Delighted To See Des!

With the abandonment of Leicester, Ludlow and Newcastle, the only meeting that has survived today is the all-weather flat fixture at Kempton...I always said what a good idea these all-weather tracks were!  Everywhere else is washed out and that was almost the case at Taunton yesterday afternoon.  The ground was absolutely bottomless - a couple of the races were slower than the standard time by over a minute!  Of our runners, I thought that Thomas Junior ran creditably to finish third behind odds-on favourite Milo Man and he should now be eligible for handicaps, while Western Diva put up a good first effort for the yard by finishing runner-up in the closing bumper.  It is difficult to know what to make of the form as they should not come up against such testing conditions again any time soon.

With the abandonment of Leicester, Ludlow and Newcastle, the only meeting that has survived today is the all-weather flat fixture at Kempton...I always said what a good idea these all-weather tracks were!  Everywhere else is washed out and that was almost the case at Taunton yesterday afternoon.  The ground was absolutely bottomless - a couple of the races were slower than the standard time by over a minute!  Of our runners, I thought that Thomas Junior ran creditably to finish third behind odds-on favourite Milo Man and he should now be eligible for handicaps, while Western Diva put up a good first effort for the yard by finishing runner-up in the closing bumper.  It is difficult to know what to make of the form as they should not come up against such testing conditions again any time soon.

I was pleased to see a couple of winners for local trainer Mrs Alex Dunn - she owned, trained and rode the winners and it was a day I am sure she will never forget.

I hear that Lingfield racecourse is fast becoming known as one of the best fishing hotspots!  When they were pumping water away from the track, ground staff found a load of carp, yes I did say carp!  They netted them all and returned them to the nearby river - the biggest was 12lbs!  Well done to Lingfield, although it does sound a bit fishy to me!

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I was delighted to be visited in Brixham by a table tennis legend yesterday.  It was none other than Desmond Douglas MBE (pictured below, centre) who won eleven English championships and was at one time world number seven.  I never actually played Des as he was a bit younger than me but he tells me that he won over 60 international titles.  I managed to get a picture of us together with Trevor Taylor - between the three of us we played for England over 1,000 times!

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My lucky football pin is absolutely red hot at the moment and I hope you followed me in with a wager on Liverpool last night.  They beat Everton 4-0 with Sturridge scoring two goals (as well as missing a penalty over the bar!)...I have seen some terrible penalties taken lately (mainly by Manchester United!).