Powderhall Stadium

Powderhall Stadium
(originally Powderhall Grounds)

Speedway at Powderhall in 1982.
Location North Edinburgh
Coordinates 55°58'00.9"N 3°11'37.1"W
Construction
Opened 1865
Renovated 1970 & 1987
Expanded 1927 greyhounds
1928 football
Closed 1995

Powderhall Stadium formerly the Powderhall Grounds was a greyhound racing track in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was located on Beaverhall Road, in the Broughton area of north Edinburgh, by the Water of Leith. The track closed in 1995 and the site is now a housing estate.

Origins

The Powderhall Grounds was built in 1869 and gained fame for being the place where Olympian Eric Liddell portrayed in Chariots of Fire trained in the 1920’s. [1] The stadium was converted for greyhound racing (opening on 3rd August 1927) and football one year later in 1928 when it hosted the original Edinburgh City football team. [2]

Greyhound racing

Pre war history

When opened in 1927 the track had easy bends and long straights and over 10,000 attended the first meeting. The first race, the Leith Stakes was won by Eager Hands in 30.70 over 500 yards. The Greyhound Racing Association (GRA) acquired Powderhall becoming one of 19 GRA tracks at the time. The kennels were built on the west side of the stadium replacing an old football ground. [3]

Major success was achieved in 1928 when Boher Ash trained by Tommy Johnston Sr. won the English Greyhound Derby, the first and only time a Scottish trained greyhound would win the sports premier event. The track situated below the 'Puddockie' as it was known locally (the Water of Leith) and a culvert ran under the track to allow the Puddockie to flow. The track circumference was 440 yards and facilities included a grandstand and two covered enclosures. The original hare was an outside 'bogie' and distances were 440, 500 and 700 yards but despite the culvert the track was prone to flooding. Edinburgh hosted four greyhound tracks, Stenhouse Stadium, Marine Gardens and a short lived independent track called Royal Gymnasium. The track introduced its own major event in 1933 and called it the Edinburgh Cup which saw early winners including Jesmond Cutlet, Wattle Bark and Dante II. [4]

Post war history

The venue was selected to host the Stewards Cup on several occasions and also hosted the BBC Television Trophy in 1964. In 1970 the stadium underwent renovation including a new 100 'Silver Hound' seated restaurant with a glass plated front to allow public viewing and bar areas increased to a total of seven. Bill Glennie was General Manager and Bill Mulley was Racing Manager replaced by Stuart Strachan in 1978 A heated blanket was constructed underneath the track to combat the Scottish winter and allow racing to go ahead during particularly cold spells. [5]

The Scottish Grand National and Scottish St Leger both became popular events and in 1982 trainer Graham Mann was moved by the GRA to White City and his replacement was Jane Glass, the Scottish tracks first ever female trainer. Powderhall marked its 60th anniversary with a new £400,000 grandstand and in 1987 the track was handed the Scottish Greyhound Derby by the GRA (following problems at Shawfield), the first time the event was run outside of Glasgow. [6]

After hosting the 1988 Scottish Derby the GRA sold the track to local businessman Norrie Rowan for £1.8m, the sale of the track resulted in two problems, the first was the fact that they lost the rights to hold the Scottish Derby because the GRA no longer had any investments in Scotland so the Derby returned to Glasgow. Secondly Norrie Rowan sold the track on to Coral for £2.2 million an instant profit of £400,000. [7]

The locally trained Ravage Again nearly surpassed the Ballyregan Bob world record in 1990; trained by Willie Frew the 29 successive wins sequence came to an end on 26th January 1990.

Closure

Corals sold the stadium to Eddie Ramsay in 1992 for £3 million but his company SGRC (Scottish Greyhound Racing Company) was in financial difficulties and he sold it to a Channel Islands company called Charlotte Twenty-One (that included a shareholder called Walton Hankinson, a housing development specialist) during January 1995 for £3 million. [8] The stadium closed and was demolished for housing.

Competitions

Other Sports

Powderhall was also used for football, being the home ground of Leith Athletic from 1926 to 1928 and Edinburgh City from 1931 to 1934. It later became a venue for motorcycle speedway, with the Edinburgh Monarchs racing there from 1977 until 1995.

The Powderhall Sprint, first held in 1870, was a professional footrace with handicapping of the runners. It continues, since 1999, as the New Year Sprint and is now held at Musselburgh Racecourse.

References

  1. ↑ Fotheringham, William (2006). Fotheringham's Extraordinary Sporting Pastimes. Robson Books Ltd. p. 87. ISBN 1-861059-53-1.
  2. ↑ Tarter, P Howard (1949). Greyhound Racing Encyclopedia. Fleet Publishing Company Ltd. p. 69.
  3. ↑ "OS County Series Edinburghshire 1931". old-maps.co.uk.
  4. ↑ Genders, Roy (1975). The Greyhound and Racing Greyhound. Page Brothers (Norwich). p. 97. ISBN 0-85020-0474.
  5. ↑ Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. pp. 65–67. ISBN 07207-1106-1.
  6. ↑ Genders, Roy (1990). NGRC book of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-7207-1804-X.
  7. ↑ Barnes, Julia (1991). Daily Mirror Greyhound Fact File. Ringpress Books. pp. 84–86. ISBN 0-948955-61-9.
  8. ↑ Fry, Paul (1995). The Official NGRC Greyhound Racing Yearbook. Ringpress Books. pp. 237–238. ISBN 186054-010-4.

Coordinates: 55°58′02″N 3°11′38″W / 55.9672°N 3.1938°W / 55.9672; -3.1938

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