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Tic-Tac Men

Illustrated London News,  03 June 1911

SIGNALLING THE ODDS : A “TIC-TAC” MAN SENDING “WIRELESS MESSAGES”.
VALUABLE INFORMATION FOR THE BOOKMAKER NOTIFYING CHANGES IN THE BETTING TO DISTANT ASSOCIATES

The “tic-tac” man, or hand-signaller, plays an important part in racing affairs.  By an elaborate system of signs he communicates with an associate at some distance changes in betting for the benefit of a bookmaker or backer.  In some cases, notably at Epsom, information of this kind is conveyed from the principal rings to those betting “on the hill,” and as far distant as Tattenham Corner/  “Tic=tac” is also used by newspaper agencies in signalling the results of races.  The man on the course signals the result to a colleague at a telephone, and the news is flashed out on the tape-machines practically at the same time as the numbers go up.  Each set of “tic-tac” men have their own code, or all of them could read one another’s signals, the last thing sought.   The hat and the handkerchief are frequently pressed into service.

 

 

A tic-tack man seen at Epsom in the 1950s
Image source Bourne Hall Museum

Tic-tac
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tic-tac (also tick-tack and non-hyphenated variants) is a traditional method of signs used by bookmakers to communicate the odds of certain horses. Until the turn of the 21st century it was a very common sight on racecourses in the UK, but with the advent of mobile technology it is now seldom seen. In 1999, only three practitioners were noted to be still working on the southern UK tracks – Micky ‘Hokey’ Stuart, Billie Brown and Rocky Roberts. A tic-tac man will usually wear bright white gloves to make his hand movements easily seen.

A few simple examples of signals:

  • Odds of 9/4 (“top of the head”) – both hands touching the top of the head.
  • Odds of 10/1 (“cockle” or “net”) – fists together with the right-hand thumb protruding upwards, to resemble the number 10.
  • Odds of 11/10 (“tips”) – hands together and touching all fingers on both hands together.
  • Odds of 5/4 (“wrist”) – the right hand is moved to touch the left wrist. 
  • Odds of 33/1 (“double carpet”) – arms crossed, hands flat against the chest.

Within the UK there are some regional variations in the signals, for example in the south odds of 6/4 are represented by the hand touching the opposite ear, giving the slang term “ear’ole”, whereas the same odds are indicated in the north by the hand touching the opposite elbow (“half arm”).

Some of the signals may be called out verbally too. These names have evolved over time in a mixture of Cockney rhyming slang and backslang. For example, 4–1 is known as rouf (four backwards).

Essentially, bookmakers use tic-tac as a way of communicating between their staff and ensuring their odds are not vastly different from their competitors, an advantage the punters could otherwise exploit. In particular, if a very large bet is placed with one bookmaker, this may be signalled to the others as a way of lowering the price on all the boards.

British racing pundit John McCririck used tic-tac as part of his pieces to camera when explaining the odds of the horses for the next race.

While this method of communication is used less frequently than before, many of the terms persist.

Odds

  • Bottle – 2–1
  • Burlington Bertie – 100–30
  • Carpet – 3–1
  • Century – 100–1
  • Ching – 5–1
  • Cockle – 10–1
  • Double carpet – 33–1
  • Double net – 20–1
  • Double tops – 15–8
  • Ear’ole – 6–4
  • Elef – 11–1
  • Elef a vier – 11–4
  • Enin – 9–1
  • Exes – 6–1
  • Face – 5–2
  • Handful or hand – 5–1
  • Levels (you devils) – evens
  • Macaroni – 25–1
  • Major Stevens – evens
  • Net – 10–1
  • Net and bice – 12/1
  • Net and ex – 16/1
  • Net and rouf −14/1
  • Neves or nevis – 7–1
  • Neves to rouf – 7/4
  • Pony – 25–1
  • Roof or rouf – 4–1
  • Sais a wang – 6–5
  • Scruffy and dirty – 100–30
  • Shoulder – 7–4
  • Shoulders or On the shoulders – 9–2
  • Straight up – evens
  • TH – 8–1
  • Tips – 11–10
  • Top of the head – 9–4
  • Up the arm – 11–8
  • Wrist – 5–4
  • Xis – 6–1
  1 2 4 5 8 10 30
1 Levels (you devils) or
Major Stevens or
Straight up = evens		            
2 Bottle            
3 Carpet            
4 Roof or
Rouf		            
5 Ching or
Hand or
Handful		 Face Wrist        
6 Exes or
Xis		   Ear’ole Sais a wang      
7 Neves or
Nevis		   Neves to rouf or
Shoulder		        
8 TH            
9 Enin Shoulders or
On the shoulders		 Top of the head        
10 Cockle or
Net		            
11 Elef   Elef a vier   Up the arm Tips  
12 Net and bice            
14 Net and rouf            
15         Double tops    
16 Net and ex            
20 Double net            
25 Macaroni or
Pony		            
33 Double carpet            
100 Century           Burlington Bertie or
Scruffy and dirty

 

Other terms

  • Beeswax – tax
  • Jolly – a favourite
  • Kite – a cheque
  • Knock – not pay up when owing
  • Pony – £25
  • Ton – £100
  • Monkey – £500
  • A bag (of sand) – £1000
  • Rock cake – a small bet
 

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