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Spot The Ball Contest


Dorset_Cider

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5 minutes ago, Dorset_Cider said:

Boy this dude is good :)

 

Funnily enough there was a programme about STB (something like Watchdog but in the early 80s) that showed how friggin’ impossible it was to win.  

Some investigator made a set of ‘John bull’ type stamps with a row of 10x10 crosses, and then systematically completed dozens of entries so that he had a cross covering every part of the photo.  He even staggered the crosses to cover the ball being in between the first set of crosses.  Dedication eh?

Did he win?

Did he 4%£k!

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45 minutes ago, slartibartfast said:

1970 pic.................Terry Bush v Oxford.     Notice the unfinished Dolman, never be allowed now.

 

 

Either that or we had a seat-throwing contest at the previous home game ..............

"Happy days" ...............

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27 minutes ago, MattWSM said:

 Why did they change evening kick offs from 7.30 to 7.45                

So blokes could sneak out to the football unnoticed while the old lady was engrossed in a Stan & Hilda Ogden 'murial' story line on Coronation Street... (not that I would know anything about that, or plaster wall ducks for that matter) :whistle2:  

 

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9 hours ago, WhistleHappy said:

So blokes could sneak out to the football unnoticed while the old lady was engrossed in a Stan & Hilda Ogden 'murial' story line on Coronation Street... (not that I would know anything about that, or plaster wall ducks for that matter) :whistle2:  

 

Ok, thanks 

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12 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Funnily enough there was a programme about STB (something like Watchdog but in the early 80s) that showed how friggin’ impossible it was to win.  

Some investigator made a set of ‘John bull’ type stamps with a row of 10x10 crosses, and then systematically completed dozens of entries so that he had a cross covering every part of the photo.  He even staggered the crosses to cover the ball being in between the first set of crosses.  Dedication eh?

Did he win?

Did he 4%£k!

I think it was an edition of That's Life. Someone complained that they had put an x exactly where the ball was shown to be the following week when the result was revealed. When That's Life got in touch with the pools firm running STB they found the bloke's coupon and showed that the x had moved a couple of millimetres. It was explained that it must've got damp in the mail system and when paper gets soaked writing on it can move a little bit when it dries out. The original cross could be seen but faintly and the bolder cross next to it where it moved to was the entry that was accepted.

It was also shown that the pools companies decided where the ball was to be located and it was never where the ball in the original picture was before being rendered invisible. They also displayed that sticking a pin into the photograph and listening for any deflation of air rarely worked because the pools companies examined the submitted coupons and if they spotted anything suspicious the coupon was thrown out because they didn't want their prize money won by pricks.

All of this shattered my illusions as up until then I genuinely believed one had to spot where the ball was if it hadn't been rendered invisible. I used to judge the look on the players faces, angles, the likely path of the ball in such situations etc. Once I knew that this wasn't the case I realized it was a lottery and not a game of skill. 

Incidentally, I never heard of anyone submitting a pools coupon and saying that actually they had no draws from 10 but would've had 8 score draws had they done the numbers next to their selected ones. Then, because of heavy rain they won the jackpot because all the crosses had moved once their coupon dried out in Liverpool. 

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7 minutes ago, slartibartfast said:

Can't really remember..............I know the next year we were ready for them , they ran every where some scrambling over the gates at the Dolman end in a mad panic trying to escape, don't think they troubled us again !

That’s what I remember, their escape towards the exits at the Dolman end! ? 

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13 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Funnily enough there was a programme about STB (something like Watchdog but in the early 80s) that showed how friggin’ impossible it was to win.  

Some investigator made a set of ‘John bull’ type stamps with a row of 10x10 crosses, and then systematically completed dozens of entries so that he had a cross covering every part of the photo.  He even staggered the crosses to cover the ball being in between the first set of crosses.  Dedication eh?

Did he win?

Did he 4%£k!

As a innocent youth I once entered a spot the ball contest. I was convinced I was going to win as, by chance, had an old newspaper photograph of the same match that was exactly the same as that used in the contest, BUT, showing the ball.  I carefully placed  my photograph on top of the one in the contest and marked the position on the ball to the nearest thousandth of an inch. During the wait until the results were announced I passed the time planning how I would spend the money. Did I win? You know the answer

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14 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Funnily enough there was a programme about STB (something like Watchdog but in the early 80s) that showed how friggin’ impossible it was to win.  

Some investigator made a set of ‘John bull’ type stamps with a row of 10x10 crosses, and then systematically completed dozens of entries so that he had a cross covering every part of the photo.  He even staggered the crosses to cover the ball being in between the first set of crosses.  Dedication eh?

Did he win?

Did he 4%£k!

 Yeah, remember seeing that programme  :thumbsup:  

Also recall those rubber stamps with loads of tiny X's on them for sale in newspaper ad's. ... Supposedly gave punters a better  chance of winning if they just got within the approximate area of the ball... And for people who had better things to do with their time than marking hundreds of X's on a coupon with a biro.(I spent hours over the years doing just that, must add up to at least a couple of days of life I'll never get back … spot the mug! ;) not to mention checking the previous weeks solution and thinking ''phew, that must've been close to a win''  :laugh:

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