Consecutive Decades

67 YEAR OLD FOOTBALLER SCORES £500 WINNER
AMATEUR FOOTBALLER John O’Brien had always been proud of his record of having scored goals for his club in five consecutive decades up to and including the 1990s, but it looked as though the ‘noughties’ would end without John adding that vital sixth decade goal to his record – until he set up a bet that he could do it.
At the start of the 2009/10 season, John, a retired city trader, from Ewell in Surrey, by now 67 years old, contacted bookies William Hill to ask them to accept a bet of £20 at odds of 25/1 on his behalf, that he would manage to grab the vital goal before the end of the calendar year 2009, but he had failed to do so until he lined up on Sunday, December 13, for Old Salesians Veterans against National Physical Laboratories.
Playing in the back four, John suddenly spotted a goalscoring opportunity during the second half as the opposition keeper missed a cross from the wing, which dropped over his head, and at John’s feet – enabling him to crash the ball home from barely a yard out – winning him £500 and setting a possible all-time football record of scoring in six consecutive decades for the same club. To add to John’s delight, Old Salesians went on to win the match 5-3.
‘We take thousands of off-beat football bets every season but I believe this is a unique achievement by John, who fully deserves his £500 winnings, which, incredibly, he is donating to club funds – apart from enough to take his wife (who actually placed the bet for him to avoid John contravening FA rules on betting) out for a slap-up meal. I expect he’ll also want to arrange another bet that he can score in the next decade, too, but we might not be so generous this time. I suspect he might end up in the Guinness Book of World Records as a result of this feat!’ said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe.
Further information…..graham sharpe……..0208 918 3731
(Contact details for John available on request).