There was a time when jockeys partaking in the sport of kings-horse racing- used batteries in whips and saddles to spur their mounts to victory. The recent death of Darwin sportsman , Bobby Wills,71, brought to light the time a device used to make greyhounds regain form was used on local footballers. His many sporting interests included owning and racing greyhounds. There was a gadget used on greyhounds to overcome muscle soreness. Bobby thought it so effective, he used it on some footballers , a recipient of the treatment telling Little Darwin it was like receiving a number of electric shocks. Some players reportedly outran rabbits after the treatment and developed a healthy looking, wet nose.
During the eulogy at the funeral service in the Holy Spirit Catholic Church for Robert Douglas Herbert Wills, alias ‘Young Bobby”, it was mentioned that apart from having been a newspaper compositor and firefighter , he had also been a bookie’s penciller for 20 years. Because of his involvement with punters and card players , Bobby was regarded as something of an authority on Darwin’s gambling scene.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s , journalist / author, Keith Willey , news editor at the NT News , often asked “Young Bobby” for information about the various gambling games played in Darwin , the people who ran betting shops and the floating and permanent gambling dens. Willey wrote articles for the now defunct Sydney Bulletin which evolved into the opening two chapters of the 1964 Jacaranda Press book, Eaters of the Lotus, in which he painted pre-WW11 Darwin as an Asiatic town where men of many nationalities gathered in mysterious iron and timber shacks to gamble on games such as pi-que, che-far and serang. Darwin , in the 1960s, he wrote, had a race club and 20 or 30 unofficial gambling dens .
Willey also covered the situation in Tennant Creek where various forms of gambling had been tolerated for years with the claimed knowledge of Administrator, " Cautious Clarrie" Archer, and Assistant Administrator , "Reckless Reg " Marsh . Regular weekly payments were made by bookies into the Tennant Creek Amenities Fund and were used to assist such organisations as the CWA , the Australian Inland Missions and provide various sporting facilities, often backed by a Commonwealth grant. The Member for Barkly in the Legislative Council, Len Purkiss, was a regular visitor to the betting shops. A Police Disciplinary Board in March 1960 recommended a reduction in rank and fined Sergeant Tony Kelly. The inquiry was closed to the press, but summaries of evidence were handed out. Kelly's own testimony was never officially revealed.
Willy wrote that many felt Sergeant Kelly , a very fair officer with a reputation for going by the book, had been given a raw deal in a town where police had allowed betting shops to operate for years.
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Singing and providing music at the funeral service, with an honour guard of firefighters, was a longtime friend of Bobby’s, Benny Cubillo ; in postwar Darwin , Bobby and Benny took part in junior boxing matches in the Cavenagh Street Stadium, now the RSL site, for ten bob a round , plus the shower from fans. In one fight, which Bobby felt Benny had won, but which was declared a draw, the shower was so good, he was able to buy a pushbike.
Earlier this year Little Darwin was fortunate to tape part of Bobby's life story and during that session he provided anecdotes about Darwin's past gambling scene , including the incredibly lucky policeman who always backed the winner of a race each time he made a visit to a certain illegal betting shop run by a well- known businessman .
