Who remembers pools collectors

Often wondered when football betting really started.

In the 1970s could you go in a shop and do a treble on that weekend's games, or was it football pools only?

they were still round here until a few years ago

Heres my spot the ball entry







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I did a pools round on my bike when I was 12.

you could definalty bet on football results in the bookies office in the early 1970's
Minimum trebles,but you only had to put in a postponed match to beat those rules.

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rich people did 8 from 13

I remember when the little rubber stamps of Xs came out.

Beginning of the end for Spot the Ball.

I had a round for 9 months when I was 18, would get about £15 for 3 hours work on a Thursday night trudging the streets of Poulton-Le-Fylde

when I was 17/18..I had a Littlewoods pools run
a great little earner along with a couple of other little jobs..
£10 dig money...was loaded..

My Uncle still collects the pools ..not far from you Huggy...been doing nearly 50 years....he makes no money these days....but he says some of the people he goes to see ...he is their only visitor...bless him

Most people on my Vernon's round did 8 from 11 - 20.5p. I earned 2.5p commission per house and often had to wait because they had forgotten to fill in their coupons.

Often earned more from tips than commission. I loved xmas.

Hope he ws not your dads friend

My father had £40 on Everton to beat WBA in the 1968 FA Cup final (1-0 to WBA) he must have had that bet in a betting office.
(that was his last ever bet)

Scamp the man

My dads "friend" lived in the Carr Manors

No....lives in Hollin Parks

I think he is the only person still collecting.

DONEMYLOT Joined: 21 Oct 02
Replies: 7736 18 Aug 11 15:47   


Heres my spot the ball entry







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I helped my dad with this - no idea if he was on commission or not. I will ask

"claims by telegram" for 24 points

I thought the Sheff Weds match fixing scandal outlawed betting on football matches uptill the 80's or was that just singles on ordinary games?

Historic wins

Here are some notable UK football pools winners

1957 Nellie McGrail, Stockport £205,235[3] 1961 Viv Nicholson, Castleford £152,319 1979 Irene Powell, Port Talbot, South Wales £882,000 - first win over £750,000. 1986 Syndicate of hospital workers from Devizes, Wiltshire £1,017,890 - first million pound win. 1987 Barry Dinsdale, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire £1,910,972. 1991 Rodi Woodcock, £2,072,220 - first double-millionaire. 1994 Syndicate from Worsley, Greater Manchester £2,924,622 - Came on the first weekend of the National Lottery 2010 Michael Elliott, Brechin, Scotland £3,001,511 - Highest ever jackpot went to the prison officer by betting on eight 2-2 draws across Spain, Scotland and England

we had Vernons, collector known by my mum as 'the coupon man' can never rember getting more than three score draws with the obligatory no score draw.

mine used to "push" spot the ball !

I collected Littlewoods pools with my mate where we worked c. 1987. We went round the offices Friday lunchtime to collect and delivered the coupons and money to the regional bloke.  I can't remember how much commission we made, but it was worthwhile - maybe about £30 each in todays money.

There was a famous case when a rouge collector did not hand in the coupons to the pools company,and guess what some unlucky punter had 24 points

Just tried to find the excellent 'Spend,spend,spend' play for today on youtube,must have been taken down.

We used to leave the money on the side and leave the door open fopr him with a nore on it!,pools man used to come round till about 95ish

Paper sellers shouting on newsstand's shouting :-

"Star, News or Standard !!!!!! "

Paper sellers shouting on newsstand's shouting :-

"Star, News or Standard !!!!!! "



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Here is my spot the ball entry.



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Ball

POOLS MAN,RENT COLLECTOR,MILK MAN ,PROVIDANT MAM ,STEWARTS CLOTHES MAN ,DEANS FURNITURE MAN,BRITTANIC INSURANCE MAN,BREAD MAN,CORONA POP MAN , THE COAL MAN AND THE REST ALL USED TO COME TO OUR HOUSE AND WE HAD TO HIDE BEHIND THE SETEE WHEN MY MAM HAD NO MONEY TO PAY THEM ,

We had to burn the setee to keep warm.

Huggy

They were the 3 evening newspapers sold at busy junctions from a little wooden stall.
I used to go and get my Dad a paper on Saturday night so he could check his pools result's.
Used to hang on for the latest delivery direct from Fleet St, which was called the 'Classified'.
It was also the only way you could get the day's racing result's which were printed in a 2" horizontal margin on the bottom of the back page.

This was long before TV, phones or betting shop's.

i think the rouge collector was in fact the avon lady [:(]

ACEY DEUCY YOU WASNT ON YOUR OWN ,IF ANY ONE POSH CAME WE HAD TO BORROW ONE OF   THE NEIGHBOURS IN OUR STREET

THE ONLY TIME I SAW A SAUCER WAS WHEN SOME ONE DIED

Do wah

No TALLY MAN ?

I SAW A CUP WITH A HANDLE ON WHEN SOMEONE DIED AND ASKED IF HED LEFT IT TO US IN HIS WILL

My mum won in 1986,shared between 5 of us.£35000,shared,still got cutting from paper and we got begging letters

Jammy tw@t!!!

Far too many winning coupons went astray with the collector system.
No one with any sense would trust a collector with their coupon.

I was mortified when I found a rogue coupon on Saturday morning that had somehow not been collected by the main collector.

Spend the whole day shítting myself waiting for the football results.

They got about 2 draws.

I used to stick a needle in the Spot the Ball picture and if I heard a hiss that's where I put my X.


Never won.

I remember saying to my mum"what about these begging letters" she told me to keep sending them.

oi churchill

My Mrs has just reminded me that the play spend spend spend about Viv Nicolsons life is doing the rounds,she went to see it a couple of months ago and said it was excellent.

I echo everything doh wah diddy said about the callers who used to come to our house when i was a boy in the 1970's. Things were tight at times but we always got by.

The one collector all us kids were told to watch like a hawk was the radio rentals man when he emptied the coin operated television. Under no circumstances was he ever to be left alone when he was taking out the 50 pences from the coin box.

I lived near  Vernons pools ..
I remember well that early days they accepted coupons at the door up til noon Saturday..
One bright group found they could get a friend in Australia to just about get the Ozzie results in time to phone them through to them , near the Pools place, they had already pre-filled in several lines , so they then just inserted a winning line in the middle -- left blank ready-- , then they handed it in at the door..with seconds to go ...and had it date stamped as okay and valid..
they could have made a killing if they had stuck to a couple of grand each week, (no mean sum in those days), but they went for the BIG JACKPOT one straight away ...and the Pools investigators smelt a rat ...and caught them ..they ended up in court for Fraud !!

Scissors

Nice piece,i love scams in the betting world