1954-06-26 — Page 8

Where I took

* THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, JUNE 26,) (-1054.) (T

I AM THE RINGER- -the confession of the man

}

who owned Francasal-by MAURICE WILLIAMS

my betting diploma

HOW DOES a man graduate from small-time betting to the Big Time, when he bets in hundreds without a tremor? One way is in the tough school of greyhound racing. Here, Maurice Williams, the actual Ringer in the biggest racehorse swindle of the century, describes hir "education." We are telling his story because it is more than the story of one man. It is the story of the modern Edgar Wallace world, the quick-money world. ...

T

E man in breeches and gaiters led the dog up and down the auction in St Martin's Lune.

roonia

It looked like any other greyhound which was being sold at Aldridge's auction rooms, which is the Tatter

++1 the greyhound world.

There they set up J motor- car engine with a wire to wind the hare across the Neld.

"There are not so many of

them nowadays, but in the early thirlies there were large num- bers of helds where you could run a greyhound.

They were very useful to the professional gambler. Dogs could be tried out where one could report on their per- formance and spoll the betting.

with Ittle

race dogs

The farmers in their tweeds, the West End grey-

in their And men fanciera hourl

checkm and could own and Savile Kow bowler hats, the dog-track these tracks. commandos with their point- ed shoes, did not notice the the excited

young man in

fawn

cat who

belted

nodded in the auctioneer.

The girl was knocked down to him for 50 shillings.

I

still see the crowd of upper class greyhound lovers, farmers

pre-war anak splves. Jenn still remember the excitement I felt as I led the dog out into St Martin's Lune

Trial run

lucky to me. Like n) betting men who live by luck--and a ttle manipulation-I am super- siitious in these matters, So I kept the name,

1

It was shortly after this that went into greyhound ownership as a business.

la the Arst year I did very account which well. My bank

kept in vers in my pocket showed a nice balance at the end of the year.

I became owner овд fast greyhound called Land Annul-

ties. When I bought him he was a reddish fawn puppy. But he his was a good one. I knew pedigree. He was by Mussolini out of Concerto I1, which was to prove a winning breed.

nu

I and conc long way yeurs since the few my first dog. Land

I bought Annuities

wis

U

I

wher

The doge and Micky Lynch

tlapping

muncy

on

I made quite a lot of money at the flapping tracks.

Τ

Boring jobs

E goal things did not mi- ways enne off and sometimes I had to go to work to eal. In periods when the dogs were not running for me I worked as u

Interlude between bets.

sportsman's dream. smilled with sailsfaction

I tried him out,

I took bumm Lo

NATURE'S

POISON

PUNCHES

First of a now Saturday series about some of Nature's queer animals

T

THE KICKERS

By IVAN T. SANDERSON

HE strange little animal el over its dry, grey hide. was warm and very Its trunk is curved but rigid, furry, and it kicked since the jawbones extend out hysterically with all four right down to its tip where feet. The keeper gripped it both the mouth and nostrils firmly round the middle. are situnted. This animal--- Then he let out a piercing which has no common shriek, dropped the animal English name but may be and gripped his right wrist, called

Proechidna-- the his face contorted with pain. walks upright, but on the The anima! scuttled over the inner front sides of its feet. grass and slithered back into the pond.

This unexpected event took place many years ago injury. The doctors said I would in Australia, in a strange not be able to stand up to a lot institution known as a platy. of marching,

pussary. At that time it lot more public

you

might

But I did not escape.

I was created a drafted to war work in a factory interest than

in Hendon. I was put on making suppose, for the keeper had iron casings for sticky bombs. I not been just got £9 a week--and paid tax scratched,

on it.

'I expect they still

track. I changed his name, of remember me' (for 'Micky Lynch' was Maurice Williams.)

course. I was not giving Doy clues away to razor-eyed, rapa- cinus bystanders.

But

of

holies," which to a betting man means going right through the

curd.

I would have been warned off creded to do the "holy if I had been discovered. when you are a professional backer you have to take these sort of chances occasionally. It was dono by other people all he made his first appearance the time.

