Can't be sure, but was his name not Ted? Don't know what happened to him.

Ketts had two tic tacs Harold and Ted.

FAMOUS and IMFAMOUS NORTH WEST BOOKMAKERS.PAT WHEELAN,IAN GARTSIDE(AS IN BE ON THE SMARTSIDE),BOB COLLINS,ROY BARKER,KEITH SWAIN,FREDDIE ABLE,CLARY WOOD,ALBERT BROWN,ANDY MELIA,JIMMY TUNSTALL,JOHN AINSWORTH,PADDY HINES,TEDDY HARRIS,NOTRMAN TAYLOR,MAURICE LYNDSAY,WALLY FENTON,JIMMY BURNS,GLEN GRAHAM,BILL TAYLOR,JOE PHILLIPS,HARRY JOY,BILL CORBETT,TERRY HIGGINS,JIMMY ASHALL,MANNY COOK,ARE JUST A FEW TO MENTION.

Another couple of decent blokes fron the N.West,
John McArdle
Gordon Crawford-bet as George Simpson
Both unfortunately no longer with us.

somebody just told me Michael Cunninham has retired.
End of an era.

apologies ribero, brian trewhitt did indeed retire 83/84 (?) and son nicky kept the gus carter pitches going for maybe a year before quitting, so well before he could sell them.

as has been said john joyce retired and sadly passed away around the same time. think his clerk briefly kept the racecourse pitches going. i believe that he was the son of joe douglas (carlisle) though and couldnt take the pitches over once joyce died as seniority couldnt be passed on to a non relative in those days. may be wrong but sure there was a big kerfuffle over it at the time. peter (sheepskin) watson produced rule book (nap)

joyce's family kept the many betting shops in the john joyce name going until a few years ago when they sold out to corals. i still see his bag man, ray, from time to time in one of those shops.

dog racing must have been big right up until the 70's as john joyce used to bet alongside my grandad, johnny ridley, at hartlepool, which was only a flapping track, yet had two of the biggest layers in the north in the ring. to offset that they also had billy day betting there. and i use the term betting in the loosest sense of the word. what he was actually doing was knocking people back. used to play for boro i believe and had pitches in the silver ring at a few northern meets. think dennis sweeney had a pitch there for a while. like i say not bad for a flap.

was it bill farrell who used to bring a box of pies to every carlisle meeting ? bet under that name, dont think it was his real one. nice pies, wouldn't lay a bet though.

there was also a bookie keeled over and died at the end of one newcastle meeting in the 80's. was paying out one minute, dropped down dead the next. he did look about 100. think his surname may have been priest, not sure. another you could never get a bet on with.

Dont think Alan Fothergill has been mentioned yet, Fothergill and Powell.

Incidently, Chipfife, Your grandad, Johnny Ridley, father of the current layer of the same name and famous for his muffler ( a scalf to the uninitiated ) was one of the finest bookmakers ever to attach his hod to a joint.

wasnot alan f thought there were already to many bookmakers beyond them pearly gates so he opened a fashion outlet.

thanks porfavor, i started working on course probably 1978-1979 so was lucky enough to spend a fair bit of time working with my grandad before he passed away and he always struck me as being as close to the definition of a gentleman as you could get. probably a bit too gentle sometimes, i wish i had a fraction of  the money people, including a couple of bookmakers, knocked him for.

i was only a kid at the time (15-16) and it was bizarre being in an enviroment surrounded by mainly old gadgies, who carried huge sums of money about in their pockets, and spoke largely about things totally alien to me. i guess i was lucky to an extent being a boy given insight into a mans world, but with hindsight i'm pretty glad i got out when i did in the mid 80's to do something different, because a lot of the people on course only seemed to have one interest in life, and that was gambling.

when i was 19 and most of my mates were drinking and sleeping with as many women as they could, i seemed to spend ridiculous amounts of my time fathoming how i could get from catterick to pelaw dogs in time for the first. even at 16 when i went in to see the careers teacher and she asked what my ambition was i think i replied " to own a decent open racer."

it was up at the plate meeting ribero.

and still posts on here to tell us how its done,thanks.

i know jimnast,it would be very hard for me to forget as it was my birthday that day.

DIGGER it probably is a lifetime since i last played five a side. remarkably i'm still playing 11 a side on saturday mornings, though at approx 11-40 am yesterday, on a playing field in yarm, i did seriously question the wisdom of it.

you still putting yr boots on ?

Peter Holmes - had a notice on his joint along the lines of " fastest payer in the country " ? Used to work with his wife and seemed very quiet and gentle. Not your usual stereotype bookmaker.

Dunstall park snooper...Paul Beard had a couple of horses but the one that won a few times was called Zonta, Bob (not Bill) Clay trained it at Gentleshaw although Paddy Connors used to do most of the work :-).In the 77/78 season Jonjo O`Neil was on 149 winners and his agent was booking him on anything to try to get him on 150 winners for the season (poss a record in those days)with only days to go till season end.He rode Zonta somewhere (Fontwell maybey) and fell 2 out, Jonjo stormed back and said he would have won!! Alas Jonjo finished on 149

Sorry, Stow_judge

hey fat bald glasses bloke
now the cat's out of the bag everyone will want 2 do it
[;)][;)][;)]

ribero I knew Alan f and his pals Bert & Tony from elland road and Wakefield, I always remember him being referred to as Jesus due to his atire, he was a very good judge back then. When he got his pitches he became an even better judge on the horses. A lovely man who left us too early.

my favourite thread.

any updates?