I think I'm going to take a sabbatical from the blog for the time being as amongst other things, I've lost a bit of inspiration and of course I still need to catch up on the horse racing (as I've been saying for the last couple of years!!) plus I'm also getting around a few of the dog tracks, attended Sheffield last week and Perry Barr tonight each for the first time, so that leaves less time for the stay at home punting I'm afraid.
But its a bit dull being behind a computer screen all day so I feel its best to mix and match and get out there in the elements every now and again. Plus the football is starting too so will be out at a fair few of the Rams games on Saturdays from now on.
Anyhow its time to concentrate on the matters at hand so will maybe catch you later in the year or else on the Daq2Daq Forum, though dont worry, if Betfair announce an increase of their premium charge next month (a year on from its introduction) I will no doubt be back fairly pronto to voice my condemnation on here lol.
In the meantime good luck to anyone who's punting regularly and may the force be with you, keep it fun and hopefully you'll end up on the right side.
All the best for now
Rick
Friday, 31 July 2009
Monday, 20 July 2009
That "after the Lord Mayor's show" feeling
An inbetween sort of post this week, as I usually try to get the blog out around Friday or Saturday, so this might be the only one for the fortnight, thank goodness everyone says lol.
Yes I've definitely felt lacking in inspiration despite having a cracking punting week the one before last, perhaps its an "after the Lord Mayors Show" type of feel and its maybe easy to relate why some teams find it hard to lift themselves after a particularly impressive performance.
I'm also maybe feeling a bit melanchony as any sports you seem to win consistently on, the firms gradually make the slots where you put your money in smaller and smaller until you can hardly get anything on (I suppose understandably so in the circumstances). Though of course the ones you are no good at you can probably get a four figure sum lol.
Normally this is where the exchanges come in, who should be acting purely as a go between between interested parties, but nowadays of course Betfair seem to want to play bookmaker too, asking for a minimum 20% cut of any proceeds if you are a regular winner on top of the 3-5% commission that usually applies.
I still find it hard to believe they can target normal gamblers with this unforgiveable stance: more understandable if it was aimed at traders who are not taking big risks or people with an inbuilt advantage in the markets I suppose, but I really don't think its any of their business snooping around in my account and in effect stealing money out of it.
If this ever becomes the norm in exchange land I'll long remember the perpertrators thats for certain.
I suppose obstacles are there to be overcome and as quite a stats man its maybe feasible to operate a kind of break even strategy to go along with the bona fide money making account, perhaps running two separate strategies on one account to make sure you pay the 20% commission without anyone from Betfair putting their hand in your drawers.
Anyhow for the time being I'm at Betdaq and will see how it progresses, I just see a time when most of the business will have to be on the exchanges as the avenue of the bookies will be mostly closed off if we aspire to get where we want, fair enough theres always the option of visiting the big local shops in person though its not quite as convenient of course.
About the only result that didnt go my way the week before last was when old stager Jimmy White beat Barry Hawkins 8-6 in the Sangsom Six Red Grand Prix final in Thailand, which would have made me £625 if the result had gone the other way, and gambler that I am, I didnt lay off either as didnt see any value in the Whirlwind at evens.
Overall though perhaps my second best week ever in a couple of years, though a bit behind the one where the money from the 125/1 Walden windfall came in.
The last week has been pretty even, I lost a couple of my gaelic football outrights as Antrim and Galway lost out in their respective finals, the latter to an injury time point after staging a great comeback. Derry also bowed out of the All Ireland Championship qualifiers at Donegal in extra time.
That said, two or three of the match bets went my way so didnt do any damage.
The Sky dogs night at Sunderland saw Crown Rover land a 14/1 ante post punt in the Grand Prix but Droopys Bogart was knocked out of the Classic final so you win some and lose some.
Had got tickets for the Splendour in Nottingham show this weekend with headliners Madness the last on the bill but then found out one of my fave reggae bands of all time Third World were playing Derby Caribbean Carnival the same day for FREE!!
Strangely enough I then noticed they were due to play the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham the same night (how many bands would do that!) which surely meant they were going to be on quite early in Derby.
So it probably meant a straight choice between Third World and The Pogues, who were understudies to Madness, and it was always no contest really. For a start I've always preferred the clean cut type of image so Shane McGowan's rotting teeth didnt greatly appeal really. I always remember refusing to buy Dexy's Midnight Runners "Come on Eileen" in the 80s mainly cos the band were all showing their hairy armpits on TOTP, even though I thought it one of the best sounds of the time.
I eventually relented about 20 years down the line though and bought their "Best of" when I decided there were worse things in life than seeing a few pubic hairs on TV!!
Anyhow I set out to do both Derby and Nottingham and it couldnt have dovetailed better. Third World did about forty minutes in Derby from 7.30-8.10 before somehow embarking on their trip to the capital (what dedication - they even had to make do without their bass player who was denied a visa for some reason).
I must say the reception to most of the bands didnt seem overly enthusiastic though I suppose most of the people there weren't hardcore fans of the acts themselves which makes a difference plus for the most part it was torrential rain too.
The highlights of the set were as you would expect the big hits "Now That We've Found Love" and the Stevie Wonder collaboration "Try Jah Love" though was a bit upset we didnt get to hear "Dancing on The Floor" which was the track that first got me interested in the band.
At least they said they may be back next year. A word for the compere too, he really put on a fantastically enthusiastic display, I'm sure he would have been quite watchable on his own for the entire evening given his all round repertoire of singing, dancing and comedic ability.
I then hotfooted it to Woollaton Park and after parking up outside and a very long walk down the driveway, arrived just in time to see Madness starting their set at 9pm in front of an unbelievably large crowd, one of the biggest I've seen at a pop concert.
All the classics were reeled off and my particular favourites were "Bed and Breakfast Man", "My Girl", "House of Fun", "Our House" and "It Must Be Love" to name but a few.
All the best for now
Rick
Yes I've definitely felt lacking in inspiration despite having a cracking punting week the one before last, perhaps its an "after the Lord Mayors Show" type of feel and its maybe easy to relate why some teams find it hard to lift themselves after a particularly impressive performance.
