Share this, mofos:

Shithole.  Fucking yuppy shithole.  Elegant, mind you, but overpriced and with waitrons that cop an attitude.  Enjoy your empty “pub,” folks (or, should I say “cocktail bar”?).

Someone should run a book on when Lighthouse goes out of business.  With the holidays on us, they will get through the New Year so I would place my wager on sometime in March or April (let’s arbitrarily say Easter Monday), possibly taking their sister (the Cowley Retreat) down with them.

Happy Hour

 

Share this, mofos:

The bar is clean and the prices not too inflated for the sort of venue, but the real attraction is the crowd of punters crowding around the bookies.  I tend to just do the Totes betting on runners that look good (stats and the walk-by) until I get ahead — which rarely happens — then drop any excess on long odds with one of the bookies; but the regulars here are quite the show.  For me, it was just a place to go at the end of my own run for the day and there was a bar, free admission, and as it turned out free entertainment (hit one for 3:1 out of four races).

Dog tracks have a shitty reputation and I’m sure there are trainers that still deserve it but these pups today looked healthy and it is a joy to watch them sprint.  A few were a bit stiff in the legs but I’ve known a lot of non-racing and ex-racing greyhounds over the years and this is not atypical.  I really want one or more of these guys if we ever get a space of our own, too.

Share this, mofos:

One at 3-to-1
While my other three greyhounds
Loped in next to last.

Name: Somersby cider
Type: cider
Venue: Abbey Stadium greyhound track, Swindon

Review/notes: Totally functional cider.  I broke even on betting after four races so two of these were my entire cost for the day…result!  Decided to walk it off and head back to the house for an early supper.  First time at the afternoon meeting, definitely not the last.

If you want any tips, feel free to ask. This is the dog I had the most faith in…came in fifth:

[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]

Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August

Share this, mofos:

The previous post was better, but I wanted to showcase the screensavers pieced together by Squeezin’ (with my gratitude for these).  The pics, in order, are

