Fitzdares Times | issue 1 by Fitzdares

R E Q U I R E D R E A D I N G F O R T H E D I S C E R N I N G G A M B L E R • F I T Z D A R E S. C O M • F I R S T E D I T I O N, C H R I S T M A S 2 0 1 4

LOW LIFE Why the dogs and dating don’t mix

HIGH LIFE The day I beat a tennis pro

The changing face of rugby training

Singles to win – ten top gambling songs

BY DENIS MANN

BY LEWIS DEYONG

BY BUDGE ROGERS AND SERGE BETSEN

BY NICK ANGEL

FEAST OF SPORT Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Fitzdares Times – by Balthazar Fabricius

HANKS TO A TRADITION picked up from my father, I have long enjoyed reading The Spectator’s Christmas edition and it dawned on me that there was no sports equivalent, let alone one that was gamblingorientated, that one could dip in and out of throughout the holiday season. This is strange, given December hosts some of the best sporting action of the entire year, be it horse racing, the arrows, a bumper Premier League fixture list… and in 2022 maybe even a World Cup?

Gambling is a habit most of us have picked up from our ancestors. On a visit to Telford for the UK Snooker Championship I found out that my late grandfather used to play backgammon with Clive Everton. My great-grandmother loved to follow Sir Peter O’Sullevan and Clive Graham’s selections in the Daily Express. It was with our fathers that we most likely went to our first racecourse, football or rugby match. Father and son connections run deep at Fitzdares. I was pushed around racecourses in a pram, first at Lingfield, then

Goodwood. Guy Rogers, our CEO, was born with a rugby ball in his hand on account of his father being an England captain. (You will be fascinated to read Budge’s account of training in the Sixties compared to the modern-day training methods talked through by Serge Betsen.) Ed Churchward, our COO, has polish DNA – that is to say his father Patrick captained the England polo team. And my co-founders Ben and Zac Goldsmith’s father famously bred and coowned Montjeu, one of the greatest racehorses and stallions we will ever see.

Not to be outdone, Ben has already bred his own superstar in the 2012 Melbourne Cup winner Green Moon. So sport is in our blood, together with a passion for service – a combination we felt was lacking in the industry when we founded Fitzdares in 2005. It is hard to believe that 2015 will be our 10th anniversary. So many memories… of friends made, courage shown, staggering wins, unlucky losses. Adrenalin coursing through your veins. We have been there with you. Every. Step. Of. The. Way. →

02 British Luxury Service Sponsored by Mischon de Reya

Claridge’s The Fat Duck Fitzdares Harrods The Savoy

Ben Goldsmith, Balthazar Fabricius and Harry Collins at the Walpole British Luxury Awards, 3 November 2014

→ It is this unique relationship between gambler and bookmaker that we wanted to reinvent. As A Few Good Men’s Col. Jessep would say, “We use words like honour, code, loyalty.” I would add mutual respect. Such qualities are rare in this day and age, and consequently something to be treasured. I am grateful to all our contributors. Sir Mark Prescott makes compelling reading. There is an opportunity for someone at the BHA to be a hero and to make this simple change. The year has seen some glorious moments of sport. The Honours Board (right) mirrors perfectly my heart rate at various times throughout the year. However expensive it proved to be, my personal highlight was Rory McIlroy’s fairway wood on the par-five 10th at Valhalla to within seven feet to make eagle. What a stroke of genius that was. Enjoy the holidays – we look forward to hearing from you, and may 2015 get our pulses racing once more. ■

SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE Bring in the New Year with one of our topical accumulators for 2015?

LOW BALL Novak Djokovic to win Australian Open Australia to win the Ashes New Zealand to win Rugby World Cup UKIP to get 8 or more seats at the GE

25/1

THIS YEAR’S TOP TEN BETS

COMPETITION WINNERS 2014

SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER (2013) INVESTED £200 DOUBLE SELECTION Abbey Clancy @ 6/1

THURSDAY 24 JULY INVESTED £75.97 WIN TREBLE SELECTION Tim Clark @ 50/1

RBC Canadian Open Freddy Q @ 11/4 17:40 Bath Maverick Wave @ 6/4 19:40 Lingfield

Strictly Come Dancing Sam Bailey @ 10/1 The X Factor

RETURNED £15,400

RETURNED £36,323.16

SUNDAY 3 FEBRUARY INVESTED £20,000 SELECTION Seattle -12 points @ 9/2

WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER INVESTED £500 TRIXIE (£2,000)

Super Bowl XLVIII

Selection

RETURNED £110,000

TUESDAY 11 MARCH INVESTED £25,000 E/W SELECTION Present View @ 8/1 – 17:15 Cheltenham Festival

RETURNED £66,328.13

RETURNED £300,000

THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER INVESTED £300 E/W TREBLE (£600) SELECTION Reaﬃrmed @ 7/1

THURSDAY 8 MAY INVESTED £50 E/W SELECTION Martin Kaymer @ 100/1

20:00 Wolverhampton Bilash @ 7/1 (15/2) 20:30 W’hampton Daaree @ 2/1 21:00 W’hampton

Players Championship

RETURNED £6,350

TUESDAY 1 JULY INVESTED £125 WIN DOUBLE SELECTION Fifa World Cup

HIGH BALL Rory McIIroy to win Masters Real Madrid to win Champions League

Draw 0-0 @ 11/1 Argentina vs Switzerland Draw 0-0 @ 7/1 Belgium vs United States

RETURNED £12,000

England to win Rugby World Cup

500/1

RETURNED £190,000

DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY STEFANO ARATA AT GOOD COMPANY

THISISGOODCOMPANY.COM

· © FITZDARES

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION 1 The Silver Fox £13,500 2 Pemberton £4,500 3 Hunter £2,250 4 Sensible Golf £1,250 5 David Crayon £650 6 OGS V £450

AWARDS

FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER INVESTED £16,000 SELECTION Take The Train @ 18/1

WALPOLE NOMINATION BEST LUXURY SERVICE 2014

RETURNED £304,000

INCLUDED IN SPEAR’S 500 2015 ESSENTIAL FOR BOOKMAKING

Walpole is a unique alliance of Britain’s finest luxury brands. Burberry, Jimmy Choo, Claridges, Harrods, Alexander McQueen, Orient Express, The Savoy and Fitzdares a are among Walpole’s membership of 160 of the world’s biggest names in luxury. Representing a diverse range of British businesses, what unifies Walpole members is their commitment to the best – in quality, design, craftsmanship, service, tradition and innovation. t Dedicated to nurturing the next generation of Britain’s luxury brands, Walpole runs the annual talent mentoring programmes ‘Crafted’ and ‘Brands of Tomorrow’. Since Fitzdares was nominated in 2007, t we have t connected them to Britain’s best up-and-coming craftspeople as well as a network of senior mentors and luxury entrepreneurs from within Walpole’s established brand membership. Seven years on we were delighted to recognise Fitzdares with a nomination for Best Luxury Service at our annual awards. W

Together Walpole members represent an industry predicted to be worth £12.2 billion by 2017, a leading creator of jobs in the UK and a major contributor to the British economy. Their mission: to promote, protect and develop the British luxury industry, both at home and abroad. For more information on becoming a member of Walpole, to become a corporate partner or discuss sponsorship opportunities, or to apply for our Crafted or Brands of Tomorrow programmes, please call +44 (0) 203 004 2556 or email ashleigh.brown@walpolebritishluxury.co.uk

Best services for high net worths BRANDS OF TOMORROW

Open Championship

GOING FOR GOALS 1 Henry Guiver £5,760 2 Nichol’s Ninjas £1,184 2 GT United £1,184 2 Four Pints of Gazprom £1,184 5 Hampden Funky Muppets £96 5 Darryl Emery £96 5 Oí, árbitro! £96

RETURNED £64,293.75

Race 4, Charles Town

WEDNESDAY 16 JULY INVESTED £10,000 SELECTION Rory McIlroy @ 18/1

Andy Murray to win Wimbledon

Barnmore @ 9/2 19:40 Kempton Park Anglo Irish @ 11/4 20:10 Kempton King Calypso @ 11/4 20:40 Kempton

MASTERS COMPETITION 1 Tony Foster £16,640 2 Nicholls J £5,120 3 The Roland Masters £2,560 4 RWNGC Masters £1,024 5 Pencad and Amen Brother share £256

Congratulations on some fantastic picks in 2014, you all know who you are. 2014

02 British Luxury Service Sponsored by Mischon de Reya

Claridge’s The Fat Duck Fitzdares Harrods The Savoy

Ben Goldsmith, Balthazar Fabricius and Harry Collins at the Walpole British Luxury Awards, 3 November 2014

→ It is this unique relationship between gambler and bookmaker that we wanted to reinvent. As A Few Good Men’s Col. Jessep would say, “We use words like honour, code, loyalty.” I would add mutual respect. Such qualities are rare in this day and age, and consequently something to be treasured. I am grateful to all our contributors. Sir Mark Prescott makes compelling reading. There is an opportunity for someone at the BHA to be a hero and to make this simple change. The year has seen some glorious moments of sport. The Honours Board (right) mirrors perfectly my heart rate at various times throughout the year. However expensive it proved to be, my personal highlight was Rory McIlroy’s fairway wood on the par-ﬁve 10th at Valhalla to within seven feet to make eagle. What a stroke of genius that was. Enjoy the holidays – we look forward to hearing from you, and may 2015 get our pulses racing once more. n

SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE Bring in the New Year with one of our topical accumulators for 2015?

THIS YEAR’S TOP TEN BETS

COMPETITION WINNERS 2014

SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER (2013) INVESTED £200 DOUBLE SELECTION Abbey Clancy @ 6/1

THURSDAY 24 JULY INVESTED £75.97 WIN TREBLE SELECTION Tim Clark @ 50/1 RBC Canadian Open Freddy Q @ 11/4 17:40 Bath Maverick Wave @ 6/4 19:40 Lingfield

Strictly Come Dancing Sam Bailey @ 10/1 The X Factor

RETURNED £15,400

RETURNED £36,323.16

SUNDAY 3 FEBRUARY INVESTED £20,000 SELECTION Seattle -12 points @ 9/2

WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER INVESTED £500 TRIXIE (£2,000)

Super Bowl XLVIII

RETURNED £110,000

Selection

LOW BALL Novak Djokovic to win Australian Open Australia to win the Ashes

TUESDAY 11 MARCH INVESTED £25,000 E/W SELECTION Present View @ 8/1 – 17:15

New Zealand to win Rugby World Cup UKIP to get 8 or more seats at the GE

25/1

Cheltenham Festival

RETURNED £66,328.13

RETURNED £300,000

THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER INVESTED £300 E/W TREBLE (£600) SELECTION Reaﬃrmed @ 7/1

THURSDAY 8 MAY INVESTED £50 E/W SELECTION Martin Kaymer @ 100/1

20:00 Wolverhampton Bilash @ 7/1 (15/2) 20:30 W’hampton Daaree @ 2/1 21:00 W’hampton

Players Championship

RETURNED £6,350 TUESDAY 1 JULY INVESTED £125 WIN DOUBLE SELECTION Fifa World Cup

HIGH BALL

Draw 0-0 @ 11/1 Argentina vs Switzerland Draw 0-0 @ 7/1 Belgium vs United States

RETURNED £12,000

Andy Murray to win Wimbledon England to win Rugby World Cup

500/1

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION 1 The Silver Fox £13,500 2 Pemberton £4,500 3 Hunter £2,250 4 Sensible Golf £1,250 5 David Crayon £650 6 OGS V £450

AWARDS

FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER INVESTED £16,000 SELECTION Take The Train @ 18/1

WALPOLE NOMINATION BEST LUXURY SERVICE 2014

RETURNED £304,000 WEDNESDAY 16 JULY INVESTED £10,000 SELECTION Rory McIlroy @ 18/1

GOING FOR GOALS 1 Henry Guiver £5,760 2 Nichol’s Ninjas £1,184 2 GT United £1,184 2 Four Pints of Gazprom £1,184 5 Hampden Funky Muppets £96 5 Darryl Emery £96 5 Oí, árbitro! £96

RETURNED £64,293.75

Race 4, Charles Town

Rory McIIroy to win Masters Real Madrid to win Champions League

Barnmore @ 9/2 19:40 Kempton Park Anglo Irish @ 11/4 20:10 Kempton King Calypso @ 11/4 20:40 Kempton

MASTERS COMPETITION 1 Tony Foster £16,640 2 Nicholls J £5,120 3 The Roland Masters £2,560 4 RWNGC Masters £1,024 5 Pencad and Amen Brother share £256

B O O D L E S .C O M / B L O S S O M

INCLUDED IN SPEAR’S 500 2015 ESSENTIAL FOR BOOKMAKING Best services for high net worths

Open Championship Congratulations on some fantastic picks in 2014, you all know who you are.

