On a trip to Essex earlier this year Dave and I took the opportunity to have our ‘D’ date.

My Mum and Dad had recently had their first trip to Romford Dogs and highly recommended it so it pretty much made our mind up for us to go to the Dogs for the letter D.

I’ve never bet on anything like the dogs before so this was a totally new experience for me.

Monday nights are free so after a 25 minute drive – we made our way in, pleased that we were staying true to our principle of trying to keep it cheap.

On entering, a short walk around the corner and we were faced with the race track. Behind that we walked up into the stand, grabbed a couple of drinks at the bar and got down to the tricky business of trying to explain to me how to bet (which for the record – I can’t remember how you do. I just go with picking whichever name bears some significance to me!)

Knowing my dismal track record the few times I have bet I stayed brave with just betting £1 on each of the 15 races. Just as well really since there is apparently no such thing as beginners luck with greyhound racing! I didn’t win a penny! Dave on the other hand was slightly bolder, betting £2 per race and did win a couple so only came out about a fiver down.

Feeling a bit peckish, we grabbed some food. It was highly amusing to see Dave’s reaction to how cheap the chips were. He walks around with this assumption that EVERYTHING down south is the outrageously priced so he was pleasantly surprised at the reasonably low cost. He wasn’t as impressed by the lack of gravy/curry sauce/peas/pea wet to go on said chips!

All in all this was a fab night and definitely something we’d consider doing again and would certainly recommend it to people 😊

You get a real rush from watching the dogs and the sheer speed they go at. It’s truly an exciting evening!