I'm also maybe feeling a bit melanchony as any sports you seem to win consistently on, the firms gradually make the slots where you put your money in smaller and smaller until you can hardly get anything on (I suppose understandably so in the circumstances). Though of course the ones you are no good at you can probably get a four figure sum lol.
Normally this is where the exchanges come in, who should be acting purely as a go between between interested parties, but nowadays of course Betfair seem to want to play bookmaker too, asking for a minimum 20% cut of any proceeds if you are a regular winner on top of the 3-5% commission that usually applies.
I still find it hard to believe they can target normal gamblers with this unforgiveable stance: more understandable if it was aimed at traders who are not taking big risks or people with an inbuilt advantage in the markets I suppose, but I really don't think its any of their business snooping around in my account and in effect stealing money out of it.
If this ever becomes the norm in exchange land I'll long remember the perpertrators thats for certain.
I suppose obstacles are there to be overcome and as quite a stats man its maybe feasible to operate a kind of break even strategy to go along with the bona fide money making account, perhaps running two separate strategies on one account to make sure you pay the 20% commission without anyone from Betfair putting their hand in your drawers.
Anyhow for the time being I'm at Betdaq and will see how it progresses, I just see a time when most of the business will have to be on the exchanges as the avenue of the bookies will be mostly closed off if we aspire to get where we want, fair enough theres always the option of visiting the big local shops in person though its not quite as convenient of course.
About the only result that didnt go my way the week before last was when old stager Jimmy White beat Barry Hawkins 8-6 in the Sangsom Six Red Grand Prix final in Thailand, which would have made me £625 if the result had gone the other way, and gambler that I am, I didnt lay off either as didnt see any value in the Whirlwind at evens.
Overall though perhaps my second best week ever in a couple of years, though a bit behind the one where the money from the 125/1 Walden windfall came in.
The last week has been pretty even, I lost a couple of my gaelic football outrights as Antrim and Galway lost out in their respective finals, the latter to an injury time point after staging a great comeback. Derry also bowed out of the All Ireland Championship qualifiers at Donegal in extra time.
That said, two or three of the match bets went my way so didnt do any damage.
The Sky dogs night at Sunderland saw Crown Rover land a 14/1 ante post punt in the Grand Prix but Droopys Bogart was knocked out of the Classic final so you win some and lose some.
Had got tickets for the Splendour in Nottingham show this weekend with headliners Madness the last on the bill but then found out one of my fave reggae bands of all time Third World were playing Derby Caribbean Carnival the same day for FREE!!
Strangely enough I then noticed they were due to play the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham the same night (how many bands would do that!) which surely meant they were going to be on quite early in Derby.
So it probably meant a straight choice between Third World and The Pogues, who were understudies to Madness, and it was always no contest really. For a start I've always preferred the clean cut type of image so Shane McGowan's rotting teeth didnt greatly appeal really. I always remember refusing to buy Dexy's Midnight Runners "Come on Eileen" in the 80s mainly cos the band were all showing their hairy armpits on TOTP, even though I thought it one of the best sounds of the time.
I eventually relented about 20 years down the line though and bought their "Best of" when I decided there were worse things in life than seeing a few pubic hairs on TV!!
Anyhow I set out to do both Derby and Nottingham and it couldnt have dovetailed better. Third World did about forty minutes in Derby from 7.30-8.10 before somehow embarking on their trip to the capital (what dedication - they even had to make do without their bass player who was denied a visa for some reason).
I must say the reception to most of the bands didnt seem overly enthusiastic though I suppose most of the people there weren't hardcore fans of the acts themselves which makes a difference plus for the most part it was torrential rain too.
The highlights of the set were as you would expect the big hits "Now That We've Found Love" and the Stevie Wonder collaboration "Try Jah Love" though was a bit upset we didnt get to hear "Dancing on The Floor" which was the track that first got me interested in the band.
At least they said they may be back next year. A word for the compere too, he really put on a fantastically enthusiastic display, I'm sure he would have been quite watchable on his own for the entire evening given his all round repertoire of singing, dancing and comedic ability.
I then hotfooted it to Woollaton Park and after parking up outside and a very long walk down the driveway, arrived just in time to see Madness starting their set at 9pm in front of an unbelievably large crowd, one of the biggest I've seen at a pop concert.
All the classics were reeled off and my particular favourites were "Bed and Breakfast Man", "My Girl", "House of Fun", "Our House" and "It Must Be Love" to name but a few.
All the best for now
Rick
Saturday, 11 July 2009
Just time to say hello, wave goodbye!
An interesting and busy week, just squeezing the blog in between watching lots of live sport, again missed my Friday deadline but I have an excuse honest.
We've been having a new boiler in at home and so the workmen have been here at the crack of dawn turning the electricity on and off in between occasionally falling through the ceiling from the loft above (honest).
Well at least a whole leg was in view until the fall was broken by the refrigerator below!
Anyway will have to be a quick one today as I'm about to watch two of my outright picks Monaghan and Derry go head to head in half an hour which starts a back to back GAA marathon for around six hours of online coverage assuming I can get access to all the feeds.
I've also got a big interest in tomorrows matches with Dublin attempting to beat the improving Kildare in the Leinster final and Tipperary trying to justify favouritism against Waterford in the Munster hurling showdown.
Last weekend saw Cork (who I'd backed for the Munster football at 13/8 outright) fall over the line with a one point win over Limerick after being well adrift at one stage, and maybe they can thank the referee somewhat for the award of a slightly controversial penalty which kept them in touch early in the game when they couldnt find any rhythm at all. I'm glad I didn't take the 1/8 available on the day anyhow as there would have been more pleasant afternoons to be had!
In the match betting I claimed a winner through Wicklow who saw off the disappointing Fermanagh though the refs call rather went against me this time in my other pick when Monaghan conceded a highly dubious last minute late free to Armagh who forced the draw though ultimately losing out in extra time.
The aussie rules betting has picked up too lately and had a few more successes this morning. Carlton as they seem to do made hard work of landing the 3/10 against Richmond but always just held the upper hand while Essendon looked attractively priced on the road at Sydney and they justified support at 6/5 with a comfortable success.
Luckily I was just snooping around on a sports forum the other night and found that Geelong were likely to be missing several regulars for their match with Brisbane so armed with that info before most of the bookies I took the 33/10 that was available and also the 5/6 on the +20 handicap. Both were never in much doubt and it turned out the Cats had even more players missing than first thought, around half the team infact!
