Part 16

E. W. BESTON, Birmingham.—During the flat-racing season, which is also the principal flat-catching season, this individual issues a weekly paper called the _Midland Referee_, nominally priced at sixpence, but sent out gratuitously, in which vituperative attacks upon rival tipsters are mingled with extravagant puffs of “Dan Bruce,” “Miss Flossie Beresford,” “Percy Macdonald,” “James Brown,” “Reginald Vernon,” “Walter Hooley,” “George Leslie,” “George Graham,” “E. Allsopp,” “Hugh Owen,” “George Westwood,” etc. All these are aliases under which Beston himself carries on business as a tipster from a number of accommodation addresses in Birmingham and the neighbourhood. He bamboozles people into buying his tips not only through the medium of the _Midland Referee_, but by means of advertisements in his various aliases in many English and Irish newspapers, and by extensive distribution of circulars through the post. Not long since I gave a case in which a greenhorn paid Beston as “Flossie Beresford” £3 for twenty sixpenny telegrams containing forty predictions, of which only four came off! It is unnecessary to cite examples of the unblushing mendacity of this Protean rascal, or to describe in detail the artful dodges that he practises, but one ramp that he carried out last October is worthy of notice. Besides the _Midland Referee_, Beston publishes the _Winning Guide_ and other rags which he represents as sporting journals. In October, some days before the Cesarewitch was run, advertisements appeared announcing that a specimen copy of the _Secret Special_, containing a “certainty” for that handicap, would be sent free to any applicant. The copies so supplied were dated the Monday before the Cesarewitch, but were not posted in Birmingham till the following Wednesday evening, three or four hours after the race had been run. It is easy to prophesy after the event, and these copies of the _Secret Special_ named the outsider which won the Cesarewitch. But Beston knows his public, and no doubt many mugs, too obtuse to see that this wonderful “tip” had been printed when the race was over, were bagged as subscribers to the _Secret Special_—a mere tipster’s circular—at 5s. a week.

FRED COBB, 6 Ludgate Arcade, E.C.—Styles himself the “manager” of a diminutive tipster’s publication called the _Peerless Special_, for which subscriptions are invited at the rate of 5s. a copy, or £5: 5s. for the racing season. On at least one occasion last season he circulated specimen copies which, though dated before, were printed after an important race, thereby enabling him to give the name of the winner. When he really does “tip” prior to a race Cobb is less successful. In one number of the _Peerless Special_ he gave fourteen horses, and among the whole lot there was not a solitary winner.

MACDONALD, 14 Whitcomb Street, Pall Mall.—Publishes a small four-page tipster’s sheet entitled the _Turf Pioneer_, besides supplying “guarantee wires” and “invincible daily telegrams.” One number of the _Turf Pioneer_ named six horses for races that week. Five of them never started; the sixth was beaten.

FRED RICKABY, 45 Regent Square, Brighton.—Nine losers out of ten selections was this prophet’s record one week; nevertheless, he at once issued a circular in quest of fresh customers, claiming that he had given seven winners and only three losers.

“R. ORMONDE AND CO.,” 14 New Street, Birmingham.—Represent themselves as “part owners of several useful horses,” and specially circularise such persons as the “head boots” at hotels.

CHARLES ROBINSON, Smith Street, Epsom.—Refers in his circulars to that “estimable journal, _Truth_,” but, needless to say, does not mention my warnings against Charles Robinson.

ARTHUR MACCALL, Archdale House, Marlborough Road, St. John’s Wood.—Offers to return the money paid by any one dissatisfied with his tips. Having paid 20s. for five wires, all “wrong ’uns,” a victim asked for the return of that sum. MacCall replied by sending a circular bragging of his “march of triumph,” and offering more wires at the same price!

“V. VEE,” Morion House, Newmarket.—Pretends to be an owner of race-horses. There is reason to believe that “V. Vee” is an alias of the above-mentioned Arthur MacCall.