Venue	Where	beer #
The Princess Hotel (done around 5 am New Year’s Day)	Swindon	1
The Bank House	Cheltenham	2
At the New Year’s Races in Cheltenham (watching my nag drag in)	Cheltenham	3
Midlands Hotel	Cheltenham	4
The Queen’s Tap	Swindon	5
The Four Candles	Oxford	6
The Turf Tavern (at the sign commemorating Clinton failing to inhale there)	Oxford	7
The White Horse	Oxford	8
O’Neill’s	Oxford	9
Ellington’s	Swindon	10
The Red Lion	Oxford	11
The Gloucester Arms	Oxford	12
Eurobar	Oxford	13
The Volunteer	Faringdon	14
The Red Lion	Faringdon	15
The Bell	Faringdon	16
The Lamb and Flag	Oxford	17
The Bird and Baby	Oxford	18
Far  The Madding Crowd	Oxford	19
Southbrook Inn	Swindon	20
The White Hart	Wolvercote, Oxfordshire	21
The Red Lion	Wolvercote, Oxfordshire	22
The Plough	Oxford	23
The Gardener’s Arms	Oxford	24
The Rose and Crown	Oxford	25
TP’s	Swindon	26
The De’s Cut	Oxford	27
The King and Queen	Longcot, Oxfordshire	28
The Woodman Inn	Fernham, Oxfordshire	29
The Eagle	Little Cocks Swell, Oxfordshire	30
The Wheatsheaf	Faringdon, Oxfordshire	31
Faringdon Folly	Faringdon, Oxfordshire	32
Salisbury Cathedral	Salisbury	33
The King’s Arms	Salisbury	34
The Old Castle Pub	Salisbury	35
The keep at Old Sarum	Salisbury	36
Wheatsheaf	Lower Woodford, Wiltshire	37
Bridge Inn	Upper Woodford, Wiltshire	38
Black Horse	Great Durnford, Wiltshire	39
Wilsford Cum Lake sign (heh, heh)	Wiltshire	40
Stonehenge (really a great disappointment)	Wiltshire	41
King’s Arms	Amesbury, Wiltshire	42
George Hotel	Amesbury, Wiltshire	43
New Inn	Amesbury, Wiltshire	44
The Greyhound	Amesbury, Wiltshire	45
Royal Oak	Oxford	46
The Red Lion	Marston, Oxfordshire	47
The Angel and Greyhound	Oxford	48
The University Club	Oxford	49
The GW Hotel	Swindon	50
Jude the Obscure	Oxford	51
The Victoria	Oxford	52
The Rickety Press	Oxford	53
Wahoo Sport Bar	Oxford	54
The Oxford Retreat	Oxford	55
The Grapes	Oxford	56
The Rolleston	Swindon	57
The Baker’s Arms	Swindon	58
The Dolphin	Swindon	59
Marsh Farm Hotel	Royal Wootton Bassett	60
The Cross Keys	Royal Wootton Bassett	61
The Old School	Oxford	62
The King’s Arms	Oxford	63
The Swan and Castle	Oxford	64
The Victoria Arms	Marston, Oxfordshire	65
The Black Swan	Abingdon, Oxfordshire	66
The Blue Boar	Abingdon, Oxfordshire	67
The Bowyer Arms	Radley, Oxfordshire	68
Zen Bar	Swindon	69
Sir Daniel Arms	Swindon	70
White Hart	Lyneham, Wiltshire	71
Sodom	Wiltshire	72
The Angel	Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire	73
Cape of Good Hope	Oxford	74
Rudi’s	Swindon	75
Burn’s Day Lunch (Haggis, Neeps, Tatties, Whisky, and 2 beers)	Oxford	76
Swindon Wildcats 3, Sheffield Steeldogs 4 (SO)	Swindon	77
The Longwall	Oxford	78
The Royal George	Purton, Wiltshire	79
Riff’s Bar	Greatfield, Wiltshire	80
Magic Roundabout	Swindon	81
The Three Tuns	Wroughton	82
The Havana	Swindon	83
The Lydiard	Swindon	84
The Savoy	Swindon	85
The Brewer’s Arms	Cirencester	86
The White Horse	Woolstone	87
The College Farm	Watchfield	88
The Horse and Jockey	Ashton Keynes, Gloucestershire	89
The Vale Hotel	Cricklade	90
Goldfinger Tavern	Highworth, Wiltshire	91
The Red Lion	Northmoor, Oxfordshire	92
The Bell Inn	Standlake, Oxfordshire	93
The Maybush	Newbridge, Oxfordshire	94
The Beehive (this is about 100 yards from the house we are moving to)	Swindon	95
Baker Street	Swindon	96
Steam Railway Company Pub	Swindon	97
The Pig on the Hill	Swindon	98
Long’s Bar	Swindon	99
near Parliament, with a Cuban cigar and a bunch of dirty looks (and after 5 pub stops)	London Marathon	100
The Bear	Oxford	101
The Old Tom	Oxford	102
The Crown	Oxford	103
The Beehive	Carterton, Oxfordshire	104
The Crown Inn	Faringdon, Oxfordshire	105
Romany Inn	Bampton, Oxfordshire	106
Talbot Hotel	Bampton, Oxfordshire	107
The George Inn	Sandy Lane, Wiltshire	108
The White Hart	Calne, Wiltshire	109
The now defunct King George	Calne, Wiltshire	110
Barrington Arms	Shrivenham, Oxfordshire	111
Groves Company Inn	Swindon	112
Revolution	Swindon	113
The Plough	Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire	114
The George and Dragon	Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire	115
The Fish	Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire	116
Great Western Railway Staff Association	Didcot, Oxfordshire	117
The Prince of Wales	Didcot, Oxfordshire	118
Tap and Barrel (good read goes along with this pic)	Swindon	119
Old Town Festival	Swindon Town Gardens	120
Cock Inn	Combe, Oxfordshire	121
Three Horseshoes	Long Hanborough, Oxfordshire	122
Swindon Pride 2012	Swindon (duh)	123
Wernham Hogg’s	Slough, Berkshire	124
The Myrtle Grove	Risca, Gwent, Wales	125
The Sirhowy	Blackwood, Gwent, Wales	126
Railway Tavern	Sirhowy, Blaenau Gwent, Wales	127
The Castle	Bryn Serth, Blaenau Gwent, Wales	128
The Coach and Horses	Ashvale, Blaenau Gwent, Wales	129
Ye Olde Red Lion Hotel	Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, Wales	130
The Tumble Inn	Pontypridd, Wales	131
The Maltster’s Arms	Pontypridd, Wales	132
Wyvern Theatre	Swindon	133
Byron’s Bar	Swindon	134
The Bear Hotel	Wantage, Oxfordshire	135
Source ot the River Thames	Kemble, Gloucestershire	136
Carpenter’s Arms	Lacock, Wiltshire	137
Mill House	Chippenham, Wiltshire	138
Sunny’s Pool Bar	Swindon	139
The Royal Oak	Marlborough, Wiltshire	140
The Lamb Inn	Marlborough, Wiltshire	141
The Crown	Marlborough, Wiltshire	142
IMS/TOF Mass Spectrometer	Oxford University	143
New Year’s Eve on Ferndale Road	Swindon	144

