Edward "Ted" Loftus was a clerk at Dave Smith's Betting Shop in Rosamund Street in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A quiet, glasses-wearing man, Ted was married to Freda Loftus and they had two children, a son and a daughter. In 1969, Ted challenged Betty Turpin to a darts match, and attempted to bedazzle her with his obvious passion for the game. Ted won the match - but he didn't know that Betty had thrown it so that Ray Langton would lose money he had bet on her.