“JOHN KINGFIELD,” otherwise “Frank Foreman,” the Post Office, ——.—Through the supineness of the Postmaster-General, this travelling tipster is allowed to use the Post Office in different towns where races are being held as an accommodation address.

M. B. PIZZEY, Heath Villa, Ascot.—This tipster formerly owned a number of race-horses, but owing to exposures in _Truth_ the Jockey Club forced him to give up his ownership under a threat of being “warned off” the Turf. Now an ordinary touting tipster.

“ARTHUR MORDAUNT,” Oak Villa, Ascot.—Pizzey under another name.

“CAPTAIN” W. GOUGH, Chavey Down, Bracknell, Berks.—Supposed to be connected with Pizzey.

—— KEEBLE, H.M. Prison, Wormwood Scrubbs.—Now serving six months’ hard labour for fraudulently offering tips in the name of Mr. W. H. Schwind, an owner. Another rascal last year perpetrated a similar swindle by assuming the name of Mr. Sievier.

HOBDAY, 3 Bridge Avenue Mansions, Hammersmith.—An ornament of the profession who, having backed his own tips and lost, pleaded the Gaming Act when the confiding bookmaker sued him.

J. ALEXANDER, 5 New Turnstile, W.C.—A trickster pretending that he works “for a gentleman who has made a fortune out of the Turf.”

H. SINCLAIR, _The Excelsior_.—Sends out under this title a tiny sheet containing “tips” of races run two or three hour’s before it was posted, the object being to secure subscribers for a “daily wire service.”

ARTHUR CRADDOCK, 16 Air Street, Piccadilly.—Distributes tips by circular unsolicited, and when he chances to name a winner forwards another circular demanding “remuneration.”

H. HIBBERT, Florinda Villa, Stevenage Road, Fulham.

L. RIVERS, 1 Conway Cottages, Lower Station Road, Newmarket.

J. J. KIRK, Southwick, and 115 Queen’s Road, Brighton.

MANSER, 123 Holloway Road, London.

Old-fashioned race-course welshing is, I believe, not quite so prevalent as it used to be. The up-to-date welsher adopts a less hazardous plan of campaign. Instead of running the gauntlet of an angry mob on the race-course, he does his swindling more sedately in an office, where he is out of the reach of his victims. Calling himself a commission agent or a Turf accountant, he advertises in the Press or sends out circulars inviting backers to open accounts with him. When they lose he takes their money; when they win he refuses to pay up. I cannot say that I have any sympathy for the greenhorns who are plundered by these bandits of the Turf. There are plenty of bookmakers who carry on their business in a perfectly honest and straightforward manner. But a man is not necessarily one of this class because he sends out a speciously-worded circular from an office in the West End or elsewhere; and if people will be so stupid as to open betting accounts on the strength of such circulars, knowing nothing of the party with whom they are dealing beyond what he has himself told them, it seems to me that they need the lesson they are pretty certain to receive. The following are circularising betting agents who have come under my notice during the past year:—

JOHN FENWICK AND CO., 167 Piccadilly.—A defaulter.

G. H. CHARDSON, 25 Wellington Street, Strand.—A defaulter.

CHARLES KITTELL, 21 Copthall Avenue, E.C.—A defaulter.

FLOYD MCDERMOTT AND SCOTT, 58 Gillett Row, Thornton Heath.—Defaulters.

S. RUSSELL.—A welsher whose address is frequently changed. Describes himself in his circulars as “member of Tattersall’s Ring.”

GEORGE SILKE, 3 James Street, Haymarket.—A defaulter. Represents himself as a member of Tattersall’s, which is untrue.

“MALLARD AND CO.” and “GEORGE SHAW,” 10 Dawes Street, S.W.—Names used by a swindler whose only known address is a small shop where letters are taken in for him.

EDGAR AND CO., 24 Trevor Square, Knightsbridge.—Sharps whose impudent method of “doing” a customer out of a considerable sum of money I exposed last October.

