Declan Murphy - The jockey who read his own obituary

Twenty-three years ago, Limerick jockey Declan Murphy’s skull was so badly fractured in a fall at Haydock Park that his death was confirmed by the Racing Post. Prematurely as it happened, writes Colm Greaves.

The precision of a brain surgeon and the determination of a maverick jockey brought him back from death’s door. There’s been casualties along the way, and stuff he still can’t remember, but Murphy won’t forget Monday May 2, 1994 any time soon.

The fifth hole of Heswall Golf Club on the Wirrall Peninsula in Lancashire is a bit of a monster. A long par five, over 600 yards, it looks across the Dee Estuary towards the hills of North Wales on one side and towards the more prosaic sights of Liverpool and Manchester on the other.