Star Green ‘un – Saturday 24 September 1949

Wombwell May Face Disaster

A letter from Sir Stanley Rous, secretary of the Football Association, has dimmed Wombwell Athletic hope of arrangements be made for them use their new ground at Hough Lane on Saturday afternoons.

Because the ground is used for greyhound racing between 2:30 am and 5 pm the club have had to play all their matches in the evening – a temporary arrangement which will soon be impossible.

Sir Stanley Rous, who has tried to help Wombwell Athletic in this matter encloses a letter from the right honourable W Paling, postmaster general and MP for the division.

The letter states that the days on which betting facilities may be provided for greyhound tracks of fixed by the licensing authority, and if the owners of the tracks in the licensing or agreed, the authority is obliged to fix the date selected by them.

As the licensing year runs from July 1 of June 30 would appear to be too late for any changes to be made this year.

Mr F Bonell, secretary of the football club, says: “This means disaster for us. Our only hope is to persuade the Greyhound people to race earlier in the day. They have already shown the utmost kindness towards us.

The ground authorities are willing to adopt anything that will be of mutual benefit to both concerns.