PERTH BOOKIES......................... A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

bookielover · October 2013

I thought, I'd start this thread so that some of you that knew the bookies that I'll mention here, might like to offer some stories about them that may be of interest to us.

These are the bookies that I knew of in Perth.

Ray Deardon, massive bookie in his day. Would like to say "next" after taking a big bet without turning off the price.

Jo Jordan, who was very astute trainer, Ab Jordans brother, Allan(porky) Wells,Ken Grey, I could be wrong but I think he was a big bookie in the eastern States ring, if it's the same bloke, I have got a story about him, Sonny Lee, Merv Cash,Ned Hinchcliffe, Rod Evans, Lucky Khalaf, Billy Mac, unfortunately, just passed away, Ross Cooper, trot bookie Gordon Lennox, Terry Rhode I hope his first name was Terry ,and that's about it from me.

Bookies that are still working from the years that I went in the late 80's are Bluey Glynn, was in the interstate ring, as was Don Martin from memory on the concession, and of course gentleman Bob Howatt. And I'm sure you will all wish Bob a complete recovery from his ongoing health issues.

So if you have any stories about these and others, I'd love to read about them. I am sure that in their own way, they all contributed and some still contribute to the atmosphere of the Perth betting ring.

Aquanita · October 2013

Eric Mack, similar to Lucky Kalaf was an icon at the trots only passed away last week, funeral this Fiday.

bookielover · October 2013

I didn't mention Bruce Atkinson who was at the trots for years and until last year gave you a decent bet in the Interstate ring.

There's an old saying that the cemetery is full of indispensable people.

Unfortunately, that doesn't really apply when bookies who will take a decent bet retire, because unlike the old days when there was a waiting list to get in, today they aren't replaced.

bookielover · October 2013

Deepest sympathy to Eric's family. Irreplaceable to the betting ring, but more importantly to his family.

thefalcon · October 2013

allan wells, a great mate of my dads, used to do his settling sitting up in bed on sunday mornings with a bottle of drambuie and a box of liqueur chocolates..plus about a dozen packs of craven A cork tipped.

a funny story about him on the train to the kalgoorlie round. went to the sh*t house and as pulling down his strides a "monkey" fell out and landed on the track. al immediately pulled the emergency stop cord and the train came to a screaching halt. a guard apperared.

"what seems to be the trouble sir?"

"jeez i've just dropped a monkey down the dunny.."

"sorry sir, i assure you there are no animals on the train.."

it is said he retreived the 500m quid from the tracks...

thefalcon · October 2013

gee, there are some names, bl.

i saw gordon lennox at my local a few months back.

looks very chipper.

thefalcon · October 2013

i was very good friends with rod, even had the hot-line number to his office so i could bypass "mrs. doubtfire", his formidable secretary.

had a cork board on the wall full of dud cheques...some very interesting signatures.

>:P

there are lots of stories but not for a public forum.

bookielover · October 2013

Just change the names to protect the innocent, Falc :)) :))

bookielover · October 2013

Hey, Falcon, can you put me out of my misery please. Was Ken Grey a big bookie in the Interstate ring? Or have I got the wrong bloke.

thefalcon · October 2013

Mmm...i don't think so, bl.

duncan mcgoughan was there for years but i don't think he was a biggie.

bookielover · October 2013

OK. thanks for that. I'm getting them confused in my old age. But I'll tell the story anyway.

So without knowing the name of the bookie, and perhaps when I've told this you might know who it could have been, here it is. I was on my way to the dunny one very fine day at Ascot. I'd been betting on the eastern States racing. There were plenty of people, tons of cash and some big Asian punters putting plenty on.

The last in Sydney had been run and won, and I was walking past this particular bookie whose name I can't remember. He would have been in his early 70's back in 1989. Maybe older, I wasn't a good judge of age then, and I haven't got any better.

Anyway, as I pass the back of his stand, the payout clerk, had placed the book on his seat, and was talking to the baggy in front of the stand. I happened to glance down at the book, and did a double take. I couldn't believe the hold figure, so I thought, bugger the dunny, I have to have another look and went back the way I came and went past again.

The bookie had held 62 thousand on the race, and the payout was a bit over 26 thousand. The only bookie in Melbourne that might have held that sort of money on a race in Sydney, would have been big betting Charlie Cox, one of the bookies that worked the Interstate license.

Bookies, like Dom Bierne, Bob Blann and Bruce Mchugh held that sort of money in Sydney, but to find a bookie doing that sort of turnover in Perth, a city that from a betting point of view no one in the East really ever spoke about, I found remarkable.

