UK Punters lay bets on a summer 'scorcher'
Pastor Dale Morgan
UK Punters lay bets on a summer 'scorcher'*
Last Updated: 1:37am BST 28/03/2007
With temperatures soaring to levels higher than Rome and Barcelona,
Britons yesterday enjoyed the first real taste of the summer sunshine to
come.
Beaches from Brighton to Portsmouth and Bournemouth basked in the heat,
while the temperature peaked in London, at 65F (18C) - warmer than in
many holiday destinations including Corfu, Ibiza, Lisbon, Madrid and
Majorca.
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The Met Office said that temperatures would begin to fall tomorrow.
However, the clouds and rainy weather would start moving away again on
Friday, clearing the way for a brighter weekend.
A Met Office spokesman said: "That's what you get this time of year -
big swings."
It was enough for William Hill to cut the odds of the temperature
exceeding 100F (38C) this year from 10/1 to 8/1 after punters,
apparently driven by the lovely weather, began laying bets on a
"scorcher" to come.
A spokesman for the bookmaker said: "We would not have expected to see
money for temperatures to exceed 100F so early in the year, but the
glorious weather over the last 24 hours seems to have driven punters
into the betting shops."