Skipper wins but its downhill from thereon!

Well lets start with the good news, Midway Skipper won the Kent greyhound St Leger on Monday night to land the 13/8 ante post voucher though not without a few scares, having been buffeted, bumped and hampered at least four or five times during the race but in the end her stamina came into play and she eroded a five length deficit in the last quarter of the race and squeezed through on the final bend to pull clear up the straight. A fine effort indeed.
Thats where the good news ends though as regards the betting. The other ante post in the sprint had alarm signals warning in my brain after the draw had been published, with my picks drawn next to each other in far from ideal boxes. As it happens, they didnt mess with each other but the 4 dog impeded Boherduff Monti in 3 and Bohebradda Mac totally missed the break in 2 and was brought to his knees at the first bend, race over. Should really have had a bit on the early morning 9/2 about outside dog Frosty Lee for whom the race looked set up for as the only wide seed and likely to lead with it too.
In fact it was a case of not having the courage of my convictions again when after fancying Ronnie was a bit too short in Thursday's Premier League snooker action, I was halfway towards placing a small bet on the draw before deciding to keep my powder dry and of course it ends up 3-3. The one bet I did go ahead with was John Higgins at 1.75 against Joe Perry on the draw no bet market (he had a 3-0 h2h record going into the match and Perry was showing signs of going off the boil of late). However, nothing of the sort materialised in the match and Perry was soon home and hosed winning the first four frames with the minimum of fuss as Higgins safety play was strangely awry, maybe rushing things slightly with the shot clock in operation.
He did eventually find some form to add some respectability at 4-2 but not much use to yours truly or himself as he is now out of the competition.
My outright picks are still in with a shout though. Mark Selby heads the group and needs a draw in his last match with Joe Perry to stay there, and thus avoid Ronnie in the semis.
Ding Junhui needs to beat Stephen Hendry to qualify with the Scot needing just the draw, a year on from Ding's barnstorming 6-0 win over the Scot I'm not so sure he can dish up another performance of that ilk this time around but fingers crossed.
Went up to Sheffield to see a couple of the Masters qualifiers snooker matches today in fact, and as ever whenever I attend the venue all my bets lose. Admittedly three of them were minimum stakes outsiders anyhow, the closest to an upset was Paul Davison at 6/4 who lost 4-3 to Rory McLeod in an unsurprisingly marathon battle that lasted over four hours.
I was the sole spectator in the booth occupying the Anthony Hamilton v Andrew Pagett match and this was another game that rather ambled along though as Hamilton won it 4-0 it finished a good bit earlier. The small bet I had on the Welshman never really looked likely after he had broken down in the forties in the first frame and lost it on the black, after that the Sheriff always looked to have too much class and scored much too heavily for his opponent overall.
It was interesting to note the clashes of styles in cue action, Hamilton really giving it plenty on the backswing, cueing up two or three times before addressing the cue ball while Pagett was very much in the Dave Harold mould, with little or no backswing before he plays the ball, which is certainly not to his advantage on the power shots as it can look a bit jerky.
My perceived treble in the afternoon became a double when Chris McBreen withdrew from his match with Andrew Higginson but my slight doubts about Gerard Greene were unfounded when he romped home 4-0 against Michael Georgiou to land the first part of the bet.
I was watching the Barry Pinches v Lewis Roberts match needing a win for Norwich's finest to give me the money but unfortunately he was always making hard work of it against a previously winless opponent in the pro ranks, missing a number of straightforward pots.
Roberts for his part looked fairly confident in amongst the balls given his less than impressive record so far but perhaps sometimes came out second best on the safety exchanges. However with Barry misfiring somewhat, Roberts led 3-1 and things looked bleak but as the youngsters cue arm maybe tightened a bit looking for that first win and Pinches drew on his vast experience it soon become 3-3 and all to play for.
Pinches held a good lead for a while in the final frame and things looked rosey as he was 35 up with two reds on. However this lead was slowly being picked off until surely the game was over with Barry only needing a straight green from a slight angle into the middle pocket.
But no, he somehow contrived to miss it and Roberts stepped in with an impressive 25 clearance (though the black wobbled for a good few seconds before dropping) which gave him his first professional win, and probably deserved too overall, even though it did not do my coffers much good.
After that setback following a three hour battle, my stamina reserves were giving out and with no bets in the evening matches decided to come home with my tail between my legs, still may get up bright and early tomorrow though for the £5-million Scoop 6, must be worth a few quid of anyone's money!
Oh yes and four outsiders for me tomorrow in the snooker to try and claw back some of the losses - Li Hang 11/10, have backed him as a longshot in the outrights given a reasonable draw and must have a fair chance against out of form Martin Gould; Jamie Jones 13/8 admittedly not a lot to recommend him this season but had shown some promise last time on the tour and Andrew Norman seems to be a bit jittery at present; Matthew Selt 11/8, actually had him vying for favouritism here as David Gray seems way out of touch in his recent matches and finally Stephen Craigie at 7/4, beat Stuart Bingham in a recent pro am when reaching the quarter finals and probably underestimated a bit against Dave Gilbert.
All the best for now, will speak to you after I have collected my £5m on Monday lol
Rick