I reckon that most bookies all over Australia, would be thrilled to hold 62 grand for the day nowadays.

thefalcon · October 2013

i've dug out an old racebook, cox stakes day 22/12/90

23 bookies in the local ring and 7 in the interstate.

for bl's info the 7 were, atkinson, christianopoulos, cooper, hills, mcCaughey, francis and mcGougan.

the cox was won by ideal centreman (three legs-sequiter) ridden by harry white and trained by c.a. balfour

raconteur · October 2013

Scurra McKee - Silver Ring, leger Belmont and Ascot used to throw your winning at you unless you wanted to back a drifter in the next!

SLIPPERGOLDEN · October 2013

Was Terry Rohde the one that had the Newsagency at the city bus stop?

Another name...Wasn't Lindsay Roddan (Argyle Diamond enthusiast) a bookie? Now that was a story 20 years ago.

http://www.diamondtrading.com.au/diamond-trading-articles/1994/4/15/the-great-kimberley-diamond-heist/

JayJay · October 2013

I think Terry Rohde was the owner of the old warhorse Mustard. Other names that pop into my head - Eric Wilson always cool and calm and would rarely knock you back, Gentleman George Davies, Francy Friedlander (6 to 4 the field, 6 to 4 the field, 6 to 4 the field - he'd stand there saying that all day), Frank Ford.

Ive got a story from years ago about one of the above - no names to protect the guilty - around the time Scornvale won the Karrakatta Plate for Brian Mueller and Chuck Berry. Brian had a good grey stayer, - name eludes me - Craigie something - anyway, its in the last and he reckons its a chance.We'd had a fairly big day and might not have been seeing to well but I saw the unnamed satchell swinger put up 33/1 on what should have been about an 8/1 chance. 3 of us claimed him, he nearly fell off his stand but to his credit, he took the bets. It duly saluted and we were a little late getting into the collect cue, only to see said bookie scurrying up the avenue board in hand. We took off after him and its the only time I've ever been paid out in the Taxi rank outside Ascot. True story......as I remember it haha.

Aquanita · October 2013

BL I thing Ken Gray only worked on the locals. The interstate ring was very strong at the time and you could get on to win $10,000 with most of the bookies mentioned and Duncan McGougan was the biggest in that era.

SLIPPERGOLDEN · October 2013

JayJay said:

Ive got a story from years ago about one of the above - no names to protect the guilty - around the time Scornvale won the Karrakatta Plate for Brian Mueller and Chuck Berry. Brian had a good grey stayer, - name eludes me - Craigie something -

I remember a Craigie Boy but not a grey and I don't recall it being a stayer.

JayJay · October 2013

This thing was grey - maybe not a stayer, middle distance maybe - but definitely grey. I seem to remember Craigie Boy, was there a Craigie Lass - dunno, long time ago. We had a nice time with teh Mueller stable - Sunny Twilight, Scornvale etc. He was a very good trainer. Still operating back home in SA.

raconteur · October 2013

Pearl Lover (AUS) 1974

grey gelding

Date of Birth: 00/00/1974

by Rain Lover (AUS) 1964

from Pearlstone (AUS) 1965

jonesee · October 2013

Not exactly a Perth bookie but Bob Green was an unforgettable old bookie down south in the 80s and 90s. Scruffy and rough but loved to yell the odds and always always laid the favourite. He jammed the cash in the bag and it was a complete mess...if you backed a winner he had to dig around amongst it all to try and find the correct amount....
In Perth Ray Reardon was a sight to behold with that large son of his running around the ring laying off...

lick · October 2013

There would be more atmosphere on the moon than in a bookies ring these days.

rustyh · October 2013

=D> :))

I clerked for Bob Green at Dongara on cup day back in the 80s.

We bet on Sydney. Melbourne, Perth and the locals. Just me and Bob. Wild.

:-c

Took about 800 bets and satchel was chokkas.

Scruffy and loved yelling out the odds.

\m/

He turned to me after the last and said..."well done lad".

=D>

Then handed me 4 $50 notes. I was stoked.

^:)^

Never forget that day. Still got a sore wrist from the million digits I wrote.

Bob was certainly a character.

raconteur · October 2013

JayJay said:
This thing was grey - maybe not a stayer, middle distance maybe - but definitely grey. I seem to remember Craigie Boy, was there a Craigie Lass - dunno, long time ago. We had a nice time with teh Mueller stable - Sunny Twilight, Scornvale etc. He was a very good trainer. Still operating back home in SA.

well if not Pearl Lover - then maybe KING SOTA

thefalcon · October 2013

remember allan wells chain-smoking craven A's? used to light one off the butt of the other. his coat pockets buldging with packets of fags.

duncan mcgougan used to knock off a carton of cans during the afternoon..loved a beer did duncan. probably still does as he is still kicking.

sadly duncan suffered every parents nightmare, he lost his son to cancer a few months ago.

bookielover · October 2013

AQUANITA, the more I thought about the bookies name, the more I began to visualise that there was an Mc in his surname. When Falcon mentioned Mcgougan I thought it was him but then he said he wasn't a biggie. But I'm 99% sure having read your post, that he's the one. I wouldn't think he would still be alive, would he?

