Miscellanea

Channel Four are forever encouraging viewers 'Come racing!' but a snippet in the Weekender provides a different point of view with this summary of a recent Chepstow card - '...two maiden handicaps, a couple of maidens and a seller. And it was still £19 to get in the premier enclosure. Come Racing! No thanks.'

Another item in the same paper quite rightly bemoans the BBC's racing coverage on the web but at least there's some good news for presenter Clare Balding. She reports on her website that the recent treatment for thyroid cancer appears to have been successful and there are no signs that the cancer has spread anywhere else.

This week's junk item came via snail (rather than electronic) mail and dropped on my doormat yesterday. Sun Life has kindly sent me literature incorporating a picture of Sir Michael Parkinson asking whether I was aware that the average price of a funeral was now in excess of £2,500. Parky may have run out of guests to interview but this looks a nice little sideline for him, endorsing products aimed ageing people such as myself.

Finally a one-liner from Alan Hanson at the end of yesterday's Match Of The Day... As Gary Lineker informed viewers Peter Reid was about to take up a post at Stoke City, Hanson jumps in with 'Peter Reid - great in the bar afterwards!' Mine's a Guinness, Peter.