Review:

The pre-Christmas cards provided us with plenty of excitement but no wins. Woody (Fleetwood Rocker) put in a typically decent performance in the Christmas Cracker final. Our blue boy managed a staying on fourth, beaten less than four lengths in all.

Oscar (Oscar Lima) failed by a short head whilst Wendy (Hanover Lady) came back to her best, leading her field a merry dance and only succumbing in the final strides to go down by a neck.

All dogs are fit and well. Gino (Horse Outside), who is called Harry the Horse at the kennels these days, continues to recuperate.

Preview:

Friday’s lone card on December 30th has been drafted and it looks as though Oscar (Lima Oscar), the club’s only representative, is the one to beat in the 930pm ( A3). He is the sole wide runner with the five dog, kennel mate Early Goal, likely to go middle and attempt to lead, our black and white will get a decent solo around the outer. A repeat of last week’s performance would be good enough. At 5-2, or thereabouts, he’s worth an interest.

News

The club’s progress gets a decent write up in this month’s Greyhound Star – thanks to our publicist Gary Maunders. The paper is packed full of info and news and well worth getting hold of. Best bet is via monthly subscription.

Welcome to new members Joanne and her partner Dean, as well as Stuart. We all look forward to getting to know you in the year ahead and can pretty much guarantee you’ll have plenty of fun along the way.

Diary dates: The first anniversary Norahmac club ‘do’ is very likely to take place on Saturday evening, March 10th at the track.  Further details to follow – the night will be similar to our Christmas ‘big night out’ in many ways.

Also we’re hoping to get a gang of club members for the WGOA (Wimbledon Owners) dinner/dance at Reigate Manor Hotel on Sunday May 6th (the 7th is a Bank Holiday). The night is pretty raucous and great fun. It’s a sit down dinner, awards for the greyhounds of the year with videos of their performances, a riotous raffle and prize draw (my personal highlight) hosted (in the loosest term of the word) by Alan Clarke  and then dancing to late. Details will be found on the WGOA website early in the New Year. Tickets will be limited so book early – the last two years have been sell outs.

Lots more good news – added 1st Jan

Mega congratulations to Norah as the 2011 recipient of the Harry Lloyd ‘services to greyhound racing’ award given by the Greyhound Writers Association.  There was a full write-up in Saturday 31st December’s  Racing Post if you can still lay your hands on it.  The awards ceremony is at the Park Plaza Hotel (near Vauxhall, London). It’s a black tie do on Sunday, 22nd January, evening. It’s £60 a ticket – let Norah know asap if you fancy showing your support and want a good night out.

It was a magnificent seven wins on the card for the kennel on December 23rd!

Well done to Oscar (Lima Oscar) who duly obliged on Friday 30th to end the year for the club on a suitably high note. A shame that the ‘old enemy’ weren’t in the Christmas spirit – 7-4 being the best price available.

Woody (Fleetwood Rocker) has a ‘look’ at Romford on Monday in a likely to be too short 400m Open (heat). Norah’s plan is to take him back to the Essex track later in the month to contest the Coral on TV Stayers trophy (heats and a final) worth £750 to the winner.