From the pages of the Down Recorder, February 8, 1977

From the pages of the Down Recorder, February 8, 1977

8 February 2017

DOWNPATRICK — A further bid to save the future of racing at Downpatrick is to be made by local councillors and members of the Downpatrick Race Club, who are to request a meeting with the Department of Agriculture in the near future to press for the restoration of grant aid to the course.

Councillors decided on Monday night that they should make every effort to retain racing at the Downpatrick track, which is scheduled to die at the end of the year.

“We can’t afford to have it leaving,” said Mr Cecil Maxwell. “Downpatrick is one of the oldest tracks in Ireland. It is as good as the Maze and it’s wrong that all the money should be put into the Maze.

The delegation will be trying to persuade the Department to reverse its decision to end grant aid to the racecourse at the end of this year.

The decision was taken following a report from the Jockey Club and bookmakers in 1973 which advised that all government assistance should go to the Maze course, which, they said, had a better surface.

BALLYNAHINCH — Lord Oaksey, the famous television racing commentator, was one of the guests at a special evening held on Tuesday in the Millbrook Lodge Hotel, Ballynahinch.

Over 600 people attended to hear four famous figures in the horse world taking about their experiences and answering many aspects of horse racing, breeding and training. The evening was organised by East Down Foxhounds to raise funds for themselves and for the Injured Jockeys Fund, in which Lord Oaksey is involved.

DUNDRUM — The villagers of Dundrum, who have been waiting for over a year for permission to construct urgently needed playing fields, will just have to keep on waiting.

That’s the official verdict of the district’s divisional planning officer, Mr John Parson, who claimed this week that the Department of Agriculture’s draining division was behind the hold-up.

Mr Parson told Down councillors that he could not give a decision until he knew how much it was intended to build up the site for the fields and the flooding problem that could be caused by filling.

Mr Paddy O’Donoghue felt it was the duty of the planners to end the wait for the people of Dundrum and he suggested that permission should be given subject to whatever reasonable demands the department wanted to make.

NEWCASTLE — Newcastle Round Tablers have just voted the Wilmar House top of their Pub Crawl League. That’s because the clientele of the Wilmar contributed more to the Tablers’ charity pub crawl than other local establishments.

Altogether the Tablers raised £122 for charity and £31 of this came from the Wilmar, with the clientele of the Harbour Inn and the Brook Cottage Hotel coming second and third.

Mike Davis, chairman of the Tablers, presented Siobhan McCann, manageress of the Wilmar, with a plaque to thank them for their generosity.

ANNALONG — A courageous grandmother from Annalong who defied danger to rescue her aunt from a blazing cottage has had her bravery rewarded.

Sixty three year-old Mrs Mabel Ferguson, of Kilkeel Road, received a framed certificate from the Royal Humane Society for the Protection of Life from Fire at a quiet ceremony in Belfast.

Mr Hugh McConville, of Mill Road, Kilkeel, who helped Mrs Ferguson rescue her trapped aunt, also received a framed certificate from the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Alderman Myles Humphreys.

CASTLEWELLAN — A night of buffet and cabaret at the Oak Grill Restaurant in Castlewellan succeeded in raising £620.60 for the Downpatrick Society for Mentally Handicapped Children.

The variety bill included such well known names as Gloria Hunniford from the BBC and Brian McSharry, of Downtown Radio, who later presented the cheque to Mrs Iris McBride, principal of Downpatrick Special Care School.

CROSSGAR — A large amount of jewellery and a Northern Bank cheque book were stolen from a house at Thornyhill Road, Crossgar, on Tuesday night. The owners returned to their home to find it ransacked and the jewellery and cheque book missing.

KILLYLEAGH — Killyleagh Young Farmers’ Club held their annual meeting last Tuesday night when the officers for the new year were elected. The meeting was chaired by Mr Neill, of Downpatrick.

Officers elected were: club leader, William King; assistant, Ray McClurg; correspondence secretary, Ann Gibson; assistant, Irene Price; PRO, Elaine Gibson; treasurer, Shona Smyth; assistant, Alan McKee; council rep, Linda Casement; Farmers’ Union, Stuart Jackson; catering officers, Elizabeth Hutchinson, Jackie Vance and Rosemary Clarke.

BALLYGOWAN — Ballygowan farm engineer Martin Hanna has won through to the national finals of a contest run by Massey Ferguson and BP Farm Service to decide who is the top Massey Ferguson technician in the UK.

Mr Hanna, a 34 year-old farmer’s son, is a field service engineer with Thompson-Reid (Tractors0 Ltd in Belfast and is one of only three men who will go forward to the final in Warwickshire later this month.