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A weak winter sun, a keen northerly and the shimmering blue of Lake Knavesmire: what a beautiful morning
Not racing now until January because it’s flooded.
By Frank Keogh
BBC SportSouthwell racecourse will be closed until next year because of flooding.
The Nottinghamshire venue, which has an ‘all-weather’ fibresand racing surface, hopes to reopen in January.
Its eight December Flat fixtures have been moved to Wolverhampton, which will have a 14-race afternoon and evening card on 15 December, and Lingfield.
Southwell, which closed for five months in 2007 through flooding, will offer its National Hunt fixture on 4 December to other jumps courses.
Is is thought the double header at Wolverhampton will be a modern-day British record for the most races held at one course in a day. There will be around an hour’s break between the afternoon and evening racing.
After torrential downpours at Southwell, water rose to as high as nine inches inside some of the buildings at the racecourse.
Clerk of the course Roderick Duncan said: "We had just short of 50mm (two inches) of rain on Saturday and going into Sunday, and we’ve had a further 10 or more millimetres since.
"This, added to the high water levels alongside the River Trent which was almost at the top of its banks, has caused widespread flooding in the area."
The course is owned by Arena Leisure which said it is covered by insurance but estimated the flooding in June to December 2007 cost an estimated £6m.
"Back in 2007 the Environment Agency said it was something that happened once every 50 years, but unfortunately it’s only been five years," said Arena spokesman Nathan Corden.
"We are an all-weather track. I know that’s ironic for some people that we can’t race, but we are under water. This is our busiest time of the year where we normally come into our own."
Southwell is scheduled to host 13 racing fixtures in January including one on New Year’s Day.
The racecourse’s golf course is out of action and a beer festival on 14 and 15 December has been cancelled.BBC SPORT SAID:
It is thought the double header at Wolverhampton will be a modern-day British record for the most races held at one course in a day. There will be around an hour’s break between the afternoon and evening racing.Wolverhampton had a couple of scheduled double-bill all-weather meetings on the same day a number of years ago when the weather was causing serious problems.
There was a short break in between the afternoon and evening races and there were two sets of officials.
I seem to remember that one of those double-headers itself fell victim to the weather because of severe snow and ice.
Hereford also made history many years earlier by staging a mammoth card caused by races being divided.
The reason given for it at the time was that the caterers would not have found it convenient to have the races rearranged over two days so the course had no option but to stage a grossly inflated number of races. Can’t remember how many there were.
BBC SPORT SAID:
It is thought the double header at Wolverhampton will be a modern-day British record for the most races held at one course in a day. There will be around an hour’s break between the afternoon and evening racing.Wolverhampton had a couple of scheduled double-bill all-weather meetings on the same day a number of years ago when the weather was causing serious problems.
There was a short break in between the afternoon and evening races and there were two sets of officials.
I seem to remember that one of those double-headers itself fell victim to the weather because of severe snow and ice.
Hereford also made history many years earlier by staging a mammoth card caused by races being divided.
The reason given for it at the time was that the caterers would not have found it convenient to have the races rearranged over two days so the course had no option but to stage a grossly inflated number of races. Can’t remember how many there were.
The Wolverhampton "double headers" weren’t strictly double headers – they were ten race cards with a 90 minute break between races four and five. Race times were 16:00, 16:30, 17:00, 17:30, 19:00, 19:30, 20:00 20:30, 21:00 & 21:30.
The same officials were in place for the entire meeting.
I went to one out of curiosity and it was an odd experience. The first part of the meeting (it was a Saturday)was like a typical mid-week Wolves meeting with a couple of men and their dogs, whilst the second part was a typical Wolves Saturday night, a decent crowd and quite a buzz.
I used the 90 minute gap to have a meal in the hotel restaurant but the service was slow I ended up bolting the meal down.
I personally could not see the point of having the "split" meeting.
I personally could not see the point of having the "split" meeting.
