• Glenburn Grounds, a greyhound track was situated in Byresknowe Lane, Carfin behind Glenburn Terrace, where we grew up. It was operated and run by the Heffernan family.

• My father and his brothers owned and raced various greyhounds. I remember 2 dogs - Dido a black bitch which raced as Janetta and Larry, a gold coloured dog who raced as Newbold. They enjoyed recounting stories of the things that went on before the regulations were tightened. They did not necessarily admit to doing such things as feeding a dog tomato soup before a race if it wasn't 'trying', racing dogs under a variety of names at different tracks but they knew it happened.

• Later my father became a bookmaker himself and worked with his brothers at Carfin, Wishaw and Armadale tracks. As children we loved seeing demonstrations of tic-tac. My friends and I played in the traps when the ground was unused. I also remember a 'pit pony' being retired to the track.

• Across from the track's corrugated iron boundary fence were 'the prefabs' the prefabricated 'houses fit for heroes' built after the end of the second world war. In the same area were The Naval Stores which later became Arbuckle Smith's bonded warehouse where Cutty Sark whisky was bottled.

• Houses have now been built on the land.

Thomas Daniel Heffernan is not only remembered for his work in the dog game but can claim to be the originator of the football pools. His coupons were a feature in Lanarkshire in the early 1920s.

This Lanarkshire track was opened in July 1919 by Thomas Daniel Heffernan. It began as a whippet racing track. All the top class whippets ran there and on some occasions over fifty heats were required to accommodate the large number of dogs who were entered.

In 1924 Mr. Heffernan took a step which revolutionised whippet racing when he introduced the electrically operated traps. Up until that time the dogs were slipped by hand and a good slipper was literally worth his weight in gold. His skill worked both ways. He could give the dog an advantage or if need be it worked the other way. So this innovation met with a mixed reception. At first the local dogs had an advantage as they had the traps handy at Glenburn for schooling whereas dogs from other districts took some time to get used to this new starting method. Hurdles were another early feature of Carfin.

In 1926 Powderhall and Carntyne opened greyhound racing tracks. In 1928 Carfin was the first of the whippet grounds to feature the bigger dogs in mixed meetings. Soon the whippet disappeared from the scene.

When Mr. Heffernan died, in January 1941, his sons took over the running of the track. Both tracks have now been sold. On the Carfin site there are now houses.

Patrick O' Rourke (Paddy) with his daughter, Grace Reilly. When Grace was 8 years old he moved with his wife and family from Parkhead, Glasgow to Carfin to work in the dog track as a handicapper . Also in the picture are his son Paddy O'Rouke and Matt Barr who emigrated to Australia in the 1950s. Patrick O'Rourke's daughter Grace married John Reilly in 1941 and her daughter Catherine married John Reilly in 1967.