Big crowd's excitement and enthusiasm adds irony to sad occasion

The sunset over Plough Lane on Saturday evening doesn’t herald the end of greyhound racing in London, just the beginning of the end. Once daylight clocks off, the floodlights start their shift for the meeting that Wimbledon Stadium regulars have been dreading.

A mere 12 races remain before the track’s closure – just 72 more greyhounds following in the pawprints of generations of south-west London speedsters.

Those pawprints date back to 1928, a period more associated with flappers than flapping, and the stadium’s opening night when an estimated 22,000 spectators attended the races on Saturday, May 19.