According to twitter Cubone

As CuBone on here he brightened the days up no end with his stories. He always said his book would be called, "Fiddler On The Hoof."

R.I.P. Don Butler.

He was a laugh.
I came across him in his later days on here and at one point he agreed to accept me as his interpreter.
A bit later he got caught up with the scammer Mr Lucky. Never quite clear to me whether Don was accomplice or victim.
R.I.P.

A funny tale about Don... Oadby funny....

Micky Fletcher was standing at Leicester & Don was his clerk. The irascible Fletcher was p!ssed off doing his dough on the first, and took his anger out on Don. Don took the ledger to the kharzi and filled it up with some freshly brewed ''pony'' ! Handed it back to Michael, and told him what to do !

R I P Don, apart from Dr Carl Chinn nobody knows ( knew ) more about the bookmaking over the last hundred years plus !

As CuBone he possessed the two qualities vital for winning internet battles - unshakeable self-belief and a total inability to spell.

As Don Butler the underpriced aways bookie, he was sometimes a little less sure of himself. He was forever claiming to be proud of his roots in what he always called the Birmingham gutter; and he couldn't abide anyone making fun of those roots. One afternoon he was standing at Worcester, on a day when all the UK away meetings had been abandoned, and Eddie Fremantle walked up and stood beside his joint and started shouting: "Thair goan be'oind at Toorfontaaaayyne!"

Butler completely lost it and spent the the next couple of decades in a relentless feud with Fremantle.

Anyway, my condolences to his family. The man was part of the glory days, and you can never take that away from anyone.

some great stories
RIP Cubone

They were certainly under the odds.

Butler and Nixon made it hopeless for any punter wanting an away bet at the Midlands tracks in those days. You either paid 6% tax in the course shop at SP only, or took several points under the show price on every single horse in every single race with Butler and Nixon.

They were a blight on the sport.

I looked back on here, and ironically found this early post from him on here in 2005.
A name I will always remember from earlier days posting on here...


A RECORD YOU LIKED FROM YESTERYEAR THAT NO-ONE ELSE PROBABLY DID
By CuBoNe. on 28 Jun 05 19:12
I have actually decided to play YMCA at my funeral and have 52 names on a short list to play the part of the Cowboy,and Fireman.

I feel old, like Cubone some days...

That's very sad to hear, he was rightly a legend on here and permanently tangoed on the racecourse, long before David Dickenson made it a trademark. I'm of the opinion that Cubone and Mr Lucky (Michael Crawford, some mothers do have them) were one and the same and was one almighty long p1ss take, reference his humour. His tales of days gone by and his dad keeping 75k in his wardrobe were very informative and entertaining.
As previously said, no one with any inkling of a clue would ever bet with him on the "aways", his prices were a joke, but again as he said he wasn't going to stand outside for 3 1/2 hours in the rain or biting wind freezing and give money away. I liked him and condolences to his family, RIP Don, you'll be missed.

It was the pitch regulations that were a disgrace and contemptible.

Andrew Black...not Alistair

There was a thread one year,a while back,with a list of people who had died that year,like the Oscars.

Maybe there could be a ,no longer with us thread,updated 6monthly,yearly by Betfair.

^  Good story - Each side always trying to outwit the other.

Now it is  ......... Same Prices everywhere - and the Computer says whether you can have a Bet .... or Not.