Gus: Real Name Steve Cockerill.
I've been going greyhound racing now for over 30 years having first gone to the now demolished Elland Road stadium in Leeds whilst still at Stainbeck High school in Leeds.
My "O" Level English presentation was on Greyhound racing and it must have been ok because I did manage to get a pass mark.
There was a tremendous atmosphere at the track, still not like any track I've been to since and it was a huge disappointment when the owners Ladbrokes decided to send in the bulldozers after the last meeting on 15th March 1982.
Memories of the track are still quite clear and I can still recall getting off the bus and joining the queue of people waiting to climb over the wall to avoid paying in.
My latter school days in the 6th Form at Stainbeck were a bit turbulent due to me gambling a lot and I was suspended once for truancy (sneaking home early to watch the Cheltenham Festival on TV) and then expelled for being the school bookmaker just 8 weeks away from sitting my A Levels.
I'd received a few warnings about betting at school, but it was for running gambling sessions for fellow pupils at my home on a Friday night that caused the Headmaster, Mr Franklin to decide he didn't want me at school at all.
Despite this I still sat and passed 1 A Level and managed to get a job at Readycredit, the credit card business of the Burton Group. The company was taken over by GE Capital in 1990 and I've remained there all the time and now work in the IT department at Morley.
The Headmaster at school said that I'd either become a very successful businessman or end up in prison so I imagine he'd be surprised to learn that I've spent more than 26 years working for the same Finance company.
I won over £400 on the jackpot at Haydock when I was aged 17 just before being expelled and this helped buy my first car, a very reliable, if old Toyota Corolla.
Starting at Readycredit I only earned £35 a week, but as I had no outgoings I was out every night and a typical week would be:
Monday : Leeds Greyhound Stadium
Tuesday : Gabby's bar in Hunslet followed by the Four In One in Gildersome then on to the Royal in Morley
Wednesday : The Chained Bull in Moortown and on to Funny's bar in Moortown
Thursday : The Cranmer Bank disco in Moortown
Friday : The Cherry Tree disco in Leeds 9 or maybe a night round Headingley ending up in the Woodman
Saturday : Leeds Greyhound Stadium followed by the Woodman in Headingley
Sunday : The Three Horse Shoes in Headingley or the Red Lion at Shadwell
Money just didn't seem to be an issue then and as well as going out every night I also seemed to go to a number of horse race meetings at York, Doncaster, Pontefract, Wetherby, Haydock and the Derby every year at Epsom.
I met my girlfriend Dawn at Readycredit and we celebrated our engagement at the Queen concert at Elland Road on 29th May 1982 exactly one year after first going out together. We were married on 30th July 1983 and have therefore clocked up over 22 years now.
Greyhound racing rarely figured in my life for a while, or for that matter horse racing as we were too busy buying a home, renovating it and moving on. We also had 3 boys with Lee, who changed his name to his middle name of Robert, born in 1988, Ian in 1989 and Matthew in 1994.
In 1995 my work involved me working in Hemel Hempstead a lot developing and testing the Dixon's Till system on behalf of GE Capital. I took this opportunity to visit Hackney, Wimbledon, Wembley and Walthamstow greyhound stadium's during the evenings and got a similar buzz from the sport that I'd had 15 to 20 years earlier.
Later in 1995 I can remember Robert and Ian dashing across the school playground after school one Friday night to get in the car with Tony and Kevin (co owners of Top Commentary and Becks Bird) and myself and travelling down to Wembley Stadium to see the Greyhound St Leger. Four hours later they were walking up the Wembley steps and eating their chips in the Royal box.
From then on all my sons have gone greyhound racing on a regular basis all over the country, quite often having seen a Hull City, Blackpool or Leeds Rhinos game first. Despite this though they're surprisingly not interested in betting.
Matthew even did his junior school Assembly speech on Greyhound racing, 28 years after my "O" Level presentation.
I'm a keen Hull City fan (my family were originally from Hull) and all my sons go to virtually every Leeds Rhinos game home or away. I'm more a Hunslet rugby fan myself having followed them since they played at the Elland Road Greyhound stadium.
As an indication of my influence on my sons they recently went to the KC Stadium and were in the Hull City end chanting at the Leeds United fans and then just 6 days later were with the Leeds Rhino's fans chanting at the Hull fans. Not many people would have gone to both matches and got the results they wanted from these games, but they did.
Robert in the crowd (far left) at the Leyton Orient v Hull City game on March 13th 1999 just before Hull scored the winning goal that moved them up to 22nd in the 3rd division. Don't sing "where were you when you were s**t ?" at us.
Hull City score (VIDEO) : MOV00067.MPG - 320x240 - 20 sec - 2 Mb.
None of my sons had seen Hull City beat Leeds United in their lives ..... until this moment on 1st April 2006.
I've now been to every Greyhound Derby at Wimbledon since 1996 and this event in June or July is always one of the highlights of the year for my sons, close friends and myself.
2006 Greyhound Derby Final (VIDEO) : MOV00149.MPG - 320x240 - 50 sec - 5Mb.
2006 Greyhound Derby second Semi-final (VIDEO) : MOV00148.MPG - 320x240 - 40 sec - 4 Mb.
See how Westmead Hawk made it to the final, A classic race.
My wife Dawn doesn't particularly enjoy going greyhound racing, much preferring her hobby of motor biking. However she acknowledges that there are worse things I could be involved with and as long as my betting doesn't put the house at risk has no real concerns.
The amount I bet therefore tends to be related to what I can afford to lose and at the moment this is much lower than pre-children years.
Watching your own greyhound in the kennels and then running in a race and hopefully winning is a great feeling and this has given a new perspective of the sport to me as well as enabling me to meet some real characters.
I'm also looking forward to the next stage, which will be to breed from our bitches Top Commentary and Becks Bird.
