I was very pleased to be asked to contribute some of my thoughts to The Point.

It is some years since I last covered meetings for The Irish Field which I did for quite a number of years. When that ceased I kept on covering point-to-points for the various form books. I was forced to give up that duty by a temporary health problem a couple of years ago, so it is a delight to get back on paper.

For those readers who do not know me let me just say that I am a lifelong point-to-point enthusiast. Having lived in Ireland for the past 40 years, I have travelled extensively in pursuit of my sport. Doubtless in future contributions I will look back over my experiences of it.

For over 30 years I worked for and with the great equestrian Iris Kellett. When she died and her former establishment was sold up I gave up regular full-time employment which has given me more time to enjoy my pastimes.

One of my greatest early pleasures was reading the column of Audax in Horse and Hound. Audax was the nom de plume of John Lawrence, later Lord Oaksey, and it was always a wish of mine that if I was ever to be published that a little of what he conveyed so magnificently in words might pass to me. I was always hopeless writing essays at school, so I never saw myself involved in any branch of journalism.

I always tried to put a bit of additional colour into any race meeting report I covered and, while I accept that much of today’s coverage gives a good factual return, I find facts are not, per se, very readable.

I hope therefore that what I will be writing will both entertain and stimulate discussion of current point-to-pointing. So I will begin at the beginning of the new season.

It was great to get the show on the road again at Castletown-Geoghegan last Sunday even if it was a week later than intended. In fact many people I spoke to agreed that while Rathcannon has a claim to kick off the new season the Westmeath venue was a very suitable site due to its very central location. A glance at the qualifying certificates of the day’s entries confirmed this.

After what has been a very pleasant summer for those of us involved in agriculture the interval between last season’s end at Ballingarry and this new one has seemed somewhat longer than is often the case, so one comes back with batteries fully recharged.

With the dry September, which caused the postponement of the first two scheduled meetings, it would have been only too easy for the Westmeath hunt to have found themselves in a similar predicament. However, the committee and their helpers deserve every commendation for their efforts to provide good racing ground. Of course the heavy rain of the previous Friday helped but had the ground work not been done in advance things could still have not worked out.

The ground was first-class and when I went down to the first fence after the third race to meet my cousin who was a fence steward we spent time treading in the divots on the landing side which just shows how efficient the preparation had been.

I always enjoy going to this meeting for, although it is not exactly local to me, over the years I have made friends with so many of the officials I feel very much at home there. It was therefore especially good to see their efforts rewarded with plenty of runners and a decent crowd following what had been such a disappointing meeting for them in April.

My cousin, Clarissa Croll, is a former joint-master of the hunt who lives most of the year in England but comes over every winter for the hunting. A good few years ago she introduced me to two young boys who were helping her with her horses, in return she was teaching them to ride. They were twins and their names Ciaran and Joseph Murphy. How they have blossomed.

It is always a pleasure to see people rise from near obscurity and so it was with great satisfaction that I watched Loughnagall trained by Ciaran win the open race in great style ridden by his younger brother Aaron.

John Lloyd Rogers is a lifelong point-to-point enthusiast

SUPPORT KILLEAGH INITIATIVE

THE autumn season has been going for 13 years and has now established itself as a regular part of the pre-Christmas sporting calendar. In the past the fixture list for this period has had its anomalies but I must congratulate whoever was concerned with producing the best balanced autumn programme I can remember – it is just a pity no one intends to race on the October bank holiday Monday.

Last year, a special point-to-point was held at Lemonfield to raise money for John Thomas McNamara and Jonjo Bright, whose dreadful injuries were still fresh in our minds. Despite shocking weather on the day the meeting was a resounding success, so it is good to see that a similar meeting in aid of injured jockeys will be staged by the Kilworth and Araglen at their course near Kilworth on Sunday, November 9th.

Tickets for this meeting may be bought at upcoming meetings and these will include entry to a draw. I encourage people to support this meeting and to buy tickets as, even if you don’t make it to the meeting on the day, at least you will have supported a worthy cause.

Frances Cash was one of our own

IT IS always interesting to me to notice how many people who make a name for themselves in an equestrian discipline began their involvement with horses in the point-to-point arena.

One such person who recently passed on was Frances Cash. I first saw Frances Fitzgibbon, as she was then, riding one of her own horses at the North Kilkenny meeting at Gowran Park in the spring of 1971.

This was one of the earliest Sunday meetings, certainly my first. Though Cest Ci Bon only finished fourth that day, I remember when I showed the card to an English acquaintance later he said that he had bought a nice horse from her. It’s a small world.

When my wife and I settled over here three years later we lived in Kilcock and Frances lived very much in our locality, though I do not claim to have known her well. Her last point-to-pointer/hunter chaser was the very useful Barouche who, when she hung up her racing boots, she sold on to Robert Waley-Cohen, leading to that family’s now significant role in British racing.

Frances never lost her love of point-to-points and was frequently seen at meetings. We will miss her but won’t forget her.