R.I.P John power

the best greyhound bookmaker in my time at the tracks r.i.p john

RIP john jenkins.....
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http://www.keithcollman.com/portfolios/hackney-stadium-the-dogs#photo=0

R.I.P. John.

RIP

r.i.p viking.i aways had a bet with you . i was a young boy at the time you never gived me ticket put it down to the boy .pls take care ur self tom and pat

Sad news indeed,I can remember The Viking standing at Hackney on Saturday mornings doing his thing like only he could.

R.I.P.

r.i.p pure class layer not many of the old school left now

RIP , He was a standout ,  Great bookmaker

Huge for the image of the game too at the time.  Featured almost as often as Ernie Farrant did in the Greyhound media at one time.  He had the blond locks while Ernie had the hats.

Sad news great guy. RIP

It was worth the entrance fee at Walthamstow just to watch John and his brother 'perform'. Brought real character to the ring and his sense of humour although dry was really funny.

I remember (same of the fine detail might be blurred) on one occasion the well fancied favourite was chalked up at 2/1 with all the bookies, as always the punters were all waiting in the hope someone would go 9/4, all of a sudden all the other bookies wiped it off and John was the only one left with a price up, it seemed that everyone was running down to John to try and get on, with that he wiped it off as well but shouted 'don't push you're all on', there must have been 20 or more of us queuing up, some, like me, with a £20 note, others with bundles of hundreds, as promised we all got on at 2/1. By now the other bookies had chalked up 7/4 or even 13/8 and were taking bets at pace. By the time the last customer of John got on the hare running bell rang and of course John then chalked up and shouted out I'll lay 9/4! Pure class.

Funny, I can't remember if the dog even won but I can remember John Jenkins and how he helped make a night at the dogs entertaining, oh how we miss those days.

Nice one Dunasbuig.
I was at Hackney one Saturday I was probably about 22 so that would be late 80's.

An outsider at 7/1,namely Tea Ration drawn in trap 4, had an unheard of ping break and led to the first bend. The Viking, big coat on and huge Havana on the go obviously, shouted out in a booming voice "turn left."
It didn't hang on to win but all these many years later, I can still remember exactly every single detail of that race. Such was his prescence I still can see him that morning to this day.

slippy...what a character he was.

I remember so well the nights at Walthamstow, when many of us would adjourn to the piano bar on the top floor of the grandstand after racing. JP would come in and his tales of what he'd won or lost across each of the races were brilliant, sometimes jaw-dropping!

I can also remember being at Epsom for the 1986 Derby. My mate and I wanted £400 between us on Dancing Brave. We hovered around the rails and spotted JP working as an outside man / tic-tac for a big firm. The horse was around 2/1 but we asked JP for 'any 9/4' and he obliged before slipping the £400 into his inside pocket - clearly standing the bet himself. A wise move, as it turned out!

Lastly, there is also the story that went around about his apparent rather dubious involvement in the sale of a snooker club. One of the owners was said to be a major gangster doing a long stretch and when he found out about the sale, well there is no way I can repeat on here what it was said then happened with JP!!!

A wonderful character and to see him go, followed within weeks by Shane Warne, another great character, has really cut me up. Born in 1960, I think I saw the very best of times as I grew up, from bookmaking to music and to much else!!!

dunasbuig yes i backedit .it lost

yes maltese it be come a poker room maltese joe the pool player wos a the dealer there

Remember him and his brother very well early 80's at Hackney Wick daytime meetings. By far the best track layers I've seen in over 50 years. Dunasbuig's report of a particular race with John laying at the same price after a runner had gone in and allowing all the lads who wanted it to still pile in at the scrubbed price was a common occurrence with him. Possibly it was partly for PR purposes but was probably also very happy to work on 1/2 the overround and 5 times the turnover of his risk-averse fellow layers and at a time at the Wick for the daytime meetings when punters were in wonderland as to overrounds in comparision to the much higher uniform levels then at the other same running day BAGS track Bristol and all tracks in the decades thereafter. He was also like the two wonderfully

.. I was going to say before I hit the wrong button: .... like the two Ladbrokes layers of those days at the Wick daytime meetings, John was also wonderfully polite and respectful and yes in addition a real showman, the betting was far more fun than the actual races. I still see it and them all whenever someone mentions the old greyhound racing days and miss it and the characters involved terribly with John top of the list. RIP John and all those in those fabulous greyhound racing days.

i wonder what he thinks of grayhound raceing today with no tracks in london

Not only that Jackboo but " industry prices " as well.

Dogs opening up 15/8 drifting to 5/1 a minute or two before the off and 10.0 on here.

yes slippy the faves at the stow was 11/4 favs . and not 6/4 5/4 7/4 thay were happy days thay did nice tea and chesse ham rolls