I've spent many a night in E17 trying to decipher the vagaries of placepots and trifecta forecast, and it saddens me in the same way as it does thousands of other sports fans, that this great monument to a succession of gritty gambling generations has been allowed to fall by the wayside, and ironically, all in the name of money.

So as I wipe away a tear, I'm baffled by Beckham's startling tribute that he flung around the media world on Friday afternoon, as he pondered:

"It's a real shame to see it go as it means so much to the area. I have great memories of Walthamstow and I know many people will miss it, including me.

"I always remember my time working at Walthamstow dogs, it was my first ever job and I was so happy to be getting a wage," he said.
Yeah, speaking of wages, how much are you picking up these days, Dave? It's a tremendous outpouring of emotion by our man and thank goodness there just happened to be a microphone handy to capture his words, it's just a shame he didn't then come up with the idea of flicking out the wallet, and with a small gesture, protecting the future of Walthamstow for many years to come. After all, as he said himself, it means so much to him.

Now I'm not in the game for telling people what they should do with their money (that's my wife's job), but similarly I'm not going to hang around listening to the sympathetic tones of those who have the ability to do something about it but don't. It just doesn't figure.

For the record, Posh and Buck$ could give the developers their £22million back plus a tidy 10% profit and do the same for another ten Walthamstows given their combined net worth, or to cover the dog track's annual losses of £500,000, Big Dave could set aside his wage from three football matches. Yes, three.