Roy of the Rovers A New Beginning Week 21 Trevor Brinsden knew he had to work quickly, he had already made

e contact with three lower division professionals, all were willing to take payment to fix certain aspects of a match, be it a yellow card or conceding a penalty. But the biggest money would be made with a series of large bets placed on one event; Trevor had found a goalkeeper willing to concede three goals in any specified match. Larger bets could be placed on the number of goals scored in a match, without attracting as much attention as one placed on an individual players performance. In the Asian market, illegal bookies would accept bets on pretty much any event, this left them vulnerable to scams, but also meant they were less likely to accept an exceptionally large bet, especially if they could not find another bookie to lay part of their potential lose with. For now Trevor had ruled out betting with foreign bookies, his bets would be placed on the high street, he would receive the money in cash. His target was fifteen million pounds in three weeks. He was still in regular contact with the men who placed his snooker and darts bets, but now the system had to change. Since Trevors original schemes in the early 2000s, every high street betting chain had moved onto the electronic point of sale system. This means that every single bet is logged on a central computer the moment the cashier translates it. Skilled investigators, many former police detectives, were paid to identify patterns legitimate or potentially fraudulent sequences of bets that could cause significant loses. Notifications could then appear in every shop in the country or a specified geographical area, informing staff to be aware of certain bet types or even to seek permission-to-lay before accepting any bets on an event. This security system meant Trevor would have to place his bets almost simultaneously at a variety of stores and of amounts that would not form a pattern. He had twelve trusted friends who would place the bets for only a small cut, he had done them all many favours over the years. No questions would be asked. Each man had already received his instructions and 15,000 in twenty and ten pound notes, they were to begin placing bets of between 500 and 2,000 regularly in their designated five shops. They were to build up trust between themselves and the staff, tipping if they won and always being polite. This was phase one of the scam, on Wednesday, three days before the first fixed football events, phase two would begin. The men would start placing bets just in time; on the bell for dogs or seconds before kick-off for a soccer match. Many of the bets placed would require phoning in, either to get permission to lay if the possible profit, or liability, is above a limit or if the stake exceeded a fixed amount. This is when the cashier has to ring the regional office, a code name is given identifying the customer anything from a stranger to a logged customer (one who bets large sums regularly and is familiar to the staff). Trevors men may well have earned logged status by now, especially if they were winning regularly, but most would be classed as an occasional. Occasionals attract less attention than either the stranger or logged customer, but a tipping occasional is favoured by staff. By placing the bet just in time, cashiers would often process the bet before gaining the necessary permission, sometimes not even looking at it and making the calculation to determine the liability, this was vital to Trevors plan. The men would begin to softly encourage staff not to waste his time ringing the office, with small incentives offered, not just raw cash but chocolate bars from the shop, or a bag of chips. Trevor knew himself how mundane a fourteen hour shift could be and in a

suburban betting shop a nice customer could easily curry favour, even without asking, little things would be overlooked allowing his scams to form. By the end of Melchester Rovers match away at Portdean, Trevor Brinsden should be sitting on a tidy two million pound profit. The next week they would aim for three and then the big one, ten million pounds on the final weekend. It would be risky, but they could pull out and disappear at any sign of intervention. When suspicions arose around his snooker matches, Trevor stopped and never returned. He never even made contact with or even acknowledged his player when they met in the casino. Big betting shops make such enormous profits that a bad weekend is quickly forgotten. David Roth and the consortium that represented the shareholder fans had promised to match any donations he made. If the maximum amount was made, it would give Vernon Eliot 45million to spend in the remaining week of the transfer window. Trevor would hint that money was available halfway through the scheme, allowing the manager to adjust and indentify his targets. But by the end of January 2014, Trevor Brinsden hoped his beloved Melchester Rovers will have acquired a squad capable of challenging at the very top of world football. *** Roy Races developmental squad had not played a competitive match for over a month; their last four scheduled league matches were postponed due adverse weather. This had not disappointed Roy to the extent that it normally would, he had grown tired of the negative attitude shown by a number of his players. But he was so excited about this afternoons game in the Professional Development League Under-18s Northern Division. Weston Villa were the opponents, the current F.A. Youth Cup holders and probably the most successful in the last few years, with regard to graduation to the Premier League, of all the academies in England. It was not just Weston Villa who Roy was anxious to see, today would see the debuts of Kelvin Dickson and Thomas Carruthers, the two young players signed from non-league Bromsmede. Roy was hoping that adding the relatively experienced duo to his squad would push some of his more promising players forward, force them to improve their attitude and recognise the importance of passion as well as technical ability. Thomas Carruthers was made captain, he was a natural leader, vocal but supportive and he led by example both on and off the field. The intelligent defender had only agreed to sign until the end of the season, when he would decide whether to stay or leave to pursue his studies. Roy supported this, he believed that far too many young footballers neglected their education and this had only got worse as academies trained younger and younger children every year. Greedy parents pushed their boys too hard, praying they would make-it and make millionaires of them overnight. Only a handful would, but the damage done to so many boys educations would never be recognised as Premier League teams tried everything to make sure they had the best seven year-olds in the country on their books. Roy gave his team talk, exactly as he would have given his great Championship Melchester Rovers teams, We play to our strengths first and then we worry about Villa, but we only worry about Villa once theyve had to worry about us. We go out fast and furious, attacking, fast, direct, skilful, show your class. Communicate, talk to one another, give clear commands, listen to me and listen to your captain. Now get out there and play the Melchester way! The main pitch at Melchester Rovers ultra-modern training ground had a surface most Premier League clubs would be proud of. Mel Park had always had the best pitch in the country and Roy made it very clear to the board that his developmental teams would have to play on the equivalent. Roy also insisted that the playing area be surrounded by advertising boards, with netting behind the

