Some of you may be familiar with our small Christmas booklet, a collection of little pieces that have caught our fancy, taken our imagination or which we simply thought might amuse you. There are two versions you can have, a flipbook and a straightforward PDF. To open the Flipbook on your computer, simply CLICK HERE…
I remember many years ago, at about this time of year, the team launching The Middleham Trainers Association and then the Middleham Open Day. The local MP, Marcus’ dad Roddy, Pat Haslam, James Bethell and countless others all turned out for the first Open Day on a Good Friday. Peter Walwyn, who ran Lambourn Open…
Continue readingAt last – a post that doesn’t cough and does involve racing!
I am currently receiving some forty messages a day of various hues of kindness, love and in one or two cases, imagined promises. (I say – Ding Dong!) Work has started on The Corona Commonplace, a collection of stories, quizzes, observations and random thoughts, and I am assured that we will soon on Raceweb, step…
I have recently felt that God was perhaps attempting to make an early declaration on my behalf, over a distance, I consider way too short. While he carries the ubiquitous “Authority To Act”, I did feel the use of the word premature was apropos. Because we all have some spare time, and because some of…
Continue readingEven God can get the distance wrong sometimes
As we are surrounded by war-time analogies delivered by people who have never served in HM vineyards, nor fired a shot in righteous anger, I shall swerve saying that tapping this out on the tablet was becoming increasingly reminiscent of an old exercise I took part in using badly-formed morse code. (As an aside, The…
Exhausted. Surely this punishment can’t go on. Together with some 50,000 of my closest friends, I have chosen to self-isolate this week in a marquee or two at Cheltenham, where I am drip-fed Guinness, white and red wines of varying qualities and have to eat food to which only a very grumpy gourmet might turn…
The most novel thing about COVID-19, is the extraordinary speed with which the brutish symptoms of the associated #MEFIRST culture have spread. Aided by 4G, 5G and WiFi, people everywhere have been able to tell us every moment of their illness. Unless you’re in China. Apps tell you when you’re nearing an infected address in…
Continue readingCoronavirus, Corvid19, and Saturday’s TV Racing – All you need to know.
Occasionally I kid myself that the time is right for me to take up Goff, the received pronunciation of the game involving sticks and lost balls. I like the game, I have even sponsored a team of racing journalists, providing electric carts and ice buckets and a decent Macon for the relief of my players.…
We all know someone who never had a loser, some genius whose every betting account had been closed and now was only allowed to bet in 50p maximums. We, on the other hand, are determined, to be honest about our endeavours. Thus we produce these occasional reports. We started with a Carry Forward Balance of…
Yesterday started brilliantly. I had done the form very early on Saturday morning and, despite slipping on ice and crashing to the ground at 1:00 am, I was none the worse for wear. The cataract operation, (done on Monday), is on course for the Outstanding Performance by the NHS award and four days later, I…
Continue readingTraincrash, Disaster, Devastation, Mayhem, Sadness