Share this, mofos:

Betting the last pound? Last hundred quid? The big money is on Romney and the smart money is….

 

Paddy Power has already cashed out for Obama, but it was only £400K (and at their odds, the advertising revenue equivalent makes this a bargain…they are still taking bets, by the way).  I hope the gamblers’ optimism is right but, except for Clinton, Obama is the only other Republican I have ever voted for (don’t give me that Official Party Affiliation bullshit, you purists, they are both right of Nixon).

Anyway, now that this is all done and dusted, keep in mind you can still bet on other politics, the X-Factor, Rugby (Union or League), and Religion.  That’s right.  Religion.

Share this, mofos:

 

Update: Only a few hours after this post went up, Paddy Power called the race for Obama, paying out 2 days early.

The payout on a pound bet, above, has been a jagged ride at times.  The spreadsheet I have kept on this has ridiculous notes on it as you might expect.  Here were the dates I found significant:

Debates → October 3, 9, 16, and 22

Jon Stewart v. Bill O’Reilly → Oct. 6

Hurricane Sandy, Halloween, and Chris Christie → October 30-31

Socialism 2012 meeting in London → November 3 (I think I put that on as a reminder to attend)

The over/under looks good for Obama, right now, but the odds have an 8.3% house bias against random results which pushes the actual prediction down closer to 274 and 277 for Ladbrokes (top) and Paddy Power respectively.  William Hill has this interesting betting option for those of you in it for the long game:

Share this, mofos:

I’m taking Wednesday, the day after the election polls close up to 10 hours after the clock hits 7 pm here, off.  The first day at work here, I sat in the canteen at Cambridge and explained to one of my PIs that God Bless America and God Save the Queen were the same song while we watched Obama’s inauguration (and almost everyone EXCEPT us Americans) weeped in relief.  Now I have to explain really stupid shit like why Romney is still neck-and-neck (in the polls)…gamblers don’t fuck around, thus, which is why I trust the gambling odds more than opinion polls (when you are risking the rent and not something as trivial as the freedom of the world’s populace or–at a minum–the most powerful economy in the world during desperate times, you choose a real winner and not some fucking longshot with an enchanting name).

So, we see people who have nothing more or less than pounds Sterling riding on this election dropping quid for Obama.

Full disposition Sunday and Tuesday (then the voters decide who pays out).  If I buy one pound each today I lose 73 pence if Obama wins and win £3.07 if Romney wins.  I’m not a gambler, but I know a LOT of them….

Share this, mofos:

The weekly updates of the betting odds for President continue with the payouts on £1 bets (includes stake) tracked above (larger numbers mean less bookie confidence in your chances).

Recent events of interest include the 2nd Presidential Debate on 16 October where Mitt Romney showed more evidence of Tourette’s Syndrome and Obama acted as if he were engaged with the proceedings.  Last week’s episode of this gambling round-up is here.

