Layer does his conkers story (from golf forum)

Not sure whether to feel for the fella or say ah well, you got greedy.....?


THE Betfair user who lost his life savings when laying Bradley Dredge for the Madeira Island Open at hugely inflated odds is threatening legal action in a bid to get his money back.

The punter is hoping that the European Tour will recognise their error by compensating him for his loss - to the tune of £10,000 - but is threatening go to the police if he is not satisfied with their response.

In one of the most amazing betting stories ever, Dredge was laid on Saturday at odds of up to 499-1 after the European Tour's website mistakenly put him down for a 30 at the opening hole of his third round.

The score sent him spiralling down the leaderboard from his true position of joint- first - because he had actually posted a birdie three - to second-last of the 77 qualifiers (the only player behind him was a Spanish amateur who had been credited with a 40).

Dredge, of course, went on to equal the European Tour record of 60 to build up an eight-stroke lead, an advantage he comfortably maintained for a maiden Tour victory.

But the Welshman's joy brought only misery to the layer, who refuses to rule out skulduggery.

"I'm not saying anything untoward did happen, but when you think about it, it would be quite easy to do," he said.

"At the very least I want europeantour.com to admit to misinforming people and compensate me for their mistake.

"I've got a big decision to make, but I'm not ruling out getting solicitors or the police involved."

The 42-year-old, who feels so embarrassed by his situation that he has asked us not to name him, believes the website should have corrected their error much earlier than they did.

"I was acting on information I presumed to be correct and it's not like I just jumped in," he said. "I thought to myself that it had to be wrong, but kept on checking on europeantour.com and BBC Ceefax and there was no correction.

"After that I spoke to a friend, who said to lay everything I could because Dredge couldn't win from there.

"Thankfully he is the only person I have told. I can't tell the rest of my friends because I'm so embarrassed about it. I must have laid around 50 bets in total and they ranged from 7-1 to 110. Basically, anything that appeared in pink I clicked on.

"I'm not normally a big punter, but I've lost £10,000 and that represents my life savings."

But surely it takes some believing that a golfer, even a 28-handicapper never mind a professional, could take 30 strokes for a single hole.

"Yes, with hindsight it does sound stupid," he admitted.

"But I gave the website sufficient time to correct the mistake and it didn't happen.

"When you think of it, if someone is doing a leaderboard you would imagine they would know how important the leader's score is, so how could they put up 30 and not think that something was wrong?"

Yet no matter how much the punter moans, he is well aware that he has little chance of recompense.

"I'd gladly lay 100-1 about me getting anywhere, but I feel I've got to try," he said.

"If I was a regular ten grand punter, I'd probably swallow it, but I'm not a big player and this is my life savings.

"Yes, I do feel like an idiot. Even more so after reading all about it on the Betfair chatroom and being called