Not a player, but a year older than Martin, probably younger than quizard though. Memorised the reels as a 12 year old in the days before autonudge !!! And the simple times when quizzers had Give Us A Break, fruities had tokens and bookies opened 10-5 in the winter and you LISTENED to the racing through a crackly loudspeaker in a smoky bookies.
Ah bookies in the 1970s. No TVs, no machines, no refreshments, haze of blue fag smoke, rubbish all over the floor. Only the Extel 'blower' for live info and some old guy who manually chalked up the odds on wall charts. Only about 3 UK race meetings a day to bet on, shut at 30 mins after last race or 6pm which ever was sooner. And all the windows blacked out so decent, honest folk would not be corrupted by seeing what went on inside LOL.