ELECTRIC HARE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 213, 23 August 1927, Page 7

ELECTRIC HARE

LARGE AND EXCITED CROWD

A POPULAR SPORT. Greyhound racing, which now involves no cruelty to hares, may become a popular sport in England (writes the London correspondent of the N.Z. Herald). An excited crowd of 15,000 people watched the first greyhound race meeting to be held in London, at the White City track. In many ways, it was a triumphant opening, for the weather was delightful, the new-old Olympic Stadium looked at its best, and the spectators were farily representative of that variegated mass of people known as the British sporting public. It was significant that the excitement grew as steadily as the crowd itself had done. The last winner—a mere London dog novice—aroused the loudest cheers of all, unless it was another gallant hurdler, who turned a dozen double somersaults when going at 30 miles an hour, and yet refused to finish last, who earned and obtained that honour. This gallant animal was Jealous Branty, owned by Colonel B. C. Freyberg, V.C. MEETING DESCRIBED. Mr H. V. Morton, writing in the "Daily Express," thus describes the meeting:—"Bugles were blown as the first six dogs were paraded round the course by kennelmen wearing white overalls and bowler hats. It was a sight quite new to London! Each dog wore a little coloured and numbered jacket strapped round his thin body. When about 100 yards from the starting point they were led past a white box in the middle of the track. Beneath this box was the jugged hare! No dog showed any emotion! They were all hardened racers, and they must have known that their uncatchable enemy was hidden under the white box—but they never let on! "They were boxed. A grid was let down in front of them. They stood expectantly, gazing forward toward the white box. An official lifted the box, just as the chef removes the cover from sirloin, and exposed to view a stuffed hare poised in a stiff attitude of speed on a large wheel. From the side of the wheel ran an iron rod conecting with the concealed electric trolley. The man in the control tower moved a lever, and the hare began to move! REMARKABLE EFFORT. "The effect on the dogs was remarkable. They barked. They made indignant noises. They were mad to be off after the hare! They did not seem to mind its jugged appearance. They seemed to care nothing for the mechanical sounds made by it in its progress. The beast gathered speed and swept round the course on its wheel with a smooth, swift inevitability. The very noise of its approach appeared to drive the kennelled dogs crazy. Then, as the hare shot past them at a good 30 miles an hour, the start signal was given, the grid was lifted with one movement, and the six greyhounds shot out together in pursuit.

"The crowd roared its excitement. It was a remarkable sight. Unlike a horse race, where the tension is broken as the horses disappear from sight, every moment of this race was visible. It could be followed from start to finish. The names of the dogs were shouted as they sped round the track behind the white skut of the impossible hare. "Round they came, neck to neck, eager, instinctive, out to catch, and kill. They passed the post to a roar—a real racecourse roar—and followed the hare until it was sidetracked. It was seen to dive into a white tunnel, whose little trapdoor snapped over its tail and the dogs just stopped there—done again!