A REGULAR ROYAL BIRTHDAY

Hokitika Guardian, 18 July 1931, Page 3

A REGULAR ROYAL BIRTHDAY

THE DERBY OF TO-DAY

SMOOTHNESS OP MOTOR. TRAFFIC. LONDON, July! 4. The descriptnO writer has been already on the ether with the story of how. Cameronian won in 1931 ; and the very noises of the crowd, even the raucous cries of the bookies were wafted round the world ; by television some people looked in for the first time in history. So all I can send are some reflections by the way. .First and last, there was no traffic blocking. In other days when four-in-hands went spanking down the road arid costers in their donkey carts went trundling all the way to Epsom, people who wanted to be bright and early on the course started betimes. But now, motors—even fortune tellers and gypsies have their cars—get down in a couple of hours. The crowds that used to line the road all the way through Surrey suburbs are no longer interested in motor coaches which stream unendingly along. The race-goers are shut up in coaches' or buses, and even if they get blocked at cross roads now and again, there’s no chance for such backchat as enlivened the road in leisurely horse traffic days. Even the school children who, on the return journey, lie ;in- .wait for the lucky winners—as the. favouritjes won, it was a lucky day for the public—don’t line the road calling “Throw us your mouldy coppers.”

AERIAL TRAFFIC PROBLEMS

But if the road traffic -supervisors have got down to their job on earth, not so up above, for the (lying habit has come to stay. In anticipation of trouble . aloft through too many viewing the race from their ’planes, instructions were issued to all flying at Epsom that the course round was to be done always in one direction to obviate the risk of collision which happy-go-lucky flying would have entailed. And the precaution was necessary. An aeroplane’ crashed on the railway near Epsom Downs Station and • held lip the traffic for more than an 'hour. Two' passengers piloted by Mr A. \V. Whitten in a three-seater Avro were about 40Cft -above ground when their machine developed engine trouble and in trying to land the undercarriage caught in the telegraph wires by the railway line. The fliers were only '■slightly hurt, but -all the wires connecting 'Plpsom Downs .Station were damaged. ,

THE -WINNER

' The victory of Cameronian—Scotland is not storin'- and wild to-day and no “Laments” from the pipes of the red kilted Highlander who has his yearly pitch at Epsom—-is something unique too.’lt is said, that when Edgar Wallace was looking ,at Cameronian as a yearling in tha paddock, its owner, Lord De-war,

the Derby. .Lord Dewar had tried many j-.im.es to pull off the great race, but as all the world knows, Lord Dewar died without getting his wish. According !o nld Turkov Club ’ ules and regulations, if the owner of a horse entered foi the Deroy died tv fore the race, the horse was. scratched. , Edgar Wallace, however, thought the rule a istupid one and he headed an .. t-'-'-ion i,r> have the rule altered and succeeded. So .Cameronian, entered by the late Lord Dewar for the Dirby, was run this year by Lord Dewar’s heir, Mr Arthur Dewar. ’I he win was a most popular one anil Mr Dewar was swamped with congratulations of which one of the heartiest was that of the King, who, with the -Queen, enjoyed the Derby Day of the famous Downs, looking very fit and well. He had indeed, a regular royal Birthday,, joining in- the sport he loves on a glorious summer day. t was, we are told, a record crowd, '.'h' use of motor-coaches helps to *.wjl the crowd’s. ’Horse-drawn vehicles •>orH no', accommodate the numbers of to-day, nor did they make such gooci i.-star Is fro pi which to see. the ace. Exr-pt on the course, and as mounts for police, horses were not to r.r- i. 1 nbarest, anyhow, was keener off the course than on,' for the ]3,000,000 people alleged to have had an interest ip the Dublin Sweep. LUCKY WINNERS.

The stories of lucky winners are multiplied, too. Th-ro were nineteen lucky tickets for each of the three big prizes, as well as thousands of small. A Baby, i> negro, a blind .basket-maker, an engineer and a bookmaker won £30,000 — a peer’s son won £15,000, and so did a hawker—a barmaid won £IO,OOO. The lucky woman did achieve her dearest wish for she took it under the nom do, plume ‘‘My Pub, .vow.” il shall visit that, pub. the next time 'I am motoring ; nto Scotland through Dumfries, where her fancy-is! . But one winner found -himself in the soup! A man whose employer is a lay preacher was promptly 'sacked, for his having anything to do with gambling was a reflection on his employer’s character.

A London hawker, a widower, who drew Orpen, won £i5,000, went to. the D-’vhy with his two sons. He is now going to get married—move from Limehouse to a suburban home. One blind man, a basket-maker in east . London, drew Cameronian and shared it with his brother and two nephews. He isn't making much fuss about it and says he will go on working as he always has, although as he says “I am glad to have this little bit of extra which Providence and good luck have sent me. I shall be sixty years old soon, and still I can take my orders for three hundred rfiund

baskets and go . through with them.” He is going into the . next sweep,-, Before the race he sold a half share of his ticket for £3IOO. Here is the story of My .Caspar Bcrther’s win in the Calcutta. He'is a head waiter in Birmingham and he ! had a half share in one of the winning Cameronian tickets. When the news arrived—a deputation of waiters demanded a share of his winnings on the ground that the half ticket was a “tip.” i It was given him, - so the staff de/lare, in appreciation of L his services as a member of the -hotel 'staff and the eighteen waiters now demand that it should go into tjie waiters’ pool of. tips. . , | FOOTBALL DIRECTOR'S LUCK. We learn to-day. that the holder of the other Orpen ticket in the Calcutta Sweep is .'Mr Harvey, a traveller in the | employ of Messrs Bass a Batcliffe and Gretton, the brewers. He is stationed at Plymouth, and is a director of Plymouth -Argvle Football Club. He sold i a half share of the ticket for £3500, . amt will clear, it is stated, £25,000. It was not until he returned to his home : late yesterday afternoon that he was informed by his wife that Orpen had run second, I- - A