Most of that was down to the legacy of a bruising encounter with fellow Championship contenders St Kilda the week before, and I think I'll also take on Saints themselves in the handicap market with a long interstate journey to West Coast on the agenda tomorrow and being asked to give up 31.5 points. Not one I'm confident in, but the type of match where tiredness or an "after the lord mayors show" type of feeling may creep in.
It's been a pretty decent week on the snooker too, I seem to be doing better on these out of season events than I was actually doing all last year strangely enough.
I had a few Group bets in the Sangsom Six Red Grand Prix in Bangkok and landed three winners out of seven, though two of them were bigger stakes too so returned a modest overall profit.
John Higgins got off to a nightmare start with a 5-0 loss to unknown Pakistan cueist Mohammed Sajjad, but part of that was attributable to arriving late and having three frames docked. Eventually though he came through to head affairs by winning the rest of his games.
Shaun Murphy was always at the top in his section, and had already done enough by the time of a 5-1 loss to Nigel Bond in his last group game.
And Ryan Day also came up with the goods eventually with a 5-3 win over Supoj Saenla enough to see him narrowly overhaul Ken Doherty and Michael Holt.
Out of my four outrights, all at decent odds, I was hoping rather than expecting but thankfully Barry Hawkins at 25/1 has made it through to the final with an impressive 7-2 in over Judd Trump in the semis, and now faces veteran Jimmy White in tomorrow afternoon's showdown which can be seen live on the net on Modernine TV.
I probably struck one of my worst bets of the year on the cricket this week but got away with it luckily. I'd taken 4/7 about Essex to beat Glamorgan, knowing they were without three major players in Bopara, Cook and Kaneira but having consulted their fans website they seemed of the opinion the signing of South African international Amla would be what was required to stiffen up the batting. Also I noted that the youngster Maynard was on England twelfth man duty and would miss the match for the visitors.
However I somehow managed to miss the fact that the Dragons had also been active in the player recruitment area and Herschelle Gibbs unknown to me was making his debut.
He scored a half century and I was soon regretting my bet when Glamorgan amassed well over 500 and Essex were then skittled out for just 200.
Thankfully Amla lived up to the fans expectations second time around with a great knock of 180+ which somehow saved a game they looked certain to lose.
I've taken some 5/6 about Kent in their current match at Surrey. The home side knocked up just short of 400 which seems a decent total but it can be hard to tell sometimes until both teams have batted. I'll probably settle for a draw there now as well though thought the inclusion of Joe Denly after England Lions duty and South African Wayne Parnell, who had a successful World Twenty20 campaign might give them the ascendancy.
Last Sunday saw the end of my dreams of a big payout on Gloucestershire winning the Friends Provident Trophy when the 33/1 outright shots bowed out at the semi final stage despite a brave effort to overhaul a mammoth total set by Sussex at Hove.
And finally there was no Sky live dogs programme this week, I almost decided to go up to Sheffield's Owlerton Stadium on Tuesday for the first time but with heavy rain the order of the day decided against it, which was lucky as the hare stopped halfway through the night which meant a long delay, and also caused some angry scenes apparently with winning punters unhappy on the ruling about the lucrative Jackpot on offer that night (it was much reduced due to a void race).
I've still got a few active in the ongoing Sunderland festival but with throw in time looming for the gaelic football, I'll say adios and be lucky for now.
Catch you later
Rick
We've been having a new boiler in at home and so the workmen have been here at the crack of dawn turning the electricity on and off in between occasionally falling through the ceiling from the loft above (honest).
Well at least a whole leg was in view until the fall was broken by the refrigerator below!
Anyway will have to be a quick one today as I'm about to watch two of my outright picks Monaghan and Derry go head to head in half an hour which starts a back to back GAA marathon for around six hours of online coverage assuming I can get access to all the feeds.
I've also got a big interest in tomorrows matches with Dublin attempting to beat the improving Kildare in the Leinster final and Tipperary trying to justify favouritism against Waterford in the Munster hurling showdown.
Last weekend saw Cork (who I'd backed for the Munster football at 13/8 outright) fall over the line with a one point win over Limerick after being well adrift at one stage, and maybe they can thank the referee somewhat for the award of a slightly controversial penalty which kept them in touch early in the game when they couldnt find any rhythm at all. I'm glad I didn't take the 1/8 available on the day anyhow as there would have been more pleasant afternoons to be had!
In the match betting I claimed a winner through Wicklow who saw off the disappointing Fermanagh though the refs call rather went against me this time in my other pick when Monaghan conceded a highly dubious last minute late free to Armagh who forced the draw though ultimately losing out in extra time.
The aussie rules betting has picked up too lately and had a few more successes this morning. Carlton as they seem to do made hard work of landing the 3/10 against Richmond but always just held the upper hand while Essendon looked attractively priced on the road at Sydney and they justified support at 6/5 with a comfortable success.
Luckily I was just snooping around on a sports forum the other night and found that Geelong were likely to be missing several regulars for their match with Brisbane so armed with that info before most of the bookies I took the 33/10 that was available and also the 5/6 on the +20 handicap. Both were never in much doubt and it turned out the Cats had even more players missing than first thought, around half the team infact!
Most of that was down to the legacy of a bruising encounter with fellow Championship contenders St Kilda the week before, and I think I'll also take on Saints themselves in the handicap market with a long interstate journey to West Coast on the agenda tomorrow and being asked to give up 31.5 points. Not one I'm confident in, but the type of match where tiredness or an "after the lord mayors show" type of feeling may creep in.
It's been a pretty decent week on the snooker too, I seem to be doing better on these out of season events than I was actually doing all last year strangely enough.
I had a few Group bets in the Sangsom Six Red Grand Prix in Bangkok and landed three winners out of seven, though two of them were bigger stakes too so returned a modest overall profit.
John Higgins got off to a nightmare start with a 5-0 loss to unknown Pakistan cueist Mohammed Sajjad, but part of that was attributable to arriving late and having three frames docked. Eventually though he came through to head affairs by winning the rest of his games.
Shaun Murphy was always at the top in his section, and had already done enough by the time of a 5-1 loss to Nigel Bond in his last group game.