Some of the items related to Romney’s “Binders for Women” phrase that were spotted within minutes of the debate’s end are shown here:

Share this, mofos:

Same drill, payout includes your £1 stake. All three betting shops tracking one another with Romney’s odds closing on Obama’s

The weekly report on the day after the Vice-Presidential Debate between Biden and Ryan, the odds look like this (compare to last Friday, here):

Also of note, the vast improvement of Romney’s fortunes after the first Presidential Debate on 03 October and the relative indifference of this sampling method to the Jon Stewart versus Bill O’Reilly Debate on 06 October:

Share this, mofos:

Payout on a £1 bet includes your stake (higher number means less confidence in the candidate from the gambling community)

With just under a month till the election, here are some of the recent odds:

When I started this last year, the primaries were still 10 months away.  In the last couple of months, Ladbrokes has been joined by Paddy Power and William Hill betting agents as odds makers.  Obama has been a little better than even money to win from the start, and it has been fun to watch the fortunes of, for instance, Rick Santorum rise and fall on the totes.  The most recent improvement in Romney’s situation has been the first, erm, we call it a “debate” (since that seems to be the term the Press has dubbed it) on 03 October.  Regular updates to appear from here on in to Election Day, I reckon.

Update: This is weekly through the Friday before Election Day then daily until the dust settles (remember 2000?).  Here’s the 12 October entry.

Share this, mofos:

As I mentioned in the Red Lion (Baydon) post, I only had three pubs scoped out for this run, but the helpful souls at the George Hotel insisted I must go to the Wheelwright’s Arms which I had originally written off because without a web presence I couldn’t be sure of their hours.  I needn’t have worried as this is one of those proper turf pubs (Lambourn is something of a racing town), where racing is shown and bets are made (on the phone to bookies, exclusively of course) as long as there is a race to bet on.  There was no gambling on the the ale, though, as there were three taps all marked Moreland’s Best Bitter.

“I’ll have a pint of Moreland’s Best Bitter, please.”

“Good, choice.  Do I detect a”

I cut him off. “Atlanta.  Do you know Atlanta?”

“Oooooooo, I’ve only ever been to New York, Baltimore and Florida.”

“Aqueduct, Pimlico, Hialeah?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

Share this, mofos:

Forgot the photo, snagged this one off Google maps

After my successful shopping trip (I got a nice Quintera Habana that should last me the final couple miles of the Marathon plus the bag pick-up and finding Jackie afterward),  I caught up on my Carling’s and on leaving the Pig on the Hill was heading down to the betting parlor to put in my flutter on the Grand National (both our horses were out before the halfway mark).  They were showing the Aintree races in Long’s as I passed so I went in for #99 and saw some horses that screwed me at Cheltenham come in winners this time…bastards.

Long’s seems like a night club but a fairly civilised one but with the Victoria right across the alleyway and the Roaring Donkey directly behind I don’t really see this as a regular hangout.

watching the horses

Share this, mofos:

Santorum, answering the question, "As President, how would you deal with Christian extremists?"

A quick look at Ladbrokes Betting Odds today shows the effect of Santorum’s recent good showing since the last update (sorry Boog, no tna shots this time, just a bunch of boobs).  Hillary still has the best odds of the people not running at all for President.  Also interesting, Ron Paul has better odds of becoming the nominee AND of winning the Presidency than he does of becoming the Vice-Presidential nominee.  Steven Colbert and Glenn Beck still have a presence on the boards, as well:

