SO the final finishing line has been crossed after 73 years of greyhound racing in Oxford.

And what a send-off it was – with about 2,000 people packed into the Sandy Lane stadium for the last time.

The stories of Cyril Waite, 90, and Bernie Harris, 78 – who were both at the stadium’s opening in 1939 – show just how central the track is to Oxford.

Both men were at the stadium on Saturday night for an emotional farewell to the sport.

But the real question now is what will happen next?

A campaign to save the track has been started but its success so far has been limited. Indeed, the stadium is privately owned by the Greyhound Racing Association and it can, in theory, do what it likes.

However, that misses the much wider social, leisure and community impact of the stadium, which is of course harder to measure in cash.

Oxford City Council’s stance on the threat to the stadium started out lukewarm at best, although has picked up in strength as time has gone on.

We hope that it now sticks to its principles and turns down any future plans for housing on the site.

And we would like to see it go further than that and actually help broker a deal to save the stadium.

The finishing line has been crossed but we hope the race is not over yet.