Smirnoff
hope you are well regarding that hills cockerton shop I live a 2 wood away from it,started going in it in 1974 underage of course it was owned by a guy called Ralph Sugden who owned 4 shops in sunny Darlo as well has some prime pitches in the silvering  it was as you say a very busy shop which had a monopoly on the area until Corals opened a shop less than 50 yards away then the market share collapsed  as I have said before there is still some cracking shops out there the hills in Darlo town centre is still one of them it was always the best in Darlo   especially when it was owned by Gordon Nunns the betting shop game is still good but as not as good as it used to be, same as the racecourse books saying the game as gone they said that ten years ago what they ment was we can only go to Barbados twice a year and know get get a merc every 2 years.

have a good day and enjoy the toon on Saturday
regards
Ronnie

ps the skybet did not kop.

G Hall

thank you for your kind words re writing a book sad to say my eyes are not to clever see the Robert Sangster thread.

have a good day
kind regards
Ronnie.

G Hall

you are more than welcome
please pm your address and I will send it to you

Ronnie.

Have to say ronnie is the most politest poster on here. Always a pleasure reading your posts ronnie.

Indeed, Ronnie is a good bloke most definitely.
Ronnie, I popped into the Corals near o the Kennington Oval on Saturday to watch a race.There was me, the manager and a cashier and nobody else in the 15 minutes or so that I was there.I felt a bit sorry for the staff as they looked totally fed up!

One Hills shop which never re-opened after the winter lockdown was the one in Taunton where Priory Bridge Rd (where the cricket ground is) forms a T-junction with Station Road. There are three pubs facing each other on that junction - the Ale House, the Plough and the Crown & Sceptre (where Brian Close used to live when he was captaining Somerset). And next to the Ale House was the Hills shop (formerly a Dave Pipe shop).

And you can see why Pipe opened a shop there - it must have been a corner where street bookies had once stood, between three pubs and halfway between the train station, the cattle market and the County Ground. I expect Brian Close used to use it too. It was always the shop the travelling punters popped into to meet and get a look at non-runners and prices before going on to the track on race days.

Which is what makes its loss so sad. A little bit of real history and human life, gone now for ever.

By the end there were more living organisms in the toilet than in the rest of the shop.

Geoff, I think the basement shop in Liverpool was called Parker.  Used to get around 5 Racing Post display papers each day.

It was Ali Parker street. thanx