John Power Showdown: 30 years ago this week.

was there

was it 4/9 bob 2/1 sculogue?

must of been plenty for bob at that price if correct you would think

yep i was their not much of a race

What's John Power up to these days anyone know?

watched it live on sportsnight.....desperately disappointing when champ stopped running.....

oceanfinance.......I assume you mean Tom Jenkins.......

tom a strange bloke lay you lumps on the dogs at hackney ask for a tenner on the snooker no chance.pay you out quickly after last race hackney then off to his beloved west ham

Yes i do winja. My uncle used to put bets on for people at Wembley. Apparently he used to lay some proper bets even though he knew the backers had good info.

he laid a bet wherever he stood finance......he also had the charisma that made you want to bet with him......his turnover must have been something to behold compare to todays books......I remember on one of these "yester year" posts recently someone gave an update on Tom.....

I was there, shame the champ went lame, I was on Ballyregan but would have liked to see if I was right.
The little bitch that they kept running against Scurologue as well, think they gave the owner appearance money to turn up and get beat, game little dog though, in another era.

Still miss it

I was there, a right anti climax, used to love going there

did champ go lame or just stop chasing as bob was uncatchable....

I was there. The way I saw it Champ stopped chasing .....so far behind got unsighted.

I think champ was used to being unsighted dpf......just never chased a dog as quick as bob before....thirty years on we all still have our opinions

It was also the first time that I can recall spectators at a greyhound meeting wearing rosettes.  I know that it's common place
now, but from what I can remember I don't remember them being worn at any major meetings prior to to that evening. 
I wonder if there'll ever be anything again that gets anywhere close to the anticipation leading up to that race.

one of the best atmosphere at any sports event i ever attended, i had never saw the rosettes before that night, i was a great fan of champ but felt that he bottled it that night, couldnt see it beforehand due to loving champ but realised bob was a far better dog than champ

Yes Bob was the better dog over that distance,710m?
Think they carried Scurologue off didn't they and don't think it ran again.
Was the bitch Glendale Lady or Glendale Lass that used to run against them, early paced railer ?
Memory going/gone

glenowen queen

tom works for ben keith and john not in the country

right Ron, think she took him a few times never better than 2nd

The distance was too short for Scurlogue imo

If they had campaigned Bob for the Derby he may have won, but they went for the unbeaten record

...but why did The Champ pull himself up? He used to be miles behind marathon dogs most of the way but my theory is he simply knew he wouldn't get anywhere near Bob, so just stopped. Clever dog

Bob was probably the best 6 bend dog of all time.

they reckon it might of been the noise from the crowd woody,
what with being so far back + deafened out from the hare maybe?

don't know

Bob didn't really have enough early pace for a derby at wimbledon, best stayer I ever saw though.
Bobs connections wouldn't race Scurologue over further than the 710m, think the next distance up was 830m at wembley, that would have started just before the bend, not sure how that one would have turned out, might have favoured Scurologue.
We'll never know

830m would have been fairer

At one time the Jenkins brothers bought a snooker club in the Walthamstow area, think it was after John got banned from racecourses.
Used to hold big poker games there, John used to get up on the stage and be the entertainment, pretty much what he used to do on his pitches, 'Even money, one out of every 2 gets beat', think he was a frustrated entertainer.

As Russian Ron said the bitch was glenowen queen trained by Dickie Hawkes ,and before the race he predicted that Scurlogue would stop.Not a bad judge.

I was there massive Crowd

id actually forgot she (glenowen queen) won the tv trophy in 1987

Have a feeling Track Man was the other runner.

Columbo wouldn't be able to work out what went through Scurlogues head, what a dog

Track man was the other runner

I had the biggest bet (stake) I have ever had on that race ... thirty years ago ... I have not even had a bigger bet in the 30 years since. If memory serves me right it was a Dead Heat for 2nd

Heard long while ago John Jenkins working in South Afruca ?what does Tom do nowadays fir Ben Keith?
They were two very colourful personalities  in the 80,s .

Well done for publishing this post Aladdin. Plenty of replies from long standing members and it just goes to show if the subject matter is good the forum will respond. Having a broader spectrum of subjects invites all to contribute.

Appreciate your kind words Safari.  It was such a momentous occasion in the sport that I just felt an urge to share the memory.  Too often we are all guilty of looking at the past through rose tinted spectacles.  However, in this case I think it's well warranted. A truly golden age that I fear will never be repeated. Who would have believed that 30 years later we're looking at the prospect of NO greyhound stadiums in the capital city.

The race at the Stow where BOB beat Ballintuber One over 4 bends
was probably the best race live I have ever seen.

I was lucky enough to be there that night as well Onslow.  To give Ballintuber around 6 lengths and pick him up was astonishing (clocked around 28.60 or something I think). An incredible greyhound.

Remember they bet 10/11 Bob 11/10 One & 33/1 Bar

I have both on video

The champ might have caught bob after 850 m

Though personally I do not think he would of

Off memory one was around 3 to 4 lengths clear from bob never 6L

His 31.07 TR run at hackney over 523 m must be the best run ever for a greyhound

We're any of you old timers luckily enough to see that run live?

Thanks for correcting me Ravage on how far Ballintubber was in front - my memory is obviously fading over time! Back on the Bob/Scurlogue debate, only a personal opinion, but I agree with you about the longer trip. I think Bob could well have won a TV trophy.  He never, to my eyes, looked like stopping over 6 bends (although I appreciate Scurlogue would be racing "two for one" after about one lap!).  I would have loved them to have had a match over the 820m Walthamstow trip.  I'd still be in the 'Bob' camp but THAT would have split opinions pre-race!

Theres plenty of old footage on you tube!

bob v ballintubber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeCl1QFfjSw

also come across a scurlouge race id never seen, similar to the incredible wembley run!
link below it 36.22 seconds in. at the don, you'd swear he'd gone lame at the 3rd bend

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMeMz7NYRxI

Bob's record of 32 wins in a row was a remarkable achievement.

I was there also

2 page spread on the john power showdown in todays RP.

Must be getting there writing ideas of betfair forum these days