History and research

Hello all,

As one with some skin still in the game where the old site is concerned, let me point out that the lack of an update of the Point-to-Point Commentator Research Project thread on JFF since July 2024 is not to do with any loss of impetus or interest. The very opposite!

I've been waiting for a logical pause in processing incoming material, but still that material comes, and I'm very grateful for that indeed:

You've read the above right - nearly 25,000 commentary engagements now confirmed, almost 4,000 of them between the flags.

I'm indebted in particular (but not exclusively) to Mark Elliott, Michael Kutapan, Mike Ashby, Keith Fletcher, Peter Stevens, Mike Crolla and the @horsevault Twitter feed where the pre-C21st confirmations are concerned.

I've got some time off over Xmas, so let's see if I can upload some updated lists of actual people for each pointing season around then, if not before.

gc

Well sourced, sir! Clearly from the personal collection of Dawn Goodfellow or family.

Nice to see a further example of a race around the old Lanark line elsewhere among her links. Nice also to see an impossibly young Hazel Irvine trailing the feature on Dawn herself and Stan's The Man at home.

Unmistakably Lord John Budden doing the calling at that Dalston fixture in March 1984. Might the commentator we can hear at the Buccleuch in April 1984 be Jonnie Fenwicke-Clennell? He pops up in the feeds of many Northern Area races shared on YouTube, but I've never been able to put a racecard to any of these to confirm.

I can't place the Lauderdale commentator in May 1984. I'd guess at someone like Major C J Braithwaite who did some calls at Bogside and Balcormo Mains around that time, but the emphasis here is very much on guess...

gc

yes , both the Silverton & South Devon use to race there, if you watch it ?you can see the paddock etc , it was filmed on top of the old raceourse Grandstand , before it was damged in a storm,