Posted by Mark S. on September 4, 2009, 2:22 pm
86.166.144.182

Barry has emerged from a long stewards' enquiry with at least his gift for controversy still intact. Here's his response to the new Tweseldown fixture: TWESELDOWN Tweseldown on February 20th is the new venue in the 2010 schedule for the South East. Personally I am delighted as I suggested the idea in a 2004 article. For those who have not been to Tweseldown here are my thoughts about the track. VENUE Between Aldershot and Fleet at a village called Church Crookham on Army grounds. Check out the local pub. ATMOSPHERE Entry is like a prison. After paying for the car park you pay again to get into the track through iron gates. In return you get tagged (wristbands). FOOD and AMENITIES Best to bring your own food - you’ll be lucky to find more than one catering outlet. The male lavatories are rustic, to put it politely. VIEWING Trees restrict a full view of the racing. The best position is on the mound/hill/mountain situated in the middle of the course. This means a long walk from the betting ring (average weight loss 4lb per meeting). PROGRAMMES Very basic race cards, very expensive, total rip-off. COURSE Nine furlongs, right-handed, nearly always perfect conditions - with the exception of last season when frost forced a meeting to be called off ten minutes before the deferred first race. OVERALL More like a 1960s professional racecourse than a point-to-point day out. Horses love it, punters endure it. See you on the hill. •

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Posted by ruckerroo on September 4, 2009, 6:01 pm, in reply to "TWESELDOWN - by Barry Lewis"
86.159.73.214

Hard to disagree with any of that tbh. A nice 20 min drive for me tho, which is a novelty!!

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Posted by MB on September 4, 2009, 9:43 pm, in reply to "TWESELDOWN - by Barry Lewis"
86.161.150.250

Tweseldown is a lovely course, a tough course for good horses, bad maidens or young horses should avoid as it does not taken any prisoners. This course is not like a prison and I should know, this is a wonderful course, a proper old racecourse, it has a stand, a good hill to view from, it does not give a viewing point over the whole course but in general the course is a good one. Lets praise progress instead of pissing on it

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Posted by SimonM on September 5, 2009, 1:34 pm, in reply to "TWESELDOWN - by Barry Lewis"
84.66.12.198

There were multiple food outlets for one meeting last year - the one called off due to frost! The pleasant new bar marquee also advertises that it serves a sit down lunch, but it is not clear whether advance booking is required. As most of the crowd are on the hilltop, atmosphere is generally quite good there, and clear views of the fences through the trees. Commentator's mike seems to pick up lots of background conversation!

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Posted by frank mummery on September 6, 2009, 9:25 pm, in reply to "Re: TWESELDOWN - by Barry Lewis"
81.111.8.126

I would have to say (no relation of claude duval by the way)that Tweeseldown how ever you wrap its description up is one of the worst courses in the south and would be one of the last meetings I would attend as a punter having been a couple of times in the past when there has been no other meetings on,viewing is poor,as were the bookmakers who only seemed to want to take small bets,hopefully the over generous bookies from the se area will still be able to stand.

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Posted by mg on September 7, 2009, 8:47 am, in reply to "TWESELDOWN - by Barry Lewis"
193.178.217.17

Fairly accurate description, but the walk from betting ring to the mound is about 150yards - hardly a long way! Biggest problem with Twesledown is that none of the locals turn up so the crowds are always small which means the organizers have to charge more for entry, racecards etc - a vicious circle. Having said this, from an owner and rider's point of view, it is undoubtedly the best course in the country.

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Posted by Darryl on September 7, 2009, 10:38 am, in reply to "Re: TWESELDOWN - by Barry Lewis"
86.144.203.35

Yes many interesting comments on Twesledown Having been visiting Twesledown since the fifties i would agree with Barry that the toliet facillities leave a lot to be desired and the present day catering arrangements could also be improved In my oppinion Twesledown has one of the fairest admission charges in the country with a £5-00 car park plus £5-00 per head As for the bookmakers i would assume that beeing a South East fixture our local bookmakers would be in attendance along with our local commentator Over recent years attendances have tended to dwindle but i would think that this is once again caused by the clashing of fixtures in early season A great deal has been done over recent years to improve the viewing and i would say that nowadays it is certainly as good if not better than Godstone [our most used course]and considerably better than one other course that is used towards the end of our season It was also interesting to read Marcus comments as a rider and owner of many good horses As a spectator my main concern however is the ludicrous number board placed by the side of the paddock the jockeys names are still written in chalk and hardly visible on a good day and none existant should there be any rain about [and yes i have been to specsavers] In conclusion many top stables still travel to Twesledown to run their horses soo thing cant be all bad

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