The Pools/Spot The Ball

[phild]

In the day we all did the Pools. littlewoods, Vernons, Zetters I dont know a single person now who still does em. Used to be big news when someone scooped a million. Spot the Ball, not sure thats still going, Used to see it in the Argos, but the ball was never where it ought to be.

[Bombers right foot]

When I was a nipper in the 70's ( god I feel old) I filled in a spot the ball ( the picture was divided into numbered squares) in one of the footie magazines and won a proper football, big difference from the plastic Frido balls we played with, I thought I'd won the world, a proper leather football, magical. The following month I filled spot the ball in again but didn't send it off and picked the correct number again, I was devastated, the ball I won lasted for years and suddenly our 6 a side games turned into 12 a side games.

[phild]

My uncle played spot the ball every week in the Sports Argus and was never close. The players would be looking skyward and the following week the ball was revealed to be somewhere by the players feet. The sports Argus was this pink newspaper that we all actually queued up for outside a newsagent for delivery at 5.30 on a Saturday evening, never bothered if we lost though

[soulman101]

We came back from holiday, i was in bed my wife shouted up stairs after opening a letter from Littlewoods.You won some money ,i said a tenner, she said more, i said £50, she said more.So i come down stairs, she said you have 8 draws, we won £3,995. It was when the pools were in decline but it was a nice win, this was about 19 years ago.

[Q165]

Ah the Sports Argus. When I first moved away my dad would send it to me every week. I really looked forward to it and was really pi55ed off when it stopped. Dad would do the Argus Spot the Ball every week. I remember coming home from school one Friday to find out he had won.

[Albionic68]

We came back from holiday, i was in bed my wife shouted up stairs after opening a letter from Littlewoods.You won some money ,i said a tenner, she said more, i said £50, she said more.So i come down stairs, she said you have 8 draws, we won £3,995. It was when the pools were in decline but it was a nice win, this was about 19 years ago.

One of my aunties had a BIG win on the pools Lloyd.

I never knew how much but my dad assured me it was a very handsome amount.

[Q165]

Dad had a decent win on Littlewoods when I was a kid. I was too little to appreciate it and was never directly told. I won about £6 once which pales into insignificance compared to soulman’s £3995. But I was a student at the time and the extra beer money was welcome.

[holmleighchris]

When the BBC read out the results on a Saturday they still have the pools number by each game so maybe they are still popular, though I've not seen one for years. My dad always did Littlewood's & Empire's. I used to get to pick some most weeks.

[holmleighchris]

https://www.footballpools.com/pool-games/classic-pools

[Prando]

In the day...we used to have the ‘pools man’ call and collect our weekly nominal stake. If we were out, we’d leave it in the porch.
We got fed up with it, it felt obliged to support the collector, who liked to have a brief chat.
I used to wonder whether he actually ‘paid it in’...i.e. was he pocketing the money? I doubt it to be fair, but I did wonder !