RETURNED £190,000

DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY STEFANO ARATA AT GOOD COMPANY

THISISGOODCOMPANY.COM

· © FITZDARES

2014

5:08 PM

04 SPEAKER’S CORNER Sir Mark Prescott, Bt

THE WHIP RULE

ANY PARENTS, ALL GOVERNMENTS AND MOST racing authorities seem to forget two ancient adages that will always hold true: don’t make rules you can’t enforce and never make a threat you can’t carry out. Thus the current whip rule is a nonsense. Brought in to prevent playing into the hands of those opposed to the sport by having high-profile excess whip disasters on big race days, it has had the opposite eﬀect. The rule is by and large scrupulously adhered to at minor meetings, where the prize does not justify abusing either the horse or the rule – and few people are watching it anyway. The “abusive” occasions are now solely reserved for the prestige meetings where the prizes are vast and hordes of casual observers, and especially the media and those opposed to the sport, are watching intently. Just what no one wants. The reason for this, of course, is that however severe the breach, the whip rule remains the one rule whereby the breaking of it can aﬀect the result, yet cannot result in disqualification. At present, eight strikes is the trigger for the stewards to review the race, yet even if a jockey hits the horse 37 times, he can’t lose the race! Thus, at high-profile meetings such as the Grand National, Royal Ascot and Champions Day, races are won by short distances, when the winner has flagrantly broken the rules yet retained the race while the rider of the second has observed the rule meticulously. Not only is this unfair, but such infractions also make headline news and excite adverse media comment on what should be our showpiece days. Furthermore, as the rule stands, the other jockey in a close finish is coerced into breaking the rule himself as well, in the knowledge that, if he gets beaten for abiding by the rule, he has no chance of redress.

All that needs to happen to make the game fair to all, acceptable to the public, and a level playing field for the jockeys, is for the authorities to name a number of strokes of the whip that they deem to be permissible and ensure that any excess will result in disqualification. Once it is known that the authorities are man enough to enforce their own rule, however, it won’t in fact be necessary to disqualify any horses.

‘Now you be very careful to stick to the rule regarding whip use, we don’t want any bad publicity for the sport we love, do we?’

T THE MOMENT, BEFORE A BIG RACE, do we really think that in the paddock connections are saying to the jockey: “Now you be very careful to stick to the rule regarding whip use, we don’t want any bad publicity for the sport we love, do we?” No, what they are saying, and what is implicitly understood, is: “Now you do what you have to do to win the race and we’ll worry about any fines etc afterwards.” Under the Prescott System, secure in the knowledge that any excess use of the whip will result in disqualification, the connection’s last words to the jockey will be: “Whatever you do, don’t hit this horse more than seven times.” And particularly so in the bigger races. The result will be that the bigger the race, the less likely it will be that an abuse of the whip rule occurs and no horse will be hit more than six times (never mind seven). It will work, and it will work to everyone’s advantage – all that needs to happen is for the authorities to enforce their own rule: horses won’t be “abused”, jockeys will know that the rule applies to everyone and punters and connections will not see their horse beaten by a rule-breaker. Simple, isn’t it? ■

B O O D L E S .C O M / B L O S S O M

Leading Light (right) edges out Estimate (centre) by a neck in the Ascot Gold Cup in June. Ryan Moore, riding Estimate for Her Majesty the Queen, acted within the rules, while Joseph O’Brien received a ban for striking the winner 11 times.

5:08 PM

02 British Luxury Service Sponsored by Mischon de Reya

Claridge’s The Fat Duck Fitzdares Harrods The Savoy

Ben Goldsmith, Balthazar Fabricius and Harry Collins at the Walpole British Luxury Awards, 3 November 2014

SPECULATE TO ACCUMULATE Bring in the New Year with one of our topical accumulators for 2015?

LOW BALL Novak Djokovic to win Australian Open Australia to win the Ashes New Zealand to win Rugby World Cup UKIP to get 8 or more seats at the GE

25/1

THIS YEAR’S TOP TEN BETS

COMPETITION WINNERS 2014

SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER (2013) INVESTED £200 DOUBLE SELECTION Abbey Clancy @ 6/1

THURSDAY 24 JULY INVESTED £75.97 WIN TREBLE SELECTION Tim Clark @ 50/1

RBC Canadian Open Freddy Q @ 11/4 17:40 Bath Maverick Wave @ 6/4 19:40 Lingfield

Strictly Come Dancing Sam Bailey @ 10/1 The X Factor

RETURNED £15,400

RETURNED £36,323.16

SUNDAY 3 FEBRUARY INVESTED £20,000 SELECTION Seattle -12 points @ 9/2

WEDNESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER INVESTED £500 TRIXIE (£2,000)

Super Bowl XLVIII

Selection

RETURNED £110,000

TUESDAY 11 MARCH INVESTED £25,000 E/W SELECTION Present View @ 8/1 – 17:15 Cheltenham Festival

RETURNED £66,328.13

RETURNED £300,000

THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER INVESTED £300 E/W TREBLE (£600) SELECTION Reaﬃrmed @ 7/1

THURSDAY 8 MAY INVESTED £50 E/W SELECTION Martin Kaymer @ 100/1

20:00 Wolverhampton Bilash @ 7/1 (15/2) 20:30 W’hampton Daaree @ 2/1 21:00 W’hampton

Players Championship

RETURNED £6,350

TUESDAY 1 JULY INVESTED £125 WIN DOUBLE SELECTION Fifa World Cup

HIGH BALL Rory McIIroy to win Masters Real Madrid to win Champions League

Draw 0-0 @ 11/1 Argentina vs Switzerland Draw 0-0 @ 7/1 Belgium vs United States

RETURNED £12,000

England to win Rugby World Cup

500/1

RETURNED £190,000

DESIGNED AND PRODUCED BY STEFANO ARATA AT GOOD COMPANY

THISISGOODCOMPANY.COM

· © FITZDARES

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION 1 The Silver Fox £13,500 2 Pemberton £4,500 3 Hunter £2,250 4 Sensible Golf £1,250 5 David Crayon £650 6 OGS V £450

AWARDS

FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER INVESTED £16,000 SELECTION Take The Train @ 18/1

WALPOLE NOMINATION BEST LUXURY SERVICE 2014

RETURNED £304,000

INCLUDED IN SPEAR’S 500 2015 ESSENTIAL FOR BOOKMAKING

Best services for high net worths BRANDS OF TOMORROW

Open Championship

GOING FOR GOALS 1 Henry Guiver £5,760 2 Nichol’s Ninjas £1,184 2 GT United £1,184 2 Four Pints of Gazprom £1,184 5 Hampden Funky Muppets £96 5 Darryl Emery £96 5 Oí, árbitro! £96

RETURNED £64,293.75

Race 4, Charles Town

WEDNESDAY 16 JULY INVESTED £10,000 SELECTION Rory McIlroy @ 18/1

Andy Murray to win Wimbledon

Barnmore @ 9/2 19:40 Kempton Park Anglo Irish @ 11/4 20:10 Kempton King Calypso @ 11/4 20:40 Kempton

MASTERS COMPETITION 1 Tony Foster £16,640 2 Nicholls J £5,120 3 The Roland Masters £2,560 4 RWNGC Masters £1,024 5 Pencad and Amen Brother share £256

Congratulations on some fantastic picks in 2014, you all know who you are. 2014

parcel with a fish inside, and to the bottom of the bay he went, 1-6 1-6. Furthermore, we had bet a few thousand on the match. Roche was delighted, as he was on a free roll for 25% of our winnings! Next to fall were Cliﬀ Drysdale and his partner, the playwright Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), and then came Newcombe and King on Centre Court, in front of 500 spectators. For a lifetime tennis junkie I was living the dream. What price Wimbledon now! The Newcombe/King match was a breeze, Tony intercepted virtually every ball Alan King hit, turning the match into a singles. Just one point was a touch antsy. I was at the net and somehow a mid-court lob appeared on their side. Newk was prancing around waiting for it to drop, when he suddenly looked up at me and smiled.

My sinking gut told me what was coming next, and sure enough something that looked about the size of an aspirin came flying my way at a most appalling angle. I had dropped my racket head

Lewis Deyong recalls the biggest gamble of his life, rewarded with the greatest return Back in the early Seventies, pro tennis had just begun and was not remotely close to what it has become. Of course the four slams predominated,

but otherwise the top 20-25 players trotted around the USA playing in dinky arenas for peanuts by today’s standards. This was despite a roster packed with famous names that even young readers may recognise: Laver, Rosewall, Smith, Emerson, Ashe, Newcombe, Stolle, Okker... the list was endless. In those days I was living at The Palm Bay Club (the Bay in question being Biscayne Bay, around which Miami has grown up). During the winter season the club was packed. Race trackers from New York, a sprinkling of the Miami Dolphins, the world champion power boat racers, golf major winner Ray Floyd and flocks of exquisite girls to match. I’m sure you get the picture – in the parlance of the times it was “rocking”. It was also an Eden for gamblers. Golf, poker, football betting, backgammon – you name it, we played it. By happenstance there was even a healthy side to life, in the shape of four tennis courts. I have played tennis from the age of eight and in the bright Florida sunshine had a whole winter to sharpen up my serve, which was just as well because tennis suddenly became the focus of our gambling lives. The pro tour was coming to town, the players were all staying at the club and would be playing a two-day pro-am with members (entry fee: $1,000 to charity). The most interesting feature to us, however, was a Calcutta to follow the opening dinner. For those unfamiliar, in a Calcutta every team is “auctioned”, anyone can bid, and the total pool is later redivided between the purchasers of the winner (66%) and runner-up (20%), with the balance going to charity. Our little group of 20-25 amateurs now cast a diﬀerent look at each other. Most were regular players and in the new circumstances a bunch of egos went bananas – and, I may add, into the bay went any concept of camaraderie. The club owner, Connie Dinkler, set the tone for the Calcutta. Her first bid was $5,000 for the team of John Newcombe and Alan King, a famous New York TV comedian. This team had no chance as King had played tennis for maybe two years, and was 50lb overweight. What Connie had done was throw in a prize for the rest to shoot for.

The auction continued as follows: first the amateur was sold alone, and then he picked his partner out of the hat. I was last on the list, and one by one the top pro names disappeared. My great pal Walter Cooke (a celebrated backgammon pro) was paired with doubles specialist Fred Stolle. Walt could not resist a sideways smirk in my direction. The only remaining pro I could see in the room was El Shafei, an Egyptian whose idea of “going to the net” was restricted to the handshake there after match point. Face and ego demanded I buy myself ($2,500); the total for the 25 teams was over $60,000. To put it into perspective, in those days a nice two-bedroom ocean flat at the Palm Bay cost about $40,000.

