Memories from Harringay Stadium 1927 to

1987
By Whitmarsh, Limited Ability and Hand of COG

Memories of the stadium & track

I was at the last night of Harringay and I was also at the very first greyhound meeting
there in 1927. The only other track racing in London was White City, Wembley opened not
long after. It must of been summer when Harringay opened because all the trees had
leaves on them.

I was taken there as a boy by my father who made a book there until before the War. The
arc lights above the track lit it up on the dark winters nights and the stadium was a
magical sight for a child. The thing I remember most, funnily, was how many trees we
passed on the way I’d never seen so many.

My father was a bit of a bar one merchant in as much as he liked to have the favourite a
winner. In those days the bookmakers tickets always had the bookies photo on it. I was
told it gave the punters confidence to have a bet with a man with his picture on the ticket
because there was a lot of welching.

The early days there were bookmakers the whole way round the track. The tote started up
a few years after the Stadium opened and when the tote board went up at the far end
(3rd to 4th bend) that was also a magical sight.

There was a lot of bookmakers betting underneath the tote board in the 20s and 30s. my
father bet outside opposite the winning post. The first bend was all bookies from
Clerkenwell - Jock Wyatt, Harry O Brien, Freddie Sabini betting as Bob Wilson, Joe Sabini
in the Harry Lake tools, Bert Marsh and Sandy Crowley in the B and S tools. Bert was at
Harringay all his life, later having a share with his brother in law Peter Buffoni, who also
done the tissue (sic.). Sandy Crowley went on to be the biggest and most successful post
war dog punter until his death.

Before the war the starting traps were a heavy contraption made of wood and hand
started. There was a wooden bar with a rope attached to it at the side of trap one and the
same thing at the end of trap six so the traps all lifted together.

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The greyhounds pre war were bigger, more like coursing types. They wouldn’t handle
tracks like Crayford, Romford or Sunderland nowadays. If a dog broke 31 seconds he was a
good dog. A dog that captured the heart of the crowds at Harringay before the war was
The Two Micks. He was a grader that won a lot of races and was still running at seven.
When he started racing he never came out of the traps so they started loading him
backwards he used to flip over and come out on terms. The crowd loved him.

Where the cheap ring bookies bet was known as pneumonia corner. The wind blew across
Finsbury Park and in the winter cut you in half. The hot chestnut man always did good
business.

I still have my GRA pass for Harringay and White City it was number 37. It’s like a little
booklet bound in blue cloth.

Track Characters

An ol’ boy that used to play the mouth organ outside. He used to bet in ten and twenty
pounds, which was good back then, but if he was in front he could have more on. Then he
used to be playing the harmonica outside for any change that people would give to him.
(Hand of Cog)

After the war George Langham, brother of bookmaker Davie, used to go round with the
sticks of chalk and bucket of water for the bookmakers to squeeze the sponge or rag in.
George was well known; he had one arm, unfortunately he dropped dead one night at
Harringay.

Frankie White had a paper pitch and when they dropped the papers off for him to sell they
used to give him the headline placards to put up round the pitch. Frank used to put his
own placards up next to the standard or evening news ones. I remember the Midday
Standard one stated 20,000 pound Bank Robbery, Frank wrote next to it .....Wish I Was In
It! Another time was Wages Snatch At Tate and Lyle Factory, Frank wrote.....That Was
Sweet! He was always doing things like that.

It was hard for bookies workmen getting back from the horse race meetings on trains and
buses but a lot of them did it for years. When there was the 8 races 7.45 to 9.45 it wasn’t
too bad but in later years 7.30 to 10.30 or later made it a very long day. Sometimes they
were out 15 hours in all weather only to get a blank if the guvnor lost. As old Freddie
Deverson used to say "More dinner times than dinners".

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Remembered Incidents

The British Breeders Greyhound show held at Harringay in the mid seventies was a good
Sunday out. You saw a lot of the best **es and the best stud dogs standing in this country
paraded.

I was at Harringay twice when there was a proper riot; once just after the war and
another time about fifty years ago. The crowd smashed the Tote windows, set light to the
traps and when the Fire Brigade arrived one of the Howard brothers, who started it, got
an axe from somewhere and chopped the hose in half. The water was going fifty feet in
the air. The bookies all grabbed the hods and had it on their toes. I saw a man rip the grill
on the tote straight off; it was unbelievable scenes. The meeting was abandoned. The
hare was set on fire and the coal braziers that were round the track tipped upside down.
It all started when the odds on jolly in the hurdle race fell.

