"A dead cert"

[Waterside Echo]

I have never been a gambler, in fact I was 70 years old the first time i set foot in a betting shop, and that was to pick up a Irish lottery slip for a neighbour.   When the last labour leadership contest was announced I just happened to see in the paper that bookies were offering 200 to 1 on Jeremy Corbin. This took me back to the days of a bookies runner we knew who hung about on Woodside Lane. He always said the secret of winning was to ignore the favourites and swot up on the "no hopers".  Well I thought 200 to 1 on Jeremy, I will have a go at that. Going a bit over the top I thought, do it right put £200 on. Armed with my gas bill money I marched up to my local Betfred shop, at those odds it was worth the gamble, but do you know what I just could not do it. Echoes of he who hesitates is lost, and the fact that I could not really afford to lose that amount. This time if I had the 200 to gamble with perhaps I should have put it on England to win The World Cup!   W/E.