It’s Not What You Know….. The Haringey Greyhound Riot

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I was there in 1957 when the riot took place, I don’t think I have ever been so scared in all my life.

Let me try and explain what took place.

In 1957 the rules of greyhound racing were that if a dog had a fight during the race it would be disqualified and the race would be declared void. A claxon horn would be blown, with the track announcer calling out “No race ! No race !”.

Ok

Well the race in question, the even money favourite, drawn in trap six was involved with an outsider, drawn in trap four, the two dogs were racing side by side as they came round the last bend.

Trap six without question turned its head and interfered with trap four, they continued to run together until the winning line, everybody was waiting for the horn to blow, instead the announcer called photo finish.

How can it be a photo finish people asked? It has to be a no race. Photo finishes in 1957 took 2 or 3 minutes to develop, so we all waited for the result.

“The result of race…. Is first trap six, second trap four”. A loud cheer went up by the punters who had backed the favourite. No sooner had the cheering died down came the announcement:

“No race ! No race ! The judges have disqualified trap six for fighting. No race ! No race !”

Well for a few seconds all was still, then one or two people starting booing, in another few seconds twenty or thirty started booing and within a minute there were at least a hundred people crowded around the judges’ box screaming and shouting.

Why call for a photo finish and call out the result THEN decide it was a no race. I knew there would be trouble.

If any of you are old enough, you may remember that at the top of the main grandstand there was a tea room and bar the whole length of the straight with glass windows overlooking the track.

I, with my Uncle Cherry (so called because of his way with the ladies) were standing near the track when out of nowhere came a mighty crash. I looked up and saw a chair come hurtling down, it had been thrown from the bar at the top of the stand. As it hit the ground this was swiftly followed by more chairs. They were being thrown from the tea bar windows, as fast as they could get their hands on them.

This was just the beginning, people on the ground picked up broken chairs and started throwing them at the stewards box which was only slighlty elevated. The next thing I recall was that there was an almighty crash when one of the restaurant windows broke. My Uncle said its time to go, he parked his car on the other side of the track as it was easier to get out. Not tonight Josephine, as we started to walk round the track we saw a fire had started in the grandstand in the popular enclosure.

Between the 3rd and 4th bend was a Tote board. As we approached it people were trying to set it on fire however it would not burn it was made of glass, painted white, when this was realised they started to destroy it any way they could.

We were too frightened to get by with all the glass being broken. After about 5 minutes we moved on, the track lighting was nearly all pulled down, there was fire all over the place and by now the police and fire brigade had arrived.

As we moved closer to the exit the firemen’s hoses were everywhere but already some of the rioters were trying to cut them, with knives, I have no idea where they came from.

It took us 30 minutes to get out, normally no more than 5 minutes.

My Uncle took me to the Nags Head, a place on the Holloway Road, where my father would pick me up on his way home from Wimbledon. I could not wait to tell him what had happened and as I opened the car door he said he had heard it on the news.

I believe the stewards had made a terrible mistake.

Had they called a no race that would have been the end.

Seven people were arrested and found guilty of causing damage to the amount of £3,000. In today’s money that is approx £100,000.