Bon Accord Greyhound Racing Company, Regent Park, School Road East, Aberdeen, Scotland.
POSTCODE———————————-AB24 5RU
LOCATED————————————About one and a half miles north of Aberdeen city centre, and roughly half a mile north of Aberdeen Football Club’s stadium.
ORIGINAL SITE—————————–An abandoned sand processing works.
DATE CONSTRUCTED——————–Early 1930’s.
DATE VENUE OPENED——————-Don’t know.
Meaning other sports may have taken place prior to the arrival of Greyhound Racing.
FIRST MEETING—————————–June 25th 1932.
Greyhound Racing only.
LICENSED OR INDEPENDENT———-Independent
All venues covered would have to be licensed with the government, licensed suggested in this section would refer to tracks operating under NGRC Rules.
INSIDE OR OUTSIDE HARE TYPE——Trackless lure type.
Please note that the Electric Hare suggested is only a guidance and would have been in operation for a certain amount of time at this venue. Although it is not necessarily guaranteed that it was operational all the time, as other types of lure may have been used and updated as time progressed.
DISTANCES———————————–315 and 360 yards run over a two bend Horseshoe shaped track.
Please note that most racing venues distances had become varied throughout the years, the ones given above were at once point set and offers only a guidance to the track size.
CIRCUMFERENCE—————————None due to it being a two bend track.
Please note that alterations at most racing venues throughout its existence would see that the circumference of the track would vary, the one shown above offers only a guidance to the track size.
BIG RACE NAMES—————————Nothing known of.
STADIUM SHARED WITH——————Nothing known of.
LAST MEETING——————————-Not known yet it was still in operation during September 1935.
Greyhound Racing only.
STADIUM CLOSURE DATE—————-Late 1930’s.
Meaning other sports may have taken place after Greyhound Racing had ceased.
STADIUM DEMOLITION——————-Late 1930’s.
BUILT ON SITE——————————-Aberdeen Sports Village.
In some cases, structure’s that originally covered the venue after the stadium had been demolished, may have been themselves demolished too, so the one described is more likely to be the one which now presently covers the site.
EVIDENCE LEFT TODAY——————-Nothing known of.
FURTHER COMMENTS——————–This venue can be recognised as the most northerly venue to stage Greyhound Racing.
What may come as a surprise to many is that the most northerly point to stage Greyhound Racing in Britain was in the granite city of Aberdeen. Very few today will remember the last time greyhound racing featured in the city, with the Holborn Stadium’s last meeting being staged in October 1969.
Yet this section describes another greyhound track that operated north of the city, and can be credited by becoming Britain’s most northerly Greyhound Racing venue of all time. The venue was known as Regent Park, a track that existed for just a three year spell only during the early 1930’s. First signs of the sport was announced in the Aberdeen Press and Journal during November 1927, that the city was on the verge of hosting the venture at a purpose built venue. A copy of the stadium lay out was printed in the press during January 1928, and seemed as if efforts were heading in the right direction, yet surprisingly nothing more came of it.
It wasn’t until late1931 that eventual construction of Regent Park began to take place on the site of an abandoned sand works, situated between Linksfield Road and Regent Walk, roughly one mile north of the Aberdeen’s city centre. The project was to be funded by the Aberdeen Greyhound Racing Company, who would manage the business as an independent flapping track. The track was in the shape of a horseshoe, which meant that five greyhounds would chase a trackless lure around two bends over distances of 315 and 360 yards. On the 25th of June 1932, a crowd of over 2,000 witnessed Regent Parks first ever meeting, with a greyhound called Sailing Home winning the first of a six event evening.
Certainly the interest for the sport was there, and by the end of October 1932 track lighting and a totalisator system had been installed. Early days had proved a success, with the track offering four meetings per week. After twelve months of operation, Regent Park had found itself some competition, with the new Holburn Stadium opening up on the southern side of the city. The new betting legislation introduced during 1934, had created a vast reduction of Regent Park’s income, and by the end of the following year the stadium had closed, with the greyhound company having been wound up in the courts during 1935 due to financial issues. Greyhound Racing never returned to Regent park, as its following years had seen the council convert it in to an athletics stadium.
The venue continued as a sports stadium, but it is in more recent times that it has been transformed in to a more modern venue that still hosts athletics, and is now become known as the Aberdeen Sports Village.
A programme, photograph or even memorabilia for this track is required for this page, if you can help please contact me.
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