With a mournful sigh I picked out the last scrap of paper in the hat, and, as I was unrolling it I began to rehearse my few words of backgammon Arabic. Then lightning struck: written

there was the name Tony Roche. Roche, Roche, Roche! The best of the best – winner of the Wimbledon doubles and possessor of the greatest asset any pro could wield in a pro-am: a deadly spinning lefty serve upon which no amateur could lay a glove. Guess who was smirking now? The next day we met. “I hear you’re one of the local hotshots.” His Aussie twang acerbic: “Well, this is what you have to do: get your first serve in against the amateur, and get the amateur’s serve past the pro at the net – I’ll do the rest.” He put me on the left side, remarking: “I’ve won five Wimbledon doubles playing on the left, you’re my first partner to put me in the deuce.” Even so, a little later he did not feel too bad. Our opening match was against Ken Rosewall and film producer Bobby Evans (you might just remember one of his films: The Godfather). However, in this instance I sent Bobby my own

BIG FOUR FOR THE BIG FOUR DJOKOVIC NADAL MURRAY FEDERER

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

FRENCH OPEN

WIMBLEDON

US OPEN

13/8 7/2 11/2 10/1

13/8 5/4 25/1 25/1

2/1 7/1 4/1 6/1

13/8 7/2 9/2 10/1

to a level of self-preservation and by some miracle the aspirin pinged oﬀ for the luckiest volley winner in tennis history, and we broke the Newcombe serve. At the end, sure enough, waiting in the final were Stolle and Cooke. No longer smirking, Walt proposed a hedge of $5,000. I now went against a lifetime of experience and, just to annoy him, refused. The match was on, Stolle to serve. In these matches the pros’ service games are virtually automatic – if they don’t beat you with heat on the first serve, the second arrives with paralysing spin in a totally unexpected direction. To lose a pro’s serve is disaster, capital D. Looking back now at my maybe 60 years of gambling, betting, competing and whatever, I knew this was The Moment of Moments: somehow we got to advantage against the Aussie serve. I was receiving in the advantage court, and as I am a lefty I guessed Fred would serve down the middle to my backhand. If in all the years there was a time for a pure all-or-nothing gamble, that was it. As Stolle’s eyes lifted to follow the toss, I shifted weight to the right, prepared a backhand grip and turned my shoulders to that side. Even underarm to the forehand would have won Fred the point, but – hallelujah! – his head was up and the serve came right along the centre line. I was as ready as I was ever going to be and followed the script every tennis addict learns from birth: eyes down, step in, hit on the rise and follow through. Oﬀ blew the ball right between them: a clean winner. The greatest shot of my life, on the most important point I ever played (before or since). We crossed sides and I heard Walt mumbling: “They broke Stolle’s serve... his serve... they b-b-b-broke it.” His slight habitual stutter now sounded like teeth chattering in the heat. Walt was gone in game one, the rest a formality. Connie Dinkler and Alan King are long gone, as is Walt (a tragic victim of cancer aged 38). Bob Evans is in a wheelchair, and the Palm Bay of the Seventies now exists only in the memory of a few survivors. Fred Stolle stayed on to live in Florida and we became long-term friends. I do see Tony Roche on his occasional coaching trips to London (Lendl, Hewitt and Rafter have featured among his wards). He subsequently beat me in two other pro-am finals (one partnering UK bloodstock agent Andy Smith), but so what – I had already known my moment in time. It will never come again, but in that tiny split second I had won my own Wimbledon. ■ Lewis Deyong has been defying the odds all of his life. He

famously backed Boris Becker @ 66/1 to win Wimbledon in 1985.

O’ER THE HILL Will Roger Federer or Tiger Woods win another major? Lewis Deyong (opposite) can count John Newcombe (above) among his victims

2/1 NO 4/11 YES

My sinking gut told me what was coming next, and sure enough something that looked about the size of an aspirin came flying my way at a most appalling angle. I had dropped my racket head

With a mournful sigh I picked out the last scrap of paper in the hat, and, as I was unrolling it I began to rehearse my few words of backgammon Arabic. Then lightning struck: written

BIG FOUR FOR THE BIG FOUR DJOKOVIC NADAL MURRAY FEDERER

AUSTRALIAN OPEN

FRENCH OPEN

WIMBLEDON

US OPEN

13/8 7/2 11/2 10/1

13/8 5/4 25/1 25/1

2/1 7/1 4/1 6/1

13/8 7/2 9/2 10/1

famously backed Boris Becker @ 66/1 to win Wimbledon in 1985.

O’ER THE HILL Will Roger Federer or Tiger Woods win another major? Lewis Deyong (opposite) can count John Newcombe (above) among his victims

2/1 NO 4/11 YES

OK Sport Fans, the Taki-Fitzdares 2014 award for patriotism goes to our very own Ben Goldsmith, whom I remember hinting to me some time ago that England could win the World Cup in Brazil. As an old and good friend of Ben’s father, I answered that I knew a very good shrink in Harley Street who dealt with patriotic exuberance, but Ben had already hung up on me. Yes, England’s failure in Brazil has to be the big 2014 sport story, although Daily Mail readers might disagree and note that Britain’s Rory McIlroy became the number one golfer in the world, winning two majors, and that had to be the story. Rule Britannia! As far as I’m concerned, an even bigger golf story was the firing of Ted Bishop, president of the US Professional Golf Association, for calling Brit Ian Poulter a “lil girl”. So now we lose our job for as innocuous a remark as that, so God help us. The other story I followed this year was Andy Murray’s fall from grace. Well, that’s what the tabloid press called it, although I certainly don’t think that Murray did as badly as it’s made out. If he ends up in the top five or seven players, what is wrong with that? He won Wimbledon and the US Open in previous years, and since when is a player expected to be as regular a winner as Federer? Murray has done extremely well for someone who lacks a big second serve and who wins on athletic ability, not on stroke power. Perhaps a smaller entourage might take some of the load oﬀ his bank account and make the dour Scot play in a more relaxed and happy atmosphere. I was never a Murray fan, but now I am. He has handled his victories with grace and he will be back, but competition is very hard at the top.

DIARY

Taki Theodoracopulos

I answered that I knew a very good shrink in Harley Street who dealt with patriotic exuberance, but Ben had already hung up on me.

Where the women are concerned, I wouldn’t want to lose my day job – I haven’t got one – by writing anything pejorative about the Williams brothers – sorry, sisters – so suﬃce it to say that I only watch women when Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic and Eugenie Bouchard play because all three are pretty and look even prettier when playing some of the monsters on the female circuit. What has totally changed tennis and has made it boring to watch is technology. Lighter racket frames help players avoid making late contact, and today’s strings allow players to redirect the ball with greater precision from compromised positions and to turn shots that once were doomed into winners. Once upon a time guile and touch could win for a weaker player. No longer. Power is all that counts nowadays, making the game a dull one.

Finally, a few words about athletes and violation, something that seems to have become a sport in America but thankfully is a rarity in Blighty. I am talking about Ched Evans, the Welshman who has paid his dues in prison and now wants to be reinstated at Sheﬃeld United. I read somewhere that Nick Clegg has added his two pennies’ worth. The right of any convicted criminal to work after the completion of his sentence is a fundamental right. Victor Hugo even wrote a novel about that called The Miserable Ones. Place a bet with Fitzdares that Clegg will do badly next year and that England will beat San Marino. Have a happy Christmas and a happier new year. ■

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DIARY

Taki Theodoracopulos

I answered that I knew a very good shrink in Harley Street who dealt with patriotic exuberance, but Ben had already hung up on me.

E X E C U T I V E

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11 pagne and a fancy supper to follow, and with any luck and a following wind… well, who knew. The topography of the ‘Stow’ dog track is (or was) boards bookies adjacent to the finishing line and a steep set of steps to the front, where all the big knobs hung out and from where I would gain a good vantage point as my chosen hound invariably trailed in last. This was my usual station, and tonight it would also give the perfect vantage point from which to see girlie as she arrived. Perfecto! And given a little luck and a following wind… well, who knew. The traps opened and I settled myself in (awaiting the arrival of girlie at any minute). I could just see the dogs tearing around the top bend... traps 1 and 2 starting to pull clear of the chasing pack. 1 and 2, 2 and 1, 1 and 2. Red and blue, blue and red, red and blue… red jacket, the 1 dog. Pulling clear gamely. Trap 1 wins it by a head. Clear as crystal. Not even close. Shergar comes to Walthamstow! Where’s my date anyway? She should be here by now. Ever bet on the outcome of a photo finish? You can do that, you know. I have – though not for some time.

“3/1 this 2 dog. I’ll lay 3/1 this 2 dog in this photo finish. Any takers? 3/1 the 2 dog.” Robbing bastards. Anyone could see the 1 dog had won and here they were trying to pull a flanker for the petrol money home to Romford. Not for me, thanks. A lone voice from the end of the pitch did pique my interest, however…

“1/6 the 1 dog. 1/6 trap 1. 1/6 trap 1. I’ll lay 1/6 this 1 dog.” What a mug! Had this man no respect at all for his money? Had he perhaps a dog of his own? A white labrador, possibly, and with a nice white stick to match? I mean, that meant giving away a pound for every six invested. I mean, that’s 10 quid for every 60, that’s 100 quid for every 600! A bloke could, for example, be two bottles of champagne ahead before his date had even arrived! Well. He could. Couldn’t he? If he was quick and smart, that was…

“Six hundred to win a hundred the one dog please chief.” Remounting the steps and rubbing my hands together. Billy Joel was right, you know – there really is nothing quite like easy money. That and the very considerable kudos emanating from my fellow stone-stepped lieutenants of the track.

“Fucking hell, mate. That’s a heavy lash.” And indeed it was. Not far oﬀ a month’s wages, in fact. But. It’s all good. My animal has clearly won. I have the admiration of my fellow spielers and I am 100 quid ahead before my Dallas extralike date has even arrived! How cool am I?! The outcome of the photo will be any second now.

“5/2 this 2 dog. 1/4 the 1 dog, 9/4 the 2 dog, 2/7 the 1 dog.”

GREYHOUNDS, GOOD FRIDAY, AND THE LONG WALK HOME Denis Mann had his date all worked out: the dogs, dinner and maybe more. What could possibly go wrong? Risk-taker, noun – 1. A person who risks loss or injury in the hope of gain or excitement.

ITTER EXPERIENCE had taught me it would be a mistake to arrive at the track with too much time to spare. Too much time to spare invariably equated to too little (if indeed any) money in the pocket. I had been down that route too many times and knew it would likely result in a long and horribly depressing walk home. And walking home, wherever home happens to be, from east London’s Walthamstow dog track... let’s just say it’s to be avoided if at all possible.

