gus carter
reuben page

in north east

John Parry, South London

Some West Country names:

Vickers of Barnstaple - "A Sporty Bet"

Peter Jolliffe of Poole - May still be going, but got the account closed letter back in the 1990s

Stephen Little of Bath - Possibly the last bookmaker to try to make an actual book. Statements on yellow paper each week. Got stung big-time when the Brian Wright firm got involved in the Jibereen race. Wright's now inside, but too late for Little, who now arbs on-course.

Dave Pipe of, well, everywhere. Father of Martin, grandfather of David. Promoted dog racing at the County Cricket Ground at Taunton in the 1960s. The dogs used to parade in what was then the nets area behind the Old Pavilion, leading to interesting surface problems for the cricketers. Turned the Old Pavilion interior into a Wild West-themed bar on race nights on the basis he'd found a photo of 19th-century Somerset allrounder Sammy Woods wearing a sombrero. Eventually sold all his shops to Hills to concentrate on the on-course business and on his son reinventing the way you trained racehorses. Kept the one shop in central Taunton, where the pencils were attached to pieces of string to prevent pilfering. Was the last bookie to use chalk on-course and possibly buried in the same trilby and raincoat he wore every day to the races. Always lowest priced on his son's runners, which must have helped keep the business profitable.

McLaughlins (Glasgow) Massive postal business.

Gill from Robbie Box

How things have changed. We used to have thousands of local bookies but now it's just a few multi nationals who won't take a bet they think might win.
We used to bet with our local bookie (Bates Bros Bham) and got to know him quite well. My dad was very shrewd on the horses and used to win a lot of money off him. When he had a good win he didn't pick up the money for a while because he felt a bit bad about taking a lot of money of someone he considered a mate. He explained this to the bookie one day and the bookie said dont ever feel bad about picking up your winnings. We know how good you are and either back the same horses ourselves or lay them off and earn some commission.
Things aint what they used to be.

I used to bet with JOHN BANKS.

Never seen The Winner tv series bula, I`ll need to check it out. Is it available on dvd?

Heathorns

Martin Bailey.

Freddie Williams

Shieldian
A.J.McKechnie
Oxlow Bookmakers

Didn't know Claridges had packed up.

Terry Spinks tried his hand at it many years ago with a shop in East Ham, next to the Ferndale pub. 
City Tote bought him out before the start of the 1970s.

You sure taxi? I didn't think city tote came into being until 71 or 72 when they took over the tote shops.
I'm sure it was plain old city bookmakers prior to that.

Can't say I do Slippy. Do you remember the Nagles (almost sure that was their name) from London.
Grand Met bought their shops in the late 60s.

I remember John Pegley and his white gloves doing the tic tac. A real professional.

I liked Surrey in the pre mass internet days their ads in the life and post had a good variety of sporting odds (handicaps, totals etc).  Go into Lads etc in 1991 and ask for points totals on an England rugby match and you would get a look but Surrey would list the lot.

Anyone from Norwich or Norfolk remember the Ted Chapman bookies?  They would often let me have a price even when it had just gone.  I guess Chapman Junior judged correctly that I was a loser. You don't get big biros cellotaped and then chained to the ledges these days.

'West-country bookmaker David Pipe Senior sold his chain of betting offices to William Hill and bought Tuckers Farm, a derelict pig farming facility.


From here, he encouraged his only son Martin, to train racehorses and they started off in point-to-points. Following initial successes in the amateur ranks, Martin turned professional trainer and saddled his first winner under rules, Hit Parade to win a Taunton selling hurdle on 9th May 1975'

remember her name ?