Stephen Little's new book...

Hang on, seems it's been out a while looking at it on Amazon, got the impression from the RP article it had only just come out.

I thought about a book myself George…..

Still rides his bicycle

Did you have a title in mind, ace?

The book has been out a couple of months. I'd guess the Racing Post is rounding up books for Christmas.

@wingerwanger interviewed Stephen Little about the book in the Star Sports Betting People series of videos. Part one is at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vciDf3T_mWM



At the time I complained there was no Kindle edition but now there is so I shall buy it tonight.

Bought and downloaded. It turns out Little went to Uppingham public school and has Latin & Greek O-levels. The rest will have to wait till after I have finished Nadine Dorries's account of the conspiracy to oust Boris Johnson.

Thanks for the link.

Where would you start when it came to writing a book about a life in gambling?
I suppose think of the chronological chapter titles to start with...

So a 'Betfairian' could have, for example:

Chapter 1: Learning the Hard Way
Chapter 2: Building A Bank
Chapter 3: Betfair Big Break, the Glory Years
Chapter 4: Going Full-time Pro'
Chapter 5: Sharp Minds

etc

Rare IO drop names here but he often comes to our picnic at Royal Ascot. Chatting to him a few years back with others and a very well known Irish trainer, well known for many of the big betting triumphs at the Festival, joined in. For the next 10 minutes the rest of us just listened to wonderful tales of punts won and lost in days gone by. An utter delight. I didn't want racing to start!!

I have posted about this before on another thread
I met Stephen outside a baldy bookies shop in North Street, Bedminster, Bristol, by the City ground, early one Saturday morning about 2008
We were both waiting for it to open and had a good ten minutes chat
He had travelled the 15 mile or so from his home in Bath because he had to keep going further to baldy shops where he was not known

He was saying it was almost impossible not to make money on the each way lucky15 with them... The BOG, prices in the RP pricewise being laid for a certain time, treble odds one winner etc... And also they would take a decent stake

Seemed a decent bloke, if a little shy

Ten mins must of been hard work

Just watched it, I think the interviewer spoke more than Little did.

Interesting that he made his fortune by not having an opinion, rather just working to the figures, and he thought that those who did bet to their opinion were the ones who disappeared sooner from the ring.

Wouldn't have thought a wealthy man like him would be interested in arbing to nick a few quid after giving up his bookmaking career, but there ya go, if there's a few quid to be made.

well it rather depends doesn't it Bread. If you enjoy listening to people who are entertaining, informative and knowledgeable then it is no time at all. You may spend the same amount of time reading this forum..........including me! You would have been better off being where I was that day. All the best. Good luck

Regbutler -- some would say it is sharks like Stephen Little filling in Betfred that means offers aimed at ordinary punters were gradually withdrawn

I vaguely recall one firm (Corals maybe?) complaining about their price boosts at the oncourse Cheltenham preview being nicked by all the ring bookies.

GEORGE.B re Stephen Little betting to figures. I dimly remember him complaining to the Life that some punters seemed to know too much, implying inside information or worse, so that he was losing money on the figures.

George, I got the impression he was nicking a few quid because he could and he liked to play the percentages, the way he had made a book. It was just a bit of fun rather than needing the money.
Bread, he wasn't the most charismatic person but interesting nonetheless

Dec 2, 2023 -- 4:36PM, Ramruma wrote:

Regbutler -- some would say it is sharks like Stephen Little filling in Betfred that means offers aimed at ordinary punters were gradually withdrawnI vaguely recall one firm (Corals maybe?) complaining about their price boosts at the oncourse Cheltenham preview being nicked by all the ring bookies.

Dog eat Dog !

Err no I don't, I wasn't commenting on your experience  with Mr Little, I was tongue in cheek referencing  regbutlers 10 mins outside bookies, because I have met SL, and tried to strike up a convo with him a few times but soon learned he doesnt really do idle chat, although I didn't have a hamper.

I always found him a bit  stoic,but pleasant enough,very efficient, but always business like, and I have met him off course.

Just my observations, decent enough guy but doesn't do craic.

Bread, I am so sorry. My mistake. Forgive me. To be fair , you are correct. he is a little (!) reserved but he was drawn out in the conversation I heard. Stoic a good word. More than a hamper by the way.....but then , like everyone who ambles up to the gazebo, that is why they come!

No worries,no need to apologise, chill, sounds like you enjoy the Day , need to make the trip myself sometime, and experience the Hill.

