Yarmouth Stadium

Yarmouth Stadium

Yarmouth Stadium in 2015
Location	Yarmouth Road, Caister-on-Sea, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR30 5TE
Opened	1940
Website
Official website

Yarmouth Stadium is a greyhound racing track located at Caister-on-Sea in the Borough of Great Yarmouth and English county of Norfolk. It is licensed by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain. ^[1]

Greyhound Racing takes place every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday morning, as well as occasional Saturday evenings. Facilities include a modern designed 'Raceview Restaurant' seating 240, several executive suites, fast food facilities and a number of bars. ^[2]

Speedway

Main article: Yarmouth Bloaters

Speedway arrived in 1948 running until 1961; Ernie Wedon became the manager of the speedway team called 'Yarmouth Bloaters' throughout this period.

Stock Car racing

The stadium has continually run Stock Car racing since the 1960s and boasted its own team in the 1966 and 1971/2 team leagues. The 1966 team were nicknamed the Bloaters whilst the later outfit were known as the Greyhounds.

Greyhound racing

Origins & opening

In 1928 Len Franklin & Ernie Wedon, both professional gamblers in pre-war London visited the newly built Clapton Stadium. Franklin became a regular at Harringay Stadium, Stamford Bridge and White City Stadium and after investing in stocks and shares they invested in a new venture at Yarmouth. They purchased a field on the west side of the Yarmouth Road that contained a 'flapping' track; this track had opened on Good Friday 25 March 1932 with grass track speedway also held there after starting on 14 July. It was devoid of structures and on the opposite side of the road to the horse racing course. ^[3]

Franklin & Wedon also leased the adjacent field to enable better access and applied for planning permission for a new stadium. Although the initial planning was refused a subsequent appeal to the ministry saw the decision overturned. Work began in 1939 and the stadium was ready for business by the spring of 1940. ^[3]

The opening date for the new stadium was set for 11 May 1940 but on that same day the Germans invaded the Netherlands and Belgium resulting in the evacuation of Yarmouth. The opening afternoon meeting still went ahead, as did several other meetings on a weekly basis until most of the staff were called up to serve in the war. The stadium closed and it was taken over by the fire service. ^[3]

Post-war history

Yarmouth Greyhound Stadium c.1980

After the war Len Franklin and Ernie Wedon went into partnership with Clifford Yaxley forming the Norfolk Greyhound Racing Company and they were able to take advantage of the post war boom opening on Saturday 7 December 1946. The racing was over 500 yards and facilities included a restaurant in the main stand. Franklin was a steward and judge and when Racing Manager Ernie Wedon sold his share to buy Ipswich Stadium. Len Franklin then became Racing Manager. ^[4]

The East Anglian Derby was inaugurated at the track but this was an independent race (unlicensed) at the time because the track raced with no National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) affiliation from 1939 until 1975. ^[5]

The original field where the flapping track stood was sold and in 1958 would form part of the North Denes Airport, which later became a heliport serving as a private base for helicopters to the gas platforms in the North Sea. After the sudden death of Yaxley the Franklin family took sole control of the stadium, Len was the Racing Manager, his son Stephen was the Kennel Manager and M J Franklin was the General Manager. Race days varied from Tuesday & Friday evenings to Monday, Wednesday & Saturday evenings over distances of 300, 500, 710 & 910 yards. ^[3] In 1969 the stadium opened a new Raceview Grandstand Restaurant catering for 3,000 people. ^[6]

In 1975 Yarmouth joined the NGRC permit scheme and in 1985 Dick Keable the Racing Manager celebrated forty years at the track (Keable had been a kennel lad at the track back in 1945). ^{[7] [8]} Two years later in 1987 Yarmouth became the first permit track to register a totalisator turnover of £1 million. Stephen Franklin became General Manager taking over from Len Franklin. In addition to the racing there was a Sunday market, stock car racing three times per week, bingo nights and an amusement arcade. Stephen Franklin's wife Pamela and children Simon and Justin all joined the business. ^[9]

Recent history

Main grandstand view in 2015

Simon Franklin was appointed Racing Manager and then General Manager after Nigel Long became Racing Manager. Simon & Justin Franklin then brought in Nigel Bray as General Manager whilst they took control of other duties. One of which was overseeing the new £2.5 million grandstand built in 2006, the state of the art 250-seater restaurant and three executive boxes included a plaque naming the building the Len Franklin Grandstand in memory of the co-founder of the stadium. ^[10] The track hosted the TV Trophy in 2007 & 2013 and the Trainers Championship in 2013. Trainers Mark Wallis and John Mullins joined Yarmouth after the closure of Walthamstow Stadium via Harlow.