And Ryan Day also came up with the goods eventually with a 5-3 win over Supoj Saenla enough to see him narrowly overhaul Ken Doherty and Michael Holt.
Out of my four outrights, all at decent odds, I was hoping rather than expecting but thankfully Barry Hawkins at 25/1 has made it through to the final with an impressive 7-2 in over Judd Trump in the semis, and now faces veteran Jimmy White in tomorrow afternoon's showdown which can be seen live on the net on Modernine TV.
I probably struck one of my worst bets of the year on the cricket this week but got away with it luckily. I'd taken 4/7 about Essex to beat Glamorgan, knowing they were without three major players in Bopara, Cook and Kaneira but having consulted their fans website they seemed of the opinion the signing of South African international Amla would be what was required to stiffen up the batting. Also I noted that the youngster Maynard was on England twelfth man duty and would miss the match for the visitors.
However I somehow managed to miss the fact that the Dragons had also been active in the player recruitment area and Herschelle Gibbs unknown to me was making his debut.
He scored a half century and I was soon regretting my bet when Glamorgan amassed well over 500 and Essex were then skittled out for just 200.
Thankfully Amla lived up to the fans expectations second time around with a great knock of 180+ which somehow saved a game they looked certain to lose.
I've taken some 5/6 about Kent in their current match at Surrey. The home side knocked up just short of 400 which seems a decent total but it can be hard to tell sometimes until both teams have batted. I'll probably settle for a draw there now as well though thought the inclusion of Joe Denly after England Lions duty and South African Wayne Parnell, who had a successful World Twenty20 campaign might give them the ascendancy.
Last Sunday saw the end of my dreams of a big payout on Gloucestershire winning the Friends Provident Trophy when the 33/1 outright shots bowed out at the semi final stage despite a brave effort to overhaul a mammoth total set by Sussex at Hove.
And finally there was no Sky live dogs programme this week, I almost decided to go up to Sheffield's Owlerton Stadium on Tuesday for the first time but with heavy rain the order of the day decided against it, which was lucky as the hare stopped halfway through the night which meant a long delay, and also caused some angry scenes apparently with winning punters unhappy on the ruling about the lucrative Jackpot on offer that night (it was much reduced due to a void race).
I've still got a few active in the ongoing Sunderland festival but with throw in time looming for the gaelic football, I'll say adios and be lucky for now.
Catch you later
Rick
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Anyone for a Lord Toffingham revival petition?
This hot weather is not much fun when your brain is working overtime trying to come up with the latest bets but then again suppose its the same whatever you're doing though there are plenty who seem to positively enjoy it.
I think its fine if you have nothing to do but it does make you feel very lethargic and I have the freezer stocked up with dozens of ice lollies to get me through this latest heatwave. What a pity they dont do Lord Toffinghams any more, think I might start a petition for a revival! That toffee bit in the middle was simply magical.
Anyhow enough of my longings, overall its been a pretty satisfactory kind of week.
Although the dogs haven't been as kind to me in the last few weeks as previously, I still managed to land the Irish Oaks winner last Saturday, Skywalker Queen (10/1) who became the fastest bitch ever to run the trip at Shelbourne Park. And then in a damage limitation exercise, Corporate Attack won the Corn Cuchuilan at 6/1 which meant in essence I was about even on both events (work that out lol).
Of course the reason being I had also backed a few losers too along the way and perhaps my staking plan wasn't the best either, with a host of each way dabbles out of the money in the latter event not helping the coffers.
Anyhow last night's 6/1 winner seems to have persuaded Mr Power to limit my bets on the dogs, even though I made a loss on the Corn Cuchilian as a whole which seems a strange reaction, though I suppose it may be a totting up process.
On the Sky dogs Cesarewich night Melodys Comet looked like landing a 6/1 punt after going clear at one stage but was agonisingly reeled in by the favourite He Went Whoosh on the run in much to my dismay, a good effort from the winner though to overcome early scrimmaging.
I'm also struggling to get on with the GAA bets in some quarters, the ones that are winning keep seeming to occur with the same companies which isnt helping matters though does perhaps show that some of the compilers are a bit out of sync with others.
Last week I quite fancied Antrim to continue the good work after their "shock" win in Donegal and backed them at 2/1 to win against Cavan in the Ulster semi final.
I thought it was a good price until I saw someone offering 3.65 on the exchanges!
Cavan were unimpressive in the main in the previous win against Fermanagh, but had the one quality scorer on the pitch in Seanie Johnston. This time around things were probably not alot different, but with them trading at odds on this time as opposed to odds against, it was time to take them on.
Even I wasn't quite expecting the dominance the Saffrons showed and it was amazing how the game was still in the balance until quite near the end given the amount of possession Antrim enjoyed. Anyhow they did enough to take the spoils and I also had a bit of the 5/4 on the +2 handicap as a bonus.
Dublin looked a stonewall banker against the hapless Westmeath and although I'm not normally in favour of taking such short odds I did have some of the 1/5 before it disappeared and should maybe have taken the -6 handicap bet too as they had already knocked it off within about ten minutes lol.
Instead of that one I decided to side with Sligo to stay within the +6 margin up against Galway and despite a sluggish start with only two points in the first half hour they upped the ante to the stage that they were level with only a couple of minutes left.
Things turned out well in the remaining minutes for Galway with a goal and a point sealing a narrow win and as they were my Connaught outright picks that suited me down to the ground and the handicap bet was won too.
So I'm still in a healthy outright position for the provincial football outrights - Galway, Dublin, Cork and Antrim (the latter at 125/1 though I dont expect to collect there!) are all through to their respective finals and I also have Tipperary at 7/4 contesting the Munster hurling showdown too.
The cricket action slowed down a bit this week with a return to County Championship action. After getting used to batsmens strike rates being over a run a ball, Steve Stubbings of Derbyshire took 110 balls for 19 runs in their match against Leicestershire this week so I am mighty glad I didnt make the journey on this occasion as it must have been something akin to slow water torture.
The good run of form on the match betting has continued with Durham defeating Leicestershire in the last round of 20/20 matches at 4/6 and Somerset (4/7) somehow engineering a remarkable win over Yorkshire in the four day game thanks largely to a big hitting century from Peter Trego after it had seemed certain to be a draw earlier on.