Think it’s a case of wanting an afternoon meeting to go ahead because of the threat of inclement weather preventing jumps action, but as you highlight, Wolverhampton wouldn’t be willing to bring a night meeting forward because of how profitable those meetings are.
I personally could not see the point of having the "split" meeting.
Think it’s a case of wanting an afternoon meeting to go ahead because of the threat of inclement weather preventing jumps action, but as you highlight, Wolverhampton wouldn’t be willing to bring a night meeting forward because of how profitable those meetings are.
I appreciate that David – I was thinking more of when they had their ten race split cards a few years ago, which if I recall, were not scheduled because of weather conditions.
Indeed, tonight’s meeting at Wolverhampton was halted after just three races. It does seem the Polytrack doesn’t do cold either and to be honest it’s not that cold at the moment.
Indeed, tonight’s meeting at Wolverhampton was halted after just three races. It does seem the Polytrack doesn’t do cold either and to be honest it’s not that cold at the moment.
It certainly helps make the point that "all-weather" is totally the wrong term. We’re hardly in the depths of winter.
The icy weather can get a lot worse than this and, already, Wolverhampton is struggling. It’s an absolute joke to call it all-weather.
The next three meetings at Wolverhapton have now been cancelled. Lingfield to race for 8 consecutive days.
Correction: the meetings for Thursday, Friday and Saturday have been abandoned.
The next three meetings at Wolverhapton have now been cancelled. /quote]
I realise safety is paramount, but for another all-weather course not be able to race because of the wrong weather is just a joke.
It certainly helps make the point that "all-weather" is totally the wrong term. We’re hardly in the depths of winter.
The icy weather can get a lot worse than this and, already, Wolverhampton is struggling. It’s an absolute joke to call it all-weather.
It’s not "all-weather" racing it’s All-Weather Racing, a generic term introduced to distinguish it from Flat Racing which was and is run on turf. As such it’s a pleasing, apt and reasonably accurate name; not as pleasing but rather more apt and accurate than National Hunt Racing I’d proffer, though that is ‘traditional’ so we all love and cherish it of course
Crusty Patch, do you think the "misnomer" National Hunt should be replaced by an ugly but wholly accurate Jump?
Anyway, it seems to me that those berating the term All-Weather – or all-weather – are those who hate the discipline in the first place, and are no doubt full of glee that Southwell is flooded and Wolver have ballsed-up their polytrack recipe
The blow-hard words of the prejudiced and biased, love it
Incidentally, the temperature over much of the Midlands and North fell to -6C last week: a low that is typical of, and infact rarely exceeded in, the "depths of winter"
It’s not "all-weather" racing it’s All-Weather Racing
I’ve seen some self-righteous pedantry in my time but this takes the biscuit, even by my standards. There’s absolutely no need whatsoever for capital letters in the term all-weather racing.
I was, in any event, using it in the sense of an adjective, not a noun.
I was reading only the other day about self-important business and public service types who insist on their titles being written as Chairman instead of chairman, Chief Executive instead of chief executive and even Headteacher instead of headteacher. Strange that they never insist on Cleaner or Plumber.
All-Weather Racing, a generic term introduced to distinguish it from Flat Racing which was and is run on turf. As such it’s a pleasing, apt and reasonably accurate name
The whole point is that it’s not an apt and reasonably accurate name (even with the pleasing addition of unnecessary capital letters).
It’s some weather racing, not all weather racing. It’s some weather racing, as long as it’s not too frosty, too icy, too wet or flooded. Not to mention fog.
The temperatures may have got down to -6 recently but I can assure you that they can and probably will get a lot colder than that.
If the surface is suffering after a couple of cold nights (sorry Cold Nights), there’s not much hope if it’s a really harsh winter (or should that be Harsh Winter?)
It’s not "all-weather" racing it’s All-Weather Racing
I’ve seen some self-righteous pedantry in my time but this takes the biscuit, even by my standards. There’s absolutely no need whatsoever for capital letters in the term all-weather racing.
I was, in any event, using it in the sense of an adjective, not a noun.