All the best and hope weather is kind next year, June can be hit or miss now, tbh love a bit of going change at Epsom. Like the meet.

Watching the s....s of the c...s in the p...s and the tools of the fools who were f.....g em ....Stood on the Bridge at Uppingham .

He was still randomly popping into Fred's in centre throughout summer

Reg

He was absolutely right when he told you bog triple the odds each way lucky 15 almost impossible not to make money.

^ Anyone still doing triple odds one winner that we know of ?

Spoke to him many  a time on the bus from Cheltenham  Town centre to the  course like him I leave  the Bentley  at home one word Gentleman..Ronnie.

Devil's... The bald one's site saying x3 for 1 winner on a lucky15...

Def cut to x2 in shops a while ago

Ronnie
Series 3?

Regbutler

re x3 on a lucky 15 there was a firm in the north east around 10 years ago, better bet i think they were called they went x4 on a lucky 15, they took a good few koral staff

in the bet view mag they were rated the best newcomer, a year later they were gone

TY reg. It saddens me that certain firms promote it as a ' lucky 15' without any bonus. I questioned of them about it (matchbook)
and they said they were not aware of double the odds etc one winner. I said why is it called 'lucky' then ????

GEORGE.B 02 Dec 23 19:10 
Did you have a title in mind, ace?

.................

'Perched on a fence' would make any shortlist.

Just go for the catchy"FFS!"

From the Forecourt to the Betting Ring and Back, the Long and Winding Road of a Pro Punter.

Shop punters definitely seen the best times until just recently with BOG, x3 1 winner etc

Was trying to explain to a new (young) staff member in a shop I use , about how we used to pay tax on our bets on top of very few, if any, concessions. Plus manual settling from staff, and no cartoons or machines.

I think the only thing he didn't believe was pens or pencils on string attached to the wall!

saddo 03 Dec 23 20:02 
GEORGE.B 02 Dec 23 19:10 
Did you have a title in mind, ace?

.................

'Perched on a fence' would make any shortlist

Lol that would be a good title Saddo,got many a mention away from the forum. I remember Kevin Blake talking about it….

The shop at Ambleside in the Lake District,didn’t even have carbon slips,
Piece of paper and a pencil.
You had to write 2 slips out so you could remember what bet you had.

GEORGE.B 03 Dec 23 20:10 
From the Forecourt to the Betting Ring and Back, the Long and Winding Road of a Pro Punter.

Yep another one George…..

The title has to be short enough to fit on the book.

Just started reading it,transports you to a forgotten age of tracks now closed and shillings and pence.

I remember when the tax was 20% in Ireland, the 70s.

There was a shop in County Louth where the regulars would write their stake at 10% of what they wanted so if you were having £20 on a horse you would write £2 win and pay 40p tax on rather than £4

tucked away in londons  docklands  amongst warehouses a tiny bookmakers shop, 1970s , pencils on a string, sawdust on a wooden floor ,just a boardman and the manager/owner/settler  who would  take bets, settle bets etc ,in winter a small electric 2 bar heater on his side of the counter,in the summer if hot the air conditioning system was the front door jammed open with a wooden wedge shaped block  ....... the owner would sweep the floor of all the betting slips and rubbish etc  before he locked up . and of course the extel blower system ........it was basic but with a good crowd  a great atmosphere  was created tbh

From Labourer to Labour of Love ~ One Man's journey from the Building Site to the Betting Ring!

For f4rty's journey from petrol tanker driver to pro betting on Football correct scores:

From Esso to S.O.S.

from the pits to the ritz .

Stephen Little is reputed to be lethal in a Poker game.

Ours was Slade Green Foyles , took the previous incumbent's (Albert Stammers ) plastic security screens down and we used to ' put one through ' for ammo  to head to Catford dogs , where mate used to put a few on for Johnny H . Had the Gold Collar winner Gayflash mooching round the shop one day , owner bet in shillings .

Sageform.
Backgammon  was  his game.
Hope you are well.
Ronnie.

Paulo, I was at Catford to see Paddy Milligan's Gayflash win the Gold Collar in 1979.
That period of the mid to late 70's was what got me hooked on greyhound racing, tremendous memories. I'm A Smasher, Westmead Champ & Power.

I used to see Little at coursing finals every now and then wearing his favourite coat obviously.He was very quiet and unassuming really.