Track improvements costing £190,000 were completed in 2012 and Mark Wallis became Champion Trainer 2012 to 2014 as a Yarmouth handler. His 2012 English Greyhound Derby triumph with Blonde Snapper brought the ultimate prize to the track. Yarmouth also runs on the BAGS service overseen by Racing Manager Marcus Westgate who took over in 2012.

In 2018 the stadium signed a media rights contract with ARC to race every Monday and Thursday evening ^[11] and a new five-year contract extension was agreed to run from January 2025. ^[12]

Competitions

• East Anglian Derby
• George Ing St Leger

Track records

^[13]

Current

Metres	Greyhound	Time	Date	Notes
277	Quagos Jack [14]	15.87	19 August 2023
462	Fear Zafonic [15]	27.17	11 September 2010	East Anglian Derby semi final
462	King Elvis [16]	27.17	10 September 2018	East Anglian Derby 2nd Round
659	Roxholme Poppy [17]	40.07	18 May 2019	George Ing St Leger final
843	Musical Gaga [18]	52.86	26 August 2013	TV Trophy heats
1041	Some Moth [19]	68.81	8 December 1990

Former

Extended content

Metres Greyhound Time Date Notes 277 Knockrour Brandy 16.64 22 September 1979 277 Respect 16.50 16 August 2000 277 Against The Lead =16.50 16 August 2006 277 Beardys Robbie 16.46 20 September 2007 277 Perrys Tango 16.44 13 August 2008 277 Boherduff Monti 16.40 18 September 2008 277 Boherduff Monti 16.34 23 September 2008 277 Rotar Wing 16.33 12 August 2009 277 Monleek Town 16.19 15 August 2012 277 Skate On 16.18 18 September 2014 277 Skate On [20] 16.18 18 September 2014 277 Broadstrand Kiwi [21] 16.12 16 September 2017 277 Kilmore Lemon [22] 16.02 21 June 2018 277 Farneys Trend 15.90 17 June 2023 462 Ramtogue Dasher 27.91 9 September 1987 462 Dempsey Duke 27.68 19 September 1991 462 Geordie Parker 27.52 12 September 2007 East Anglian Derby 2nd round 462 Farloe Reason 27.49 10 September 2008 East Anglian Derby 1st round 462 Ninja Jamie 27.40 2 September 2008 East Anglian Derby final 462 Fear Zafonic 27.27 4 September 2010 East Anglian Derby 1st round 659 Dunmurry Girl 40.88 8 March 1972 659 Big City 40.79 24 September 1988 659 Masterpiece 40.77 20 September 2007 659 Rackethall Holly 40.71 31 October 2007 659 Raving Black 40.54 12 September 2009 659 Centurion Enry [23] 40.25 16 September 2010 659 Roxholme Poppy [24] 40.18 13 May 2019 George Ing St Leger semi final 843 Change Guard 53.62 25 August 1986 843 Spiridon Louis 52.98 23 May 2007 1041 Dunmurry Ruby 69.15 6 December 1986

References

1. "Track Search". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Archived from the original on 25 December 2011. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
2. "Yarmouth Stadium". yarmouthstadium.co.uk.
3. Barnes, Julia (1991). Daily Mirror Greyhound Fact File, pages 161-165. Ringpress Books. ISBN   0-948955-61-9.
4. "Official racecard, Saturday 7 December". Yarmouth Stadium. 1946.
5. Furby, R (1968). Independent Greyhound Racing, page 53. New Dominion House.
6. "Remember When - July". Greyhound Star. 28 July 2018.
7. "Monthly Greyhound Star (Remember When 1975) June edition". Greyhound Star.
8. Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing, page 95. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN   07207-1106-1.
9. Genders, Roy (1990). NGRC book of Greyhound Racing, pages 60-61. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN   0-7207-1804-X.
10. Hobbs, Jonathan (2007). Greyhound Annual 2008, page 211. Raceform. ISBN   978-1-905153-53-4.
11. "Arc Schedule Released". Greyhound Star. 21 December 2017.
12. "Arc and four independents extend deal". Greyhound Star. 13 August 2024. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
13. "British Track Records as of January 2024". Greyhound Star. 11 January 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
14. "The XL Conservatories Sprint". Greyhound Board of Great Britain. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
15. "East Anglian Derby semi finals". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
16. "East Anglian Derby 2nd Round". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
17. "St Leger final". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}
18. "Result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
19. "yYarmouth track records". Greyhound Data. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
20. "Result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
21. "Result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
22. "Result". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
23. "16 September results". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.
24. "659m track record". Greyhound Board of Great Britain.

External links

• Ernie Wedon & The Yarmouth Bloaters

52°38′14″N1°43′37″E / 52.6372°N 1.727°E / 52.6372; 1.727