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ENGLISH TRICKS AGAINST BOOKMAKERS BOOKMAKERSIn In tlie spring of 1913 a funny little affair happen ¬ ed at Wye nice course The small Wye telegraph office was suddenly flooded by a shoal of wires from London The torrent started mysteriously at midday and did not stop till nearly three threeThe The messages which were unclaimed turned out to be bogus ones used simply to block the line For three hour the two telegraphists were busy taking down messages like I am Henry the Eighth I am and A Happy New Year while dozens of people stood angrily demanding why they could not get through to London LondonThe The idea in coups like this is to get a good price on some horse by preventing the commission agents in town with whom the best have been made from covering themselves by backing that horse on the course and so spoiling the starting price priceThe The cleverest piece of turf knavery ever carried out wa simply dazzling in its neatness In the days when one leading sporting paper supplied all the dailies with the racing returns betting etc a man called on the editor of that iaper and offered to report an ontoftheway meeting He had to lw there officially so could do it chcan As the meet ¬ ing was quite unimportant the offer was accepted acceptedIn In due course the program of tlie meeting came in and was published in all the napcrs followed by tlie handicaps the list of arrivals etc etcThe The bookmakers in town of course booked bets freely over the little country meeting Next day the racing results made the meeting out to be quite successful The pai ers complimented the officials and encouraged them to do even better next year yearDidnt Didnt they wish they could Tlie whole thing was bogus from beginning to end Town fixtures judge jockeys and horses wen tlie pure invention of some brilliant boy So was the race course the racing too But the betting was not Scores of bookmakers lost heavily over races that had never been run runAn An attempt was made not long ago to repeat this trick by inventing a small jumping meeting It fell through only by the merest accident All the details had not been properly thought out The bubble was burst when the telegraph department began to make inquiries their special telegraphists not being able to find the place
