Paul Gillett Bookmaker

seems to have taken up photography

https://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/36675?expand=1

I did hear he'd had a close shave!

The photography bloke in foxy top's link describes himself as visually impaired. Is this the same chap? Harringay closed when? 1980-ish, which is 40-odd years ago.

Was it not Gilliat ? . Had quite a distinctive voice. Was my fav bookie at Harringay and was very surprised to see him in tatts 1st time I went to the Cheltenham festival. Didnt know bookies
did 'osses and dogs back then ! (1978)

From a thread in 2011.

Deltâ 27 Nov 11 21:13 
copied for wee eck...

wee eck 27 Nov 11 16:47
I cant find the thread where the question was asked about

who was the bookie at Harringay who got life for murder, well

after some enquiries I have discovered it was Paul Gilliat

who was the son of the Gilliat the guy  I bet with.

https://community.betfair.com/horse_racing/go/thread/view/94102/28718429/top...

From a greyhound forum thread in 2010....

whitmarsh 26 Aug 10 11:43 
SOGY,
Paul Gilliatt was a first class bookmaker at Harringay always laying lumpy bets with pleasure.In the early seventies he took over from his father Bill.He was the complete opposite to his son,a proper fiddler who often had governors in the book.To look at Bill Gilliatt he put you in mind of a "broken down" actor.He used to wear a bow tie and always had a swig out of his hip flask.Paul had a good job with Hammersmith council and started betting on the old mans dog pitch in the evening.The old man wanted him to have a
whitmarsh 26 Aug 10 11:49 
respectable job,but Paul was a revelation as a bookmaker and was very successful.He inherited the racecourse pitches as well,there used to be a rule that you had to be with your father a certain amount of time,thats why young Victor Chandler missed out on old Victors pitches.Regarding Paul I believe he is out of the shovel now but I dont want to talk about that.

Seaside on the wind up,he knew all this.

I'm sure he must have, ribero.  Still it was fun looking it up.

That greyhound forum thread from 2010 is a classic that will never be repeated.

Yes remember that Sparrow,Whitmarsh & Mr memory were stars.

Those two were the best posters I have ever read on here ribero and their threads were classics.

Sparrow

I sat many an evening with a couple of glasses of chilled chablis enjoying there posts.

Hope you are well.

Ronnie.

Not too bad thanks Ronnie and I trust you yourself are well.

Their posts were legendary and anyone with any interest in betting rings needs to make the threads essential reading.

I was really surprised by what happened to him as I have already said he acted like a gentleman many years since I last saw him I expect he is dead now.

That witmarsh who used to post on here seems to have known everybody back in the day and put up some good posts I think he must have died as he was a good age when he was posting on here.

Pity the forum was a good read then now I hardly ever read it.

any interest in betting rings

A thing of the past at Dog Tracks , lucky to Find 3 bookmakers standing

Get a nice bottle of wine sit down and have a look at the New Cross thread i have bumped to the top on the greyhound thread,great days sad to say gone forever.just thinking it was a long walk back from Cleveland park to Thornaby station in the rain with less than a dollar in my pocket .

run on womble always got me out of trouble.

Ronnie

Well done Ronnie,just having a look,didn't realise it was actually seaside who started the thread!

New Cross and White City threads were treasures to behold. One or two other classics also.

Any Greyhound fan who missed out going to White City (specially the Derby) didn't see the game at its best

Did you ever visit Clapton, Andrew?

Sparrow

I think i did most London tracks back in time, but never Hackney and i'm quite sure i didn't do Clapton.

My 'local' tracks were White City, Slough and Wembley.

Clapton in the 60s was something else Andrew and 4 Derby winners in 6 years tells the story. There were fortunes won and lost in one of the strongest markets you could ever wish to see. My dad worked as a clerk for John White senior at White City for many years and would often take me with him in the 1950s. Harringay and Park Royal were other tracks I favoured but nothing came anywhere near Clapton for me until the GRA took it over and ruined the place before finally selling it off.

That's an incredible record Sparrow, a bit before my 'Greyhound' time although i saw a few Derby's in the 70's.

Patricia's Hope also won for Clapton, and one poster on here, Happysandwich had an ante-post double (i think it was with Roberto in the Epsom Derby) winning a nice few quid.

I never liked Wimbledon, a horrible place.

Sadly the sport is in massive decline.

The rag (hare) and handbrake

A person once told me he worked the handbrake nudge nudge……and wink….

Loved my Greyhound owning days and won plenty of open races on the northern tracks.


Have to confess i received the dreaded red light twice   

How did you manage that, hayden?

Overdid the improvement sparrow , bit like a handicap debutant on the horses.

Do remember the odd ringer as well on the flapping tracks , Ellesmere Port & Winsford.

Great days 

Was never a fan of flapping tracks hayden.

Good opportunities for making easy cash though sparrow and enjoyed the company at the time , used to go to Ireland via Holyhead to purchase and paid anything between £2k - £8k which was a fair amount back then.

Was in partnership with a guy and one of my more sensible moves was to choose a qualified Vet as a partner , you wouldn't believe how much money that saved me over time.

Don't regret a second of those times , win or lose , some unbelievable memories and plenty of on course characters around in those days.

he always stood a good bet at Newmarket

I always wanted to own a greyhound hayden,  but by the time I could afford it everything had changed for the worse. My dad trained a flapper or two in the 1930s at Temple Mills Stadium close to Hackney Wick Stadium.

I had dogs at Slough and Reading back in time, trained by Paddy Pierce and Terry Atkins respectively, but never open class.

I was also mates with an owner who had several decent dogs with Wally Ginzell at Wembley. One of them was an open class stayer and we (several of us) were with him when he took it up to Hinckley, a flapping track near Leicester. The Kennel hand was in on it, but i doubt Wally knew. We were all on it ....................... got beaten and no hard luck stories either !

As my dad used to say.."just because you got one ready doesn't mean no one else has" 

That's why when you had one ready you made sure you had the stake in hand for owners of the other 5 dogs.

Best buzz was when you're a " face " as i was at the time you could go up and whisper to one bookmaker of the normal 7 or 8 , whisper £50 on another dog in the race that you knew was a losing bet , he wipes it off as an owner is backing another dog in race , then 30 sec from off the " gang " get simultaneous centuries on your own at normally 4/1 or 5/1 by that time before they realized they'd been put away , had to make that pay though as once bitten twice shy for bookmakers , used to cover plenty of geography though so plenty for everyone.

Couldn't do with all that skullduggery, hayden.

You're too honest in a dishonest industry sparrow but i'm sure you won't be apologizing for that.

Good nostalgic thread   

I just think that flapping tracks have done no good at all to the credibility of Greyhound Racing. The idea of top class dogs turning up at some track and called Fred being just one example but only my opinion of course.

Yes fair enough , won my fair share of decent races with good dogs for good prize money at the likes of Nottingham , Belle Vue and in both Ireland & Scotland but the buzz of having one over on bookmakers at a flapping track is a pleasing memory.

Good punting 

Be lucky, hayden.

Saw him at Newmarket and he could get the cash in the bag faster than any other. Must have had a good clerk. Impressive to watch.

Dumpton Park my old Fav