Peter O’Sullevan the voice of racing will commentate on his last Grand National today after keeping punters across the land on the edge

Peter O’Sullevan, the “voice of racing”, will commentate on his last Grand National today, after keeping punters across the land on the edge of their seats and enthralled by his “hectic drawl” for nearly half a century. O’Sullevan, who first covered the race in 1947 and started “calling the running” two years later for BBC Radio, has brought his unmistakable voice to every National since the race was first televised in 1960.
As befitting an individual who has become synonymous with the sport, a bronze bust of O’Sullevan will be unveiled at the Aintree racecourse by the Princess Royal. The Princess will then join O’Sullevan in his commentary box for the race.The Princess is not O’Sullevan’s only royal fan: the Queen and the Queen Mother both wrote tributes to him in Coming To The Last, a book of tributes published to mark his retirement. Mary Robinson, the Irish President, also reminisces about Saturday afternoons listening to his voice on a crackling wireless with her father and brothers.It is his “clipped, dark brown” voice that has made his commentary so instantly recognisable. Russell Davies described it as “perhaps the only hectic drawl in captivity”, while writer Hugh McIlvanney is quoted as saying O’Sullevan is: “possibly the most accomplished reader of action operating on any sport in the English-speaking world”.Despite his wealth of experience, O’Sullevan admits to being nervous before the race.

“It is something one looks forward to with as much trepidation as expectation. One is always very conscious of the enormous audience – it is not an easy assignment,” he said yesterday.The National is the most popular race in the country, attracting the largest gamblers as well as the punters who have a small annual flutter.Simon Reeve. Cancelled operations are not only depriving patients of vital surgery, but are damaging the education of next generation of doctors, medical students claimed yesterday. Some students are learning surgery out of text-books instead of from patients and are qualifying without ever having seen a tonsillectomy, hysterectomy or hip-replacement operation, Kate Adams, the chair of the British Medical Association’s medical students committee, said.
Ms Adams, a fourth-year student at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospital Medical Schools, said: “Students are looking at textbooks instead of seeing patients.

You never remember things from textbooks as well as you do from practical experience. The cornerstone of our training is learning from patients and we really value what they contribute to our education This training is in jeopardy because of cuts. We are worried about what the long-term consequences will be, and the implications for patients.” She predicted that some junior doctors in casualty departments would be faced with cases, which they had never seen before, and that lack of knowledge could delay diagnosis, and increase misdiagnosis, in general practice Annabel Ferriman. A children’s charity treasurer was jailed for two-and-a-half years yesterday after plundering thousands of pounds. Charles Atkinson, 59, a bank clerk, helped himself to pounds 109,000 over 10 years either by pocketing cash donations to the Church of England Children’s Society or by forging cheques for cash.