"Now Take Your Money And Fuck Off" Says Sourpuss Bookie

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

A local bookmaker has ended Melbourne Cup Day in a foul mood after being forced to pay out a drunk punter who jagged a roughie in the final race at the Betoota Turf Club.

The bookmaker, Clyde Overell, 73, has been taking bets in Betoota for more than four decades. He is the older brother of The Betoota Advocate’s editor, Clancy, though the two men reportedly have not spoken since the 2017 Easter Carnival when Clyde refused to honour a misprinted dividend.

Witnesses say Clyde had been in high spirits for most of the afternoon. By Race Seven he was reportedly up close to ten thousand dollars, with a steady stream of losing slips piling beside his folding chair and a half-empty can of San Pellegrino perched on a stack of form guides.

But that mood shifted when a young man named Lachie stumbled to the window minutes before the last race, slapped a hundred-dollar note on the counter and said, “Put it all the nose of number nine, you fucking grey-haired fuck.”

The horse, Kiwi Barnaby, was paying $13.

Against all form, the outsider stormed home. The crowd roared. Lachie screamed like a man possessed, spilling beer over himself and anyone nearby.

Clyde did the maths in silence. Then he opened the drawer, peeled off thirteen crisp hundreds and slid them across the counter.

“Now take your money and fuck off,” he said.

The exchange was met with laughter from the crowd and a low growl from Clyde, who immediately lit a greymarket Marlboro and stared at the sand track for a long time, shaking his head and being a big sourpuss.

More to come.