It's interesting that from 1988 till 1990, that some of the bookies in that interstate ring had given it away. Unless I'm going completely senile, and that's a distinct possibility, I am sure that Bluey Glynn was there in 88 and I reckon Don Martin was working concession there.

In fact I'm pretty sure that the other concession bookie was Cristianopolous and he also worked concession at Gloucester Park. However, as always I stand to be corrected.

The other thing I remember is that the Newspaper would publish the big bets that had been laid by the bookies on the Saturday. They would name the bookie, the race and the bets.

I also recall that even back then 25 years ago, only one bookie was working at Cannington and he also worked at Mandurah. He was an older bloke back then, and would have to be nearly 100 if he's alive today. I don't recall his name, but he was a real gentleman. He told me that when he first started when they built the track, there were rows of bookies. It deteriorated pretty quickly for there only to have been one left 25 years ago. We still had about 15 of them working at Olympic park and there were 20 at Wentworth park and 6 in the Wenty Interstate ring. Which reminds me of a story!

My travels in those years for business, meant that I would be in Sydney a fair bit.

I had to back a dog for a mate of mine in the Interstate ring at Wenty one Monday night in 1990. They had John Waterhouse, Porky Wylie, Freddy Stapleton , John Stollery amongst others and you could get on for stacks. The dog was in at Olympic Park in Melbourne, had drawn the blue and went up 40/1. I had a $600 to put on for my mate who owned the dog, and I decided to put $400 on myself. I had the grand in my hand and went up to Porky Wylie who was a big rails bookie in Sydney at the time, and he wasn't fat either, and asked for $200 on the dog, thinking a bet of $8,000/200 was a decent enough sized bet.

He looked at me and said, how much do you actually want on it? I said a grand. He called out to his clerk as his bloke wrote the ticket, 40,000/1000 knackers. You'd think I'd remember the dogs name, but I don't. Dog won by 6 lengths. PW paid me in cash straight after all clear, and got one of his blokes to accompany me to the car I'd hired to make sure no one knocked me over and robbed me.

The dog started at 50/1 coz my mate didn't back it in the ring in Melbourne, and yes, he cracked the sh!!ts that I'd taken unders. Not only that, but you could also get the 50's in Sydney, even after I'd had the bet, that's how strong the ring was, and how big the betting was.

That's not a PERTH story, but it's symptomatic of how much things have changed in the last 25 years.

Does anyone want to make a prediction as to how things will look, not in 25 years, but in 5 years?.

bookielover · October 2013

Hi Falcon, That's very sad about Duncans son. Terrible thing for a parent to bury a child. So he and his family have my deepest sympathy.

He must be a fair age. Because I would have thought that he was in his early 70's back 25 years ago, but it appears that unless he's 95, I'm not a good judge of age. If you happen to speak,to him, I'd love to know if I was seeing things, or he actually did hold huge amounts on the races back then.

bookielover · October 2013

Don't know what I did, cozs I still can't work out how to operate this fkn computer, but apologies to the moderators. Please feel free to remove the above repeated post. :(

thefalcon · October 2013

i recall reading of the betting duels between bill w. and phil yasmael. phil had a huge bet at 9/4...bill started him in the eye, reached behind him and turned it out to 5/2. gold!!

i met yasmael when i stayed a weekend at lindsay park in the early 70's.

i had just been weaned...

:-))

Aquanita · October 2013

Plenty of old stories about ES bookies in a book called The Bookie Book written by Harry Robinson with a forward by Bert Lillye and published in 1984. Still a few copies around if you google it. Plenty of history there but perhaps we need a follow up from 1985 to 2010.

bookielover · October 2013

Got the book Aqua. Sampieri and Marantelli still working today, they are quoted in the book. That's actually not too accurate, Sampieri had a stroke, a mild one but his son now runs the license and Gavan Marantelli has his son in it as well.

I recall Paul Marantelli, I think his name was Paul, Gavins nephew, worked on the bag for Ross Cooper.

Of the other two Melbourne bookies in the book, Alan Cleary unfortunately went the way of a lot of bookies, and he was a very big bookie in his day. he now works for one of his sons. Mike Faulkner, is a good friend and a lovely bloke, still punting, and was the biggest on the rails in Melbourne for a few years. Can't say what I would like to about what led to his 'retirement', a certain person is still alive and has got about 600 million more than me, so I don't fancy a law suit.

#:-S :-S :D

thefalcon · October 2013

bl, i reckon duncan would be early 80's now.

i'm going to the opening of ascot on the 19th and will no doubt see his brother, jimmy...i'll ask him.

G'day Punter!

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PERTH BOOKIES......................... A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

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