A dug called Sporty won the ruce. Sporty was the name I gave to Land Annuities for the afterwards ufternoon. Shortly

under his own name but under

house painter. But I always the ownership of Micky Lynch Those were the free and easy regarded the job as a boring at West Ham. He was besten days of greyhound racing when by Handy Gift, but he qualited for the final heat of the West it was easy to fiddle yourself a Ham Cesorewitch, He finished bit of poppy. The rules were lux second

great dog and there were many loopholes In them. The chances of your Lutwyche.

dog being recognised in an outside London obscure field were exceedingly small.

Most people work on until they are too old to enjoy them- selves. They look forward to a pension of 85. I decided I was

earlier than that, I did-at 25.

BECAUSE I was the boy in the going to give up work

Town rout A man with the gambling fever remeinberg the day he bought his first grey- hound as another man remem- bers when he fell hi love.

walked the dog home to Kentish Town and let him sleep. in the kitchen.

3

Next day 1 look him to nearby greyhound track for él trtul

When the here started to move along the truck the other dogs streaked after it.

run.

My greyhound-1 culled him Tommy Boy-just looked at it with disinterest. Again and again I tried him, but he just would not chase the hare.

Some of the more knowledge- able characters around the track sak: "He'll be all right with a bit of schooling."

I paid 15a, a week, which was a lot of money for a youth of my age, to have him trained. After three weeks he was still looking at the hare without curiosity.

It was then that I realised there was more to greyhound racing than I thought. I gave up any grand ideas of being a racing dog owner for the time being.

Studying form

much

I was able to devote my time to my only Interest in Klo- planning betting coups.

that

In his third race on a proper lcensed Track Land Annuities won. He went on winning and 1 raked in £009 in prize money alone within 12 months.

When the dog was tit--and I I also acquired another nome.

had a trainer who was an ex- A lot of people around the

pert at bringing the dog up to greyhound stadiums wil!

all pitch at just the right time—it remember me, I expect, by the would carry £100 of my money. name of Micky Lynch,

And he nearly always showed me a handsome profi.

Binail

I got the name by accident. I hurried to enter a dog I had just bought in a race in which 1 had planned a

coup. Then I discovered u sang. The registration of ownership had not been altered in time. Th former

n Mr Lynch, owner, was safely in Ireland,

Who was to know? If I did not do something quickly the dog would not ran in the race. So I said I was Mr Lynch.

The dog won and the name stuck. The name Lynch seemed

I'

Against rules

These days it is almost im- possible to fiddle with a dog like that. There are too many safeguards to stop people like recorded Markings are down to the last detail,

me.

WOD

1 freely admit that, war or no

situation war, the whole very painful to me. Work alone thrown without income tax in-was enough to spots before the eyes.

give

bitten

or

but

actually by

poisoned and

mammal.

il

The significance of this Was immediately appreciated me by all naturalists, scientists, and almost everybody else

All three animals digthe Platypus making long tunnels from under the water into the banks of rivers, the Echidna in last any kind of soil, and the Procchidna, for

for the most part,

in very dry, stony soli. All three Jay eggs which are leathery, like those of reptiles, and which are carried in a sort of primitive of the pouch under the belly

mother to which they are stuck by a quick-drying, gooey sub- stance that glues them together and to the fur and spines. How- ever, when the eggs hatch the babies STU fed

that on milk oozes from the mother's pouch. These animals also have some- thing else in common that unique among mammals.

On the inside of the back legs, about tho ankle joint,

19

So I cannot say I was very Who had ever had anything there are sharp spurs not unlike one to do with live animals. The those of a fighting cock. Those on the males are much larger

sad

when I turned up

had

morning to find the factory had point was that while overy. vanished. Nazi bombers reduced it to rubble. The work- ers were to be transferred

He turned that six shilings into £40. Within ten days he had turned that into £1,000, Then he set up as a professional other plants. lipster and I don't blame him.

to

'Disappearance'

I have never had a sensa- tional success like that. But the war I Was doing before extremely well, I was going to THAD been using my wits greyhound meetings every night, for too long to fail for this, mostly with £500 in notes in however. 1 realised that my

I was my pocket.

regularly insurance cards and records making a middle class Income would have been lost in tho

£26 and 240 a bombing. of between week.

And, of course, of it was mine. Never heard of it.

every penny Income tax?