HARRY WILLIAMS, Piccadilly Circus Mansions, 67a Shaftesbury Avenue, W.—Upon being asked to pay an account a week after the settling day, Williams refused to pay at all, on the ground that an application for the money was an “impertinence.”

ALEC A. HARRIS AND CO., Agra, Gresham Road, Staines.—This is seemingly an alias chosen to induce incautious backers to believe that they are dealing with Alex. Harris, a well-known and highly-respected bookmaker. Needless to say, Mr. Alex. Harris is not in any way connected with this shady starting-price office at Staines.

C. B. RAE, 12 Duke Street, S.W.—Before he blossomed forth as a touting bookmaker this individual, whose real name is Sydney Reed, practised as a solicitor and was implicated in a cruel fraud.

ROBERT ADAMSON, Disraeli Gardens, Putney.—A harpy who tries to bribe club servants into furnishing him with the names of likely gulls.

J. GORDON YOUNGLY, Bedford Hotel Chambers, Covent Garden.—States in his circulars that “your name as a sportsman” has been given to him by “Mr. T. Forrester, 21 London Street, E.C.” This is an accommodation address, and “Mr. T. Forrester” is apparently J. Gordon Youngly under another name.

C. BENNETT, King William Street, E.C.—Professes to have Army officers and City merchants for his clients, but specially circularises “the coachman” at country houses.

With an infantile ingenuousness which is little short of downright idiocy, people are found ready not only to credit the existence of infallible systems of betting, but to hand over their cash without the least security to any stranger undertaking to “invest” it in the working of such a system. Most of the gentry whose prospectuses promise fabulous profits upon “investments” of this kind are much too astute to attempt to work any system of betting. They simply put the money in their pockets, and in due course inform the investor that owing to an unexampled run of bad luck the system has failed:—

A. JACKSON AND CO., The Hague, Holland.—Invites people to trust him with money for investment upon any one of a series of “systems” explained in his prospectus. If the system chosen happens to show a profit for a few days, Jackson declines to return the capital or pay over the winnings, sticking to the money till it has been (as he alleges) lost. One mug sent Jackson £100, and in the first week won (on paper) £56. Ignoring his orders to stop, Jackson went on working (or pretending to work) the system for another fortnight, by which time the £156 had all disappeared. An action was then brought and Jackson pleaded the Gaming Act.

BEVAN, SON, AND THOMPSON, Delft, Holland.—Promoters of turf sweepstakes, and suspected of being identical with the above-mentioned Jackson.

BROWN, BELL, AND CO., 18 Featherstone Buildings, W.C.—Ordinary system-mongering sharps.

C. WOOD, 148 Old Street, E.C.—Advertises in the daily papers that “£5 invested pays £1 weekly,” and offers shares in a syndicate for backing first favourites. The syndicate’s capital is always lost, and Wood goes on his way rejoicing at the gullibility of the public.

J. L. AUCKLAND, 132 Kilmorie Road, Crofton Park.—By way of variation upon the more familiar first favourite system, this scoundrel pretends to use his dupes’ money in backing “the last horse quoted” in the betting returns published in the press the day after a race. A transparent fraud, as in nine races out of ten it is impossible for anybody to know beforehand which of several outsiders starting at the same price will be “the last horse quoted” in the betting returns next day.

FOSTER, NASH, AND CO., 37 Graveney Road, London, S.W.—Another swindler practising precisely the same trick as J. L. Auckland.

The following are proprietors of illegal racing lotteries whose operations have been noticed in _Truth_:—

DORMICE AND CO., Middelburg, Holland.—The alias of D. Mackenzie, proprietor of _Sporting Luck_. Runs racing sweepstakes in connection with which grave doubts have arisen as to the genuineness of the alleged distribution of the principal prizes.

J. H. ADAMS, Middelburg.—In the same line of business as Dormice and Co.

VII

BETTING STATISTICS[16]

Monday, October 3, 1904—Nottingham.

