Raymond Rogers, the stalwart KZN racing TV Producer, passed away suddenly on Monday in Johannesburg where he was to film Ready To Run gallops. Tributes poured in for the affable giant who will be a great loss to the industry.

Gold Circle’s Racing Executive Raf Sheik said, “To fill his shoes will be impossible.”

Sheik was referring to Raymond’s renowned passion and dedication to his job. He used the recent introduction of the green screen studio at Gold Circle to highlight these sentiments.

Green screen technology has the ability to superimpose any image required on the green background, giving the impression that the studio presenters are either in an ultra-modern room or even outside.

Rogers and Sheik attended a meeting in Johannesburg a year ago to speak to the suppliers.

“Raymond was so impressed I had to drag him away kicking and screaming,” recalled Sheik. “He mastered the technology very quickly and basically ate and slept it. I would regularly receive phone calls at 8 o’ clock at night to tell me he had discovered something else the technology could do.”

The green screen studio was soon up and running and remains an impressive feature of Gold Circle Racing.

Raymond was also known for arriving at the course on race days at 6:30 a.m. sharp and sending sms’s to all of his staff telling them what time they were to start work.

“Nothing was ever too much for Raymond,” said Marketing Consultant to Gold Circle, Graeme Hawkins.

Raymond approached every task he did with high professionalism and mastered his role as TV Producer. On race days this involved the visual mixing, communication with the on course presenters and Tellytrack simultaneously, and at the same time he was producing the race replays to be available as soon as possible. He never delegated the teaching of new staff but instead showed them the ropes himself and in this way had full faith that they knew exactly what was expected of them.

Raymond was the son of former Kingsmead cricket groundsman Roy.

The Sport Of Gentlemen rubbed off on him and in 1968 he became the first pupil of Westville Boys High to ever make the Natal Schools cricket team. He must have only been in standard eight at the time, because two years later in 1970 he made the South African Schools team.

Dave Pearse, an old boy of Kearsney College who played both cricket and rugby for Natal, remembers Raymond as being “a very quick” opening bowler at school.

He recalled him having a long run up, almost from the boundary, but remembers him being quiet and always respectful to batsmen.

The only time he remembered him having anything to say to the opposition was in a club game for Marist when the known powerful batsman Keith Hosken of Durban University was smashing him all over the park. Eventually an exasperated Rogers stood in the middle the pitch with hands on hips and shouted, “Where the @#$!% am I going to bowl it next!”

Rogers played under the captaincy of renowned Natal and South Africa seam bowler Pat Trimborn at Marist, but his club cricket career did not last too long.

His new sporting passion became football refereeing. He rose to become one of the most respected refs in the National Football league and reached the pinnacle of achievement by refereeing the biggest Derby match in the country, “the Soweto Derby” between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

Paul Lafferty, a former Durban City Player and current Gold Circle director, remembers Rogers being very active as a referee in the South African premiership and being highly respected. He said, “He was fair and could take a chirp.” Lafferty later enjoyed a fine partnership with Rogers in the production of the Tellytrack magazine program Winning Ways, which Lafferty co-hosts with James Goodman.

Raymond continued to follow South African soccer after his refereeing days were over and was an avid Pirates fan.

However, he will probably be best remembered for his friendly demeanour and his enjoyment of some banter during his tours of departments in Gold Circle to discuss work matters.

Gold Circle staff were left reeling with the news on Monday and it was hard to believe the big man’s loud voice and quick wit will never be heard again.

Farewell Ray.

By David Thiselton