Factory hand

But those were great days. I

the can still remember night under the smoky lamps of Harringay when Gramplon dog I owned, beat Range, a Border Mutton, the champion, Border Mutton was odds on favourite.

But my dog came long overcoats and pointed shoes home at 33 to 1. It was one of worse than most people. the most memorable evenings in my life.

My livelihood folded up over- night. The sport shutdown was

I

So I decided it was time took a powder. I would dis- appear book into the free air of the gambling world.

I still had £1,000 lucked greyhound away from my old

gains, So back to the tracks

The

duck-billed

Awkward Platypus. An

appearing animal, it can move with lighining speed when alarmed. (Photo courtesy of The American Museum of Natural History.) with it I went. I was extreme-body knows that

perforated Jiko many and

hypodermic needles. This tubo

ed it to you.

been

are

HE early days of the war hit ly happy for the chance to get

the wide boys with their away from that badly paid job reptiles and some fish can leads upwards from the horny

where they took the tax out of give you a poison punch, spur around the front side your packet before they hand-most people have never the leg to a largo gland under heard of a furred animal the skin on the outer surface that can

It is filed defend itself by of the upper leg

with a white, sticky, substancy This adversary's skin with a kind substance is deadly

polsonous of super-hypodermic.

to many animals, but although terribly painful to man and does not other mammals, It appear to be fatal to Any worm-blooded creature.

on. For a time there were only married as stuck with a job like injecting poison under its the the white of an cus. 4

greyhounds on Saturday after noon and horse racing was con- fined to Newmarket.

was the experience of racing dogs under false names in frst Helds near London that gave me the iden of being a But

have never had Kinger, What I did with Land phenomenal goodi fortune on the Annuities was, of course, ogalost tracks unless I have nudged my every rule of honest racing. It luck a little. I shall always is against one of the strictest think enviously of A school I was called up for on Army rules of greyhound racing to friend of mine who walked into medical. I was rejected because take a dog from a "flapper" to Harringay one night with 6s. In of knee trouble which was a a licensed track.

his pocket. With this ho pro- hangover from an old football

I might as well have that. And op everyone knows a true gambling man will never marry until the last racecourse closes.

NEXT WEEK

I BEDOME THE RINGER

The Crime Writers Go In For Propaganda

London.

SKELETON smoking

a cigarette, a stuffed dummy

notice

REYHOUND racing was just Policeman, and

4

By Les Armour

in Increased

dissertation

OVET B

the

The pain is sharp and at first.

However, in the south and southeastern parts of Australia, and in the island of Tasmania, live certain

The exact purpose of these extremely ancient and primi- weapons is not known, but the tive mammals known as spurs are used by the males duck-billed platypuses. So over the females at the begin- during rough-and-tumble fights extraordinary are these ning of the mating season. Al- animals that the first stuffed though bumbling beasts, all of specimens taken back to them, and notably the

Platypus Europe were thought by can move with lightning speed It alarmed, and can bring their Samples: If a gun is thrown scientists to be fakes, like spurs into play from almost into a river, how long will the little mermaids that any direction and reach almost it rotain identifiable finger-used to be made by sailors a overy part of their bodies. prints? After a person has been who sewed the top half of a

These spurs will pierce and Crime, as Mr Boris Kar- Metropolitan

arsenic poisoned with

gash your hands while loff pointed out on opening sophical accounts with an

Accordingly, the current period of mouths, is it possible small monkey to the back polson is oozing from their tips. beraming popular in those from a certain James day, is distinctly a paying occasional hurried reference issue of The Crime Writer to tell whether the dopes were half of a salmon or other

Mr days over 20 years ago.

frequency

Then, -distributed to all visitors amount? What is the drug that Tasmania, Australia, and numbing, then it seems to break

or fish.

throughout The Berry, one-time public hang- proposition when it is kept to the "Ultimate Good." track owners were anxious to

man, proclaiming his abili- between book covers. attract people

through into the rest of the They

will daze a man but not knock the great island of New body of the victim, and The exhibit of Messrs against "bopping." lavish with their free tickets. ties to present the secreta

him out? So it is not that

may crime MacMillan, featuring two

thero exists One

Guinea,

wild his

1 cause most persistent of

convulsiong with "without writers are forgotten cast scholarly textbooks called free ticket customers was vulgarity"

A third group is of the opinion second oddity. It is a little, palas in the chest and abdomen, are tastefully offs in society.