+------------------+-------------+----------+------- Race. |Predicted Winner. |Won or Lost. | Gain. | Loss. ---------------------+------------------+-------------+----------+------- Castle Selling Plate | Cricket | Won | £2 10 0 | .. Bestwood Nursery | Lador | Lost | .. | £1 0 0 Plate | | | | Lenton Firs Plate | Bicarbonate | Non-Starter | .. | .. Trent Plate | Matchboard | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Nottingham Handicap | Whistling Crow | Non-Starter | .. | .. Rufford Abbey Plate | Queen of the | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 | Lassies | | | ---------------------+------------------+-------------+----------+------- | | | £2 10 0 | £3 0 0

Tuesday, October 4, 1904—Nottingham.

+------------------+-------------+----------+------- Barnby Manor Nursery | Bright Eyes | Lost | .. | £1 0 0 H’cap | | | | Welbeck Plate | Best Light | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Sherwood Forest | Golden Measure | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Nursery Pl’te | | | | Colwick Park Plate | Ariosto | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Elvaston Castle | Corunna | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Plate | | | | Bentinck Plate | Haresfield | Non-Starter | .. | .. ---------------------+------------------+-------------+----------+------- | | | | £5 0 0

Wednesday, October 5, 1904—Leicester.

+------------------+-------------+----------+------- Maiden T.Y.O. Plate | Jongleuse | Non-Starter | .. | .. Gopsall Plate | Topiary | Non-Starter | .. | .. Midland Nursery | Vita | Non-Starter | .. | .. Handicap | | | | Randcliffe Plate | Ice Bird | Lost | .. | £1 0 0 Camp Handicap | Cleeve | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Melton Plate | Bilbao | Non-Starter | .. | .. ---------------------+------------------+-------------+----------+------- | | | | £2 0 0

Thursday, October 6, 1904—Leicester.

+------------------+-------------+----------+------- Bradford Handicap | Van Voght | Non-Starter | .. | .. Kegworth Handicap | Accroc | Non-Starter | .. | .. Welbeck Plate | More Trouble | Lost | .. | £1 0 0 October Handicap | Boycot | Non-Starter | .. | .. Village Nursery | Pelf Colt | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Handicap | | | | Apprentices Plate | Merry Andrew | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 ---------------------+------------------+-------------+----------+------- | | | | £3 0 0

Friday, October 7, 1904—Kempton Park.

+------------------+-------------+----------+------- Wick Plate | Thunderbolt | Won | £0 5 8½ | .. Half-Moon Nursery | Nanclee | Lost | .. | £1 0 0 Handicap | | | | Imperial Plate | Signorino | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Park Selling Plate | Ogbourne Pet | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Coventry Handicap | St. Emilion | Non-Starter | .. | .. Richmond Handicap | Niphetos | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 ---------------------+------------------+-------------+----------+------- | | | £0 5 8½ | £4 0 0

Saturday, October 8, 1904—Kempton Park.

+------------------+-------------+----------+------- Stanley Plate | Percussion | Won | £2 0 0 | .. Brentford Plate | Gascony | Lost | .. | £1 0 0 Duke of York Stakes | General Cronje | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 Vauxhall Plate | Cricket | Won | 4 0 0 | .. Kempton Park Nursery | Reggio | Lost | .. | 1 0 0 H’cap | | | | Rivermead Handicap | Golden Saint | Non-Starter | .. | .. ---------------------+------------------+-------------+----------+------- | | | £6 0 0 | £3 0 0

TOTALS—OCTOBER 3 TO OCTOBER 8, 1904.

Gain. Loss. Monday £2 10 0 £3 0 0 Tuesday 5 0 0 Wednesday 2 0 0 Thursday 3 0 0 Friday 0 5 8½ 4 0 0 Saturday 6 0 0 3 0 0 ----------- ------- £8 15 8½ £20 0 0

Loss £20 0 0 Gain 8 15 8½ --------- Total Loss £11 4 3½ =========

_Note._—In the above sporting tips twelve horses were _non-starters_. Had the bets been one shilling each instead of one pound, the loss would have been 11s., a sum obviously beyond the resources of a working man.