“Ever been dog racing?” I asked my prospective and lovely new date. “Ooh no. It sounds like fun, though!” “Oh it is! You’ll have a ball! And then, afterwards, we’ll hit a nightclub. Bit of bubbly, nice spot of dinner. It’ll be great!” So. Easter weekend and I had it all planned out. In retrospect, I can see it was all a big mistake. Possibly even a quite colossal mistake. I can see that now. But like they say, hindsight is 20/20. But in those days I was still imbued with positivity, and words such as ‘hope’ and ‘optimism’ were ever-present companions. It’s best never to give full rein and expression to such thoughts, however. They are ephemeral at best and should only ever be whispered internally by the gambling man. Hope,

confidence and optimism, when stirred with a healthy dose of naivety, can make for a poor choice of cocktail for a young man with a pocket full of cash. Back in the Eighties I was, in truth, something of a hardcore gambler. Certainly I was never anything less than fearless when it came to chasing my hard-earned, carrying as I did an air of ‘Never mind that bad money, I’ve got some more good stuﬀ here’. Defeat was something I never would – or could – countenance, though I blame my father for that. Dodgy Irish genes, you see. Lee Trevino, a Vegas high roller of considerable note, when asked of his fabled level of play on the green baize explained:

“Big player? Nah. I was when I was a caddy back in the day, mind. When you strike a $50 bet and you haven’t got five bucks in your pocket... Now that’s a big bet.” Yeah. I really got that. So, and with this in mind, I strolled into the track 10 minutes before girlie was due to arrive. (See? I had it all worked out.) Well, theoretically at least. I had exactly 600 quid in my pocket. Not a penny more, not a penny less. It was a considerable sum back then but, good egg that I was, I wanted to show my date a good time. But fivers and tenners only were to be the order of the day today. Today at least. Under no circumstances was I getting in any way involved this evening. No siree. I had bigger and certainly more attractive fish to fry. Small stakes only. Cham-

And then it all seemed to happen at once. At once and with Hollywoodesque timing. And now here come’s girlie! Here comes girlie looking, in that well-worn and time-honoured phrase, like a million dollars! Big shoulders pads. Big hair. Big everything, come to that… Dallas.

“Hey lads! Look at this!” (The ball, gliding across the net towards the Swiss maestro, as the combined heads of a massed Wimbledon crowd swivel in unison…) Well. You get the picture. Dallas notwithstanding, this collective wave of testosterone-fuelled excitement did nothing to distil the tannoy of Walthamstow’s crumbling sound system… BING BONG!

“Here is the result of the photograph. First: trap 2.” WHAT??!!!! TRAP 2! TRAP 2!! HOW CAN THAT POSSIBLY BE??!! I didn’t really hear the rest of it. I didn’t hear it as I had a strange and disturbing sensation deep in my belly. I had experienced the same sensation in Delhi the previous year. A hotel doctor, excessively blessed with the Indian gift of understatement (and clearly competing for the

‘euphemism of the year’ award) casually informed me I may continue to suﬀer “loose motions”.

“Loose motions.” Those were his actual words. In truth, I was a man informed he may suﬀer “moisture” in the face of “a fucking tsunami”! Here, suddenly, was that same horrible feeling again.

“Oh Lord. How could it be? How could that possibly bloody well be??!!” “We all saw it, lads! Did we not? We saw it. It wasn’t even close!!!” My erstwhile companions had now started to sidle away, however (this despite the close proximity and wonderful smell emanating from Dallas’s gigantic head of hair). Comrades in arms? Miserable bastards. But a loser carries a taint and it can be infectious, you know.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “What’s the matter? You’ve got a funny look on your face.” “Er, yeah,” I replied. “I’m all right. You look fab, doll. Have you got any money on you by any chance?” “What?” “Money. Have you got any money on you?” “Noooo. Why have you not got any money?!” “Well. I did have. I did have some money. But I lost it. I lost it all on a photo.” “What do you mean, you lost it on a photo! What are you talking about?!” “Well, if it’s a really close finish, they take a photograph. It is supposed to determine the winner. It’s called a photo finish and you can bet on the outcome.” Her next sentence has haunted me since. Titans of psychiatry have tried to distil the essence of the diﬀerence between the male and female pschye, and failed. Mars and Venus? Freud and Kinsey? Don’t make me laugh. Dallas skittled them out in one simple, heart-crushing sentence:

“So, what you are telling me is that you bet on a dog AFTER IT HAD ALREADY LOST!” Low blow. Just a horribly low blow. But then how can you argue with the ball-breaking logic of that? Women can be soooo unreasonable.

“Well, if you’re going to put it like that!” “Well how else would you put it?!” “Have you really not got any money?” “No!” “What, not even the price of a beer?” “No!” “Jesus. Well that’s it. We’ll have to go. You didn’t bring any comfortable shoes, did you…?” The postscript to this story is that I am now 52. And still single. Odd, that. The Stow was knocked down a few years later. All “aﬀordable starter homes” now (with a fair-sized chunk of my dough ingrained into their very mortar, it might reasonably be argued). I do still, however, believe that line judge was faintly myopic. No, really. See, my dog had a white nose and well, you can see how that might aﬀect things. I also heard how they would jiggle about with the angle of the line when some mug would strike a big bet on a photo finish… like a 600 quid bet, for example. Perhaps he owned that bloody 2 dog himself. Who knew. All the same, I slept well that night, if alone (obviously). Like a baby, in fact. I slept a bit… I woke up and cried. I slept a bit. I woke up and cried… And these days? Oh, I still love a bet, if not with such fire as in the good old, bad old days. But photographs? They’re for Mum and the family album. ■ Denis Mann is a former soldier, actor and journeyman gambler. From running a casino in

Moscow to Aspinall’s on Curzon Street, he has many legendary tales to tell.

TOP DOG THE GREATEST GREYHOUND After an inauspicious start to his career, without a win in his first four races, Ballyregan Bob embarked on a streak of 31 wins, equalling the record of American greyhound Joe Dump in the late Seventies. During these 31 races he broke 13 track records and the biggest price he returned was 4/7. At 9.19pm on 9 December 1986, the Nine o’Clock News on BBC1 was interrupted to televise live his 32nd race from Brighton and

Hove Greyhound Stadium. Ballyregan Bob, who was trained by George Curtis, had captured the nation’s attention and in this 695m race he was bidding to break the World Record. Ballyregan Bob, sent oﬀ at 1/4 on the night, was blessed with a devastating combination of speed and stamina, and from early on in the race the result was in no doubt. At the wire he left the secondplaced dog, Swift Breeze, trailing

by nine-and-a-quarter lengths. Following the result, an emotional Curtis commented that he “we will never see his like again” and retired Bob to stud. His first appointment had already been scheduled for 10am the following morning with a bitch called Jaunty Countess! Mick the Miller may be the world’s most famous greyhound, but Ballyregan Bob was surely the greatest greyhound who ever lived.

“5/2 this 2 dog. 1/4 the 1 dog, 9/4 the 2 dog, 2/7 the 1 dog.”

‘euphemism of the year’ award) casually informed me I may continue to suﬀer “loose motions”.

Moscow to Aspinall’s on Curzon Street, he has many legendary tales to tell.

12 FUTURE PERFECT FUTURE PERFECT Three young European stars who will carry the hopes of their nations over the next decade

JOHN STONES DEFENDER AGE 20 EVERTON & ENGLAND

THE ENGLISH PATIENT Joe Hodgson diagnoses England’s football sickness and demands medication

XCITING TIMES to be an England fan, eh? No, of course they aren’t. But then, things could also be a lot worse. We hardly find ourselves staring bug-eyed into an inky pit of desperation and nothingness, and Mike Ashley is not running the FA (yet). So what is the matter? The problem for England supporters lies in the fact that in 2014 we tried to do things a little differently. For the first time I can remember, we went into a major tournament with genuinely low expectations. Well, we kept them as low as we could. Naturally, the whole point of being a sports fan is that when you say, in reference to your team, ‘“I think we’ll get stuffed today,” what you’re actually saying is “I think we could sneak this!” Nobody wants their team to lose, and even if you expect to lose you’re hoping for a win. That’s just how it works. But there was nothing to suggest before the World Cup that England were contenders. This time we knew our frailties weren’t just in one area; they were distributed evenly throughout the squad. Our goalkeeper was gaffeprone. Our right-back had all the positional awareness of a vacuum cleaner. And our midfield was a creaking, robotic vacuum.

So when the inevitable exit arrived, it didn’t hurt in quite the same way. Instead the familiar crushing sense of disappointment was replaced by a vague, diﬃcult to isolate pang. A feeling that was definitely more deflating than not winning Euromillions (even though you’d

had a sneaky feeling that it might be your week), but nowhere near as impactful as hearing that the girl you really, really like at work has just got engaged to that guy you just can’t stand. And this feeling hung around for a day or two before slowly fading away. Normally, at this postpartum stage, we would just blithely move our focus on to the next major tournament. Already qualification for Euro 2016 looks more or less guaranteed. We also have a crop of new talent emerging. But no one seems to be doing cartwheels of joy in the stands about this news.

The problem, I think, lies in the fact that England

fans now know that from this point on, whatever decisions are made, they will in due course be revealed to have been the wrong ones. No matter how right they may seem – wrong. Let’s get a manager with passion! OK, scrap that. Let’s get a foreign tactical genius! Hmm, that didn’t work either. Let’s get Steve McClaren! Let’s not. Let’s get someone who’s won everything, then! And so on…with the same predictable outcome. And on the pitch it’s always wrong too. In 2001 Sven-Goran Eriksson fumbled his way into a successful midfield axis of Paul Scholes and Steven Gerrard. Injuries thwarted this duo getting a proper run-out in the 2002 World Cup, and by the time Euro 2004 came around Frank Lampard had become an indispensable, freescoring midfielder for his club. So he was shoe-horned into the side

at the expense of Scholes, who was moved to the left flank. I realise there is a huge amount of hindsighting going on here – how were we to know then that Gerrard and Lampard would have all the chemistry of a newly divorced couple? – and even Scholes himself admits that he wasn’t playing well at the time. But there was a balance there – and now it was gone. Why was no manager brave enough to rotate Lampard and Gerrard? It seems that for every England manager, despite the popular saying, there is an “I” in team and it stands for “individual”. Or “incompatible”. Or possibly even “incompetent”. Last summer the problem was trying to accommodate two strikers into a system that only really allowed for one. And again we found ourselves with square pegs forced into round holes, with predictably unsatisfactory results. So there is a prevailing feeling of inevitability surrounding our current team – a feeling that it will all go wrong again soon enough. And this has been coupled with the knowledge that as soon as we come up against anyone remotely decent, we will probably lose. These collective inklings have been slowly transmitted to supporters, who are now reluctant to get excited and reluctant to fill the national stadium. We want to be hopeful, but we are starting to realise that even hope may be a waste of time. I also think there is another factor surrounding the England team, perhaps linked to our newfound pessimism. I genuinely believe, to quite a large extent,

that we’re just really, really unlucky. Our midfield cohesion issues should have been put to bed with the discovery of Owen Hargreaves – but injuries curtailed his career. Whenever England take an injured player to a tournament (see OxladeChamberlain, Alex) he remains devoutly injured, but when Germany took an injured Bastian Schweinsteiger and Sami Khedira to Brazil both contributed eﬀectively to their eventual triumph. Germany also thrived despite having the squarest peg of all, Mesut Özil, plodding around providing influence on the flanks.

Argh! I’m becoming delusional! I really must stop

comparing England to Germany – we are in no way similar! Perhaps it is simply the case that luck arises naturally from a well-prepared and positive approach to tournament football – something that is unlikely to ever transpire on these shores. So what does that leave us to look forward to in 2015? Hmm. If only there were a national football team we could support that is always exciting and never gets old. A team full of hope, that never fails to live up to its potential, that isn’t perpetually ruined by meddling, bungling and persistent shoe-horning. What’s that? There is such a team? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in 2015 and for the rest of time, I shall be supporting England Under-21s. ■ Joe Hodgson is a writer who

regularly blogs at www.fitzdares.com and tweets @fitzdares

Everton’s £3m signing of a relatively unknown defender from Barnsley in January 2013 has proved a bargain. Stones possesses a Bobby Moore-esque reading of the game and tremendous touch and composure. He has already appeared for the England senior side, out of position at rightback; he excelled. His likely standing in the senior setup may be just as well; six of the sevenhighest England U21 appearance makers ever – Tom Huddlestone, Fabrice Muamba, Michael Mancienne, Scott Carson, Steven Taylor and Danny Rose – went on to make only a handful of senior appearances between them. MUNIR EL HADDADI FORWARD AGE 19 BARCELONA AND SPAIN It has taken Munir less than three months to go from Barcelona academy to Spain senior team. He boasts terrific movement and goalscoring ability – but his inclusion for Spain in their recent European Championship qualifier was not without controversy. Critics argued that Spain chose Munir, who has Moroccan parents, in order to nail down his international colours, although Munir was keen to assert that he knew what he was doing. Time will tell whether his decision pays oﬀ. Playing opportunities for Barcelona will be limited with Messi, Suarez , Neymar and Pedro ahead of him in the pecking order at Camp Nou. LEON GORETZKA MIDFIELDER AGE 19 SCHALKE 04 & GERMANY Goretzka was labelled by his former head coach at Bochum as the “talent of the century”. He potentially has it all: he boasts superb technique for player of 6ft 2in and good aerial ability, and he is able to play across the midfield and as a winger. Rated highly by Germany manager Joachim Löw, he would surely have made the World Cup squad had he not been injured.

