Littlewood’s Pools Winners
Before the Lottery existed there was the Littlewood’s pools, which were a form of gambling where the participants predicted the outcomes of football matches. The most popular was the “Score Draws” where the player would select the matches which would end in a draw where each team would have scored at least one goal. It was a big thing, in almost all towns there was the ‘Pools Man.” A representative of the company who would come round to your house to collect your filled in coupon and take your money. Often staying for a cuppa and a chat; people had fond memories of their ‘Pools Man”. For many it was part of their lives and communities, the football results being read out on the BBC’s “Grandstand”on a Saturday afternoon with mini reports coming in from various reporters at each match.
Occasionally there would be a big win, a million pounds or more and the winner would be invited to London to be presented with their cheque with all the resulting press attention.
The evening before the presentation the Evening Standard would be given an opportunity to interview and get a photograph of the winners without revealing how big the win was. This would then go in our first edition the next morning which would hit the streets about when the winners were being presented with their cheque by some celebratory of the day and the enormity of their win would be revealed to them.
I was often assigned to join our reporter, Manny Robinson, to take the pictures to go with his article.
Littlewood’s always used the same restaurant, Concordia Notte, a family run Sicilian place in Craven Road, Paddington. Usually everything would be running way behind schedule and I would be sat down at a table, a glass of wine produced and generously followed various dishes which always seemed to include a fabulous Monkfish Thermidor.
When the winners had finished their meal a bottle of Champagne would be popped, glasses poured, photos taken and questions asked. The whole evening was always such fun as the excitement was infectious. It was very special just knowing how enormously these peoples lives were going to change the next day when they got their cheque. The most memorable and deserving of these were Doug and John in the cutting above.
Above is Manny's front page story about Doug and John which went with my photos.
