Best Ever Bet

[pleno1]

In before Picken and his keiran Gibbs rant

[Dubai]

Oh wow yeah. That was a sitter for chunks

[BigAdz]

First big plot I ever had any inside info on.

Well to do young guy running local independent bookie(who was always giving us best odds on everything etc)went to work as second Head Lad at John Edwards. Told us that an ok horse called Yahoo worked working like nothing else and his aim was Tommy Whittle up at Haydock. When he won that he would go for Gold Cup.

"When he won!" Music to our ears. Bunch of Cotswold bumpkins with some "Inside info". 100-1 on Yahoo for Gold Cup please Mr Local Bookies. "Certainly Lads. Good name that!"

Off we trundle to Newbury and see Yahoo dot up on some black and white TV that some bookie had behind his pitch. Boot filled, dream alive.

Gold Cup Day. Big lunch in pub next door, 11 mates, all in up to the max. Excitement at fever pitch. Pretty sure Yahoo gets backed in all day from 33-1 to 16s(could be wrong, long time ago)so it all adds to the build up.

Then the race. For those that don't know/remember, it became a head to head between Yahoo and Desert Orchid(the horse that hated Cheltnham....) Yahoo took the lead round the bottom bend and it looked all over. The bookies was roaring and the people that lived above the very low ceiling were thumping the ceiling as hard from above, as we were from below. The place was going mental, even the half dozen that had backed Dessie were half willing us to win.

Then Dessie roared back and got back up to win by a length or so, and even the decent place money we made couldnt pick us up. Devastated, while most of England cheered home the Legend.

Painful, even now.



Don't get me started on Silver Patriarch in the Derby.....

[bobby1]

There is a thread called 'interesting article' on here that features a friend of mine called Vas. We worked in the same office many years ago and about 2-3 months before the 2002 World Cup I asked him what price he would lay me that the theme tune to the new Nike Advert would be number 1 in the official UK hit parade at any stage that year.

He gave me a tenner at 33/1 it would be number 1 in the UK that year.

It went on to be number one in 24 countries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kk34NUwQ_0

[tikay]

Just for redarmi.

Alliss at his very best.

[Marky147]

Best loser has to be on a Sunday last year, where I had one horse in my nagme, and chucked it in a fiver treble with 2 horses put up by Hugh Taylor for something to watch through the afternoon.

First 2 win, and I've got about £500 going onto myboyalfie at 7/1

http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/results/13-10-2013/goodwood/result/587612/gwa-cars-and-finance-handicap/video

That's the race if you have a skybet account, and fancy a laugh at my expense

I thought I had done my dough after 5 furlongs, because the horse was getting beaten to within an inch of its life, and how it actually played out was just incredibly sick!

[Ironside]

My old folks were are Carnoustie for the open all week  that year, with it just being a little over 2 hours to drive home they didnt book a hotel for the sunday night, and after paul had finished his round they decided to head home early. they enjoy walking round the course with the scots my dad in full highland dress. It had been a horrid week if i recall and they had been soaked . they were on the road listedning to it as jean threw it away on the 18th. they nearly turned round and headed back to join in the party but was to far up the road.

[baldock92]

Came in a bit tipsy and put a tenner (a lot for a student at the time!) on the royal baby being named George shortly after the pregnancy was announced. Long live the King!

[bobby1]

My old folks were are Carnoustie for the open all week  that year, with it just being a little over 2 hours to drive home they didnt book a hotel for the sunday night, and after paul had finished his round they decided to head home early. they enjoy walking round the course with the scots my dad in full highland dress. It had been a horrid week if i recall and they had been soaked . they were on the road listedning to it as jean threw it away on the 18th. they nearly turned round and headed back to join in the party but was to far up the road.

I always feel for VDV when this comes up.

VDV got really ul imo. If you play the course 51 weeks of the year there is no Grandstand to hit and in any of those 51 other weeks he hits it in the rough green side and probably gets up and down in enough shots to win. It's not like he is the first player to get into water to see if he could hit his ball either, Bill Haas won the Fedex Cup by doing that a few years ago.

[redarmi]

Just for redarmi.

Alliss at his very best.

Never seen the interview at the end where he says "at the end of the day who will remember this in 200 years?".  I will Jean, I will.

