30 COURSING 



getting far too long a course, some of it on hard ground, brought 

 about his defeat, and thus he did not go so far into the stake 

 as in 1892, when he had been the runner up to Fullerton. 



With Fullerton, Fine Night, and FitzFife all out of it on 

 the second day, the finals did not arouse so much interest as 

 usual. The last four left in were Character, Patrick Blue, 

 Button Park, and Texture ; and Character, who had got off 

 very lightly, led and easily defeated Patrick Blue, while Button 

 Park disposed of Texture even more easily, and had a rather 

 severer course than Character. The final course was a short 

 one. Character not only showed speed, but also had the best 

 of the subsequent work and the kill to his credit, though it 

 should be mentioned that Button Park was suffering from 

 shoulder lameness when he went to slips. Sensational as the 

 early stages of this Waterloo Cup were, the ending was singu- 

 larly tame, and there was a very general opinion that the stake 

 had been won by a moderate greyhound, whose position at the 

 end was in a great measure due to his having escaped all bad 

 luck, and having got very lightly off in all his courses. 

 Character was owned and trained by John Coke, of Birkdale, 

 Southport, and it is also worthy of mention that Button Park, 

 the runner up, was also one of Mr. Coke's charges, so that he 

 emulated his feat of six years before, when he had trained the 

 dividers, Herschel and Greater Scott. In this particular 

 Waterloo Cup the Birkdale kennel ran Dillon and Green 

 Cherry, in addition to Character and Button Park, Dillon being 

 the ' first string ' of the kennel. Character was a second season 

 greyhound, who had been beaten four times as a puppy, and 

 as a matter of fact he had never got to the end of a stake 

 before. His best previous performance was running up to Sir 

 Sankey for the Scarisbrick Cup at Southport, but he had per- 

 formed moderately on three other occasions during the season, 

 and only a few weeks before he won the Waterloo Cup he had 

 been on offer to Mr. W. Ward of Blackburn for the insignifi- 

 cant sum of 257. 



1894 was in no respect a wonderful year, and the names of 



