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‘Side-business’ that spawned Liverpool jobs, fortunes and fame
It’s been almost a century since one workforce became synonymous with the Football Pools – but it’s legacy still lives on.
Liverpool and football go hand in hand and before the National Lottery, the most popular way for people to try and win a fortune was to play the Football Pools – the country’s oldest football betting game that was born in Liverpool.
The ECHO previously reported how from 1923, the Football Pools offered people a chance to win large sums of money by predicting the outcome of matches, with Sir John Moores being one of the founders of Littlewoods, which was the first to sell the pools. An integral part of family life, many will remember the teatime ritual of listening to the football scores and marking off score draws on coupons in the hope of getting a line of crosses next to the right games – but Littlewoods wasn’t the only big name in the city.
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Vernons came along in 1925 and employed thousands, with agents going on to do house calls to collect pennies for games. It was Littlewood’s success that is said to have inspired two businessmen to start the rival Vernons.
George Randall “Ken” Kennerley, from Wirral, is said to have first met Vernon Sangster while working in Peacock’s in Liverpool. The ECHO previously reported how “Mr Sangster had a side-business – collecting bets on the outcome of football matches from punters in pubs” and that Mr Kennerley suggested formalising the business and Vernon’s Pools was born.
Vernons became one of the “big three,” alongside Littllewoods and Zetters, which was founded in London in the 1930s. During World War II, all the Football Pools also joined forces to become the Unity Pools.
Soon millions of working people were playing the only national gambling competition and Merseyside was the centre of an industry that employed thousands of women checking the weekly returns. Many will remember the Vernons building in Ormskirk Road, Aintree.
What are your memories of Vernons Football Pools? Let us know in the comments section below.
Brilliant images, from our archives offer a glimpse into life at Vernons and the people who worked there. On images, courtesy of our archives Mirrorpix show staff from Carwood Printing in Park Road after winning early £100,000 on Vernon Treble Chance, exactly a year to the day after winning £400.
Other images also capture office workers at Vernons Football Pools in the 1930s and 1950s. A huge part of the community, many will have memories of playing the pools and also knowing someone who was part of the massive workforce.
But the business went to new levels of fame when Vernons Pools launched The Vernons Girls as a singing choir in the 1950s, made up of employees, the girls who checked the pools coupons, the popular group was originally a 70-strong choir before being whittled down to 16 members.
The Vernon Girls went on to appear on the likes of ITV’s Oh Boy! and make records in their own right. Members Joyce Baker and Vicky Hasemen went on to marry rock-and- roll stars Marty Wilde and Joe Brown, with their daughters Kim Wilde and Sam Brown both becoming 80s pop icons.
Following the arrival of the National Lottery and the decline of the business, all three Football Pools were bought out by Sportech and were rebranded ‘The New Football Pools,’ the ECHO previously reported. As for Vernons, when they moved to new premises in 1991, their original site became the Paradox nightclub.
Attracting thousands of Merseyside clubbers every week until its closure in 2001, The Paradox is still remembered for hosting famous singers and bands and having numerous themed nights. After the venue closed its doors in 2001, in January 2013 the building was torn down, having stood empty for years and becoming derelict.
The site is now home to a Sports Direct store with a gym attached. But one photograph from our archives captures at Vernon Girls reunion at the site back in September 1992.
But the memory of the Football Pools and Vernon Girls lives on. Liverpool’s Royal Court have taken the stories told by the girls who were there to the stage in their production of Vernon Girls.
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The show, written by Karen Brown and directed by Bob Eaton, is packed with music from the Rock n Roll era including hits from the likes of Billy Fury, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, Marty Wilde, Cliff Richard and Buddy Holly.
Tickets are available from June 9 till July 8. To find our more, click here.
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