NOTHING is forever, my parents always warned me, but dear, oh dear, how sad to see the double disaster that has befallen Hereford’s two principal sporting organisations, the racecourse and the once proud league football club.

When the racecourse received the death sentence in July 2012 along with another course (Folkestone), of which I have equally fond memories, I felt that common sense would prevail and that these two popular venues would, with the backing of their respective local councils, and assurance of support from their local turf enthusiasts, re-emerge with rosy futures.

But more than two years have elapsed and nothing appears to have happened to bring National Hunt racing back to Roman Road, Holmer, a track where I once witnessed Fred Rimell’s exciting prospect Gay Trip and local boy Terry Biddlecombe turn in an exhibition display of jumping en route to a famous victory in the Grand National.

How hard is the local council trying to restore horse racing to the city? It all seems to have gone a bit too quiet for my liking. Surely it should persevere in its negotiations with the company that runs the track – Arena Leisure, I believe – and grant the long lease it is seeking, because I gather the site can never become a housing development.

As for the football at Edgar Street, how can the club have plummeted so far down the pyramid in 40 years?

October 25, 1974 away to Southend United in the old Football League Third Division, 0-0 draw, attendance 5,843.

October 25, 2014 away to St Neots Town in the Evostik South Premier Division 0-1 defeat, attendance 329.

Oh, well, things can only get better for the sporting fraternity of your elegant old city.

For the record, my link with HUFC was forged by an interview in my capacity as a Press Association horse-racing reporter with its one-time club president and permit holder Frank Dale (who owned a farm machinery business in Leominster) after he saddled a jumps winner at Hereford in 1971, prior to that Ronnie Radford “Howitzer” the following year.

And who was it that phoned Mr Dale from the Press Association’s London office to inform him that Hereford had been voted into the Football League in 1972? I couldn’t possibly comment!

WILL LEFEBVE Ferring West Sussex