BEN’S BLOG: ‘Flair’

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne of my favourite bookies is John Henwood. When I was a boy, I loved going to Wimbledon, to watch the ring in full flow, during the Greyhound Derby. John used to bet without-the-favourite, but would also offer other markets, such as prices for dogs to get to the final.

Flair ‎is something that we rarely see in the game now. It starts at grass-roots, but will ALWAYS find it’s way to the front. People, paying customers, Punters; they ALL gravitate to flair. Tony Morris, the best greyhound bookmaker ever, was one of my mentors. He was an EXTREMELY hard man, and praise for other operators was thin on the ground. The only other bookmaker, he took any time to comment on, was John Henwood. John was competition. He knew what he was doing. And he would box clever, even when betting next to the great TM. He was ‘quick’ and got under the main-layer’s skin.

With his distinctive style, his experience, but still real alertness and aptitude and passion for the game; John Henwood (now the leading-layer at Wimbledon) is certainly one of my favourite bookies. LET’S SEE SOME FLAIR FROM THE BOOKMAKERS ONCE AGAIN.

In other news:

The ‘Winter Festival’. It upsets me, that any type of reference, to the nativity scene, or even Christmas itself, is left out of virtually all television productions, and corporate marketing material that we are faced with. I appreciate that we are all so utterly potless, that we must now bow to every scrap of foreign money we can get our grubby mits on (and tolerate all of the religious and cultural impositions that come with it), but it was a pleasant reminder, just for a few moments, on the BBC, this Christmas Day, to see The Queen’s Speech. After all, the great QE2, is still Head of The Church of England, which, I suppose, once counted for something. ‘CHRIST-MAS’; IT’S IN THE NAME.

Over and out, B x