Betting Stories and Anecdotes

Like fishers and golfers, punters love to swap tales of betting stories.

One of the most famous occurred in 1981 when Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee, two of Australia's greatest ever cricketers, backed England to beat Australia in a match they were taking part in at the incredible odds of 500-1. England, thanks to the superhuman exploits of Ian Botham promptly won the match, reducing Marsh to tears at the loss even though he had just pocketed a massive profit.

In more recent years, in the light of the Hansie Cronje tragedy and the match fixing scandal that has engulfed cricket, people have looked back on the Marsh/Lille bet in disbelief. If it happened today the two would have had the book thrown at them and been accused of deliberately throwing the match (which they certainly did not) - but back in 1981 the world was a simpler and more trusting place.

Speaking of fixes, one of the stupidest of the lot would have to the Fine Cotton scandal. This involved replacing a bad horse with a good horse, with those in the know taking advantage of the good odds. Sounds plausible enough, right? Unfortunately the two horses didn't even look alike so the substitute was given rough coat of paint to cover this up, but the whole thing was done so badly that almost everyone on course became aware of the sting and the (high profile) people involved were found out almost instantly.

As a punter, one of the stories that brings tears of sympathy to my eyes occurred in 1993 at the Lord's test match. Imagine deciding to have a crazy bet on something that had never happened, nor ever looked like happening, in the then 116 year history of test match cricket. The punter, who stood to win a small fortune, then had to watch in amazement as the impossible became improbable, then possible, then likely, then virtually certain and then failed to happen at the very final hurdle.

No collection of betting stories would be complete without mentioning the exploits of the late Kerry Packer. Australia's richest man was renowned for having such enormous bets that some bookmakers were able to retire and buy waterfront homes from their wins, while others had to retire because of the stress and stomach ulcers caused by their losses. Packer was regarded as the biggest gambler in the world and used to famously win and lose tens of millions of dollars in single settings at casinos, often extravagantly tipping croupiers and fellow punters on his way out.

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