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Frankie
Bint, the
Raper Family and Amanda Staveley
Bookmaker
Ralph Kirk Raper (1924-1993) married Frances (Frankie) Bint
(1923-2009) the daughter of Charles Frederick Bint (1901-73) and Doris
Fletcher (1902-1980) in 1949. They had two children, Lynne
Raper (1949) and John Raper (1951). In later years
Ralph and Frankie lived at Burntwood Grange, Sprotbrough, Doncaster.
York
Racecourse has a race named as a memorial to Ralph - the Ralph Raper
Memorial Stakes at the Dante Festival held in May.
Lynne
Raper (1949) married Robert A M Staveley (1944) at St
Mary's Church, Sprotbrough on the 18th of October 1970. Robert was from
the wealthy land-owning family who owned North Stainley Hall at Ripon
and whose estate in the village of North Stainley had been a gift to his
ancestors from Cardinal Wolsey. Robert founded the Lightwater Valley
theme park, which featured such tempting rides as the Sewer Rat and the
Black Widow’s Web. Lynne was a champion show-jumper.
Robert
and Lynne's daughter, and Frankie
Bint's grand-daughter Amanda Staveley, was born in April
1973. 
On
her mother's side is her indomitable grandmother Frances 'Frankie' Raper,
a former clippie who gave up working on the buses only after her husband
- a World War II Bomber Command Pathfinder - set up
the biggest illegal betting shop in the North. Operating from a cellar
in Doncaster, his takings sometimes reached £10,000 a day, which was
huge money in the Fifties. Eventually, betting was legalised and he
bought, among other baubles, Doncaster dog track. Grandma Raper, now a
frail 85, looked after Amanda while her workaholic parents developed
their business interests. Daily Mail
2008
But
(Prince) Andrew has yet to meet Grandma Raper, who looked after Amanda
while her workaholic parents spent long hours developing their business
interests, especially the Lightwater Valley theme park. Six years ago
they sold out for £5 million, but retain ownership of the site.
So Andrew has yet to hear firsthand the story of how Granny Raper's
husband, a former World War II pathfinder with Bomber Command, made his
millions - allowing his wife to give up being a clippie - by setting up
the biggest illegal betting shop in the North.
Together with his father-in-law, (Charles Bint) a well-known gambler and
backstreet bookie,
Raper operated from a huge cellar in Doncaster, before taking over over
an old billiard hall
in the town centre. Takings would average £5,000 to £10,000 a day -
astronomical figures in the Fifties. Even the local bobbies did their
bit, making a friendly phone call to warn of the annual check on the
hall. Eventually betting was legalised and Amanda's grandfather branched
out, bought Doncaster dog track and built the magnificent country house
in Sprotbrough where his widow still lives. Daily
Mail 2003
As a boarder at Queen Margaret's School near York she excelled
academically and won a place to study modern languages at St Catharine's
College, Cambridge. Then, it all went horribly wrong. The golden girl
couldn't cope. She chucked in university and was admitted to hospital
with stress. "I was very young. My grandfather died and I was in a
very unhappy period."
She
now specializes in getting deals from Middle Eastern investors to
British companies and helped negotiate a $4.7 billion investment
in Barclays. She also helped crack another deal in which Dubai investors
bought the Manchester City soccer team. Amanda is currently listed
(2010) as the third on the list of wealthiest business women in the UK
with a net worth of $107.7 million.
Amanda
Staveley had a singular upbringing and says the the family wealth
can be traced back to 1516 when Cardinal Wolsey handed the Staveleys a
sizable chunk of land near Ripon in Yorkshire. Her father tackled the
family's declining fortunes by opening a theme park on it. Indeed,
Staveley's parents were workaholics and she spent much of her childhood
with her maternal grandparents. Staveley's grandfather, Ralph Raper,
made his millions running "the biggest illegal betting shop in the
North" from a cellar in Doncaster. For Staveley, he remains a
seminal influence: "He taught me everything", she says,
including an appetite for risk that has led her into everything from
broadband start-ups to firms majoring on Viagra substitutes. Staveley
claims to have made her own first million aged 24, but she took a big
hit during the dotcom bust and was forced to hire Kroll Associates to
extricate her from the messy collapse of Aim-listed EuroTelecom. It's
been a jagged graph of a career, "but her stock has risen
exponentially again"
Staveley,
35, who once rejected a marriage proposal from Prince Andrew, has had a
roller-coaster career that has included several brushes with bankruptcy.
Moneyweek.com November 2008.
See
her 2008 profile in the London Evening Standard
Daily
Mail November 2008
An
excerpt from gentlemen ranters Bill
perhaps didn’t go on to much greater things after
he left Doncaster
but was certainly a
legend in his own lunchtime while he was there. With his partners in
crime Leo White and Ron Cookson, he ran the famous Eastmid News
Agency in Scot Lane (home also of the Evening
Post before it moved to North Bridge).
My
old pal Peter Whittell, who has now achieved a lifetime’s ambition
by being given his own pub (well, not quite: he helps out at the
Jolly Farmers in Leavening, near Malton, which his daughter and
son-in-law run), tells the wonderful story of when Bill - in the
very hard winter of 1962-63, when virtually all sport including
racing was wiped out for weeks on end - thought up a story with the
help of Ralph Raper who ran the bookies shop next door.
Bill
bought half a dozen white mice and some chalk, with which he drew
‘lanes’ on the floor of the shop and organised mouse racing
which gave the punters something to bet on.
The
story and pictures were in virtually every national the next day.
But Bill, never one to rest on his laurels, had another idea up his
sleeve and got a second bite of the cherry by phoning the manageress
of the local RSPCA, who was always good for a quote. 'Have
you read the stories in today’s papers about them forcing mice to
race? Don’t you think it’s cruel? Don’t you think it’s
scandalous?’ So, another day, another story.
gentlemenranters.com
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Three of his and Fanny's children
were born at Old Keeper's Cottage, Edith May (1890), James Arthur (Arthur)
(1893)
and Dorothy Lily Bint (1894). 
