Years ago sections of Woodward and Kite streets and Bathurst Road, just three examples, were real problems, so much so then city engineer W E Holness almost tore his hair out trying to fix them.

Reseals and patches continued to break up so the engineer got out his big guns and dug down deeper than the Grand Canyon for the length of a full block to find a solid base in all three streets. Cars almost disappeared from sight.

You can see the deep dips in Kite Street between Sampson and Clinton, Woodward in front of Elephant Park and Bathurst Road in front of Kinross, sections drivers at the time nicknamed ‘Holness’ holes’.

Persistent rain has these sections and others all over Orange like Moulder Street in front of Jacks Corner Store breaking up again and really it seems there’s nothing the council can do other than dig down towards China again to find a solid base like Bill Holness did.

But the next time you hit a pothole you must remember Orange was initially known as Blackman’s Swamp. Does that tell us anything?

With the raging controversy over the greyhounds ban, it’s interesting to note a bloke named Chris Beplate was given a licence to hold the first tin hare coursing meeting in Orange in a paddock near the showground on New Year’s Day in 1932.

Three years later, the RSL received permission to hold mechanical coursing meetings at Wade Park, built by Orange Municipal Council and named after Sir Charles Gregory Wade, a former judge, MLA, attorney-general and minister of justice.

The government had given council the land that had been reserved in the original village plan of 1846 for a cricket ground.

Greyhound racing thrived at Wade Park for 70 years until it came to an end in November 2005 when the council deemed the track railing was dangerous for cricketers and footballers.

When the track closed many believed it was the death of the sport in Orange with trainers facing a trip to Bathurst to trial their dogs but it was revived after a 300m slipping track, a fully fenced private area where owners could take their 70km/h greyhounds to run off-leash, known as free galloping, was built at the Highlands Paceway.

So one problem was solved but now the sport faces a wipe-out with our autocratic premier putting a bomb under the whole industry.

It’s a crying shame 84 years of the sport’s racing history in Orange will go up in smoke along with dozens of owners and trainers.

Maybe the Nats’ hold on Orange will go the same way in the coming byelection.   

Drivers cop a hefty $325 fine and lose four demerit points if they’re caught using a mobile phone while driving if the phone is not in a cradle fixed to the car or can be operated without touching any part of it, such as via Bluetooth or voice activation.

The RMS says using a mobile makes it up to four times more likely you’ll have a crash.

Channel 9’s RBT program the other night showed a highway patrol senior constable in a fast pursuit of a car that failed to stop for a breath test. He was driving with his right hand while using his two-way police radio with his left. Tch Tch.