And the aussie rules has joined in the fun too with a couple of winners this morning in Port Adelaide and West Bulldogs so I'm still keeping slightly infront overall in that sphere even though at more than one stage I've been thinking of curtailing that arm of betting.
The snooker is back this week with the Sangsom Six Red Tournament in Thailand for decent prize money and I've largely followed the formbook with a few bets in the respective groups while plumping for a few outsiders in the outrights. Have got online coverage lined up for the semis and finals but hoping something else crops up so we can see some of the rest of the event, its always better if you can see how your money went up in smoke rather than hear about it (or is it) lol.
All the best for now and apologies for being a day late!
Rick
I think its fine if you have nothing to do but it does make you feel very lethargic and I have the freezer stocked up with dozens of ice lollies to get me through this latest heatwave. What a pity they dont do Lord Toffinghams any more, think I might start a petition for a revival! That toffee bit in the middle was simply magical.
Anyhow enough of my longings, overall its been a pretty satisfactory kind of week.
Although the dogs haven't been as kind to me in the last few weeks as previously, I still managed to land the Irish Oaks winner last Saturday, Skywalker Queen (10/1) who became the fastest bitch ever to run the trip at Shelbourne Park. And then in a damage limitation exercise, Corporate Attack won the Corn Cuchuilan at 6/1 which meant in essence I was about even on both events (work that out lol).
Of course the reason being I had also backed a few losers too along the way and perhaps my staking plan wasn't the best either, with a host of each way dabbles out of the money in the latter event not helping the coffers.
Anyhow last night's 6/1 winner seems to have persuaded Mr Power to limit my bets on the dogs, even though I made a loss on the Corn Cuchilian as a whole which seems a strange reaction, though I suppose it may be a totting up process.
On the Sky dogs Cesarewich night Melodys Comet looked like landing a 6/1 punt after going clear at one stage but was agonisingly reeled in by the favourite He Went Whoosh on the run in much to my dismay, a good effort from the winner though to overcome early scrimmaging.
I'm also struggling to get on with the GAA bets in some quarters, the ones that are winning keep seeming to occur with the same companies which isnt helping matters though does perhaps show that some of the compilers are a bit out of sync with others.
Last week I quite fancied Antrim to continue the good work after their "shock" win in Donegal and backed them at 2/1 to win against Cavan in the Ulster semi final.
I thought it was a good price until I saw someone offering 3.65 on the exchanges!
Cavan were unimpressive in the main in the previous win against Fermanagh, but had the one quality scorer on the pitch in Seanie Johnston. This time around things were probably not alot different, but with them trading at odds on this time as opposed to odds against, it was time to take them on.
Even I wasn't quite expecting the dominance the Saffrons showed and it was amazing how the game was still in the balance until quite near the end given the amount of possession Antrim enjoyed. Anyhow they did enough to take the spoils and I also had a bit of the 5/4 on the +2 handicap as a bonus.
Dublin looked a stonewall banker against the hapless Westmeath and although I'm not normally in favour of taking such short odds I did have some of the 1/5 before it disappeared and should maybe have taken the -6 handicap bet too as they had already knocked it off within about ten minutes lol.
Instead of that one I decided to side with Sligo to stay within the +6 margin up against Galway and despite a sluggish start with only two points in the first half hour they upped the ante to the stage that they were level with only a couple of minutes left.
Things turned out well in the remaining minutes for Galway with a goal and a point sealing a narrow win and as they were my Connaught outright picks that suited me down to the ground and the handicap bet was won too.
So I'm still in a healthy outright position for the provincial football outrights - Galway, Dublin, Cork and Antrim (the latter at 125/1 though I dont expect to collect there!) are all through to their respective finals and I also have Tipperary at 7/4 contesting the Munster hurling showdown too.
The cricket action slowed down a bit this week with a return to County Championship action. After getting used to batsmens strike rates being over a run a ball, Steve Stubbings of Derbyshire took 110 balls for 19 runs in their match against Leicestershire this week so I am mighty glad I didnt make the journey on this occasion as it must have been something akin to slow water torture.
The good run of form on the match betting has continued with Durham defeating Leicestershire in the last round of 20/20 matches at 4/6 and Somerset (4/7) somehow engineering a remarkable win over Yorkshire in the four day game thanks largely to a big hitting century from Peter Trego after it had seemed certain to be a draw earlier on.
And the aussie rules has joined in the fun too with a couple of winners this morning in Port Adelaide and West Bulldogs so I'm still keeping slightly infront overall in that sphere even though at more than one stage I've been thinking of curtailing that arm of betting.
The snooker is back this week with the Sangsom Six Red Tournament in Thailand for decent prize money and I've largely followed the formbook with a few bets in the respective groups while plumping for a few outsiders in the outrights. Have got online coverage lined up for the semis and finals but hoping something else crops up so we can see some of the rest of the event, its always better if you can see how your money went up in smoke rather than hear about it (or is it) lol.
All the best for now and apologies for being a day late!
Rick
Friday, 26 June 2009
Going to the dogs!
Well not literally (though Hull was quite tempting tonight for possibly their last ever meeting before enforced closure), but easily the worst week I've had on the greyhounds since I started punting on them in earnest perhaps about a year ago.
Thankfully in the same period the cricket betting has taken an upturn helped by Pakistan lifting the Twenty20 World Cup at 17/2, though if I had waited until after their unimpressive warm up campaign I believe I could have got 10s.
That said, perhaps I wouldn't have fancied them then, though it was always likely they would improve as the event wore on due to their stark lack of cricket caused by external reasons prior to the competition.
Unbeknown to me, one of their star performers in both the semi and final, Shahid Afridi had an unproductive spell at Derbyshire early in his career according to the local newspaper but he certainly showed his worth last weekend as Pakistan upset favourites Sri Lanka in an absorbing final.
I've carried that success into the domestic Twenty20 markets with four more successful bets, mostly opposing my own team Derbyshire who have gone from bad to worse in recent outings though I think I shall keep my powder dry for their final game at injury ravaged Yorkshire who are now out of contention themselves.
At least Lancashire and Sussex have made it through to the quarter finals so still something to shout about in the outrights, despite the non-qualification of the Tykes and Gloucestershire - though the latter are giving me a good run at big odds in the Friends Provident Trophy.