[bobby1]

Came in a bit tipsy and put a tenner (a lot for a student at the time!) on the royal baby being named George shortly after the pregnancy was announced. Long live the King!

T4T at its's best was when we spent a morning deciding that Monday was the most likely day for a too posh to push girl to have C section if required. That Mondays are a good day for first time mothers as they rest up at the weekend ;o). Some invaluable advice from Dubai gave us Monday as the most likely day for the Royal baby to be born and a 6/1 winner.

[Karabiner]

I have always been convinced that Jean van der Velde was actually very unlucky on that 72nd hole at Carnoustie as it looked to me that he had deliberately played his approach-shot into the grandstand so that he would get a free drop in the drop-zone next to the green.

The shot actually hit half-way up one of the metal stanchions supporting the stand and rebounded thirty-odd yards backwards into the ditch, and the rest is history.

[baldock92]

Came in a bit tipsy and put a tenner (a lot for a student at the time!) on the royal baby being named George shortly after the pregnancy was announced. Long live the King!

T4T at its's best was when we spent a morning deciding that Monday was the most likely day for a too posh to push girl to have C section if required. That Mondays are a good day for first time mothers as they rest up at the weekend ;o). Some invaluable advice from Dubai gave us Monday as the most likely day for the Royal baby to be born and a 6/1 winner.

That's a pretty unbelievable tip, you don't get that from your typical tipsters!

[The Camel]

Just for redarmi.

Alliss at his very best.

Never seen the interview at the end where he says "at the end of the day who will remember this in 200 years?".  I will Jean, I will.

I absolutely loved the bit at the end

"You have a glass in front of you. Hopefully it's a glass of red wine for me. Is it half full or half empty? Especially if you've drunk the first half. What have you got to be sad about?"

That genuinely nearly brought a tear to my eye.

Beautiful quote. Love that man.

[arbboy]

Another cracking bet i had which probably got me hooked on the game tbf.  First year at uni in 1993/4 and the scottish prem league seemed an absolute haven for draws.  It was 2 points for a win and appeared little incentive for teams to ever play for a win esp at the bottom of the league as losing one point from a draw didn't have the upside of gaining 2 points from winning.  This was the days of minimum trebles on coupons in the shops and 10% betting tax on all bets.  I was forced to have trebles and up bets on draws every week.   Most draws were priced at 5/2 11/4 minimum every week.  Games involving rangers and Celtic were closer to 3/1 or 7/2 to draw most weeks even though the league table made it look like a draw should be around a 5/4 6/4 shot.  Pretty much every team scored 1 and conceded 1 goal every week on average.

I did this all of the season after about week 6 and had 3 draws minimum every week apart from 2.  4 draws in a week several times.  5 draws once and hit the jackpot one midweek when all 6 were draws and collected over £2500 for my tiny multiple bet (doesn't sound that much now but when you consider the maximum student loan was £900 a year and your annual student grant was £2200 in those days it was substantial cash).  This is the bet that got me hooked on the game 20 years ago.  I thought i had cracked it.  The SPL totally fucked it in the summer and made the league 3 points for a win for the following season and it was back to the drawing board to find an edge!

Here is the league table from that great season in 1993/94.  Quite an incredible view given the state of Scottish football now.

1   Rangers (C)   44   22   14   8   74   41   +33   58   1994–95 UEFA Champions League Qualifying round
2   Aberdeen           44   17   21   6   58   36   +22   55   1994–95 UEFA Cup Preliminary round
3   Motherwell    44   20   14   10   58   43   +15   54
4   Celtic            44   15   20   9   51   38   +13   50
5   Hibernian       44   16   15   13   53   48   +5   47
6   Dundee United   44   11   20   13   47   48   −1   42   1994–95 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round
7   Hearts          44   11   20   13   37   43   −6   42
8   Kilmarnock           44   12   16   16   36   45   −9   40
9   Partick Thistle   44   12   16   16   46   57   −11   40
10   St Johnstone (R)   44   10   20   14   35   47   −12   40   Relegation to First Division
11   Raith Rovers (R)   44   6   19   19   46   80   −34   31
12   Dundee (R)   44   8   13   23   42   57   −15   29
Source: RSSSF