The sound from the ring may have been the trembling of the layers, whose liabilities on the two Irish 'good things' would have been colossal

Greatest Festival Duels - No. 5
Bobsline v Noddy's Ryde, 1984 Arkle Trophy

A proper Britain v Ireland head-to-head is something to savour and this was the epitome of such a clash: the hero of the Brits facing up to the champion of the raiders, with neither side prepared to admit (publicly at least) the possibility of defeat.

In the British corner was the bold and ebullient front-runner Noddy's Ryde, trained in Cumbria by Gordon Richards and ridden by Neale Doughty, who would have to have his wits about him to combat the come-from-behind wiles of Frank Berry on Francis Flood's Bobsline. It was as if the festival gods had put their heads together and come up with the perfect match, to enthral and enrapture, even in an age when the debate on such matters didn't begin the previous October.