Horace Batchelor
Encyclopedia
Horace Cyril Batchelor was famous in the UK
during the late 1950s and early 1960s as an advertiser on Radio Luxembourg
. He advertised a way to win money by predicting the results of football matches, sponsoring programmes on Radio Luxembourg. His spelling out of Keynsham, a town in western England where he operated, made it famous.
. Before the National Lottery
started in 1994, the "Pools" was the only way to win large sums for a small stake. Listeners were asked to submit their stakes to Batchelor, who then determined how the stake was placed. He was paid only if the bet won, which also meant he received a lot of free stakes. Infra-draw was thus not dependent on his predictive talent for its financial success.
, a gospel
/barbershop group seemingly performing live. He voiced his own advertisements, inviting listeners to write for details of his "amazing Infra-Draw Method" which he promised was able to predict the drawn games on which winnings depended.
The address was always read as "Horace Batchelor, Post Office Box One, Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M, Keynsham, Bristol". Batchelor needed to carefully spell Keynsham
out loud for his listeners (and prospective clients), as the town's name is pronounced CANE-sham, and its spelling is not obvious from the way that it is properly pronounced. Batchelor's slow, very deliberate spelling and repeated mentions of Keynsham on his programme led to the town's name becoming something of an in-joke for British people, and was why the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
named an album Keynsham. The Bonzos referenced Batchelor on other occasions as well: Batchelor's voice is imitated at the start of the Bonzos' song "You Done My Brain In", saying "I have personally won over..."; and his is one of the names listed as a spoof band member in The Intro and the Outro
, the opening track on the second side of the album Gorilla
.
published his will
on 3 March of that year, showing he left just under £150,000.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during the late 1950s and early 1960s as an advertiser on Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg (English)
Radio Luxembourg is a commercial broadcaster in many languages from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. It is nowadays known in most non-English languages as RTL ....
. He advertised a way to win money by predicting the results of football matches, sponsoring programmes on Radio Luxembourg. His spelling out of Keynsham, a town in western England where he operated, made it famous.
The "Famous Infra-Draw Method"
Batchelor sponsored programmes on Radio Luxembourg to promote his "famous Infra-Draw Method", a system supposed to increase chances of winning large sums on the football poolsFootball pools
A football pool, often collectively referred to as "the pools", is a betting pool based on predicting the outcome of top-level association football matches set to take place in the coming week. The pools are typically cheap to enter, with the potential to win huge money. Entries were traditionally...
. Before the National Lottery
National Lottery (United Kingdom)
The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
started in 1994, the "Pools" was the only way to win large sums for a small stake. Listeners were asked to submit their stakes to Batchelor, who then determined how the stake was placed. He was paid only if the bet won, which also meant he received a lot of free stakes. Infra-draw was thus not dependent on his predictive talent for its financial success.
Advertising on Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg was a music station broadcasting to Britain from Luxembourg as a way to circumvent the BBC's national monopoly and policy in the United Kingdom of no broadcast advertising. The station played pop music promoted by record companies. The advertisers were allowed to buy air time in units of 15 minutes. Batchelor's programme usually featured the Deep River BoysDeep River Boys
The Deep River Boys were an American gospel music group active from the mid 1930s and into the 1980s. The group performed spirituals, gospel, and R&B.-Members:...
, a gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
/barbershop group seemingly performing live. He voiced his own advertisements, inviting listeners to write for details of his "amazing Infra-Draw Method" which he promised was able to predict the drawn games on which winnings depended.
The address was always read as "Horace Batchelor, Post Office Box One, Keynsham, spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M, Keynsham, Bristol". Batchelor needed to carefully spell Keynsham
Keynsham
Keynsham is a town and civil parish between Bristol and Bath in Somerset, south-west England. It has a population of 15,533.It was listed in the Domesday Book as Cainesham, which is believed to mean the home of Saint Keyne....
out loud for his listeners (and prospective clients), as the town's name is pronounced CANE-sham, and its spelling is not obvious from the way that it is properly pronounced. Batchelor's slow, very deliberate spelling and repeated mentions of Keynsham on his programme led to the town's name becoming something of an in-joke for British people, and was why the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band are a band created by a group of British art-school denizens of the 1960s...
named an album Keynsham. The Bonzos referenced Batchelor on other occasions as well: Batchelor's voice is imitated at the start of the Bonzos' song "You Done My Brain In", saying "I have personally won over..."; and his is one of the names listed as a spoof band member in The Intro and the Outro
The Intro and the Outro
The Intro and The Outro is a recording by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It appears on their debut album, Gorilla . It is not so much a song as a comic monologue, in which the speaker introduces the musicians who ostensibly appear on the recording, and the track fades out before the emcee completes...
, the opening track on the second side of the album Gorilla
Gorilla (Bonzo Dog album)
Gorilla is the debut album by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, originally released by Liberty Records in 1967. In 2007 EMI re-issued the album on CD with 7 bonus tracks....
.
Personal life
Batchelor was a watercolour painter of many subjects. His studio was the entertainment room at the side of a detached house, a sparsely furnished, bow-windowed room with cocktail bar and steel shutters. He spent his last years mainly in one small room equipped with a chaise longue and two televisions, one colour, the other monochrome, rented from Granada TV Rental at Knowle in Bristol. His housekeeper communicated with visitors and tradesmen. His son took over the business of results prediction. Following his death in 1977, The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
published his will
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
on 3 March of that year, showing he left just under £150,000.