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Something I hope will be appreciated here – a list of commentators at various meetings 1958-2002, mainly taken from cards made available on eBay (the scans on the site, rather than buying them myself).
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?cdm2plk0c629x7n
Note that I was also ‘FebruaryCallendar’ who posted the TV coverage details a while back.
RPC
Does the data have a slight error, it has
John Rickman
down as John Hickman, close but no cigar
Does the data have a slight error, it has
John Rickman
down as John Hickman, close but no cigar
John Hickman is correct – The trilby-toting Mr Rickman is another person entirely.
gc likes this.
Sterling work, Robin, and something I know will fascinate the likes of Crusty Patch on here as much as it does myself.
Would you welcome additions to the list? There’s doubtless several of us on here who retain the racecards from their trips to the races however many years or decades later, and can fill in some more gaps accordingly.
If the cut-off point is set to 2002 deliberately, I can still provide a few names and dates. If you’d like more recent than that as well, I can provide a stack load more.
gc
PS Would be lovely, of course, if Racetech could release the rosters of previous years into the public domain, as I can’t see what harm it would do. We live in hope…
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Would you welcome additions to the list? There’s doubtless several of us on here who retain the racecards from their trips to the races however many years or decades later, and can fill in some more gaps accordingly.
Flipping heck Jezza – I have the racecard from every meeting I’ve ever attended (bar two) – but I wouldn’t fancy going through every one of them to list the caller
To give a clue of the size of the task, here are the last five years worth:-
http://www.ostermeyer.co.uk/Racecards.jpg
The previous 25 years worth are in the loft!!!
PS Would be lovely, of course, if Racetech could release the rosters of previous years into the public domain, as I can’t see what harm it would do. We live in hope…
I’m still waiting for the days commentators to appear in the Racing Post & BHA sites, something Rod Street said wouldn’t be a problem about 15 months ago
Who is the latest commentator on the list you haven’t heard of or don’t recall?
Mine would be Michael White.Do you get your racecards free Paul? I stopped buying in them years ago, thought most were a waste of money.
To give a clue of the size of the task, here are the last five years worth:-
http://www.ostermeyer.co.uk/Racecards.jpg
The previous 25 years worth are in the loft!!!
I’ll be round your house later today then, yeah?
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Who is the latest commentator on the list you haven’t heard of or don’t recall?
Mine would be Michael White.A Csaky
is a completely new one on me.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Ken Grainger, wow haven’t heard his name for ages, think ITV only used him when showing long distance races at Newmarket such as the Cesarewitch
Do you get your racecards free Paul? I stopped buying in them years ago, thought most were a waste of money.
I have for the last four years.
I agree they can be hit and miss – for example today’s at Leicester costs £2 for the public and it’s in black and white with no colours – unforgivable.
Whereas the racecards from Newmarket and Chester in the last ten days have also had some decent editorial.
PS Would be lovely, of course, if Racetech could release the rosters of previous years into the public domain, as I can’t see what harm it would do. We live in hope…
I’m still waiting for the days commentators to appear in the Racing Post & BHA sites, something Rod Street said wouldn’t be a problem about 15 months ago
Who is the latest commentator on the list you haven’t heard of or don’t recall?
Mine would be Michael White.Do you get your racecards free Paul? I stopped buying in them years ago, thought most were a waste of money.
I’m think, emphasise think, Michael White was an auctioneer, or worked in some capacity with Doncaster Bloodstock. Certainly used to hear him regularly in the 1980’s commentating at Hamilton in the pre SIS days. He was a pretty decent caller.
Who is the latest commentator on the list you haven’t heard of or don’t recall?
Mine would be Michael White.I’m think, emphasise think, Michael White was an auctioneer, or worked in some capacity with Doncaster Bloodstock. Certainly used to hear him regularly in the 1980’s commentating at Hamilton in the pre SIS days. He was a pretty decent caller.
Michael White certainly did work for Doncaster Bloodstock Sales, as did his racecourse commentating colleague, Harry Beeby, who I believe was managing director. I believe both also did point-to-point commentaries.
Michael White was, I believe, also a director at Doncaster Bloodstock Sales. Harry’s son, Henry, is now the leading light there.
White and Beeby covered mainly Scottish and northern fixtures (Beeby sometimes did the Charlie Hall meeting at Wetherby) but both fell out of favour when the first televised coverage of racing in betting shops dawned.