He's done another interview for the Daily Express

Neil Clark
@MightyMagyar
The vicar’s son who staked it all for a career on the track. My feature on legendary ‘Bicycle to Bentley’ bookie Stephen Little, who’s just published his autobiography, is in today’s
@Daily_Express

I found him a decent , if quiet , fellow .
However he wasn't easy to work with cos you never knew what he was thinking

catford dogs saturday night pie and a pint  8 dog races, handicaps, great atmosphere 1970s .... saturday morning up at 9 am breakfast then   down to bookies for catford and crayford morning dogs 12 races each iirc , when the dogs finished the the horse racing started a short while after pub 3 or 4 doors along from the local mecca shop stick a bet on and be back into the pub in a few mins, guvnor of the pub would take orders for take away pie and mash and send a cab to collect it , watch the races on the pub telly itv7 in those days, bets a beer all day long .when the racing finished and the pubs closed back to a mates house for cards 5 card brag if ya had any money left ...........great days!

blast from the past, Stephen Little on Luck On Sunday plugging his book.

Declan Murphy certainly not on the Xmas list

i've got no intention of buying his book...

but he sounds like the sort of bloke i could spend a couple of hours with chatting about 'things'...

don't think he's a fan of Declan Murphy by the sound of it...

the Chepstow race he mentioned still seems to hurt...

no doubt some folk called him a Conspiracy Theorist at the time...

move on...

nowt to see here...

aye all that crap.

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Which race?

Was he on Deep Sensation?

DIFERENT GRAVY: See page 3 of Rolf Johnson's article above. "Jibereen at Chepstow in 1995: I was stitched up behind the scenes over that one - there was a whitewash of an enquiry ..."

book was ok,enjoyed it on the whole,although i skipped a couple of chapters at the end whining on about new bookmaking regulations of which i have no interest

What would be a great interview would be if Simon Nott could get the old band back together: Little, Ashley and Paul Holder (John the clerk is sadly no longer with us, though I don't think I ever heard him utter a word while he was still with us - the man who must have known everything, yet gave away nothing: the perfect clerk).

I remember getting a lift back from Hereford in that Bentley one afternoon, and Little was like some kindly yet mildly confused father taking a couple of rowdy teenagers home on the school run. It was just non-stop tall stories and general entertainment. It even got a bit much for Ashley at one point, as he turned to Paul Holder and asked in exasperation: "Don't your batteries ever run down?"

Did anyone catch what he said near the start of the interview about regulations that had to be changed -something like "A bet couldn't be taken unless the bookmaker had the money".
Is he on his uppers having to promote the book so much ?

No, he said the most ridiculous regulation was a bet could not be taken until the horses were running, which obviously did not last!

He is most certainly not on his uppers, living in a large town house in Bath.

I finished the book yesterday. Disappointing overall, I'd say.

The book gets off to a bad start with Sir Mark Prescott's foreword being a panegyric to hare coursing, which Little, except for some passing mentions, wisely relegates to an appendix.

Little was a maths prodigy at school, though he does not tell us how this manifested itself. He describes cycling to racecourses and clerking for various bookmakers. Later he catalogues some large bets he laid, and their results.

Little was a figures bookmaker, rather than assessing form or working to his own opinion, but although he mentions this several times, he does not really explain what it means in practice or how different types of bookmaker might approach a race.

He ends with bookmaker politics and obviously is not a fan of the NJPC but does not really explain why. Corals bought Little's pitches and soon resold them all at a profit, and Little wonders if this was their evil plan from the start.

Oh, and he "corrects" a story from Patrick Veitch's book about him leaving Bath early after laying a winner to Veitch, but honestly, who cares whether it was his Bentley or Veitch saw some other posh car and leapt to the wrong conclusion?

Buy this book if you are in the trade and want to reminisce about long-retired (or dead) ring bookies and horses of yesteryear but for most, prepare to be frustrated because you sense it could and should have been a far superior book.

I watched the Luck interview with Little and it was the most boring 25 minutes of my life. Little is very hard to listen to and said nothing of interest

This was a much more interesting podcast, Adrian Maguire talking about his rivalry with Dunwoody etc

https://twitter.com/TheIrishField/status/1745537313210266108?t=l11SEvhFn0tCF...

Even the great Nick Luck had his work cut out getting chat out of this guy.

Can anyone recommend some witty books on racing?
I've read all Jeffrey Bernard's stuff and enjoyed it.

