Dog days of racing
QUESTION Where were the 28 London dog tracks? I can only think of 14.
Nearly 100 years of history came to an end in March when Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, the last such track in london, closed its doors.
london once had 33 dog tracks. The Wimbledon stadium is being pulled down so AFC Wimbledon can build a new football stadium.
It’s a sad end to a colourful sporting history that once saw up to 90,000 people attending big races at the world famous stands at White City, Walthamstow and Harringay stadiums; the latter track once enjoyed the spectacle of cheetah races.
The problems started with the arrival of the betting shop in the mid- Sixties. Though the sport has maintained good traction in the betting market, accounting for more than one sixth of betting shop turnover, fewer people are actually going through the turnstiles.
Changes to betting laws haven’t helped: High Street bookmakers can stay open until 10pm and there is no longer a tax advantage to betting at trackside.
The tracks have also been crowded out by alternative leisure pursuits, such as watching TV and playing video games.
Roy Evans, Wolverhampton. THE 33 tracks in london were the ‘flapping tracks’ (independents) at Battersea, Brixton, Crooked Billet, Dagenham (Old), edmonton, Greenford, Harlington Corner, Mitcham, Perry Hills, Sidcup, Southall, Stratford (Temple Mills) and Welling. There were straight tracks at edgware, Feltham and Hounsfield.
The GBGB (Greyhound Board of Great Britain) licensed tracks were Catford, Charlton, Clapton, Dagenham (New), Hackney, Harringay, Hendon, New Cross, Park royal, Stamford Bridge, Wandsworth, Walthamstow, Watford, Wembley, West Ham, White City and Wimbledon. They are all now closed.
There are now just 24 active GBGB registered stadiums in the UK and seven independents. Bill Cox, Hertford.
QUESTION Which UK police force was the last to wear white summer helmets?
THE Isle of Man constabulary adopted the white custodian helmet in 1960 as a summer alternative to black helmets, partly for tourism reasons and partly to keep the bobby’s head cool.
While mainland police forces phased out the white custodian helmet in 1967, the Isle of Man constabulary have kept theirs and wear them all year round.
J. P. Holmes, Blackpool. The Brighton Borough Police was the most famous police force in the UK to wear white summer helmets.
They were introduced in 1933 for summer wear and, apart from during World War II, were used until 1967 when the Brighton Police merged with the Sussex Police.
The Southend- on-Sea and Swansea Borough police forces, Peterborough City Police and the Metropolitan Police phased out theirs around the same time. There was an attempt to revive them in 2001, but a shortage of white helmets meant it never happened.
In Brighton, the white helmets may be seen in newsreel archive from 1964 of the clashes between mods and rockers at the summer bank holiday weekend.
The blue-helmeted policemen in the film were from Sussex Police, called in to help. These scenes were recreated in The Who’s 1979 film Quadrophenia.
Richard de Kerbrech, Gurnard, Isle of Wight.
QUESTION Why do magnifying mirrors show you upside down at a distance, but when you get nearer you are the right way up?
MOST magnifying mirrors achieve the enlarged image due to the curve inwards, of the reflective surface. This is called ‘concave’ in optics and has the effect of bringing the reflected light rays of the image into a focus about 5in or 6in away from the mirror, depending on how curved the surface is.
The reflected light, due to the curve, all comes into a focus in the centre, at this distance away, forming a cone.
any object inside or at this distance will be reflected straight back into the mirror, creating the upright magnified virtual images you see.
Due to the angle of the surface, known as the focal length, of that particular mirror, where the rays of light come into a focus they will cross over at this point, so the rays from the top of the mirror will be going downwards and conversely the rays from the bottom of the mirror will be going upwards.
So if you position your face at twice the distance it normally comes into upright view, the rays from the bottom part of the mirror will cross over and focus on your forehead, the top ones on your chin.
Due to the nature of light travelling in straight lines, the rays reflect back the way they have come so your forehead will appear in the bottom of the mirror and your chin at the top, upside down.
In telescopes, binoculars and gun sights, an additional lens is fitted at the correct distance to cause the light rays to come to a focus again, to bring the image upright once more.
This is called an ‘erector’ lens, like that used by the Italian scientist Galileo in his telescope 400 years ago.
John Atkins, Greatstone, Kent.
QUESTION Do the vocal chants in the theme music to Sergio Leone’s Three Dollars films have any meaning?
FURTHER to earlier answers, the ‘vocals’ in another leone film, a Fistful Of Dynamite (aka Duck, you Sucker!), also composed by ennio Morricone, made use of sounds that wittily echoed the names of the two main characters, Juan (played by rod Steiger) and Sean (or John, the Ira rebel played by James Coburn).
Tony Ray, London SW1.
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