QUEUE DODGERS

“Queuing up to have a bet with bookmakers?” the old-time racegoer recently divulged in the demeanour of being asked to empty the proceeds of an outside dunny.

Maybe we just come from an age when forming an orderly line took competition out of existence. These days getting set for a bet or a drink just doesn’t have the urgency, some would say more civilised.

Follow the leader or waiting your turn is regarded as a smoother transition. Racecourse bookmakers now are easily accessible and so, too, bar staff in pubs, once referred to as barmaids.

However in the turf’s golden age horse players, thousands more than currently, would go to the races in search of the best odds which bookmakers offered.

Perhaps few would remember six o’clock closing in Sydney bars. Around 5.50 pm a tsunami of thirsty boozers would invade the counter for last drinks with the urgency of thirsty camels.

Mary Bridges, at the Doncaster hotel, Kensington, alongside Randwick racecourse, was renowned for pouring the best and quickest beer. She didn’t wait for an order but did it with eye contact. Nor did she handle money. For speed she had a clerk working the cash register, then known as the till, dispensing change.

Yes, these days it is more civilised. No time constraints but forgive a thirsty geriatric for pique when the behind the bar playmaker thinks he has to give a Bryan Brown rendition of pouring a cocktail instead of producing a quick beer.

Impatience was bred early in Sydney. Go back to the era of walking space around the outside of trams which had separate boarding doors. Jockeying for a position, definitely not behind a slower horse, skirting fore and aft, was the ploy to find a seat for some, or others just to avoid paying a penny to a conductor, not out of necessity but for the sport of it.

Perhaps at the time those advanced in years and unsteady on hoof would get onto a racecourse tote queue being sedate where only win and place were offered before daily doubles and quinellas rather the urgency of the betting ring.

Much has been made of the yellow line in the member’s enclosure at Randwick, around the rails bookmakers, over which females could not venture and were apprehended by green coats, aged veterans employed to keep them in place. But it was dangerous territory. The surge of a punter’s rush would have grounded many.

While the rank and file crushed inwards to get set with fielders nothing was sacred. Bill Waterhouse could write betting tickets faster than any other human fingers. Alas there was the hazard of plungers, credit or nod clients, betting big, who would cry over the rank and file, sending the price down. Often with snarls of dismay the mob disintegrated.

A fond memory was bookmaker Harry Broadley at the provincials. With a cigarette flaming Broadley, when beset by ten deep customers at Wyong, instigated by a Jack Denham good thing, would cry: “You are all on”, signalling he would be betting the odds on the board for everyone.

The Australian Jockey Club would not license Broadley in town, maybe a premonition. Broadley last struck the headlines at Harold Park trots, renowned as the “Red Hots”. Following his policy, he let everyone on. After the race all that was left was an empty bookmaker’s bag. No Broadley.

Of course, the Poms were great queuers, an experience I witnessed in the 1960’s. Lines would form for buses, trains, and fish shops. Everything seemed subservient, a tug the forelock mentality possibly, or more a habit of lining for food rations in the War years.

Anyway British bookmakers, who chalked odds on boards, didn’t encourage customers to stampede. At the first indication of any support for a horse a wet sponge would be produced, all odds would disappear with a splash and they would await activity to subside before slowly listing them again.

Currently worldwide all betting can be done by computer. Sure, for major spring meetings in Sydney and Melbourne there will be queues. Food and drink consumers will outnumber those having a punt. Over the odds, a longer price, for small amounts on hot favourites and bonus bets will be placed on mobile telephones.

Hopefully there will be some life in betting rings for the outstanding races. Any punter, though, asked to line up by a bookmaker should go to the tote.