Shrewd Schemes For Beating The Books

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 14, 20 January 1948, Page 5

Shrewd Schemes For Beating The Books

Now and then one hears of defaulting bookmakers, but the boot is often on the other foot.

The day cards for an Auckland district meeting set the starting time of the first race at 12 noon, whereas the correct starting time was 11.45. A shrewdie noticed this and arranged with a friend whose house overlooked the course to phone the results as soon as the numbers were hoisted. The race started right on time, and the man a>t the receiving end had a full ten minutes to set his bets. The div. was a double figure one, and the bookies were well peppered but paid out without a murmur.

On another occasion when noreply wires timed right up to starting time were accepted without question, a cute rogue, after watching a race, hopped on a bike and made haste to a nearby country post office-store, where he asked for a pound of blasting powder. This, as he knew, was stored some distance from the shop, and while the proprietor was getting it, he clamly mounted the counter and put back the clock half an hour.

After paying for the powder he enquired if telegrams could be sent from that post office, and on being told that they could, he filled in his no replies for the limit. The post-master-grocer timed the wires by his clock, and off they went. In this case also the bookies paid, and were none the wiser!