Greyhounds Faulty telephone link disrupts meeting

Press, 16 June 1988, Page 40

Greyhounds Faulty telephone link disrupts meeting

PA Hamilton A faulty telephone connection to Auckland may have cut the Auckland Greyhound Racing Club’s earnings by as much as $lB,OOO at their Hamilton meeting on Monday, a club official says. The club’s treasurer, Mr Ken Flowers, said yesterday that the break in the toll connection from the on-course T.A.B. at Claudelands racetrack to its Auckland computer centre may have cut the potential betting turnover by $15,000 in off-course betting and $3OOO oncourse.

This was a conservative estimate for the last two which were de-

layed because of the fault, based on average earnings for previous meetings, he said. Earnings for the eight races before the totalisator collapsed showed the last two races may have earned more than $lB,OOO, according to Mr Flowers. “You’ve just got to look at it and say you could have done that much better.”

The T.A.B. totalisator manager, Mr Kevin O’Connell, said the Claudelands totalisator was closed for about 30 minutes, delaying the last two races until the emergency computer system could be connected. •

When the toll failed

communication with the computer system was cut completely, Mr O’Connell said. Telecom network operations manager, Mr Dennis Murrow, said an overload at the Auckland toll exchange cut all calls from Hamilton to Auckland for one minute at 3.36 p.m. In the following 30 minutes about half of the calls could not get through. The Hamilton exchange restricted the number of calls to Auckland to half for four minutes after 4 p.m. to allow Auckland technicians to sort the problem out, Mr Murrow said.