Went to Trent Bridge for the first time in ages last night and despite the hammering the Phantoms took in the field after setting an initially respectable total, must say I was really impressed with the venue, it certainly puts the County Ground into perspective thats for sure!
Back to the greyhounds and unfortunately it seems to have been a week when little went right with some sizeable losses totted up from various ante post markets.
After reporting a good Friday afternoon win in last weeks blog, the good fortune didnt carry on into the evening when Magna Venturer my remaining ante post representative could only managed second behind Derby finalist Ballymac Ruso who I opposed mainly because of the extended trip but he had the race well in the bag long before the final stages as it transpired.
Then came the Sky TV meeting at Newcastle which proved an absolute graveyard for the inside boxes with the first bend appearing far too sharp to take at any kind of momentum and with the outside dogs cutting back across practically all the red jacketed dogs were having to check or be baulked at this stage.
This put paid to my biggest stake on Farloe Reason as he came out of the dreaded one box and to make matters worse I fancied the winner Ardkill Tunoco on the day quite strongly with two slow starting dogs inside but for some reason didnt back him as it would have eroded any winnings on my original ante post picks.
I should really have supported my later inklings with hard cash if only to break even rather than sit and hope like a rabbit caught in the headlights in the middle of the road on a dark country road.
In the Angel of the North Oaks, Was Not Me one of my picks was bowled over at the bend while the other Plan lost about five lengths when checking yet was only beaten about a neck into third place which shows how unlucky he was.
And in the TV Trophy, Bubbly Eagle showed nothing like the sparkle of his semi final win when arriving on the final bend with every chance but despite not really getting the clearest of passages, he made very little headway on all the way winner Midway Skipper who was discovering her best form again after a spell off the track when in season.
At least I landed a 5/4 winner when Brimardon Star took the stayers event on the night but things took a downturn again when Ferdia Bound had his legs taken away from him on the last bend in the big event at Harolds Cross when challenging for second place and ended up dropping back to last before rallying to only miss out on qualification by a couple of necks. Not much use to me though.
I did have a couple of savers last week on Corporate Attack and Hello Hippy but will still come out of the event with a loss now and an even bigger one if neither of those two win it.
Adding in the ill fated single bets on the first round and it has been a very costly competition for me indeed!
A couple of competitions are still ongoing as I speak, in tonight's Irish Oaks at Shelbourne I'm hoping for a Skywalker Queen or Lady Glenard win though have a saver on favourite Maireads Fantasy to cut my losses should things go wrong.
And in the Cesarewich at Oxford (on Sky next Tuesday) I'm represented by Romeo Turbo and Melodys Comet but kicking myself a bit for missing He Went Whoosh who I almost included originally but due to doubts about his stamina decided to leave him out - needless to say he is now trading at odds on in most places after two impressive wins in the heats.
In other sports, the Essendon/Mayo double on the aussie rules and gaelic football markets romped home at around 8/15 though Derry as I half expected couldn't overcome their injury and suspension woes against Tyrone despite having alot of the possession but still felt it worth a dabble at the odds.
Tipperary, a 7/4 outright pick, scraped through into the Munster hurling final with a rather unimpressive win over outsiders Clare but at least it keeps me in with the chance of a payout when they meet Waterford next month.
Thats it for now
Catch you later
Rick
Thankfully in the same period the cricket betting has taken an upturn helped by Pakistan lifting the Twenty20 World Cup at 17/2, though if I had waited until after their unimpressive warm up campaign I believe I could have got 10s.
That said, perhaps I wouldn't have fancied them then, though it was always likely they would improve as the event wore on due to their stark lack of cricket caused by external reasons prior to the competition.
Unbeknown to me, one of their star performers in both the semi and final, Shahid Afridi had an unproductive spell at Derbyshire early in his career according to the local newspaper but he certainly showed his worth last weekend as Pakistan upset favourites Sri Lanka in an absorbing final.
I've carried that success into the domestic Twenty20 markets with four more successful bets, mostly opposing my own team Derbyshire who have gone from bad to worse in recent outings though I think I shall keep my powder dry for their final game at injury ravaged Yorkshire who are now out of contention themselves.
At least Lancashire and Sussex have made it through to the quarter finals so still something to shout about in the outrights, despite the non-qualification of the Tykes and Gloucestershire - though the latter are giving me a good run at big odds in the Friends Provident Trophy.
Went to Trent Bridge for the first time in ages last night and despite the hammering the Phantoms took in the field after setting an initially respectable total, must say I was really impressed with the venue, it certainly puts the County Ground into perspective thats for sure!
Back to the greyhounds and unfortunately it seems to have been a week when little went right with some sizeable losses totted up from various ante post markets.
After reporting a good Friday afternoon win in last weeks blog, the good fortune didnt carry on into the evening when Magna Venturer my remaining ante post representative could only managed second behind Derby finalist Ballymac Ruso who I opposed mainly because of the extended trip but he had the race well in the bag long before the final stages as it transpired.
Then came the Sky TV meeting at Newcastle which proved an absolute graveyard for the inside boxes with the first bend appearing far too sharp to take at any kind of momentum and with the outside dogs cutting back across practically all the red jacketed dogs were having to check or be baulked at this stage.
This put paid to my biggest stake on Farloe Reason as he came out of the dreaded one box and to make matters worse I fancied the winner Ardkill Tunoco on the day quite strongly with two slow starting dogs inside but for some reason didnt back him as it would have eroded any winnings on my original ante post picks.
I should really have supported my later inklings with hard cash if only to break even rather than sit and hope like a rabbit caught in the headlights in the middle of the road on a dark country road.
In the Angel of the North Oaks, Was Not Me one of my picks was bowled over at the bend while the other Plan lost about five lengths when checking yet was only beaten about a neck into third place which shows how unlucky he was.
And in the TV Trophy, Bubbly Eagle showed nothing like the sparkle of his semi final win when arriving on the final bend with every chance but despite not really getting the clearest of passages, he made very little headway on all the way winner Midway Skipper who was discovering her best form again after a spell off the track when in season.
