The science of the clock

If you really want to know how your dog is doing in Clonmel there’s one guy you have to see – the clockman.

You’re up in the one of the two covered stands, or you’re one of those hardier souls lining the rails, and you see buckle after buckle, two hounds in magnificent pursuit of the hare, and some of those buckles are superb – Aghadown Martin and Derby Pines in the last course of the Derby yesterday, lead swapped several times, Aghadown just up at the finish. But, just how fast are those dogs? That’s where the clockman comes in.

Patsy Lynch, from Tralee, has been going to Clonmel since 1945 and has been on the stopwatch for more decades than he cares to remember – those are his ‘clocks’ that appear in this page. He gives us an insight into the science, because science it is.