AFTER THE DERBY

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 260, 29 July 1932, Page 17

AFTER THE DERBY

How They Received the News PRIZES TO POOR FOLK Not only unto those that hath did tha big prizes of the Irish sweep on the Derby of 1932 go. Poor folk, those in humble occupations and unemployed persons were among those who found fortune thrust upon them by the speed of a racehorse. They received the news in a (variety of ways. A few as though a fortune was an everyday arrival. One man became so badly unnerved that he ran away. A friend rushed to inform a winner who was a worker in a claypit, and both fainted, A woman nearly went insane. Mr. N. Hitching, of Coventry, had been without work for a year. Mr. and Mrs. Onslow, of Cheriton, Kent, win prizes when both the husband and son have been unemployed for many weeks.

Few winners were so phlegmatic as Mr. Harry Unsworth, licensee of the Stag Hotel, Daub Hill, Bolton, one of a syndicate, who did not trouble to listen-in to the broadcast, and first heard of his success from excited neighbours.

Mr. O. Ayers, a Portsmouth clerk, ran into his manager’s room at the office of Southdown Motor Services. He then left the building, and was ihtet traced to the home of his mother-in-law, where he was far too unnerved to be interviewed.

Mr. Albert Grady, one of thb Blackpool syndicate, fainted, together with his friend informant, in the claypit at which he was working when the friend brought the news.. ■ ,

“A Lady is Serene.”

By contrast there is the story of Mrs. Brinkhurst, wife of the village shoemaker at Shalford, near Guildford. Although. she listened to the broadcast, sho never lost her serenity. Her husband did not know that she had a ticket until the telegram arrived announcing that sho had drawn April the Fifth. Only recently he and his wife had discussed the futility of sweepstakes. Mr. Brinkhurst has never been in a sweepstake, and he has never “put a shilling on a horse” in his life, as he is opposed to betting. When the news was Hashed through Mr. John Prince was serving sausages in a butcher’s shop at Oxford, and Mr. F. Kennard was cutting seakale In a market garden near Worthing for 35/a week. He had-refused £2OOO for a half share in his ticket.

Fourteen Work Girls’ Win. . ■*

,■. Fourteen working girls l at Glasgow bought a ticket which drew April the ! Fifth from a blind man. Five laundry , girls at\potter's Bar, who will share >£16,000, sold half their'April the Fifth ticket for £lsoo’a few minutes before the. time of the. race. /■'Mr. A. W. -Jeffreys, fishmonger, of . Grove Park, intends to'devote, a part ' of the £30,000 he has won toward the ‘ completion of the Roman Catholic ;church at Mottingham. inspired by the example of Canon Monk, who. when he won about £BOO in a sweepstake last year, put the whole of the money toward this church. \

! Mr. W. A. Thomas, of Bedminster, Bristol, who held a winning ticket, is ■seventy He lias decided to give 11P his work in a vinegar factory. Half the ticket was sold for £2OOO. , Five clerks at the' Morris Motor Works, Cowley, tried, but failed, to sell a.share of their April the. Fifth 'ticket."' ' ' l '••■'■ ;■ Mr. J. H. Walker, Aberdeen, who wins £15,000, Is on a trawler In the North Sea. Eighteen people in the Inspector of Taxes’ office in Derby share £15,000. Mrs. Dalby, or Coram Street, Bloomsbury, wlio shared Dastur with her four children and a grandson, lost her husband at the Battle of Jutland. Half the ticket was sold. ; Mrs. E. Salthouse and Mrs. A. Loose, neighbours, of Lytliam,' . Lancs., had kept their Miracle ticket a secret from their husbands.

“Nearly Went Insane.”

Mrs. Nellie Thomas, of Stockwell, another of .the second prize winners, said: “I listened to the broadcast. I tried hard to be calm, but in the end I very nearly went insane. As soon as the horses were off I started rushing round and round the’ room. I just could not keep still. Dastur at first was apparently nowhere, and I found myself screaming madly, ‘Come on, deary. When the result did finally . come through I just collapsed into a chair, trying to realise that I had won all this money.” She had refused to sell part

of her ticket for £21500. ?•; Mr. E. Thorpe, of Barnsley, a Miracle winner, is an unemployed musician. Four London people drew April the Fifth in the Irish sweepstake. They live at Eltham, Grove Park, Harnngay and Potter’s Bar.

Where Big Money Went.

Of the eighty-four tickets for the first three horses London and the Home counties drew twenty-six, worth altogether £455,000. The destinations of the big prizes are as follows: —

April the Fifth (£30,000 each)— London 4, Rest of England 14, Wales 1, Scotland. 1, Ireland 2, United States 3, South Africa 2, France 1. DaStur’ (£15,000 each)—London 6, Rest of England 12, Wales 1, Scotland 2, Ireland 0, United States 5, HongKong 1, Grlqualand 1. Miracle (£lO,OOO each)—London 6, Rest of England 14, Scotland 2, Wales 0, Ireland 1. United States 1, Canada 2, Switzerland 1, India 1. There w-ere remarkable variations in. prices paid for half-shares in April the Fifth tickets. In most cases £2OOO was offered and taken, but in others the figure was as low as £6OO.