E l e p h a n t s a nd C a nd e l a br a in S ilv e r F or L u c k y H o m e s . . .

1 0 4 - 1 0 6 F u lha m Rd , Lond on, SW3 6 HS Tel: 0 2 0 7 0 5 2 0 0 0 1 w w w . P AT R I C K M AV R O S . c o m

12 FUTURE PERFECT FUTURE PERFECT Three young European stars who will carry the hopes of their nations over the next decade

JOHN STONES DEFENDER AGE 20 EVERTON & ENGLAND

THE ENGLISH PATIENT Joe Hodgson diagnoses England’s football sickness and demands medication

The problem, I think, lies in the fact that England

Argh! I’m becoming delusional! I really must stop

regularly blogs at www.fitzdares.com and tweets @fitzdares

E l e p h a n t s a nd C a nd e l a br a in S ilv e r F or L u c k y H o m e s . . .

1 0 4 - 1 0 6 F u lha m Rd , Lond on, SW3 6 HS Tel: 0 2 0 7 0 5 2 0 0 0 1 w w w . P AT R I C K M AV R O S . c o m

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SPREAD THE LOVE Harry Streatfeild on the allure and potential of spread betting Offering spread betting was a natural progression for us here at Fitzdares. Its growth and

INCE 1992 THE PERCENTAGE SHARE of the vote achieved by the main two parties in general elections has gradually fallen. There’s no sign of the decline being halted either: an ICM poll in November saw Labour and the Conservatives only claiming a combined 63% of the vote, the lowest share in ICM’s 30 years of polling. This change is mainly due to the pre-2010 rise of the Lib Dems and post-2010 rise of UKIP, the SNP and to a lesser extent the

NEXT LABOUR LABOURLEADER LEADER 3 / 1 YVETTE COOPER

The Shadow Home Secretary would perhaps be an even shorter price if not married to Ed Balls.

4 / 1 ANDY BURNHAM

High-profile as Shadow Health Secretary, but only managed 8.5% in last leadership election.

Green Party. The major parties’ declining share reduces their total seats won and hence the chance of an overall majority. If you look at the 2010 result, the Conservatives polled 36.1% – some 7% higher than Labour – and yet still failed to gain an overall majority. Labour, however, would only need to poll about 2% higher than the Conservatives to gain an overall majority based on universal swing (by no means totally reliable), and polls at the time of writing were suggesting a possible majority of two seats for Labour. The reason it is so much more diﬃcult for the Conservatives to gain a majority is down to “electoral bias”, a subject that could fill many a column but in short it is do with unequal seat sizes, diﬀerential turnout and Welsh overrepresentation, to name just a few factors. So what about a Labour majority? A lot of commentators point to Ed Miliband’s poor leadership ratings. In that ICM poll in November, when people were asked whether Ed was doing a good job, his net

7 / 1 CHUKA UMUNNA

The Shadow Business Secretary perhaps lacks experience – he has only just turned 36.

16 / 1 TRISTRAM HUNT

Now Shadow Education Secretary, but it took him three attempts to even be selected as a Labour constituency candidate.

20 / 1 JIM MURPHY

A Scottish MP, which might cause issues with the West Lothian question (English votes for English laws)

20 / 1 ED BALLS

Safe to say the Shadow Chancellor is not the most popular MP.

TIP

3/1 YVETTE COOPER

FLASHBACK In 1975, four months before the leadership vote, Margaret Thatcher was 50/1 to be Conservative party leader…

score (yes-no) was minus 42 – the worst postwar score for a leader of the opposition with the exception of Michael Foot (who subsequently led Labour in 1983 to its worst postwar general election performance, with just 27.6% of the overall vote). There is also a widely held view that the current upsurge in UKIP’s support will sap

TORYLEADER LEADER NEXT TORY 5 / 2 BORIS JOHNSON

Popular in polling, but would the party risk it with Boris coming under more scrutiny for his personal life and Bullingdon Club history?

9 / 2 THERESA MAY

Seen as a competent Home Secretary and would help to counter accusations of the Tories being male-dominated.

8 / 1 GEORGE OSBORNE

Has done well to take credit for the economic recovery, but perhaps perceived too similar to Cameron.

12 / 1 PHILIP HAMMOND

Eurosceptic Foreign Secretary and generally a safe pair of hands. His view on same-sex marriage might count against him with the general public.

14/ 1 MICHAEL GOVE

Admired within Tory circles, detested outside.

20 / 1 SAJID JAVID

The Rochdale son of a Pakistani bus driver, the Culture Secretary has a background story similar to John Major and Margaret Thatcher.

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4/7 HUNG PARLIAMENT

a bit in a general election compared to byelections. Given that more UKIP voters are ex-Conservatives than ex-Labour, any loss of voters for UKIP ought to help David Cameron (if it happens). Then there is Scotland, where Labour is expected to lose a few seats to the SNP. So where does this leave us? The potential is there for a very messy result. We could easily have a situation where Labour win the most seats but the Conservatives the most votes (a scenario currently quoted at 3/1). Would this be a crime against democracy? And if there is a hung parliament, who will the smaller parties support? Will there be another coalition, or could there be a minority government? At the time of writing the price of a hung parliament was 4 /7. In other words, the market believes there is just a 36% chance that a single party will achieve 326 seats or more. Looking beyond the 2015 election, there will be other things to consider. What happens to UKIP’s support once they get their referendum? And from a betting perspective, if Miliband becomes PM, who will be the next Conservative leader? If Labour flop, who will replace Miliband? Politics is heading for many twists and turns in the coming year, and punters can try to profit from it. ■ for Prime Minister at first *Odds State Opening of Parliament after 2015 general election and party seats spread after the election.

Prices subject to fluctuation; please note spread betting can result in losses greater than your initial deposit or credit limit.

‘It stinks someone has to lose.’

potential profit soon became a thing of the past. At the close of play England were 346/7, with both batsmen on the Lord’s honours board. Eventually England were bowled out for 446, resulting in a loss of £56,400. Only a spread bet could result in such an extraordinary rush of varied emotions – it invariably provides more thrills and spills than fixed-odds betting. Any punter who has been in the game for a while will be able to recount their own great punting stories, although the losing ones are less often mentioned! But that is why we love betting on the sports we follow. Not only do we gain great pleasure from watching sportsmen and women eﬀortlessly do things with a ball that we could only dream of, but also having a spread bet ensures an emotional rollercoaster that no other legal means of entertainment could achieve. ■

At lunch England were 97/5 and on the ropes, and our punter was sitting pretty. When he was

told that the quote was now 270-280, he couldn’t believe his ears and decided to sell another £200. It was cloudy and the ball was still doing plenty, but he had obviously not heard the forecast which pointed to the clouds lifting and the sun coming out in an hour or so. Two more quick wickets fell, however, and England were dead on their feet at 102/7. In walked Stuart Broad to join Jonathan Trott. Our punter was counting his cash: a total of 150 would have resulted in a £62,000 win! But our punter was in for a torrid afternoon. The sun came out, the track flattened out and the ball started to run to the boundary. If you’re an English fan there’s no better sight than a rearguard action, but when each boundary is costing you £1,600 the feeling, I would imagine, is slightly diﬀerent! All

Test batting average Don Bradman

Sports spread betting involves a high level of risk. Remember to bet responsibly.

Byron Nelson ( 1945 )

Harry Streatfeild is Head of Spread Betting and has worked

at Fitzdares since October 2010. Consecutive Wimbledon titles Martina Navratilova

With the most unpredictable general election in memory approaching, Steve Back hunts for the value for punters

Time . . . . . . . 11 hours 5 minutes Consecutive holds of serve . . . . . 168 Isner aces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Mahut aces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Previous aces record . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Points in fifth set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711 Strokes in fifth set . . . . . . . . . . 2,198 Isner on victory:

The first day of the fourth Test against Pakistan had largely been a wash-out, with England struggling to 39/1 by the close. On day two we agreed that the first session would be crucial as it was still gloomy, nature almost pre-empting the darkness that was to engulf our great game. The spread for England’s first innings runs was 340-355. This was probably 60 or 70 lower than if the sun had been out, but it was still a tempting sell; England’s first innings scores in the series to date were 354, 251 and 233. In the experienced Mohammad Asif and the brilliant Mohammed Amir, Pakistan had the perfect partnership to exploit the conditions, and with England having scratched around the day before one punter sold £200 a run.

Consecutive PGA Tour wins

MAJORITY VERDICT

JOHN ISNER VS NICHOLAS MAHUT

Rebounds in an NBA game Wilt Chamberlain ( 1960 )

PM 66/1 8-10 SEATS

PM 11/10 280-286 SEATS

Goals in a year Pelé ( 1959 )

PM 200/1 28-30 SEATS

UNBREAKABLE RECORDS

PM 4/5 288-294 SEATS*

development was why I came on board, and four years down the line I am proud of what we have achieved from our humble beginnings. We now quote hundreds of pre-match and inrunning markets covering almost every eventuality. It is yet another example of our determination to oﬀer a best-of-breed service. We are, as ever, committed to making your betting experience as enjoyable as possible. For those unfamiliar with the premise of spread betting, let me briefly explain. Put simply, the more right you are, the more money you win. This is why it is such a popular way of betting. Everyone likes a winner, but when you’ve backed England to score more than 350 runs at even money in their first innings and they have gone on to get 550, you naturally feel a little short-changed. Conversely, if you had bought their runs on the spreads you would be walking away with a very tidy 200-point profit, or £2,000 if you had bought for £10 a run. I have been in the spread betting industry for all my working life, and there have been many hard/good luck stories. One that sticks out in particular was the punter who thought he would have a ‘little’ bet in a match at Wimbledon in 2010. The match was between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut, and I think some of you can work out where this story is going! No one blinked an eye at 6:10pm on Tuesday 22 June, with the players warming up, when a £10 buy of cross courts at 93 was called in. The cross courts market is a prediction on the aggregate set multi games for a match. So if Isner won 6-4, 63, 3-6, 7-5 the result would have been 95 (6 x 4 + 6 x 3 + 3 x 6 + 7 x 5) and our punter would have walked away with £20 profit – not bad but nothing compared to the eventual payout! Play was suspended for bad light that evening, before the fifth set, at 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6. Our punter had a healthy profit guaranteed, but as he slept he could surely not have dreamt of what was about to happen. The game was again suspended the following evening, after a further seven hours’ play, at 59 games all. The match finally finished the following afternoon after a total of 11 hours and 5 minutes. Perhaps the most remarkable stat was, for one lucky punter at least, the cross court make-up of 4,886, which netted him a profit of £47,930! Of course, not every story ends with the punter winning a fortune. If it did I would be out of a job! So let me balance the scales with one tale of woe that sticks in my mind. The scene for this great tragedy was Lord’s, 27 August 2010. I was fortunate enough to have front-row seats to watch the tale unfold, as my father had kindly taken me to what would turn out to be one of the most infamous days in Test cricket history.

