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The racecourse commentator Bruce Friend-James died last week aged 72. When I started going racing in the mid-1980’s Bruce was a ubiquitous presence behind the mic at many southern courses, along with Robin Gray and Raleigh Gilbert. He will be familiar to betting shop punters also from the early years of SIS.
That’s sad to learn, TWW – another of the “old guard” leaves us.
I presume one of the trade papers will say a word or two, if they haven’t already, but a quick trawl of the Pointing SE website reveals him to have also been a point-to-point rider in the 1950s in that part of the world at least.
He also wrote a book a few years ago, the largely self-explanatory Queen Katherine Parr and Friends : A Sussex Family’s Quest for Its Descent from Henry VIII’s Last Wife.
Of the three commentators you’ve listed, TWW, that just leaves Robin Gray with us. He remains hale and hearty, though, writing for and about the Sandhurst area pointing scene – I expect he’ll be on commentary duty again when I race-read at Hackwood Park later this season.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Like Wizard I also remember him from my early racing days.
Other names I can remember from those days were Jeremy Branfoot and Ken (?) Grainger.
Jeremy Branfoot is still at large, and commentates on points in the Gloucestershire and Worcestershire areas. I last encountered him at Didmarton 11 months ago, though I believe he does either Maisemore Park or Andoversford – or both – as well. He also got to call the prestigious Lady Dudley Cup meeting at Chaddesley Corbett last season.
A glance through my earliest surviving (mid to late-1980s) racecards reveals none of these (nor Cloudesley Marsham, Vyvyan Vernon-Thingy or others of a vintage), but then they were all for meetings in Devon which Raleigh Gilbert and J Cotterell seemed to farm at the time.
Would that be John Cotterell, incidentally, and if so, is that the same John Cotterell that has written the forthcoming A-Z of the Grand National with Marcus Armytage?
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Of the three commentators you’ve listed, TWW, that just leaves Robin Gray with us. He remains hale and hearty, though, writing for and about the Sandhurst area pointing scene
AND… still riding out every day for Brendan Powell, so he tells me
Like Wizard I also remember him from my early racing days.
Other names I can remember from those days were Jeremy Branfoot and Ken (?) Grainger.
Gosh yes, Jeremy Branfoot, that name brings up a lot of old memories. I can picture him now, a little old man in horn-rimmed spectacles. He did nearly all the Chepstows, back in the day.
Jeremy Branfoot used to be a regular in the Ladbrokes in Cirencester in the mid 90s. The horn-rimmed specs were a thing of beauty.
Of the three commentators you’ve listed, TWW, that just leaves Robin Gray with us. He remains hale and hearty, though, writing for and about the Sandhurst area pointing scene
AND… still riding out every day for Brendan Powell, so he tells me
That I can believe. He was still riding in charity races until fairly recently as well.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Gosh yes, Jeremy Branfoot, that name brings up a lot of old memories. I can picture him now, a little old man in horn-rimmed spectacles. He did nearly all the Chepstows, back in the day.
Be assured he’s even smaller and older nowadays – I couldn’t say if he’s any hornier. In the specs department, that is.
Given the timelines involved, I presume time was that he and Jon Hickman would have had Chepstow and Bath pretty much to themselves, wouldn’t they?
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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