Work got underway in 1928 with the stadium taking shape on the east side of the Uxbridge Road and south of the Dolphin Hotel. The south part of the stadium would reach as far as the houses on Dolphin Road. The opening night was on 26 May 1928 the first ever race at the track. Training kennels were established at the nearby Homelea Farm in

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Pre
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history

In March 1929, the stadium was given the name the Dolphin Stadium. Also in 1929, a greyhound called Idle Chief won 16 consecutive races and Bennett continued with his enterprises by introducing a training camp for boxers at his Dolphin hotel which included

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, Ben Ford, Jack Doyle,

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Marcel Thil Marcel Thil (29 May 1904 – 14 August 1968) was a French boxer and middleweight world champion. Statistical boxing website BoxRec rates Thil as the second best European boxer ever across all weight divisions, after Joe Calzaghe.Clapton,

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and

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. H.Garland Wells who was joint vice president of the National Greyhound Racing Society and Clapton Stadium Ltd was instrumental in the company’s decision to purchase the track which they renamed Slough Greyhound Stadium. However, it was still known as the Dolphin Stadium when used for boxing and football events. The track circumference was 400 yards and the course was described as a handy little track with bends that favour railers (greyhounds nearest the inside rail), a good run-up to the first bend means trap draw has little advantage.

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did not exist which explains why trap draw had little advantage on a track favouring railers. There was a training establishment at Sunnymeads, Dedworth in

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used solely for Slough greyhounds and principal events included the Easter Cup, Whitsun Cup, Yuletide Cup, Home Counties Cup and Coronation Puppy Championship with the addition of a race called the Dolphin Trophy.

1946-1960

After the

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the Buckinghamshire Cup was introduced and

totalisator A tote board (or totalisator/totalizator) is a numeric or alphanumeric display used to convey information, typically at a race track (to display the odds or payoffs for each horse) or at a telethon (to display the total amount donated to the chari ...

turnover in 1946 was £1,495,881. S.T.Lucas was the Racing Manager in the 1950s before handing over to John Collins in 1959, the Director of Racing for Clapton Stadium Ltd was E W Godfrey and he also handed over in 1959 to H J Richardson. E Luper and H Luper then took over as the new Managing Directors of the company.

1960s

In 1966 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 ...

(GRA) purchased New Clapton Stadiums Ltd, the deal included Slough, Clapton,

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, two training sites with 180 acres and an interest in

West Ham Stadium West Ham Stadium was a stadium that existed between 1928 and 1972 in Custom House, in East London (it was in the County Borough of West Ham, in the county of Essex, at the time of the stadium's construction). The stadium was built in 1928 on Pri ...

. Under the GRA the trainers responsible for supplying the greyhounds to Slough were Jimmy Jowett, Bill Krailing, Paddy Pierce, Jim Barker, Ron Jeffrey and Jim Sherry, the latter three also supplied Reading. Racing took place on Tuesday and Saturday evenings.

1970s

The hare system was an 'Inside Sumner' and amenities included a steak bar, two buffet bars and four licensed bars. In 1971 Slough and Reading changed to the contract trainer system, a policy that many stadia had adopted and three years later in 1974 sister track Clapton closed resulting in the prestigious Classic the

Scurry Gold Cup The Scurry Gold Cup is an original classic greyhound competition currently run at Perry Barr Stadium. It was run at Clapton Stadium from 1928 until its closure in 1973. The event moved to Slough Stadium in 1974 which consequently closed in 198 ...

being transferred to Slough. The 1977 running of the Scurry ended with a three-way battle between two promising newcomers Wired To Moon and Cahurmore Speech and defending champion Xmas Holiday. Cahurmore Speech broke the Slough track record in the semi-finals before finishing runner up to Wired To Moon in the final with Xmas Holiday finishing third. On the way back to the Northaw kennels after the race Adam Jackson's finalist Fiano was killed in a vehicle accident. Trainer Ted Dickson won the first Classic race for the track after Greenfield Fox won the 1977

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before winning the

Pall Mall Stakes The Pall Mall Stakes was a prestigious greyhound racing competition held at Oxford Stadium until it closed in 2012. It was run at Harringay Stadium from 1935 until 1987, before moving to Oxford Stadium in 1988. The race never received the stat ...

. Dickson also trained a fawn dog called Linacre who had four big wins in 1977, the Derby Consolation, Edinburgh Cup, Sussex Cup and

Wembley Spring Cup The Wembley Spring Cup was a greyhound racing competition held annually at Wembley Stadium. It was inaugurated in 1930, one of the earliest competitions. The race changed its name to the Blue Riband in 1981. Following the end of the Wembley Greyh ...

. Dickson was rewarded by being named the

Greyhound Trainer of the Year The Greyhound Trainer of the Year or Champion Trainer is an award for the leading greyhound trainer in the United Kingdom. It was inaugurated in 1961 and was originally elected by a press panel but is now awarded to the trainer who achieves the ...

1980s

Yankee Express secured a hat-trick of Scurry titles in the early 1980s before Slough won the

English Greyhound Derby The English Greyhound Derby is the most prestigious race on the British Greyhound racing in the United Kingdom, greyhound racing calendar, with a history stretching back to 1927. It was first held at White City Stadium, but moved to Wimbledon ...

with one of their greyhounds called Tico (trained by Arthur Hitch) in

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Closure

In 1987 Slough became the fourth and last track of the 1966 deal to be sold by the GRA to developers. It closed on 21 March 1987 with the last race being won by Ted Dickson's Yellow Crest. The Scurry Gold Cup moved to

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and the original Sunnymeads kennels are still used today but the stadium site is a Sainsbury's supermarket.

Competitions

Scurry Gold Cup

Buckinghamshire Cup

Track records

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References

{{English greyhound tracks Defunct greyhound racing venues in the United Kingdom Defunct sports venues in Berkshire Sports venues completed in 1928 1928 establishments in England