"Social myself.

Problems"

Gone Sceptical? that too many people feel that burrowing creature covered be little worse than a hornet's

However, the only affects and arranged in the Mayfair Those early days on the grey-halls of the National Book

may "Juvenile Delinquency,

only the feeble-minded read with quills, known as the sting The trouble, one gathers, may, perhaps, be stretching

crime novels. To beat that, the

and remain hound tracks were comparable

entirely in my life to

Others feel that the public Aociation is drawing up a Echidna, or Spiny ant-eater. local. The wounds, nevertheless, university League.

is that the public, while it the point a little far. education. In my education

But has grown sceptical of the list of renders. They include

take an inordinately long continues to buy more the point is no doubt there. queer goings-on chronicled Maugham and the late Frankdin Guinea there is also found infected.

Bertrand Russell, Somerset bang- thrillers than any other kind

Finally, all over

and often become New to hoal, diploma at these Institutions man's noose gaily swinging of literature, refuses to take which enable men with not too from the ceiling, the tele- its crime reading seriously.

in crime novels.

Roosevelt The difficulty, some mem-

what is probably the most If you pick up a wild animal much money but an over- gram dispatched to Scotland

bera feel, is that the reading That is being rectified by What we would like to know, amazing animal in the you almost expect to be bitten powering urge to gamble to play their fancies.

Yard by Detective Dew

public equates crime writing a question-and-answer ser- though, is who leads the school world. Everything about it or scratched,

but you hardly I dodged among the crowds, when

with the "Put 'em up, bang vice with ex-Superintendent of thought which holda heard a whisper here, caught a Crippen, and a couple of

you're dead, and pour me a Cherrill of The Yard handing Including a charming testimony seems impossible. It looks spot to be the recipient of a are even furry things from ex-hangman Berry would like a tiny elephant, but has on punch, So, bowme, for studied all the ment choppers which once Critics do not refer to drink" school.

improve presiige?

small, sharp spines scatter that can sting. "the monsterful moving of Miss Agatha Madame Tussaud's might prose"

Christle or the "powerful

of their

wero

na

professional gambler I took my

nod there,

trade

With them go

a

he

4

arrested Dr

What is wrong?

form books, I noted every plece figured in dire deeds.

of information. I began to size

up the dogs with over-increasing

acumen. And soon I was able be expected to complain of unfair competition. Madame

to spot a good thing and put money on it.

on

-contains

out answera,

dramatic style" of Mr Ed- JOHNNY HAZARD

It very often came up. This charges three bob to see mund Crippen.

sounds easy when you read her heroes and an extra bob

Instead, if they consider

about it, but demands day for the horrors, while the the matter at all, they are Jong, year-long application of National Book League lets apt to toss it off as "another the sort that normally professors give to research you off with a paltry shill- cracking good whodunit."

work.

only

ing:

But no. The intent of But just what is wrong Flapping track the exhibition is not to seems to be a matter of

horrify, but to raise the dispute.

THE greyhounds are in some As might be expected, thile the exhibition, featuring prestige of crime writers Part of the purpose of ways the social Cindereita project is the work of the

hundreds of books.

the

of racing. But the bottom of Crime Writers' Association. well as the horrors, is to this sporting ladder i "flipping truck.”

And what is wrong with show the wide range of the

tntfm Mapping track). Lê is

small, inlicensed track. In a the prestige "of crime fieldbewfrom tingling cakes for

nelaurien Outside Landing writerk!

tiny tata to rambling, philó,

· HAZARD 18 ALMER

·TRECHAT, WHY THOSE

· GJOY-HIM DIVIT OFF OUR OF

· SIKITE Z WAY ARE WE

TURNIME AROUND 7.

150-THANICH TO SIDE 7

IN THE DARKNES WONITA FELL MAND INCIC LINK

that

↑

By Frank Robbins

(JOLIE JAM' PUJMB CUTFON

||ETAS LOWSCION TOOK A HAND

MPATHIS ROUNDU

there

this situation

Miguel

timo