I got this email from professional punter Alan Potts, it's always nice to hear from him, I thought I'd share his humour with you.
Hi Simon,
On course bookies have it easy compared to the days when it was all a
new thing. I've got a book in my library which is a compendium of racing
tales going back to the 17th century. One of them is an eye witness
account of a welshing bookie being beaten to death by an enraged crowd
at Alexandra Palace, shortly after that course had opened.
The report came from a journalist that was at the meeting in 1868 and
saw 'a man in black wide-awake cap, with a the regular betting man's
pouch slung at his side'. He was chased down by a mob, beaten, clothes
torn, but got away twice and eventually escaped into a hansom cab
outside the racecourse gate. One of the pursuers was another bookie, who
knocked him down using his stool as a weapon!
The police pushed back the crowd and got the man out of the hansom 'the
poor, tattered wretch, ghastly, white and streaming with blood, was
hauled out and dragged away insensible'. They had no lock-up or police
post at the track, so they lowered him through a trapdoor into a bottle
store under the stands. He was finally got away after dark.
A few days later, a newspaper report noted that 'the unfortunate man who
so rashly roused the fury of the sporting fraternity at Alexandra races,
is dead'. The article ends 'No one seems to have suffered for his part
in the murder. Provided enough sportsmen acted in concert there was
probably little risk in lynching a welsher.'
The story is an extract from a book called 'Victorian Underworld,
published in 1970 linked below:
Victorian Underworld
Alan.
Editors Note. Of course, it's actually the punters that have never had it so good, it's been many a year since they've had to run after non-paying racecourse bookies, let alone lynch them!
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