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No racing on a Good Friday (just xmas day left now but for how long)
No racing on a Sunday ( as i'm an addict, Sunday was great when Bookies weren't open, but doesn't matter these days with the internet)
Bookies closing after day racing (you had to put your night bets on before they closed)
No TV in the bookies (unless it was on channel 4 or bbc)
Listening intently to the radio broadcast of the race in the Bookies
No internet
No football on a sunday
No Betfair (joking of course)
Listening to the radio every hour for the results
Watching Ceefax for the results
Please add as there are lots more.
Is it just me or are we totally spoilt now?
No racing on a Sunday ( as i'm an addict, Sunday was great when Bookies weren't open, but doesn't matter these days with the internet)
Bookies closing after day racing (you had to put your night bets on before they closed)
No TV in the bookies (unless it was on channel 4 or bbc)
Listening intently to the radio broadcast of the race in the Bookies
No internet
No football on a sunday
No Betfair (joking of course)
Listening to the radio every hour for the results
Watching Ceefax for the results
Please add as there are lots more.
Is it just me or are we totally spoilt now?
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Replies: 61
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The inability from making money by deliberately losing
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i've quit but smoking must be up there with most in the bookies
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ei8XHoCXxI
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prob get more on 1957
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rapid late headway on the extel commentary.
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Extel commentaries - The late Dougie Fraser - Rapid Late Headway - any other Scots on here will know what I mean - the rush when you heard those words was like nothing else!!! Magic !!!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp_ndcKNZHM&index=15&list=PLvWoMVGdsAKbwGcgMBhr5Jz9_fjBiLFge
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All sitting there glued, to the usually old fellow, chalking up the prices and trying to nick a price change especially when he was a bit slow.
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Telephonic interruption Alexandra Park.
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The 10% betting tax. You didn't pay it on course, so was a good excuse to go racing.
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thinking you'd just been touched off on the blower.
check the paper the next day, beat 3 lengths. |
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Tote Double and Tote Treble. Proper bookies tickets. Raleigh Gilbert commentaries. Going out on the course without being harassed by 'elf and safety' nutters. No bumpers on a six race card. Double figure fields in novice chases. The favourite winning the last race maiden at Windsor on a Monday evening.
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'Rapid late headway' on Extel, then reading the Life close up the following day, ' always prominent led 2 f out , ran on strongly' '
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No quarter odds a place with 8 or more runners. No one third odds a place on 5 to 7 runners.
No Wednesday Derby, Ebor or other big races. The pocket size pull out results section from the Handicap Book. Charlie Smirke and Lester Piggott. Handicaps that went down to 7-7 Ally Pally on a Monday night and a mad rush to get there from SW18 after work. Better prices and working for a few months with a Guy whose sister had a jockey boy friend. |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEGAETonEgY&index=17&list=PLvWoMVGdsAKbwGcgMBhr5Jz9_fjBiLFge
1976 bookies in above clip. The bloke settling is pretty nifty. |
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races going off at the same time as each other.
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Betting on the French Trotting when the winter weather had wiped out U.K. racing . Having a punt on the Jolly , only for it to be disqualified after about 2 furlongs . It was covered on the " blower " , and you had to take it in good faith that your selection had broken into a canter/gallop !
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the 'Easy Six' on the pools coupon
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the boch /jinx (every shop had one ) if you backed the same as him you knew you were fooked !
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One-man independents who did things like offering their own ante-post prices, and laying the fractions to boot.
Betting on-course against men who laid wagers of thousands of pounds on the basis of half an hour in the car park glancing through the Life. And with no Betfair or early prices to tell them what odds to offer either. Concrete posts on the running rails, ensuring that the course and race distances were always the same. Ken Hussey's standard times. Drop fences at Haydock. Unforgiving fences at Wetherby. Unforgiving drop fences at Aintree. The last day of the NH season at Stratford on the first Saturday in June. Happy New Year in the bar of the Queen's Hotel at Newton Abbot on the first Saturday in August. Fun, friends and fresh air. |
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Dick Whitfords ratings on the Sporting Lifes settlers page
Hunting around on the floor for that discarded"winning betting slip")after racing) Getting a nosh off the cashier(female)(again after racing) NOT NECESSARILY IN THAT ORDER  |
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Queens Hotel in NA been closed for a year or two now.
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The racing commentary L P's ( winter '63)... 5/1 the field... different groove ensured a different result !
Punters' asked for the L P when raving resumed !!!!  |
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^ Racing *
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Mai ****
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smoke filled bookies with coloured plastic strip drapes on the door and blokes marking up the boards and commentary from the radio.
nicking prices on horses and changing forecasts on the dogs after the off when some soppy **** who should never been employed in a bookies knew what had happened. crying when the bookies went bust |
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the smell of pish in there toilets
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Plus limited loo roll
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Making Rapid Headway....Yeah right....We fell for that one for years ffs.....He must have been p1ssing himself laughing every time he used that line.
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Studying hard to back winners.
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Being able to discuss racing with other betting shop customers.
The old boys betting on the dogs in the morning. |
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Greyform dog summaries. No need to read form, everything summed up in a half a sentence.
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Miss the Sporting Life, and some of the names of racing but really it's so much easier now to make money than in the past.
I may have been an hopeless beginner in those days (85-92) but 10% and 9% tax regimes and higher overrounds made it much harder IMO. On a side note is it just me but have the bookie overrounds gone way up since Chelt? |
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Going home reeking of smoke and my mum saying "you've been in that place again!".
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Saturday, five to eleven (in old time)... 10.55 to you:
Dogs parading Dogs going into the traps They bet: No offers Trap 1 6/4 Trap 2 3/1 Trap 6 10/1 Trap 5 10/1 Trap 4 16/1 Trap 3 Hackney, they bet: 8/11 Trap 1 Off Hackney 11.01 Off Hackney After the off: 8/15 Trap 1 And at Hackney Round the first bend 2 1 6 4 5 and 3 Down the back Still 2 1 2 4 5 6 and 3 Round the last bend 2 4 1 5 3 and 6 2 and 4 4 Gone past together Photo finish Hackney Waiting At Hackney, it's a photo between Trap 2, Bernie's Cakehole and Trap 4 Laura's Patrick PAUSE Result coming from Hackney: Sorry, at Hackney, add to the photo: Trap 1 Illavarph and Trap 6 Noway LONGER PAUSE Result coming from Hackney: Winner Trap 6, Noway Second Trap 1, Illavarph Sps Hackney 6/4 and 8/15 STONY SILENCE Hackney totes: Win Trap 6 13p Places Trap 6 13p and Trap 1 97p Forecast 6 and 1 £5.08 |
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Eight times until the racing started - brilliant!
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Having someone behind the counter who could accurately settle a bet in seconds without the aid of a machine.
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the days when the bookies would take a decent sized bet without PTL
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