These results were given in the _Daily News_, and cover the flat-racing season from March 23 to November 28, 1903:—

+--------------------+-------+------+---------+----------+ | | | | Total | £1 | | Paper. | Lost. | Won. | Winning | Fixed | | | | | Odds. | Stake. | +--------------------+-------+------+---------+----------+ | Daily Express | 670 | 299 | 678·93 | Won £8 | | Jockey | 696 | 243 | 687·86 | Lost 9 | | Racehorse | 566 | 240 | 555·52 | ” 11 | | Chilton’s Guide | 357 | 132 | 341·16 | ” 16 | | Morning Leader | 690 | 309 | 667·93 | ” 22 | | Gale’s | 639 | 231 | 501·85 | ” 37 | | Sportsman | 738 | 285 | 679·02 | ” 59 | | Daily Mail | 642 | 278 | 574·19 | ” 68 | | Racing World | 696 | 275 | 626·19 | ” 70 | | Standard | 872 | 313 | 781·22 | ” 91 | | Star | 750 | 317 | 635·36 | ” 114 | | Sporting Chronicle | 785 | 299 | 669·68 | ” 115 | | Diamond Special | 482 | 169 | 365·83 | ” 116 | | Daily Sport | 895 | 293 | 768·20 | ” 127 | | Advertiser | 724 | 259 | 589·36 | ” 135 | | Sporting World | 886 | 303 | 747·44 | ” 139 | | Sporting Life | 1327 | 411 | 1179·25 | ” 147 | | Telegraph | 928 | 345 | 724·67 | ” 203 | +--------------------+-------+------+---------+----------+

The following are taken from a day’s selections—January 7, 1905—and show how the tips for hurdle-racing are even more unreliable than those for flat-racing:—

GATWICK MEETING (Six Races).

London Star { 6 selections (Capt. Coe’s Specials) { —all wrong.

Middleham Opinion { 3 selections (one “best thing”) (Mentor) { —all wrong.

The Jockey { 5 selections (one “special”) { —all wrong.

Racehorse (Admiral) { 1 selection (“one horse nap”) { —wrong.

Early Bird’s Finals { 6 selections (one “good,” one “selected”) { —all wrong.

Sun Dawn’s Finals { 6 selections (one “good”) { —1 right (_not_ the “good”).

Form’s Finals { 6 selections { —2 right.

Presto’s Double { Double selection for two races { —wrong.

Sunday Chronicl. { 4 selections (Galliard) { —all wrong.

Sunrise’s Finals { 6 selections { —all wrong.

Victor’s Finals { 6 selections (one “nap,” one “good”) { —1 right (neither “nap” nor “good”).

Yorkshire Herald { 6 selections (one “starred”) (Yorkshireman) { —all wrong.

Yorkshire Press { 6 selections (one “special”) (Ivanhoe) { —2 right (_not_ the “special”).

Result { 6 right. { 57 wrong.

There are many examples of the inaccuracy of sporting tips in the evidence of the Select Committee on Betting. The best are given below:—

REV. J. W. HORSLEY’S EVIDENCE

(_a_) Manchester: out of 40 selected winners, not a single one was right.

(_b_) Seven sporting papers gave 79 horses: in 74 cases their predictions were wrong.

(_c_) Case of the _Standard_, which selected 179 horses for 148 races: 155 were wrong, and 24 right.

(_d_) In 7 races the chief sporting papers gave in one week 45 horses, of which 40 were wrong; again, they gave 47 horses, of which only 1 was right.

(_e_) In one month the chief sporting papers gave 898 horses for 156 races, out of which 777 lost.—_Vide_ p. 183 of Report.

THE DUKE OF PORTLAND AND TIPSTERS

The Duke of Portland sent £7: 14s. to thirteen sporting prophets. Four of these sent him 35 losers and 1 winner.—_Vide_ p. 186 of Report.

VIII

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