I came quite late into the betting game. Just two years ago up in Edinburgh I recall watching a WestHam Tottenham game with Gantie and being mildly amused by his agitated state, as he agonisingly missed out on £150 quid due to West Ham being incapable of summoning a goal. With the beginning of the next season I took up the blue pen myself and found that the landscape of my Saturdays had changed. No longer was I casually scanning final score, now I was sat on my laptop, in a pub or even with my face pressed up against the glass window of Currys. Have Brighton equalised? Are Bolton still winning?Is that security guard about to ask me to leave?
Before people start thinking, where does Naylor get the money for this caper?I will level with you, I'm not talking about high stakes here. In fact before I completed the bet for my blog the most money I'd ever bet in my life was five pounds.It was that sum which gave me my first ever win which happened earlier this season. I had correctly predicted that Man utd would beat liverpool 3-2 and then forgotten all about it. Which saw me in the bizarre situation of walking round a photography exhibition of Chernobyl victims with my girlfriend and her mum, all the time getting frantic text updates on my phone from Gantie. Minutes later I'm expressing my horror at the harrowing images in front of me while also realising that I'm now £175 quid richer thanks to Dimitar Berbatov, Liverpools defence and an absent minded sunday afternoon flutter.
The rules on this challenge were simple, to get the stake for the bet I needed to make it from a bet. I didn't want to use any of my meagre salary on such a high risk gamble. I haven't got big enough balls for that. So it came to find me sat in the sunshine of highbury park with my beautiful lady friend on the last but one weekend of the season. As we enjoyed the surroundings of the park and witnessed Sonia Jackson from eastenders eating a twister(or five) I leapt into the air as thanks to Frank Lampard scoring a consolation for chelsea, Gantie was £700 quid richer, I was £120 quid richer and the challenge was on!
Now I didn't want to put the bet on online, If i was going to go out then I wanted the buzz of doing it to be greater. So it was I called in the third part of my gambling axis of evil-my father and good friend Dai Naylor. With dangerous Dai on board there was only going to be one place we were heading. So it came to pass that on Saturday 28th May I stepped into the Leicester Square Casino with the express intention of dropping fifty pounds on either red or black on roulette. picture below of me looking nervous and incredibly hungover pre bet thanks to ganties bday celebrations the previous night.
I was flusher than I thought I was going to be due to triumphing with a £2 bet on the champions league final which handed me another forty quid to play with. Despite this I still admit to cowering behind dai with my hands over my eyes as about half hour into our casino session we decided it was time to drop the bigun. The wheel had gone to black the last six spins and I decided to go for it. The spin seemed to take forever but soon the little white ball was dropping into place on....RED! I kissed the top of Dais head and scooped up my winnings. I'd like to say that I rode the bet and banged another fifty straight on. I didn't though, we stayed for another hour and a bit but my heart or bank balance couldn't stand another high roll. As it was I left the casino thirty quid up and treated Dai and me to a taxi home.Challenge completed!
I will leave you with three quotes:
"If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;"
Rudyard Kipling
Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something. ~Wilson Mizner
" If Afc Wimbledon beat Crawley then I'll win a tenner. Gambling is life"
Lee Gant
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