Trodmore

One fine day in August 1898 (it is not known whether the day was fine, but in any case it is a nice way to start a text) an elegantly dressed guy with perfect manners entered the editorial office of the then most famous British sports newspaper `The Sportsman` and introduced himself as Mr. Martin and his purpose was to report the holding of a new horse race in Trodmore, a small town in Cornwall. He had with him a flawlessly printed race program, cards with the characteristics of the jockeys and horses and a confirmation from the municipality of Trodmore for the upcoming event, so everything is in order. He duly paid for advertising the race and left.

Since the times were Victorian and no one doubted the word of rich gentlemen, the newspaper announced the race and so far there was nothing strange. Bookmakers at that time were informed by newspapers and by telegraph in an attempt to compile betting odds, and so this time they compiled a `bulletin` that also included the race at Trodmore. The best odds were a horse with a ratio of 1/5, which means that if that horse won, for every pound invested, five were returned. And so one fine day, just before the start of the race, another fine, gallant gentleman appeared who placed some 2,000 pounds on the favorite horse.

The day of the race came and later Mr. Martin appeared in the newspaper's editorial office again, to bring the results, the winner was the horse that we have already mentioned. The other fine gentleman, the one who had paid at the bookmakers (the bookmaker's office of...), went to the bookmaker's office with a copy of the newspaper (as proof of the results), naturally withdrew 10,000 pounds and left. Later, other characters appeared with smaller amounts, but the bookmaker's window stated that the odds were 2/5, i.e. two pounds equals five, probably an unintentional mistake. This caused confusion and the bookmakers called the Sportsman's editorial office to check the odds. They were told it was 1/5, but just in case, they decided to call Trodmore and check on the spot.

The problem was that Trodmore did not exist, much less was there a horse race in the non-existent town...

One can only imagine the expressions on the editor's and the bookmaker's faces when they found out. A sportsman was hit by a scandal for publishing fictitious races and the bookmaker was left short by 10,000 pounds, I am very much out of luck at that time if you know that a worker earned about 50 pounds a year. Mr. `Martin` and the character who paid and collected the payment...needless to say, were never seen again, they left relatively rich and were never caught, not only that but no one got a clue about their identity. No weapons, no violence, no hatred - they just used the style over substance situation that reigned in the psyche of the then paradise.

A little later another group of betting enthusiasts flew into the prism of public interest. That event was the stand-off between the players and the management of Manchester United and Liverpool in 1915, when United had to win in the last round to avoid being relegated from the league and Liverpool was safe in the middle and so they agreed on a 2-0 victory for United. At that time, those clubs were not particularly hostile towards each other as they were later, which left room for such `cooperation`. The match was crap, Liverpool behaved as if it was their first time playing football, there was even a penalty for them but they missed it with a shot three meters above the goal and all that was enough to raise suspicions with the Football Association.

Perhaps all of this would have gone unpunished if certain nice gentlemen had not paid a heavy sum on the correct score 2-0 for United, with odds of 1/7 and walked away with a good sum - that was already a sign of alarm and in a short time the F.A. in cooperation with Scotland Yard, they uncovered the fraud, three Manchester United players and four Liverpool players were suspended for life from playing football and never played again, the remaining players, coaches and management received suspended sentences, the clubs escaped without points being deducted, they were `lucky` because it was the last match before the league was suspended due to the Great War, and thus they continued in the First League after the war, albeit with a larger double-red stain on the club's honor...

(Roger Mortis, 072)