Selection	Pres?	Nominee?	VP?
Barack Obama	4/7	xxx	xxx
Mitt Romney	7/4	1/6	25/1
Rick Santorum	16/1	6/1	7/1
Newt Gingrich	33/1	16/1	25/1
Ron Paul	40/1	25/1	50/1
Hillary Clinton	50/1	xxx	xxx
Donald Trump	100/1	xxx	100/1
Jeb Bush	200/1	100/1	xxx
Paul Ryan	200/1	100/1	12/1
Chris Christie	200/1	100/1	5/1
Mitch Daniels	200/1	100/1	25/1
Marco Rubio	xxx	xxx	5/2
Susana Martinez	xxx	xxx	10/1
Bob McDonnell	xxx	xxx	10/1
Jim DeMint	xxx	xxx	20/1
Tim Pawlenty	xxx	xxx	20/1
Nikki Haley	xxx	xxx	20/1
Kelly Ayote	xxx	xxx	20/1
Hayley Barbour	xxx	xxx	20/1
Jon Thune	xxx	xxx	20/1
Condoleeza Rice	xxx	xxx	25/1
Rob Portman	xxx	xxx	25/1
Brian Sandoval	xxx	xxx	25/1
Bobby Jindal	xxx	xxx	25/1
Jon Huntsman	xxx	xxx	25/1
Rick Snyder	xxx	xxx	33/1
Colin Powell	xxx	xxx	33/1
Meg Whitman	xxx	xxx	33/1
Lindsey Graham	xxx	xxx	33/1
Rick Perry	xxx	xxx	50/1
Sarah Palin	xxx	xxx	50/1
Michele Bachmann	xxx	xxx	50/1
Herman Cain	xxx	xxx	50/1
Mike Huckabee	xxx	xxx	50/1
Scott Walker	xxx	xxx	50/1
David Petraeus	xxx	xxx	50/1
Allen West	xxx	xxx	50/1
Scott Brown	xxx	xxx	50/1
Kay Bailey Hutchison	xxx	xxx	50/1
Rand Paul	xxx	xxx	50/1
John McCain	xxx	xxx	66/1
Steven Colbert	xxx	xxx	150/1
Glenn Beck	xxx	xxx	200/1

 

Share this, mofos:

Note: this seems to offend some.  Result!

• • 

    Paul WoodfordWondering why you posted that link. Was the fake photo the whole point?

    3 hours ago · Like

Updating the betting odds at the end of January 2012, we find a thinner pack at the top level but interesting things happening at the Republican Vice-Presidential table (although the fact that gamblers think Hilary Clinton, who isn’t even running, has a better shot than most Republicans is telling):

Election winner
Selection	Odds
Barack Obama	4:6
Mitt Romney	13:8
Newt Gingrich	14:1
Ron Paul	33:1
Hillary Clinton	50:1
Rick Santorum	66:1
Mitch Daniels	100:1
Donald Trump	100:1
Jeb Bush	200:1
Paul Ryan	200:1
Chris Christie	200:1
Republican Nominee
Selection	Odds
Mitt Romney	1:8
Newt Gingrich	6:1
Ron Paul	25:1
Rick Santorum	50:1
Mitch Daniels	66:1
Jeb Bush	100:1
Paul Ryan	100:1
Chris Christie	100:1
Winning Party
Selection	Odds
Democrats	13:20
Republicans	5:4
Independent	50:1
Republican Vice Presidential Nominee
Will be settled on nominee at 2012 Republican National Convention. Others on request.
Selection	Odds
Marco Rubio	5:2
Chris Christie	5:1
Susana Martinez	10:1
Paul Ryan	12:1
Bob McDonnell	14:1
Tim Pawlenty	16:1
Hayley Barbour	16:1
Newt Gingrich	16:1
Rick Santorum	16:1
Mitt Romney	20:1
Nikki Haley	20:1
Kelly Ayote	20:1
Jon Thune	20:1
Jim DeMint	20:1
Mitch Daniels	25:1
Rob Portman	25:1
Brian Sandoval	25:1
Bobby Jindal	25:1
Condoleeza Rice	25:1
Jon Huntsman	25:1
Rick Perry	33:1
Rick Snyder	33:1
Herman Cain	33:1
Colin Powell	33:1
Meg Whitman	33:1
Lindsey Graham	33:1
Ron Paul	40:1
Sarah Palin	50:1
Michele Bachmann	50:1
Mike Huckabee	50:1
David Petraeus	50:1
Allen West	50:1
Scott Brown	50:1
Kay Bailey Hutchison	50:1
Rand Paul	50:1
Scott Walker	50:1
John McCain	66:1
Donald Trump	100:1
Glenn Beck	200:1
Florida Republican Primary
Selection	Odds
Mitt Romney	1:25
Newt Gingrich	8:1
Rick Santorum	100:1
Ron Paul	100:1

odds from Ladbrokes.