At least I landed a 5/4 winner when Brimardon Star took the stayers event on the night but things took a downturn again when Ferdia Bound had his legs taken away from him on the last bend in the big event at Harolds Cross when challenging for second place and ended up dropping back to last before rallying to only miss out on qualification by a couple of necks. Not much use to me though.
I did have a couple of savers last week on Corporate Attack and Hello Hippy but will still come out of the event with a loss now and an even bigger one if neither of those two win it.
Adding in the ill fated single bets on the first round and it has been a very costly competition for me indeed!
A couple of competitions are still ongoing as I speak, in tonight's Irish Oaks at Shelbourne I'm hoping for a Skywalker Queen or Lady Glenard win though have a saver on favourite Maireads Fantasy to cut my losses should things go wrong.
And in the Cesarewich at Oxford (on Sky next Tuesday) I'm represented by Romeo Turbo and Melodys Comet but kicking myself a bit for missing He Went Whoosh who I almost included originally but due to doubts about his stamina decided to leave him out - needless to say he is now trading at odds on in most places after two impressive wins in the heats.
In other sports, the Essendon/Mayo double on the aussie rules and gaelic football markets romped home at around 8/15 though Derry as I half expected couldn't overcome their injury and suspension woes against Tyrone despite having alot of the possession but still felt it worth a dabble at the odds.
Tipperary, a 7/4 outright pick, scraped through into the Munster hurling final with a rather unimpressive win over outsiders Clare but at least it keeps me in with the chance of a payout when they meet Waterford next month.
Thats it for now
Catch you later
Rick
Friday, 19 June 2009
The agony and the ecstacy
Well I think I've been through the whole spectrum of different emotions this week, agony, ecstacy, despair and everything else in between, but at the end of the day its only a game, even though I'd rather things stayed a bit more on an even keel at times.
I knew it was a bad omen talking about drains last week, as thats where most of my money disappeared in the Corn Cuchulainn heats at Harolds Cross last Friday.
I usually play the ante post markets on the dogs but as nothing pricewise materialised as the event drew near, I decided to have a few single wagers and of course everything I backed seemed to get second or third-itis.
Even when I went down the dual forecast route, they contrived to finish second or third behind some hitherto unheralded winner but at the end of the day I was £370 down which was rather silly for saying I had only intended to have a few small bets earlier in the day.
Anyway with the first round out of the way, one of the firms finally got around to pricing up and in a bid to recoup some of my losses, and also encouraged by my overall record on the Irish stuff, decided to up my stakes a little and back a few of my fancies each way to try to maximise any profits, something I rarely do except on the odd longshot.
I've just watched the second round tonight and of course all my each way dogs have immediately exited the competition encountering all kinds of difficulties in running, meaning that another £300 has gone west though I do have a potential profit still if Ferdia Bound takes the event with £100 at 5/1.
He finished second after himself getting into all sorts of tangles after a slow start but he is my last representative at present unless I decide to delve into the market again as back up.
I paid another visit to Monmore on Monday to the ongoing Ladbrokes Summer Festival and enjoyed a pleasant day watching my ante post picks perform somewhat better and had a fair representation going into this afternoon's finals.
The day before I spent a couple of hours at the local Pikehall harness races, I went there last year but knowing little about the form I just stuck to backing some of the course winners from the past meeting and it seemed to come up trumps on that occasion but worked out less successfully this time around (although if I'd hung around until the last race I might have gotten into profit eventually).
However there did seem an interminable delay while they were drug testing one of the winners which seemed to drag on for around 50 minutes and my patience began to wear a bit thin, surely they could have carried on racing while they were having their inquest.
Anyhow I departed after the seventh race, only to see quite a few still coming in with six races to go on the marathon card. Actually this was quite a good tactic as you were getting in free and seeing the higher class horses at the end too (the meetings tend to start with the lowest class races and work their way through).
Anyway back to the Summer Festival at Monmore and I actually decided to watch the finals in the sponsors local shop rather than travel down to Wolverhampton again and despite missing the bitches race by getting stuck in traffic (my only contender had been withdrawn lame anyway as it happens) it turned out to be quite an exhilarating 45 minutes or so.
First up Eye Eye Pickle (5/1) held on to beat Mountjoy Gold in a battle of the two Mark Wallis runners which I had both backed ante post in the dogs-only race and I was off to a good start.
Then in the main event for the stayers, the sometimes rogueish Droopys Zach (again for Wallis) put his best foot forward to show them a clean pair of paws and never see another rival to land a 20/1 punt (I had four others in the final as back up anyhow lol).
And in the 416m race which has a kamikaze run to the first bend, Droopys Cadel scooted out to make all and hold off the favourite Hillcrest Orion in the process landing a 25/1 voucher.
Adding up the winnings and subtracting the losses from my roster of ante post bets I concluded that I was £900 up on the afternoon which was nice.
There was a hectic midweek schedule too, starting with the Sky TV meeting at Hall Green. Droopys Bogart did the business for me at 14/1 in the Gymcrak final to add to the coffers but I also had a strong fancy for Ard Beauty at 7/2 early doors in the staying event due to a lack of possible challengers for the lead. As it happens my fancy did lead up but got collared on the run in by Dessies Blueboy much to my dismay.
Thursday saw the Cesarewich get underway at Oxford and with the books going 8/1 the field, I could only restrict myself to a minimum of half a dozen picks who all qualified as it happened though I didnt have the fastest heat winner He Went Whoosh who is now the new favourite at 3/1. I had considered him beforehand but wasn't sure he'd stay the trip.
And up at Newcastle, three events kicked off on the same day. Firstly, the Angel of the North Oaks which saw Plan and Was Not Me both make it through to the final for me though both finished close up seconds in their heats.
In the Tyneside Derby, actual Derby finalist Farloe Reason was another of my picks and he qualified in the runners up spot too along with kennelmate Affleck Elite while Mill Pinpoint also made it through.
And in the main event the TV Trophy, I had to include Bubbly Eagle after an eye-catching recent win in front of the cameras and he was the most impressive performer of the night as it happens, and is now heavy odds on from the opening quote of 2/1.
By the way in last Saturday's Irish St Leger final at Limerick my saver on Bar Blackstone prompted by the draw came to the rescue and I broke even on the event though it was sad to see original ante post favourite Timor Blue get badly injured after being bowled over from an unsuitably wide posting.
