A PUB's golf society is counting the cost of a "bet that never was" after top bookmaker Ladbrokes refused to pay out on a "winner".

Members of the Three Pigeons Golf Society in Banbury thought they had won several hundred pounds when Al Jones placed a tri-cast bet (forecasting the first three in the right order) on the Open Golf Championship at the weekend.

Mr Jones placed the wager at Ladbrokes in North Bar, Banbury, but when he went to collect his winnings he was told: "Sorry, the bet is invalid. We should not have taken it."

He said: "Ladbrokes told me they, and no other bookmaker in the country, took tri-cast bets on golf tournaments. But a member of their staff accepted the wager and even helped me fill in the betting slip.

"I think a bet is a bet and they should pay out."

But Ladbrokes said an inexperienced member of their staff wrongly accepted the wager.

The bookies' spokesman Robin Hutchinson said: "It is a complicated situation and we have an unfortunate issue with a loyal customer.

"We have tried to compromise with him but he has refused to accept our offers."

Mr Jones said members of the golf society took turns to place bets, and any winnings went into a fund for an annual day out for families and friends.

He said: "Not getting the money was particularly disappointing because we had followed the championship right through its four days. At one time it seemed we had no chance of collecting, but it all came right for us on the final day. My forecast of Tiger Woods winning from Chris Dimarco and Ernie Els came up.

"I'm a builder and I took Monday off. At around 11am I went to Ladbrokes to pick up my winnings and was told the bet had been voided.

"The area manager said the bet should not have been taken but they offered me £20 as a goodwill gesture and upped that to £100 when I complained. But I am calling on Ladbrokes to settle in full."

The golf society organised a protest on Monday outside the Ladbrokes shop.

Mr Jones said: "We took tables and chairs and sat near the door. We didn't block the entrance but we asked every customer to sign a petition if they thought Ladbrokes should pay up. We collected 11 pages of signatures and only seven people went into the shop that day. It must have cost Ladbrokes £1,000s."

Mr Hutchinson said: "We have got an issue and there is no easy solution. We regret the poor customer service and we regret that one of our cashiers allowed the bet to be placed, but there is not much we can do.

"We have offered a compromise payout and have been more generous than we need to be. Ladbrokes take more than a million bets a day across the country and staff can make human errors.

"There is no such bet as a tri-cast on golf and there is no formula for settling such a bet.

"We will look at our staff training procedures to try to make sure this does not happen again."