IAN FOSTER (pictured) has been involved in greyhound racing since the early 1980s as an owner, a track bookmaker at Hall Green and Coventry and, throughout, as an avid supporter of the sport. He bought his first greyhound in his early twenties – Long Coast – a large brindle dog that was running hurdle races very unsuccessfully at that tightest of tracks; Romford. Switched to the flat at galloping Southend and in the care of trainer Albert Skelton, the dog soon made up into a very popular and frequent winner in A1 company and Ian was hooked, becoming the chairman of the Owners Association at Southend Stadium prior to its closure.

Various successful and not so successful ownerships followed but the love of the sport remained the same. Ian spent the early part of his working career in HM Forces, in particular in the Royal Signals. Radio speak was a large part of his working day and one of the NATO keywords of the time was NODUFF. Noduff meant ‘the real thing’. So, when on exercise, a message received saying ‘the soviets had occupied the town hall’ would be just a practice message. If prefaced by the word Noduff however, as in ‘NODUFF – the C.O. has just turned up with a case of beer’ that would be the real thing!

Searching for a name for the newly formed Racing Club Ian could think of nothing better than Noduff, not just because the reader is curious about it but because it sums up the Club’s approach to the sport – the real thing.