I remember going to Harringay in the middle of the London riots. I walked out of Manor
House tube to be faced by about 200/300 rioters, mostly black, running straight at me,
They all ran straight past as if I were invisible and then i saw why as hundreds of riot
police came charging towards me in full riot gear and headed by about 6 police dogs. I shit
myself as again they all ran past me as if I wasn't there.

Decline & Closure

I will never forget an incident towards the end in the early 80s when I was in the American
bar. I went up to the tote windows and asked “a rf 5 & 3”. Anyway after several valiant
efforts by the old dear behind the window it became apparent that the old handle
operated mechanism used to issue the tickets was not going to produce a ticket for “a 5 &
3 rf”. The operator was eager to please and asked if I fancied another combination. You
couldn't make it up.

I think the beginning of the end for Harringay dogs was the closure of the outside
enclosure a few years before the stadium was shut down. When the management shut the
cheap ring they said that the roof of the stand was letting in water and a lot of repair
work needed to be done. They said it would be shut for about 3 months and then
reopened. The repair work was never carried out. The outside was closed forever. None of
the bar staff or tote staff working in the stands out there were aware of any problems
with the roof. The outside bookmakers were given the option of betting on the end of
what I always called the 4 bob ring. Not all of them took up this option. It proved what a
good attendance they were getting in the cheap ring by how many books got a living out
there.

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When Walthamstow shut there were two books operating outside. At Harringay the kipper
night, Wednesday, had a dozen books in regular attendance and Monday and Friday nights
there were twenty books all staffed up with clerks, floormen, bagmen, and a couple of
tic-tacs apiece. The comparison with Walthamstow highlights how busy Harringay was
when it shut. A travesty, completely scandalous. It was a vibrant, busy cheap ring where
you could get a substantial bet with at least half the bookies. Thinking about the Fifty
Pence Night when Ramsden had the money running up, the off course firms must have put
ten grand on that dog. Nowadays I would say that equates to about fifty grand in today’s
money. I would say that was about 27 or 28 years ago.

Apart from myself so many people there on that last night had been there on the very first
night, sixty years previous in 1927. One lady on the tote actually worked the first night
and the last night and the only time she had off was when her children were small. Iris,
the white haired lady behind the bar was there for nearly fifty years. Angel, who looked
after the bookmakers joints and equipment, and his son were there for a lifetime. Joe on
the turnstiles was there for fifty years and so the list could go on and on. As I said before
it was very sad walking out of there for the last time ever.

The closure of Harringay ripped the beating heart out of dog racing in London. Only three
years earlier White City had been sold off. The terraces at Harringay were packed with
proper dog people. Not restaurant goers, six packers or social night out people. A few
carried on going to Hackney, fewer still reverted to Walthamstow. I myself became a
regular at Catford, a track I had always frequented from time to time, and Hackney were I
always went in the afternoons and Saturday morning. Hundreds of die hard regulars were
lost to the game because nothing could replace Harringay. It was a way of life, a big part
of your life. Harringay was a laugh a minute, always someone with a joke or story to tell.
One old bookmakers clerk told me it never felt like you was going to work when you went
to Harringay. To me Harringay was full of comedians and the funniest thing was not many
of them knew what comedians they were.

Chatter about racing fraternity personalities

My grandfather used to bet on the 1st bend, then in the silver ring proper. That was when
my father took over the pitch. When they closed the cheap side we moved on to the other
side with the other cheap ring bookies. When Paul Gilliat turned it in, we moved along to
the other end.

As I said earlier I did see Mick The Miller but I was about eight and cant remember much
about him. I saw Scurlogue Champ win and get beat at Harringay. When he won I truly
couldn’t believe what I had witnessed, the dog was tailed off first time round and ended
up winning by at least six lengths going away. About three months later he done the same
thing first time round but was beaten in a photo. The first time I saw Ballyregan Bob at

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Harringay he was knocked over at the first bend at big odds on 1/4 or something like that
in the first round of the Pall Mall. He won every other time I saw him run(always over six
bends)

The books outside at the time of closure, as far as I can remember, were Pat Daley,
Chas.**Wag Shaw, Peter Buffoni, Alf Nathan, George Braham, Bill Baker, Jack Fogg,
Crosby, Sammy Davis, Buswell, J.W.K, Davie Langham (Tom Power was the light and dark)
Tony Hester, Lew Rabbits.

Highlights from:

“Memories of Harringay”

Credits:

With thanks “Whitmarsh” (Aged 88 in 2010), who contributed most of the material used
here. Thanks also to “Limited Ability” and “Hand of COG”.

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