Betting tales: So near and yet so far
They say the best things in life are free and there cannot be many things better for a young man who enjoys sport, than winning a free bet. There have indeed been many an occasion when we have waxed lyrical about the joys of making money simply from correctly predicting that certain teams will win a couple of games. This betting tale however, does not have a happy ending. The protagonist of this tale of hammer heartache is a bloke we will call ‘Son of John’.
Now, Son of John has been a successful gambler for many a year now but a few weekends ago he came close to pulling off the bet of a lifetime. He took up the challenge of Ladbrokes free bet, the premise being a simple one; five Premiership games, get all the scores right, win £5,000. Now it is tough enough to correctly predict the final score in one game but five is virtually impossible. Son of John is a busy man and did not agonise over his scores for too long. He marked the slip and went on with his day. Come 5pm he thought he would check how he’d done. One correct score would be nice, two definitely worth a grin, three and you’re practically a psychic.
Liverpool 2-0 Bolton? Check. Birmingham 1-1 Tottenham? Check. Fulham 0-2 Aston Villa? Check. Hull City 2-2 Wolves? Check. He’d got four, he only needed one more correct score and he had won five thousand pounds. West Ham 1-0 Blackburn? Nope, 0-0. As if the Hammers need for striking obvious wasn’t obvious before is was painfully obvious now. Their inability to score had cost the boy from Birchwood not only 5k but also lifetime bragging rights in the pub. Son of John had personified the phrase, close but no cigar, he had predicted some outrageous scorelines and fallen short of glory because big Franck Nouble can’t hit a barn door. He was defeated. But like every good, committed sports gambler, when the Saturday morning light comes streaming through his window, he’ll get up and do it again. Amen.
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