Luck was hopeless and looked lost…

which jeffrey bernard books are decent,ive never read any of his before

hope FROSTS ride on ARDOOBH yesterday wasnt a come and get me ride,it was a horror show from start to finish

I was given a paperback called The Racey Bits, by Mark Siggers and Chris Williams, as a Christmas present in 1987, and it's still quite amusing. It's in the form of an A-Z of British racing.

For instance under 'R' you get Romford 3.38 Bags Forecast Betting shop commentary information of absolutely no interest to gentlemen as it concerns dog racing; and Rosebery, 5th Earl A modest, unassuming sort of chap who is said to have had only three ambitions: to win the Derby, be Prime Minister and marry a Rothschild. He achieved all three, winning the Derby twice to compensate for being a useless Prime Minister. He was devoted to his wife Hannah, who was no cover girl, but made up for it with a beautiful personality, Mentmore Towers and £2 million in cash.

chavman, his book is iirc a collection of his writings in the Spectator.

.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Low-Life-Irreverent-Reflections-Bottom/dp/0715653814

Thanks screaming, I'll purchase that. Cheers

You'd think he could have written a book about his gap year alone, a young lad undertaking those arduous journeys up and down the land by bike (I was getting saddle sores just reading about them) to get to the various racecourses.

It must have been some adventure for him at that young age, but all we got was: I cycled here, there and everywhere, in all sorts of weather, staying in youth hostels. Oh, and I saw Mill House beat Arkle in the Hennessy.

Given he had a brilliant and inquisitive young mind, who must have been astounded by some of the things he saw, you'd think there must have been more to tell.

And what did he actually do on the racecourses during his gap year, was he just another spectator, or was he making observations that stayed with him forever?

Thought he was going to hold the book in front of his face at some stage

yep makes you wonder how many people he thinks arewatching,also said it wasnt currently wildly available

Very sad to say, but that was one terrible interview with Little.

Nick does not help by trying to be too earnest with his questions and is desperate to prevent any silences. Hence, the interviewee here did not relax into the interview at all.

BUT, if he thinks his bookmaking life was interesting enough to write a book about, why on earth did he then play it down so much! 'I hedged back' 'No, it wasn't as much as that' and so it went on...

I don't know if he has self-published the book but if he has a publisher they must have been squirming at his low-key manner. The book has gone to a reprint, so it must have something good about it but Little did nothing to publicize it apart from having it perched on his lap in half view of the camera. Odds-on Luck will not be having him back again!!!

Having said all that. Way back in 2006, I had the third of my three published books come out (How to Play Internet Poker), published by Foulsham. Three years later, Sky had a regular Monday night programme about Poker and asked me on as a guest to talk about my book. Yes, three years later! Foulsham seemed to want me to do it but were not that bothered really, whilstt Sky were so tight they would not even pay my second class rail fare from Waterloo to where ever the Sky Studios were at the time (only 20 minutes out of London but I just cannot recall where now).

Anyway, by chance the interview was to be recorded on a Wednesday afternoon the day before my old mum's cremation. Hence, I wasn't that bothered and it was also a really hot July day. So, by the time I got there (and did not even have a cup of tea offered to me), I had decided to 's*d the published and s*d Sky. Hence, I did nothing to promote the book - a hugely MODERATE seller three years previously - and thus ducked questions about the book at every opportunity. The two presenters were young but really good lads and played along with my chosen manner very well - we did laugh about it afterwards.

The interview went out the following Monday and I did not quite look like the rebel I had tried to be! Hence, perhaps Little wanted to sabotage the interview or, equally perhaps, he just did not realise how poorly he came across.

dont suppose you can be certain how guests will react but lucky needs to change his style of choosing guests,as that gavin pritchard gordon interview a few weeks back was another car crash, spent an age telling a story about getting a job with a trrainer that took an age was about as interesting as toothache, but he thought it was really funny

The Star Sports thing with Little was exactly the same. He has all the hallmarks of being on the autism spectrum. Which doesn't really align with being a random people facing on course bookmaker. But I know the way that it presents has gotten worse with age, with me anyway!

I think Luck is the best interviewer on The Planet and if he cant get you to talk nobody can imho of course.

think you're on to something there Cider. My mate spent all his life working as Maths lecturer/assistant professor worldwide.  Said many of those he worked with ( in Maths ) were "mental"

and plenty had kids with same severe issues

my brothers kid is on spectrum ,adds the groceries up as they go around the shop ,always spot on with what till says at the end and **** hot at learning music etc