Marathon time Paula Radcliffe ( 2003 )

Length victory in Triple Crown race Secretariat ( 1973 )

SPREAD THE LOVE Harry Streatfeild on the allure and potential of spread betting Offering spread betting was a natural progression for us here at Fitzdares. Its growth and

NEXT LABOUR LABOURLEADER LEADER 3 / 1 YVETTE COOPER

The Shadow Home Secretary would perhaps be an even shorter price if not married to Ed Balls.

4 / 1 ANDY BURNHAM

High-profile as Shadow Health Secretary, but only managed 8.5% in last leadership election.

7 / 1 CHUKA UMUNNA

The Shadow Business Secretary perhaps lacks experience – he has only just turned 36.

16 / 1 TRISTRAM HUNT

Now Shadow Education Secretary, but it took him three attempts to even be selected as a Labour constituency candidate.

20 / 1 JIM MURPHY

A Scottish MP, which might cause issues with the West Lothian question (English votes for English laws)

20 / 1 ED BALLS

Safe to say the Shadow Chancellor is not the most popular MP.

TIP

3/1 YVETTE COOPER

FLASHBACK In 1975, four months before the leadership vote, Margaret Thatcher was 50/1 to be Conservative party leader…

TORYLEADER LEADER NEXT TORY 5 / 2 BORIS JOHNSON

Popular in polling, but would the party risk it with Boris coming under more scrutiny for his personal life and Bullingdon Club history?

9 / 2 THERESA MAY

Seen as a competent Home Secretary and would help to counter accusations of the Tories being male-dominated.

8 / 1 GEORGE OSBORNE

Has done well to take credit for the economic recovery, but perhaps perceived too similar to Cameron.

12 / 1 PHILIP HAMMOND

Eurosceptic Foreign Secretary and generally a safe pair of hands. His view on same-sex marriage might count against him with the general public.

14/ 1 MICHAEL GOVE

Admired within Tory circles, detested outside.

20 / 1 SAJID JAVID

The Rochdale son of a Pakistani bus driver, the Culture Secretary has a background story similar to John Major and Margaret Thatcher.

TIP

20 / 1 SAJID JAVID

TIP

4/7 HUNG PARLIAMENT

Prices subject to fluctuation; please note spread betting can result in losses greater than your initial deposit or credit limit.

‘It stinks someone has to lose.’

At lunch England were 97/5 and on the ropes, and our punter was sitting pretty. When he was

Test batting average Don Bradman

Sports spread betting involves a high level of risk. Remember to bet responsibly.

Byron Nelson ( 1945 )

Harry Streatfeild is Head of Spread Betting and has worked

at Fitzdares since October 2010. Consecutive Wimbledon titles Martina Navratilova

With the most unpredictable general election in memory approaching, Steve Back hunts for the value for punters

Consecutive PGA Tour wins

MAJORITY VERDICT

JOHN ISNER VS NICHOLAS MAHUT

Rebounds in an NBA game Wilt Chamberlain ( 1960 )

PM 66/1 8-10 SEATS

PM 11/10 280-286 SEATS

Goals in a year Pelé ( 1959 )

PM 200/1 28-30 SEATS

UNBREAKABLE RECORDS

PM 4/5 288-294 SEATS*

Marathon time Paula Radcliffe ( 2003 )

Length victory in Triple Crown race Secretariat ( 1973 )

TRAINING IN THE By Serge Betsen France 1996-2006

By Budge Rogers OBE England 1961-69 THE FIRST THING that has to be pointed out about training in the Sixties is that the game was totally amateur, with all players having full-time careers, and there were no coaches. As a consequence, training took place on Tuesday and Thursday evenings on a club basis and other evenings for those keen enough like myself. The sessions were organisised by the club captain, or perhaps a PE teacher at his club, and followed a similar pattern at all senior clubs. Pre-season training started on 1 August and for the first two weeks comprised road runs of about four miles and then stretching exercises. For the rest of the season the format was on the lines of: Four laps of the pitch at ¾ pace A few lengths of the pitch carrying another player piggy-back A series of press-ups Lengths of the pitch hopping Stretching exercise, particularly hamstrings A series of stomach exercises Star-jumps 10-15 highly competitive lengths of the pitch: walking 22m, trotting 22m and sprinting 22m A series of short 10-yard sprints, turning and sprinting back Lengths of the pitch passing

the ball between six players Team practice, with forwards doing scrummaging and line-out work and backs practising moves. Finally, 2-3 laps of pitch at near sprint The whole session lasted about 1½ hours and you will note a complete absence of weights and no water breaks – we didnt know about dehydration in those days, we were told that water would bloat us and hinder our performance. You can see that the emphasis was on stamina and speed to the exclusion of bodybuilding. Any additional personal sessions were similarly about stamina and speed. The season ended on the last Saturday in April, by which time most players had played 35–40 games. Similary, international sides during the Sixties had no training or practice together other than the Friday before the game, when again a short practice was run by the captain.

I TRANSFERRED TO LONDON WASPS from Biarritz in 2008, and it was there that I encountered the strictest training regime of my career. Pre-season training began two months before our first match. It was incredibly intense, to mimic the intensity of a match, and players would often vomit in the first five minutes of a session. At Biarritz I had been one of the fittest players, but when I arrived at Wasps I was often last in the shuttle-runs and had to work extremely hard to catch up. One of the toughest parts was when we went to the training facility in Spala, Poland. Every minute of our day was planned – some days we would train from 6am to 8pm on a variety of things such as water training, fitness drills, weights and my least favourite part: the cold chamber. Recovery is a huge part of pushing your body to the limit, and to that end the coaching staff had us endure two minutes in a freezing mist at minus 130°C only wearing socks, shorts, gloves and a face mask, twice a day, every day. This is also known as cryotherapy and is even more unpleasant than it sounds! At Biarritz we would have two weights sessions each week – upper and lower body – but at Wasps I spent more time in the gym than on the pitch. Each weights session was different – strength, speed or power endurance. When I arrived the fitness coaches had me doing a different weights programme from the other players to give me time to adapt to the demanding regime. To design a programme that makes sure each player uses the facilities as efficiently as possible takes serious coordination between the coaching staff. At Wasps we had five fitness coaches, five physios and masseurs and five rugby coaches: director of rugby, skills coach, defence coach, backs coach and forwards coach. The coaches would strategise to incredible depth to perfect our routines. For example, the physical sessions were often 41 minutes long, which is the average time a ball is in-play during a match. Every week in pre-season the intensity increased and the players went from strength to strength. By the time I played my first match I was ready to rumble! Intensity would gradually decrease as the season progressed, as we were match fit and the goal was to keep us that way. A typical week in the lead-up to a match might look like this:

Monday: 100% recovery and massage Tuesday: video analysis of the match and strategy for forthcoming match Wednesday: physical, demanding day. Full contact training Thursday: rest and massage day Friday: final preparations – speed, execution and timing training

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Our diets were strictly controlled and data was used to make sure each player ate the correct amount at the right time. Once, on the day before an away match, I saw on the schedule that we would have a full dinner at 6.30pm when we arrived at our hotel and then also soup and sandwiches at 9.30pm. This was because players would lose extra weight in the 24 hours before the match due to pre-match nerves! Finally a word on international training. The step up to playing in front of millions of people was huge. The formula that worked best for me was to train incredibly hard when I was with my club so that before an international I had more time to myself to concentrate on the extra mental demands. Mindset is incredibly important when you’re playing with the best in the world. It is a totally diﬀerent level and you have to be fully committed. ■ The Serge Betsen Academy raises money for underprivileged children. Visit www.sergebetsen.net for more information.

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TRAINING IN THE By Serge Betsen France 1996-2006

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FITZDARES OBJET D’ART By Phillip Martyn

OOTBALL IS BEST PLAYED on a sound surface, and backgammon is no diﬀerent. A well-designed playing surface is essential. When Balthazar asked me if I would make a few suggestions to improve the prototype of a Fitzdares backgammon board, I was delighted. The result was that some lucky members ended up with a beautifully crafted product that to my mind ranks as the best board I have ever played on. What was important to us was the finish. We went to great lengths to ensure that some key features were exactly as we wished. A fine noiseless leather board; clear contrasting colours for the points; well weighted pieces that fitted exactly; a totally flat area to place pieces that were on the bar; dice that were top-quality together, with solid cups as shakers which had lips on to guarantee fair rolls. The accent was on everything looking and feeling right. Even though most backgammon is now played on computers, there is still great pleasure to be had from playing on a beautiful board that will last for many years. ■

I remember this game very well. The photo was a promo for a match Joe Dwek and I played against an American team at the Clermont. The Rolex was a present from Jackie Stewart, who, like Joe and Lewis Deyong (see p6), is a close friend to this day.

WAS FIRST INTRODUCED to the Author JP Donleavy in 1972, and most particularly to his novel The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B, by my husband Rod. We were living and working in London at the time and the flames of love were fanned through this most unusual and romantic book. Rod read it to me over endless evenings as we became enraptured with the protagonist and his beloved Fitzdare. We could both relate to the poignancy between the aristocracy and the penniless existence of bedsit life at university and in London. The friendship and exchanges between Balthazar and his dear friend Beefy also kept us highly amused. So it was on that note that, starry-eyed, we promised each other that if we were ever fortunate enough to have a son we would call him Balthazar. And lo it was on 24 May 1979 that our bundle of joy Balthazar B came into our lives for real. To mark the event, Rod bought me a beautiful gold bangle with the Donleavy words “For Now Out Walks a Man”, which is one of my most treasured possessions and has adorned my arm ever since. Throughout his childhood, hardly a day went by when I wasn’t questioned as to why Balthazar had such a name, particularly with such an unusual surname of Fabricius to boot. Friends asked whether he was named after one of the Three Wise Men, the Alexander Quartet by Lawrence Durrell, or a famous stone in the middle of one of the Greek islands called Balthazar – or was it even a penchant for Champagne? For the children growing up, it was never a problem, but Rod and I were given many side glances for years on the touchlines at football matches and other activities by parents who thought we were probably “oﬀ-the-wall Bohemian types” it was better to steer clear of! Equally, many others have marvelled at his name and only

“One of the most perfect love affairs in modern literature”

TAKI HIGH LIFE, SPECTATOR, 31 DEC 2005: ‘And now for the very good news. At my advanced age I’ve become a… bookie. Mind you, a top-of-the-line bookie, but a bookie nevertheless. My partners are Teddy, Zac, and Ben Goldsmith, James Osborne and two geniuses we stole from Ladbrokes. The name of our firm is F I T Z DA R E S , and I will offer a very good bottle of Champagne to the first reader who guesses why we named the company thus.’

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Actually quite a lot, so it may seem, says Debbie Fabricius wished that they had been brave enough to be a bit diﬀerent too. Nowadays, of course, it is all water oﬀ a duck’s back, with Brooklyn, Romeo, Harper, Apple and Moses leading the way. I find it impossible not to take a matchbox

Although a shortlist was drawn up and a few names batted about, in a Eureka moment it soon became obvious that Fitzdares was THE ONLY way to go. Another oﬀspring was born and the rest is, as they say…

(or three) home with me from the restaurant that bears his name in New York and London, not to mention put some pennies on Balthazar King whenever he runs. (How exciting was Cheltenham and the Grand National!) Over the years, our link to Mr Donleavy has continued. When to our joy we discovered that the play of The Beastly Beatitudes was being produced in the West End with Patrick Ryecart as Balthazar and Simon Callow as Beefy, we were the first ones through the door. Then he held an art exhibition in London a few years ago. He had a wonderful painting of a horse’s head which would make the perfect 50th birthday present for Rod after a lifetime in the horseracing world. Thanks to a very helpful and fascinated curator and a lot of help from Balthazar, I was able to purchase the picture. Balthazar was able to actually meet Mr Donleavy, now a very old man who was slightly aghast that his book had had such a profound eﬀect on two such people – which only goes to prove the power of the written word. The story has a very happy ending when Balthazar, who has borne his name with pride and took the baton and ran with it, needed to decide on a name for his fledgling business venture.