goals, non-playing members of the squad were used as ball-boys. Roy wanted to ensure that the dimensions and playing conditions were as close as possible to what would be experienced playing in a proper football ground. Kelvin Dickson was playing as the centre forward, partnered by Alex Lees on the right and Curtis Blunt on the left. Both the wide forwards had appeared for the first team this season, although Lees was only as a late substitute in the League Cup defeat to Rotherton Forest. Curtis Blunt was highly rated and had made regular appearances off the bench in the early part of the season. He was very quick, probably the fastest men in the entire squad, but awfully raw, his decision-making was poor and his attitude had deteriorated markedly since Vernon Eliots stricter regime was introduced. Roy hoped to turn Blunt into the new Vernon Eliot, he had very similar attributes, natural skill and strength and rubbery legs, he could wobble past opponents at great pace. Vernon had agreed to allow Roy to work with Blunt for an extended period, meaning he was not involved with the firstteam at all. He was still only eighteen and probably would not have been anywhere near the firstteam squad had Freddy Van Den Broeck not been so off form. But Curtis Blunt was suffering a crisis of confidence, Roy noticed immediately that he carried his head low and spent a lot of the warm-up starring at his bright orange boots. It was a brisk day, with a strong chilling wind, but certainly not cold by Melchester standards. Blunt however, and he was not the only one, had tights on under his shorts and wore gloves, it was not a look Roy approved of. But he had been warned not to enforce old-fashioned rules on modern day academy players, they would rebel or simply refuse, then what would he do? But to Roy Race a player wearing gloves and tights appeared soft, giving his opponent an edge. Hard men like Johnny Dexter would not respect a man in tights, in fact he would go out of his way to make sure that a man in tights would never beat him, he would look a fool if he were beaten by a softie. Fifteen minutes into the match and Roys demand that Rovers start brightly had not be met. Weston Villa were in complete control, they played a neat passing game, but in a traditional 4-4-2, they had not yet created anything, but were content to pass along the back line with occasional thrusts into the midfield, if they were closed down, the ball went back. Kelvin Dickson was visibly frustrated, he would rarely have faced a team so adept at keeping possession in non-league football, but he was chasing and chasing, imploring Blunt to aid him in his efforts. Youre wasting your energy Dickson! Let them have it there, theyre doing no harm! Blunt replied to a disgruntled huff from the big striker, What? I want the ball and Im going to get it. If you actually ran a bit, it would help! Dickson charged off again as the Villa goalkeeper took a short goal kick, passing to the left back, Man on! he shouted, but Dickson had clattered the defender, who was a good six inches shorter than him. The ball pinged into the air, rebounding off both players. Alex Lees was onto the bouncing ball, dinking it to the left of the scrambling centre-half. He smashed a rocket of a left-footed shot towards goal, the keeper did not have time to react, as the ball cracked off the tight netting almost in the centre of the goal. Melchester Rovers were one-up and it was the enthusiasm of Kelvin Dickson that had taken the Weston Villa defence by surprise. As much as he was not used to their style of play, they were not used to the hustling and power that Dickson possessed. Roy stood cheering, turning to Derek Mostin, I tell you what Mozzie, I think that boy would do just fine against Portdean this Saturday!

Storky Knight Portdean vs Melchester Rovers later this week