Choices

For Carol, a chance encounter turned out to be a stroke of luck

- Christine Sutton

Scanning the row of betting slips, Carol tried to figure out which one to use. Like millions of others, she and her husband Brian only ever bet once a year, their annual flutter on the Grand National. But Brian had been so insistent that the ‘surefire winners’ given to him by an amiable old chap in the park yesterday were worth a punt that she'd set aside her misgivings and decided to chance a fiver. If only she could find the right slip.

‘Can I help?’ asked a tiny woman nearby. She was wearing a sparkly pink jogging suit and looked to be in her late 50s. Carol wondered if she was employed by the betting shop, a friendly face to assist the occasional out-of-her-comfort-zone lady punter.

‘I'm not sure,’ Carol said, struggling to make sense of the finer points of accumulators, singles and each-way bets.

The woman nodded, setting her auburn curls bouncing. ‘Confusing, isn’t it?’ she said.

‘Very,’ Carol agreed. ‘I usually leave this to Brian, that’s my husband, but he’s laid up with a bad back. It’s his birthday, so this is my treat. He’s given me the names of four horses in four different races, but he doesn’t want them as singles and he wants them each way.’

‘Then he wants a Yankee,’ the woman said, taking down a blue slip. ‘It’s a good choice with rank outsiders like these. They only need to come in the first three to get a decent return. And if by some chance they happen to actually win, ka-ching! So, you put the horses’ names in the first column, the time of the race and where it’s being held in the second, and then your stake down here.’

‘Stake?’

‘That's how much money you want to bet on each horse.’

Carol chewed her lip. ‘I was thinking, maybe, 50p each way?’

‘Sounds good. So you write 50p there, and the total there.’

She filled in the amount and Carol winced. ‘£11. Hmm. It’s quite a lot. Oh, what the heck, it's not every day your man turns 30. Let's do it.’