Balthazar Fabricius writes… We thought Fitzdares was an appropriate name for our bookmaker because it had the back story of Balthazar B regularly whisking Fitzdare oﬀ to Leopardstown races, and most wonderfully it had the word “dare” in it. Someone did try to kill the romance of the story by telling me that “Fitz” during the Stuart era and beyond pointed to the illegitimate children of various kings and princes – FitzJames and FitzClarence for example. I was very grateful for a sweet girl who immediately interjected, saying this made the name all the more romantic because to be a bastard meant that you were born out of passion! ■

FITZDARES OBJET D’ART By Phillip Martyn

“One of the most perfect love affairs in modern literature”

IN MY FORMER LIFE F

An aching Chaz Lee remembers four stages of his two-wheeled marathon

Clive Harris had the world of squash at his feet. Then he ran into a man-child named Gonzalo…

Nadia Comaneci Finished 13th in the Romanian National Gymnastics Championship at eight years of age. First woman to score a perfect 10 (uneven bars). The scoreboard had to display the score as a 1.0 as makers Omega had been told prior to the tournament that a 10.00 was impossible. She went on to win five Olympic golds. Freddy Adu Signed for DC United at the age of 14, becoming the youngest player in 115 years to sign a Major League contract. In his first season he played 30 times, scored five goals and DC United won the MLS Cup. His career gradually petered out after then as he journeyed to Benfica, Monaco, Aris in Greece and Caykur Rizespor in Turkey. Beverly Klass At the age of eight, she won the 1964 National PeeWee Golf Championship by 65 strokes. She turned pro at the age of nine, having won 25 amateur tournaments. After 12 seasons in the LPGA with no wins, she retired from competition in 1988 and worked as a club pro in Florida until 2008.

hings happened pretty quickly over the next few years. I still trained twice a week but I was entering and winning age group tournaments above myself. Before my ninth birthday I was asked into the Hong Kong head coach’s oﬃce at the Sports Institute. In that 20-minute conversation I was asked if I wanted to take the first step to becoming a professional squash player. I was oﬀered a scholarship that would pay me HK$500 a month (around £40) and give me the necessary one-on-one coaching and guidance to take my squash to the next level. I promised myself I would be the best I could possibly be, as training was stepped up several notches to three or four times a week. The summer holidays were even

Stage 14

Clive Harris is Head of Rugby and has worked at Fitzdares since January 2008, shortly after leaving university

This was the most ridiculous day I’ve ever had on the bike. The stage was 120.5 miles long, starting with a 13-mile descent from the ski resort of Chamrousse. Pouring with rain and only 4°C, we were soaking right from the oﬀ. It was the usual story of starting slowly to warm up the knee and preparing for the hell that was to come: 75 miles uphill in total. The Col du Lautaret was a casual 22 miles long, on which I discovered I’d snapped my handlebars. I probably damaged them flying into the ditch on stage 5 and then finished

climbing worth it – but there is no doubt the mountains here are harder than the Alps. In the Alps the climbs can be 20 miles long but they are generally constant, so you just tap out a rhythm and slowly grind your way to the top,

start of training

87.5 kg it also seemed determined to destroy my beloved bike! We’d all had a bit of a shock the previous day when one of the team was airlifted to hospital after crashing into a car on a descent.

240 x

HIGHEST GRADIENT

rain pouring down. Then from the bottom it was pretty much straight on to the next climb, the Col d’Izoard, an iconic 13-mile ascent. I was cold at the bottom and it only got colder on the way up! It’s a brutal climb, but from what I saw of it it’s also stunning. With a 20-mile descent to come, I put on every item of clothing I could find – base layer, two jerseys, long-sleeved jersey, two gilets and a rain jacket – and set oﬀ. I absolutely froze despite all the extra clothing, and hands in long-fingered gloves went numb within minutes. Then it was on to the final climb up to Risoul, an eight-mile ascent, and although I felt good the day had clearly taken its toll as I had very little power left in the legs. There were many times that day when I saw a car go by and thought to myself, “Christ it

Stage 17

At 76 miles, this stage seems so short, but the four categorised climbs made it brutal. Distance means nothing in the mountains – it’s all about the climbing and the type of climbing. It was up to 38°C in the sun and I must have sweated more than I have ever done. The climbs were all between six and nine miles long and were seriously steep. There’s a saying in cycling that “the Alps are for tourists and the Pyrenees are for purists”, and I can see why. The Pyrenees are unbelievable, so untouched and beautiful, almost making all the

TEMPERATURES

lowe we est -2º C | highest 45º C

INTAKE

HIGHEST CLIMB

Izoard: 2 2,360m 3 36

= 42,000m ASCENDING

cobbles

WORST ROAD

CRASHES

3 % 33

yoghurt yog 5x pain au chocolat ham&cheese saandwich cereal c

4 000 – 5,0 4,00 5 000 0 calo lo lories o ories per day

start of tour

70 kg

MAXIMUM SPEED 101 1 km / h

This was an incredibly eventful ride: 103 miles across nine sections of cobbled roads in northern France. The day started oﬀ with my back wheel breaking, so I had to steal the mechanic’s spare. Then on the first section of cobbles both our doctors decided to up the pace in our breakaway group, so much so that on the first bend five out of seven of us went flying straight oﬀ into a ditch. Having climbed out of the ditch (easier said than done), I realised I’d escaped with a just few scratches and bruises, but unfortunately someone had a broken rib. My legs were pretty tired but I was feeling strong. Time for a cold shower and massage, before a 130miler the next day.

would be easier to just hail one down and get a lift.” But then you start to think of everyone who has been so generous in sponsoring you – I don’t think I could look them in the face ever again if I did something like that.

THE TOUR 2,319.29 miles | 23 days | 21 stages | 2 rest days HIGHEST GRADIENT 33%

t sounds odd to say, but I definitely reached the peak of my squash powers as a 12-year-old. I was crowned under-13 Asian champion and dominated the under-16 age group in Hong Kong. I was travelling around Asia and winning. I remember loving this not only because I was playing excellent squash, but also because I was taking ‘extended’ periods oﬀ school (the icing on top of a 12-year-old boy’s cake!). Mixed in among the winning and training I made some incredible friends, some of whom are still playing. My practice partner while in Malaysia was Nicol David, the current women’s world number one and one of the greatest athletes to have ever picked up a squash racket. Other highlights included a charity match against Peter Nicol, one of the outstanding players of his generation. Needless to say he gave me a pasting – despite giving me an eight-point lead with serve, he beat me in the best part of five minutes. It was at that moment that my dad had dropped the bombshell that I would be sent to boarding school later that year. The culmination of all my hard work, therefore, would be the world juniors in Kuala Lumpur, a month before I was oﬀ for good. I was seeded number one and went in full of confidence, knowing that if I played well I would not only bow out of Hong Kong squash on a high but would also legitimately be able to call myself the best in the world at under-14 level. The first four rounds were a breeze. In the semi-final I faced an old foe, the

Stage 5

His bike was a write-oﬀ, the car needed a new bonnet, bumper and windscreen, and amazingly he escaped with only minor injuries, but his tour was over. As a result I descended very slowly from the Lautaret in the freezing cold with

them oﬀ by putting too much force through them up the final climb the previous night. So I got the mechanic to put on a new pair, and about 45 minutes later I was back on the road. The tour was not only slowly breaking my body,

BODYWEIGHT

more intense, with training lasting seven hours a day, five times a week. My first taste of success overseas came a year later, when I wiped the floor in my division (not dropping a single point) and reached the final of the next age group up.

OST BOYS DREAM of being professional sportsmen and although I never got anywhere close, the amateur Tour De Force allowed me to follow in the pedal strokes of the legends of the sport whilst raising money for a fantastic cause. Below are five stages that will forever stick in my memory.

BREAK

Wayne Gretzky Scored 378 goals in 72 games as a 10-year-old in minor hockey, leading to national fame. He still holds many NHL records, including career goals (1,016) and assists (2,223). Gretzky is generally regarded as the greatest hockey player to ever live.

Clive towers above fellow prodigies at the Hong Kong Sport Institute

TOUR DE FORCE TRAINING 6 months

WHIZ-KIDS

being in a court, on my own, continuously striving to better myself. My dad had cottoned on to this and asked if I wanted to give squash a serious try. I guess the long and the short of it was dad had won his match that night and I was hooked. With my brand spanking new squash racket in tow, I was taken down to the Hong Kong Sports Institute, a hub for talented young sportsmen, to see if squash was for me or just another phase for a seven-yearold boy. Now out of cast with a slightly withered left arm, I joined in with a group of young tykes vying to be the next Jansher Khan. Lessons were twice a week, and after three months of burning hard rubber on those wooden floors I was entered into my first tournament, the Hong Kong Open. Here I would play in both the under-eights and the under-10s age group, testing myself against kids older and of a higher standard from all around South East Asia. I won the under-eights and came third in the under10s. Needless to say, the buzz I got from playing well against boys two years older than me spurred me on to look more seriously at the game of squash.

Singapore champion, who had beaten me once before. I won 3 sets to 1 to set up a final against Gonzalo Tapiz, the Argentine champion. He was an absolute beast of a boy. Trust me when I say I wasn’t a small kid (see picture) – but I’m sure he had a five o’clock shadow and had been smoking for years. On national television and before a crowd of 500, I was taken to the cleaners. I lost 3-0 in what can only be described as exhibition squash from the boy who had obviously been pumping iron since he could walk. As you can tell, I’m not bitter! It’s hard remembering my emotions that night. I was never much of a crier, but then again I had never lost many matches (sniﬀ). Despite the defeat, though, there were celebrations to be had. Dinner and sober dancing were on the cards, and a lovely evening with all those involved with Hong Kong squash. I have always been a glass-half-full kind of guy, and while I lost the most important squash match of my life, I won at the game of life. From the ashes rose the phoenix that night, and I lost my virginity (sorry mum) to an older lady also on the squash tour. I couldn’t ever compare playing squash to being a member of a rock band, but there were definitely some perks! I had had a small glimpse into what it was like to have groupies in one’s life, albeit of the squash persuasion. (As a caveat to the above, I didn’t even speak to, let alone touch a girl for the next 10 years; probably some sensible divine retribution!) My squash career had run its natural course. I remember sponsorship opportunities coming my way but with my imminent departure to boarding school, these had to be turned down. I arrived at Millfield as a 13-year-old, where the great squash champion Jonah Barrington was my rugby coach. With the demise of my squash came the rebirth of rugby. I guess, as they say, you never forget your first love. ■

ST FA

OR AS LONG AS I can remember, I have always loved sport. My first love was rugby, and at the age of six I began my career as a full back on the under-eights mini-rugby circuit in Hong Kong. I broke my left wrist away from the rugby pitch just before my seventh birthday, showing off to some older boys by diving head first off the top board. It was worth the standing ovation from all those who witnessed my 9.4 as I was carried off in my dad’s arms to hospital. Back in the Harris household, stress levels reached fever pitch as my mum tried desperately to think of ways to keep me entertained with my arm in cast. Her stroke of genius came when she asked my dad to take me to watch him play in his office squash league. I didn’t watch a huge amount of squash that night. Instead, I spent two hours hitting a ball against a wall in the next-door court. I guess a lot can be said for the Buddhist-like Zen (thank you mum) with which I tackled reaching 100 continuous hits, then 1,000 and so on. I’m not sure I can say I immediately fell in love with squash in that moment, but there was something very satisfying about

whereas these climbs are so steep that your legs are crying out for a rest. In the end I came in eighth, which I was pretty pleased with as I had come to the conclusion pretty early that it was unlikely to be my day. Stage 21

A great roll into Paris, with a nice police escort down the ChampsElysées after they realised it was bloody dangerous, us unoﬃcially racing with all the traﬃc around. After more than 50,000 metres of climbing and 2,300 miles, it was time for a celebratory boat trip down the Seine! ■

Chaz Lee is Head of Trading and has worked at Fitzdares since January 2008. He rode in aid of the William Wates Memorial Trust, which helps disadvantaged young people fulfil their potential. Donate at bmycharity.com /charities/wwmt and we will match your donation with a free bet on your account. Simply put Fitzdares in the support message box and the WWMT will inform us of your donation.

