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Vince
Curry is regarded as the best race caller that Queensland
has produced. In fact, his broadcasting was respected nationwide.
Vince, who died in February 1983 at age 54 , started his
calling career with 4GR in Toowoomba.
Born
at Oakey, near Toowoomba, in 1929, Vince was captivated
by racing at an early age. He used to do phantom calls of
races, and was noticed doing this as a teenager.
He became course commentator at the Toowoomba gallops when
aged 16. Upon leaving school at age 17, he joined local
radio station 4GR, and made his mark as an announcer and
commentator before transferring to Brisbane in 1960 to replace
the retiring gallops caller, Ron Anwin.
He was
appointed sporting director of that station on the death
of Tom McGregor, a legendary sporting coordinator.
He called
the first night trotting meeting at Albion Park and continued
on with the night trots for two years before handing over
to Wayne Wilson.
At
radio 4BC, and through radio stations Australia wide, Vince
became a household name and instantly recognised voice.
As well as his horse racing descriptions, Vince also excelled
at describing a variety of sports, including Davis Cup tennis,
test cricket. Olympic Games track and field and swimming,
and one of his main loves - boxing.
Vince
had a dry sense of humour, and it was during one of his
boxing broadcasts at Brisbane's Festival Hall that a funny
incident occurred.
Vince
was seated ringside at a table with fellow commentator,
John McCoy.
At the conclusion of the bout, Vince stepped up onto the
table to hoist himself into the ring to interview the winner.
But the table collapsed, and Vince crashed to the floor
and broke a collarbone.
As McCoy escorted him to an awaiting ambulance, Vince declared
- `'they should ban boxing, it's too dangerous.''
Vince
called athletics at the 1972 Munich Olympics. He called
an Australian gold medal winning performance, only to find
out that the radio broadcast line to Australia had gone
dead.
Bear in mind this was back in an era when there was no live
television coverage of the Olympics.
People back home were glued to their radios in the wee hours
of the morning, awaiting the various sporting descriptions.
Vince didn't even have a recording of that gold medal race.
He had, as fate would turn out, called what he considered
the greatest call of his career to one person - himself.
He also
well remembered a meeting at Toowoomba where the entire
course was blanketed by fog. "I only knew the race
had started when it was signalled by the dropping of a handkerchief.
I calculated the running of the event by stop watch allowing
12 seconds per furlong and out of the fog they popped at
the 50 yard mark, just enough time to call first second
and third before they raced off in to the fog again."
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