Share this, mofos:

I don’t think it was the 26th Anniversary celebrations that knocked Jackie on her ass, but she was quite too sick to travel to the races the morning after…I felt fine, but, as it is, I didn’t sleep very long either.  So, with her bailing on the trip it was down to me to pour a scotch, study the Racing Form and go make us some money:

There are several bars erroneously called pubs in the enclosures, but essentially these are a line of poorly attended taps with two or three staff trying to make beverages appear for (no shit) tens of thousands of punters.  And everywhere, including these erstwhile pubs, there are betting facilities.  It seems that sometime soon after I arrived my photo was circulated so that the betting agents or the trackside bookies could alert the jockies so that my horse could finish each race, but always dead…fucking…last.

That's mine just after the finish line...the others are way out of frame to the right

Share this, mofos:

You can still place bets on the overall winner of the 2012 US Presidential race, but Ladbrokes has finally broken the candidate categories into Party Nominations since the official candidacy announcements are starting to roll in.  I’ll follow these over the next few weeks, too, but for now the numbers are pretty similar to the ones posted in the overall race (see earlier post).

Compared to 3 weeks ago and before the announcements started, every pick has held the same odds with the following exceptions:

Momentum	2011-03-31	2011-04-20
Barack Obama	8/11	4/6
Donald Trump	50/1	25/1.
Michele Bachmann	100/1	50/1
Paul Ryan	66/1	50/1
Dragging ass	2011-03-31	2011-04-20
Sarah Palin	14/1.	16/1.
Mitch Daniels	16/1.	18/1.
Mike Huckabee	16/1.	20/1.
David Petraeus	33/1	40/1
Scott Brown	66/1	100/1
Joe Biden	66/1	100/1

I still haven’t spotted Dennis Kucinich on the lists.   My £5 bet awaits.

Share this, mofos:

{I thought I should post this today rather than on April Fools Day, lest someone think the entire post–and not JUST the links–are some kind of joke.}

I love the way you can gamble on ANYTHING here.  More than 20 months off there are already odds on the American Presidential Election.  These are worth watching and I’ll update it over the course of time…place your bets at Ladbrokes (okay, this link is for real, as well).
Politics / US Presidential Election
Election winner
Time : Nov’12
Event : 2012 US Presidential Race

Selection                     Odds

Barack Obama     8/11

Mitt Romney     7/1

Sarah Palin 14/1

Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie     16/1

Jon Huntsman     20/1

Hillary Clinton     25/1

David Petraeus, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour     33/1

Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio     40/1

Michael Bloomberg, Rick Santorum, Donald Trump     50/1

Joe Biden, Ron Paul, Bobby Jindal, Rudy Giuliani, Eric Cantor, Jon Thune, Rick Perry, Paul Ryan, Scott Brown, Rand Paul     66/1

Mark Warner, John McCain, Rob Portman, Tom Ridge, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Sam Brownback, Mike Pence, Gary Johnson, Michele Bachmann, Stanley McChrystal, Tom Coburn, Michael Steele, George Pataki, John Bolton, Herman Cain, Jim DeMint, John Cornyn, Bob McDonnell     100/1

Fred Thompson, Dirk Kempthorne     125/1

Brian Schweitzer, Al Gore, Charlie Crist, Russ Feingold, Charles Roemer     150/1

Mark Sanford, Lou Dobbs, Dick Cheney, Carly Fiorina, Howard Dean, Bob Riley, Roy Moore     200/1

Sharron Angle     250/1

Share this, mofos:

In Britain, they bet on everything.  You can slap a fiver on the bar at a pub and bet on the colour of the scarf of the next person through the door and someone in there will walk away with a fist full of cash soon thereafter.  The betting parlours were running a line on the next Dr. Who, recently.  This week it is all White Christmas…the weather has had the bookies in a lather over the odds the last few days, but here is a screen shot of the latest line: