William Tideswell

National Hunt jockey William Geoffrey Tideswell held a licence for two seasons, 1967/68 and 1968/69. He was based with Bridgwater, Somerset trainer John Thorne and rode three winners for him, all of them on a horse named Blown Over.

The first of those wins came in a maiden hurdle at Chepstow on Easter Monday, April 15, 1968, his sole success from 13 mounts that season.

On Easter Monday the following year, again at Chepstow, he rode Blown Over to win a two-mile novices’ chase. Then, on the Saturday of Devon & Exeter’s two-day Whitsun bank holiday fixture, they landed a two-mile three-furlong handicap chase.

Half an hour after that Devon & Exeter success, he rode Qasr-I-Darya, trained by Thorne but formerly owned and trained by John Meacock, who gave all his horses hard to pronounce Persian names, finishing eleventh of twelve runners in division two of the Dartmoor Novices’ Hurdle. That was not just the last of William’s 18 rides that season but also the last of his brief career as a National Hunt jockey.

William Tideswell’s winners were:

1. Blown Over, Chepstow, April 15, 1968

2. Blown Over, Chepstow, April 7, 1969

3. Blown Over, Devon & Exeter, May 24, 1969