I was reading only the other day about self-important business and public service types who insist on their titles being written as Chairman instead of chairman, Chief Executive instead of chief executive and even Headteacher instead of headteacher. Strange that they never insist on Cleaner or Plumber.
All-Weather Racing, a generic term introduced to distinguish it from Flat Racing which was and is run on turf. As such it’s a pleasing, apt and reasonably accurate name
The whole point is that it’s not an apt and reasonably accurate name (even with the pleasing addition of unnecessary capital letters).
It’s some weather racing, not all weather racing. It’s some weather racing, as long as it’s not too frosty, too icy, too wet or flooded. Not to mention fog.
The temperatures may have got down to -6 recently but I can assure you that they can and probably will get a lot colder than that.
If the surface is suffering after a couple of cold nights (sorry Cold Nights), there’s not much hope if it’s a really harsh winter (or should that be Harsh Winter?)
To be honest though, if the tracks flooded like Southwell you can’t expect them to race on that unless they mount "RIVER HORSES" or Hipopotamus as it’s more commonly called
I’ve seen some self-righteous pedantry in my time but this takes the biscuit, even by my standards. There’s absolutely no need whatsoever for capital letters in the term all-weather racing.
I was, in any event, using it in the sense of an adjective, not a noun.
Well, that was the point I was trying to make crustypatch. Used in its adjectival (lower case) sense all-weather is indeed an inaccurate description, so please feel free to describe it in any way that takes your fancy
Used in the sense of a proper noun, or strictly accurately (but pedantically
), a proper name (upper case) All-Weather is, I repeat, a pleasant and apt-enough title; certainly nicer than Artificial or Synthetic, doncha think?Regards
droneI’ve seen some self-righteous pedantry in my time but this takes the biscuit, even by my standards. There’s absolutely no need whatsoever for capital letters in the term all-weather racing.
I was, in any event, using it in the sense of an adjective, not a noun.Well, that was the point I was trying to make crustypatch. Used in its adjectival (lower case) sense all-weather is indeed an inaccurate description, so please feel free to describe it in any way that takes your fancy
Used in the sense of a proper noun, or strictly accurately (but pedantically ), a proper name (upper case) All-Weather is, I repeat, a pleasant and apt-enough title; certainly nicer than Artificial or Synthetic, doncha think?I honestly don’t see how All-Weather Racing can possibly justify having the capital letters that would entitle it to be classed as a proper noun, or proper name.
Nobody would write jumps racing as Jumps Racing. In the same way, Artificial and Synthetic don’t justify capital letters either.
I know more senior people are very fond of using unnecessary capital letters for all sorts of words that don’t justify it.
When I was a lad, a pensioner I knew even sent me a birthday letter once, saying he was sending me a Pen.
Younger people don’t use capital letters in such circumstances (indeed, they don’t even use it for "I", much to my chagrin) and people who work for newspapers, especially journalists and sub-editors, are specifically trained to avoid using unnecessary upper case letters and to "knock them down" into lower case wherever possible.
"All-weather" may sound more pleasant than "artificial" or "synthetic" but it is certainly not apt because it is fundamentally inaccurate.
Anyway, that’s enough hair-splitting for one day. I’ve not got enough hairs left to split! Nurse — the screens.
Anyway, that’s enough hair-splitting for one day. I’ve not got enough hairs left to split! Nurse — the screens.
I’m fortunate enough to still be in possession of a luxuriant, if slowly greying, mop-top so splitting hairs is a favourite pastime
You have an admirable command of grammar, punctuation and phrasing CrustyPatch and have regularly commented here on poor usage elsewhere, so I find this little ‘blind spot’ intriguing
Or is it I who’s blind?
Anyway, what about this:
National Hunt or national hunt?
The Flat or the Flat or the flat?
racing on the Flat or racing on the flat?That’s enough, ed.
cont. p.94
Split ends
Nurse the hearse
), a proper name (upper case) All-Weather is, I repeat, a pleasant and apt-enough title; certainly nicer than Artificial or Synthetic, doncha think?
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