Simon's Racing & Devon Diary #10

With Cheltenham just around the corner I thought I'd start with a bit of racing news. This is gem brought to you by a racing gentleman who'd rather remain anonymous but I thought he'd not mind me sharing the pearls of wisdom in his correspondence. In a recent email he wrote;

'Good to hear from Steve made some valid points. Concerning the youngsters I think one of the problems is there is no one to show them how to play the game. When I started going racing there could be 20 pro punters in the ring at a NH meeting I used to watch what they were doing then the more you went you would strike up conversation basically learning on the job. What a way to learn talking to Lights, Gough, Dodger, Dudley etc. Sadly the youngster haven’t this luxury. You could go to a mid week meeting at Ascot or Sandown and it would be packed with all the duckers and divers. And if the bookies were full up on a short one, you could always get on with Barney if he didn’t fancy it. Great interview.'  'Mr Anonymous'.

Imagine that, going back to when I was a young floorman working on the 'wrong' side of Tatts I used to see those guys and think they'd never give me the time of day. Having had the chance to meet many of them since, I wish I'd plucked up courage to go an have a chat, oh hindsight. The interview he was referring to was the latest in my 'Simon Nott Zooms In series, with professional punter Steve Lewis Hamilton which can be found HERE STEVE LEWIS HAMILTON ZOOMS IN

The little bit of village life content. If anyone read the blog where I mentioned the chap that moved in to our village directly across the road from the Church then complained about the Church clock chiming during the night, there's an update. Firstly, for those that didn't, he complained about the noise to environmental health, and despite being the only complainant and against the will of every one else, got the chimes silenced during the night at the cost of a nice few quid to the village. Not long after, he moved away from the village, Aye Aye. I don't know his name so can't send a warning to local parishes, now, despite the only person who didn't like the clock chiming having buggered off, now that the complaint had been upheld, it can't be reversed, the world's gone mad hasn't it. Racing People, does that sound familiar? After you've had a gander at BetGoodwin, read on.....

It sounds little bit similar to people with a huge chip on their shoulder due to their own issues, campaigning against betting. People that have taken advantage of a platform and connections to try and inflict their will on the masses. My suspicion is, it's not for the greater good, to save us plebs from wasting our own money or any other admirable cause, but just because they can. People like that will never stop trying to inflict their will on people, never, I suspect it's a personality disorder. Giving them credibility just fuels their delusions of self importance, though another platform with one of the racing industry great interviewers Nick Luck but this time with the gloves off would be tremendous and totally expose an empty vessel. It didn't stop with victory in imposing a £2 max stake law on FOBT's and it wouldn't stop with Greyhounds. 

My other love apart racing is music, Over the years I've recorded several interviews on the telephone with rock n roll stars of the 1950's including Duane Eddy, Carl Mann, Ace Cannon, Sonny Burgess, Narvel Felts, WS Holland, JM Van Eaton, Martin Willis, Kern Kennedy plus more contemporary alternative musical artists. I thought I'd start to record stars of the Neo-Rockabilly and Psychobilly genres I grew up with in the 1980's on Zoom for future generations to enjoy. So far it's gone well. Here's the latest with Humungous of The Coffin Nails. 

Talking of music and I do a lot, this is what I've been listening to today, Volume #9 of the 'Cornfed' series, it's obscure country rocking, Records that I doubt any of us will see an original of or were hardly ever heard of outside of their own towns, rarer than a midnight clock strike in Witheridge. Enjoy the music and trailer and visit Dagnabbit Records if you want to bag a copy . Catch you after Cheltenham - Yeehaar. 

Simon Nott