IN MY FORMER LIFE F

An aching Chaz Lee remembers four stages of his two-wheeled marathon

Clive Harris had the world of squash at his feet. Then he ran into a man-child named Gonzalo…

Stage 14

Clive Harris is Head of Rugby and has worked at Fitzdares since January 2008, shortly after leaving university

start of training

87.5 kg it also seemed determined to destroy my beloved bike! We’d all had a bit of a shock the previous day when one of the team was airlifted to hospital after crashing into a car on a descent.

240 x

HIGHEST GRADIENT

Stage 17

TEMPERATURES

lowe we est -2º C | highest 45º C

INTAKE

HIGHEST CLIMB

Izoard: 2 2,360m 3 36

= 42,000m ASCENDING

cobbles

WORST ROAD

CRASHES

3 % 33

yoghurt yog 5x pain au chocolat ham&cheese saandwich cereal c

4 000 – 5,0 4,00 5 000 0 calo lo lories o ories per day

start of tour

70 kg

MAXIMUM SPEED 101 1 km / h

THE TOUR 2,319.29 miles | 23 days | 21 stages | 2 rest days HIGHEST GRADIENT 33%

Stage 5

BODYWEIGHT

BREAK

Clive towers above fellow prodigies at the Hong Kong Sport Institute

TOUR DE FORCE TRAINING 6 months

WHIZ-KIDS

ST FA

27 Womack’s younger brother Cecil and his wife Linda (Sam Cooke’s daughter). Bizarrely, Bobby Womack split up with Sam Cooke’s ex-wife after she found him in bed with her daughter… Linda! You couldn’t make it up. Mind you, Teddy was paralysed after a car crash in which his passenger was a transsexual nightclub performer named Tenika. 5. Horseriding (1:38) Craig Armstrong & AR Rahman, 2007

This was featured in the historically, er, “impressionistic” Elizabeth: the Golden Age. It was one of the first Western films to use AR Rahman, who went on to worldwide fame as the composer of Slumdog Millionaire. Craig was a founder of Texas, a floating member of Massive Attack as well as the man who scored the 1996 Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge. This song shows his real understanding of understated yet emotional score… lovely tune, beautifully executed.

W I N £ 5 0 0 A N D G E T YO U R N A M E O N T H E 2 0 1 5 H O N O U R S YO UR N AM E

N ICKN AME F O R L E AD E RBO ARD

B R IE F D ES C R I P T IO N OF YO UR G A M B L IN G H I GH *

BRI E F DE S CRI PT IO N OF YOU R GA MBL I NG L O W

6. Win (4:44) David Bowie, 1975

I love this track, oﬀ the Young Americans album. Bowie had moved to US and the album was on the back of recording sessions in Philadelphia. Backing vocals on the album were by Luther Vandross! Win is less well known than other tracks like Fame, but I’ve always loved it. It contains one of the great lines in “Someone like you should not be allowed to start any fires.” 7. Some Guys Have All The Luck (3:09) Robert Palmer, 1982

A song written by Yale graduate Jeﬀ Fortgang, who quit the music business after just three years to get a PhD in clinical psychology. This was the only song he sold – but what a record. It was a Billboard hit twice, firstly for the Persuaders in 1973 (reaching No 39) and then Rod Stewart in 1984 (No 10). But I love the Robert Palmer cover (No 16 in the UK charts in 1982), which has a noticeably diﬀerent melody from the others. 1. Good Times Bad Times (2:47) Led Zeppelin, 1969

Top punts by Nick Angel Foreword by Balthazar Fabricius:

I always loved the Observer Tens in Sport Monthly, so I was excited at the idea of producing our own “Ten” mixing my two loves: gambling and music. I could think of no better person to compile the Fitzdares Top 10 Gambling Tracks than Nick Angel, who I met when I started training for Boodles Boxing Ball 2013. Nick and I box at the same gym with Clay O’Shea. Nick was director of A&R from 1990 to 1999 at Island Records, where he signed the Grammy-nominated PJ Harvey, Brit winners Pulp, the huge cult comedian Vic Reeves, Talvin Singh, The Orb, Jah Wobble, Apache Indian and the critically lauded Lewis Taylor. He also worked closely with U2 from ACHTUNG BABY onwards, introducing the band to the idea(s) of remixing – never done before by a rock band. Nick was the producer of melon, the remix album from the likes of Paul Oakenfold and David Morales. He also organised music for the films FACE, YOUNG AMERICANS, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, and NOTTING HILL. In 1999 he became head of music for Working Title films and has most recently music supervised RUSH, LOCKE and PRIDE. Nick also set up the publishing company Salvation Music and in 2008 released the critically acclaimed SELDOM SEEN KID, the Elbow album that went on to sell a million copies, winning the Mercury Music Prize in 2009. The band also picked up two Ivor Novellos as well as the Brit for best British band.

This is from maybe the most startling debut album ever – the band made this album in 36 hours – and it’s mostly live with minimal overdubs. It was recorded in Barnes in what now is a posh cinema/private members’ club, and was not altogether brilliantly received at the time, but if this band were formed now, as a bunch of 19-year-olds, they’d still take over the world… and boy, when I was younger, all I wanted was to play drums like John Bonham. Still do, to be fair. 2. Tumbling Dice (3:46) The Rolling Stones, 1972

Tumbling Dice was based on Mick Jagger’s conversations with the housekeeper at the château in France where they recorded. It turns out she was a gambler whose vice was dice – but really this tune is about the looseness of being in a band who really know how to play, and the backing vocals are killer! I love the fact that it sounds so spontaneous. It gives the impression it could all fall apart at any minute! 3. Play Your Cards Right (3:08) Common, 2007

This was something we created for the film Smokin’ Aces. The film was a bit of a dog’s dinner – I’m not sure whether it was a comedy or a drama – but it featured Common as an actor, so it seemed logical to ask him to write a tune for the film he’d just been in. It’s a great old-school groove, with Bilal doing the Curtis Mayfield-style chorus vocals (check his debut album 1st Born Second). Languid, funky, good lyrics (as you’d expect from Common), it could well end up being the best thing about the whole film. 4. Love TKO (4:50) Teddy Pendergrass, 1980

Old-school soul at its best. After leaving Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Teddy had a great solo career, and this was probably his signature tune. It was written by Bobby

8. Back in the High Life Again (5:35) Steve Winwood, 1986

A brilliant track from Winwood’s fourth and last solo album with Island after 20 years with the label. The album (Back in the High Life) also spawned Higher Love, The Finer Things and Freedom Overspill and is generally acknowledged as being some of his best work. Will Jennings co-wrote the song and James Taylor does the backing vocals. Check out Winwood’s mandolin on this. 9. Easy Money (4:04) Billy Joel, 1983

I just love the line “I got a one track mind, And a good reputation laying on the line, I’ll either come back a bum or a king, Baby I don’t know.” The song comes from Joel’s album An Innocent Man, which in any other year would have been nailed on for the Grammy but came up against Michael Jackson’s Thriller. At the time Joel was recently divorced from his first wife, so he was single for the first time since achieving rock star status. Hence many of the lyrics have that sense of acting like a teenager all over again – a teenager dating supermodels, that is! “If you’ve got a little risky business, Just point me where you want to go.” 10. Jump (3:36) Paul Anka, 2005

This is taken from Paul Anka’s album Rock Swings but was originally a massive hit for Van Halen. I love Anka’s take, slowing a classic rock tune right down to its core element. It’s fun, and all good top 10s should have a twist. It was a close run thing between this and Bruce Springsteen’s cover of Elvis’s Viva Las Vegas. Anka gets it by a short head! ■ Nick Angel is a QPR season ticket holder and a trustee of Save the Children. Do you agree? Tweet @fitzdares or Facebook us your

suggestions if you think we have overlooked any gems.

SPOT THE BALL

HOW TO MAKE A MONKEY OUT OF FITZDARES TOP POINTS SCORER WINS £ 500

1. Write your answers clearly 2. Take a good photo of this page 3. Attach to email and send to bet@fitzdares.com 4. Submit your entry by 1 January

£500 for first place, £100 second place and £50 third. In the event of a tie the pot will be split. * The best highs and lows will be included in next year’s Fitzdares Times – with your permission.

PREDICTIONS ROUND 1. WHO WILL WIN THE SUPER BOWL? WINNER 10 POINTS

NFL Super Bowl, 1 February 2015 2014 winner: Seattle Seahawks

2. WHAT FILM WILL WIN BEST PICTURE AT THE OSCARS? WINNER 10 POINTS

Academy Awards, 22 February 2015 2014 winner: 12 Years a Slave

3. WHO WILL WIN THE GOLD CUP? WINNER 10 POINTS SECOND 6 PTS THIRD 3 PTS NON-RUNNER/FALLER -3 PTS

Cheltenham Gold Cup, 13 March 2015 2014 winner: Lord Windermere

4. WHO WILL WIN THE MASTERS? WINNER 10 POINTS SECOND 6 PTS TOP 5 3 PTS TOP 10 1 PT MISS THE CUT -3 PTS

Golf Masters, 9 – 12 April 2015 2014 winner: Bubba Watson

5. WHAT WILL BE THE NAME AND SEX OF THE NEXT ROYAL BABY? WINNER 10 POINTS CORRECT SEX 2 POINTS

6. WHO WILL BE PRIME MINISTER AFTER THE GENERAL ELECTION? WINNER 10 POINTS

State Opening of Parliament, May 2015 2010 winner: David Cameron

7. WHO WILL WIN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE? WINNER 10 POINTS SECOND 5 POINTS

H Champions League Final, 6 June 2015 2014 winner: Real Madrid

8. WHO WILL WIN WIMBLEDON’S MEN’S TITLE? WINNER 10 POINTS RUNNER UP 5 POINTS LOSING SEMI-FINALISTS 1 POINTS FIRST ROUND EXIT -3 POINTS

15. WHERE WAS THE BALL?

2 POINTS

We’ve removed the ball from this shot of Brian Lara. Write here the grid reference in the box (ie C4)

BACKHAND? FOREHAND?

Tennis Men’s Final, 12 July 2015 2014 winner: Novak Djokovic

9. WHO WILL WIN THE RUGBY WORLD CUP? WINNER 10 POINTS SECOND 5 POINTS LOSING SEMI-FINALISTS 1 POINT GROUP STAGE EXIT -3 POINTS

Rugby World Cup Final, 31 October 2015 2011 winner: New Zealand

10. WHO WILL BE FAVOURITE FOR SPORTS PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR ON 1ST NOVEMBER 2015? FAVOURITE 10 POINTS 2ND FAVOURITE 5 POINTS PRICE 100/1 OR GREATER -3 POINTS

WHO’S WHO? DO YOU RECOGNISE THEM?

Can you name this quartet of sporting stars from yesteryear?

11. 12. 13.

Royal Baby, expected April 2015 Last time: Prince George

Sports Personality of the Year 2015 Previous favourite: Rory McIlroy

14.

16. WHICH STROKE? Tick one box above