They were relegated to meetings that were not covered in vision and were shunted off to minor, often evening, meetings that were audio only.
Quite a few of the old stagers suffered this fate. John Penney, who originally was deemed suitable for "vision and sound" meetings, found himself doing more northern meetings because Michael White and Harry Beeby were not deemed to be acceptable. Penney himself later found himself relegated to audio-only meetings.
Bryan Firth, who was a regular presence at Yorkshire and other northern meetings and was a subscriber to the Sir Geoffrey Howe Mogadon Man school of commentating, also thankfully bowed out at about this time.
As Phil Walker rightly points out, Ken Grainger, who died nearly two years ago, was mainly heard on ITV/Channel 4 doing the early stages of the Cesarewich in the days when they had three commentators.
He also did the early stages of Newmarket meetings on the day ITV televised the Irish Derby and was drafted in for early January meetings such as Sandown and Warwick when Raleigh Gilbert was on holiday in Kenya.
A few more for the list, from my own collection of cards. Think I’ve got a couple of spellings of names different to yourself, Robin:
18/04/87 Newton Abbot
Raleigh Gilbert
25/08/87 Exeter
John Cotterell
02/04/88 Newton Abbot
John Cotterell
27/03/89 Newton Abbot
Raleigh Gilbert
16/08/89 Exeter
Simon Holt
28/06/98 Uttoxeter
Iain Mackenzie
27/02/99 Haydock
Jonathon Turner
05/05/99 Wetherby
Doug Fraser
13/10/99 Wetherby
Stewart Machin
02/07/00 Uttoxeter
Mark Slater
23/07/00 Southwell
Graham Goode
06/08/00 Market Rasen
Mark Johnson
10/01/01 Catterick
Martin Harris
13/02/01 Sedgefield
Iain Mackenzie
16/04/01 Wetherby
John Hunt
31/05/01 Wetherby
Stewart Machin
22/07/01 Southwell
Graham Goode
(Quixall Crossett’s 100th run; Mark Slater was originally named on the card, though).
05/08/01 Market RasenMark Johnson
17/10/01 Wetherby
Martin Harris
28/10/01 Aintree
Ian Bartlett
01/04/02 Fakenham
Iain Mackenzie
03/06/02 Cartmel
Iain Mackenzie
26/08/02 Cartmel
Jonathon Turner
15/09/02 Hexham
Andy Orkney
11/11/02 Carlisle
Graham Goode
21/11/02 Market Rasen
Mark Johnson
Hope this helps – as mentioned, happy to dig out more recent dates also.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
To give a clue of the size of the task, here are the last five years worth:-
http://www.ostermeyer.co.uk/Racecards.jpg
The previous 25 years worth are in the loft!!!
I’ll be round your house later today then, yeah?
gc
I’ll be round too, will happily enjoy going through all of those.
Think I’ve got a couple of spellings of names different to yourself, Robin:
25/08/87 ExeterJohn Cotterell
Yes, elderly flat-capped country gentleman John Cotterell was definitely spelled that way and not Cotterill.
Similarly, it was Bryan Firth, not Brian. I remember seeing his name credited with the spelling Bryan, not Brian, on the Racing Television closed circuit coverage at the time.
The programmes were directed by Lionel Hampden, mentioned surprisingly frequently on the commentator schedules in Robin Carmody’s lists.
As Jeremy may remember from postings following his inclusion of a TV Cesarewich race in which Ken Grainger did the early stages commentary, Lionel Hampden did at least one of the Grainger slots in an ITV-covered race I remember seeing.
The most eye-catching 1960s commentary slot in Robin’s list is John Penney at Alexandra Park. Not to mention the Manchester meetings.
I assume the N.Locock is Nick Locock, a Jockey Club judge of yesteryear.
To be honest, I mainly left out post-2002 because I didn’t want to have to list a load of Leicester details from 2004-06, which all seemed pretty samey.
But some more additions for rather earlier years:
Birmingham, 27th April 1964 – Michael Seth-Smith
Nottingham, 4th/6th July 1964 – Ken Grainger
Lingfield Park, 26th September 1978 – Bob Haynes
Plumpton, 14th October 1981 – Bruce Friend-James
Lingfield Park, 16th October 1981 – Ken Grainger
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