Big Con: Trevor Thompson in-conversation with Tim Ayliffe
Wed, 29 Oct
|Better Read Than Dead
Join us with Trevor Thompson to celebrate the release of Big Con! Trevor will be joined by Tim Ayliffe.
Time & Location
29 Oct 2025, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Better Read Than Dead, 265 King St, Newtown NSW 2042, Australia
Guests
About The Event
He fled a scandal. He built a sporting empire. He left behind a legacy—largely forgotten in his homeland.
Con Jones—born Thomas Shortel—was a bookmaker, a fugitive, a family man, and a genius sports promoter who reshaped Canadian soccer and lacrosse in the early 20th century. Leaving Sydney in disgrace after a Melbourne Cup betting scandal, he arrived in Vancouver and reinvented himself as a sporting visionary. Jones introduced professional soccer to British Columbia, built a stadium, and helped forge North America’s first
international football links. He was bold, brash, and endlessly ambitious.
Big Con is a gripping tale of reinvention, scandal, and sporting revolution. It’s a vivid portrait of a forgotten trailblazer who played a major role in shaping modern sport—and got away with it.
A compelling read for sports lovers, true crime aficionados, historians, and anyone fascinated by the messy intersection of ambition, identity, and redemption.
Our event space…