Elsewhere, my gaelic football outright bets continued to bowl along nicely as 125/1 shots Antrim shocked their more illustrious opponents Donegal with a one point win in Ballybofey. They now meet Cavan in the Ulster semi final though in reality the chances of them beating Tyrone or Derry in the final itself would seem exceedingly slim - thats why I had been hoping initially for an each way option when I saw the price - the bookies aren't daft though lol.
Cork also did the business against Kerry with a comfortable win to land the odds of 6/4 and I also have 13/8 about them winning Munster with rank outsiders Limerick the opposition in the final.
I also had a bit of a dabble on the 4/11 for Kildare to beat Wexford as they were being backed down at all rates earlier in the week (best price was 3/10 at the off) and although it was no cakewalk they did eventually take the spoils.
Its unfortunate Derry have been clobbered by the disciplinary panel for their exploits in the brutal match against Monaghan earlier in the Championship, losing a couple of their main players, as otherwise I would quite fancy their chances against Tyrone at decent odds.
The balance perhaps has tipped against them now however, especially with the Redhands at pretty much full strength, though the odds of 11/5 are so tempting I will still have a small dabble but with far less confidence.
I've also got a double in progress as Essendon defeated Melbourne in the AFL today and that rolls on to Mayo to defeat Roscommon in Connacht tomorrow, both were quite shortish odds-on chances though.
And in the cricket Pakistan (backed at 17/2) are through to the final against Sri Lanka so hoping for a payout there, though they will probably need to get the impressive Dilshan out fairly quickly and then fend off their highly inventive bowling attack too.
Typically I had New Zealand each way but have got win only on the Pakistanis, but they are the sort of mercurial team who on their day can perhaps be a match for anyone though sometimes being capable of a complete implosion too.
Sad to see that Setanta's rescue bid has seemingly failed tonight with the Russian investor unable or unwilling to conclude a deal and with the Premier League football package now taken away too, its hard to see how they can carry on from here which is a great shame. Whatever some may say about their experiences with the customer service, the channel did offer some diverse sport and for me it was quite refreshing to get away from an almost never ending diet of non stop football.
Anyhow thats it for now
All the best Rick
I knew it was a bad omen talking about drains last week, as thats where most of my money disappeared in the Corn Cuchulainn heats at Harolds Cross last Friday.
I usually play the ante post markets on the dogs but as nothing pricewise materialised as the event drew near, I decided to have a few single wagers and of course everything I backed seemed to get second or third-itis.
Even when I went down the dual forecast route, they contrived to finish second or third behind some hitherto unheralded winner but at the end of the day I was £370 down which was rather silly for saying I had only intended to have a few small bets earlier in the day.
Anyway with the first round out of the way, one of the firms finally got around to pricing up and in a bid to recoup some of my losses, and also encouraged by my overall record on the Irish stuff, decided to up my stakes a little and back a few of my fancies each way to try to maximise any profits, something I rarely do except on the odd longshot.
I've just watched the second round tonight and of course all my each way dogs have immediately exited the competition encountering all kinds of difficulties in running, meaning that another £300 has gone west though I do have a potential profit still if Ferdia Bound takes the event with £100 at 5/1.
He finished second after himself getting into all sorts of tangles after a slow start but he is my last representative at present unless I decide to delve into the market again as back up.
I paid another visit to Monmore on Monday to the ongoing Ladbrokes Summer Festival and enjoyed a pleasant day watching my ante post picks perform somewhat better and had a fair representation going into this afternoon's finals.
The day before I spent a couple of hours at the local Pikehall harness races, I went there last year but knowing little about the form I just stuck to backing some of the course winners from the past meeting and it seemed to come up trumps on that occasion but worked out less successfully this time around (although if I'd hung around until the last race I might have gotten into profit eventually).
However there did seem an interminable delay while they were drug testing one of the winners which seemed to drag on for around 50 minutes and my patience began to wear a bit thin, surely they could have carried on racing while they were having their inquest.
Anyhow I departed after the seventh race, only to see quite a few still coming in with six races to go on the marathon card. Actually this was quite a good tactic as you were getting in free and seeing the higher class horses at the end too (the meetings tend to start with the lowest class races and work their way through).
Anyway back to the Summer Festival at Monmore and I actually decided to watch the finals in the sponsors local shop rather than travel down to Wolverhampton again and despite missing the bitches race by getting stuck in traffic (my only contender had been withdrawn lame anyway as it happens) it turned out to be quite an exhilarating 45 minutes or so.
First up Eye Eye Pickle (5/1) held on to beat Mountjoy Gold in a battle of the two Mark Wallis runners which I had both backed ante post in the dogs-only race and I was off to a good start.
Then in the main event for the stayers, the sometimes rogueish Droopys Zach (again for Wallis) put his best foot forward to show them a clean pair of paws and never see another rival to land a 20/1 punt (I had four others in the final as back up anyhow lol).
And in the 416m race which has a kamikaze run to the first bend, Droopys Cadel scooted out to make all and hold off the favourite Hillcrest Orion in the process landing a 25/1 voucher.
Adding up the winnings and subtracting the losses from my roster of ante post bets I concluded that I was £900 up on the afternoon which was nice.
There was a hectic midweek schedule too, starting with the Sky TV meeting at Hall Green. Droopys Bogart did the business for me at 14/1 in the Gymcrak final to add to the coffers but I also had a strong fancy for Ard Beauty at 7/2 early doors in the staying event due to a lack of possible challengers for the lead. As it happens my fancy did lead up but got collared on the run in by Dessies Blueboy much to my dismay.
Thursday saw the Cesarewich get underway at Oxford and with the books going 8/1 the field, I could only restrict myself to a minimum of half a dozen picks who all qualified as it happened though I didnt have the fastest heat winner He Went Whoosh who is now the new favourite at 3/1. I had considered him beforehand but wasn't sure he'd stay the trip.
And up at Newcastle, three events kicked off on the same day. Firstly, the Angel of the North Oaks which saw Plan and Was Not Me both make it through to the final for me though both finished close up seconds in their heats.
In the Tyneside Derby, actual Derby finalist Farloe Reason was another of my picks and he qualified in the runners up spot too along with kennelmate Affleck Elite while Mill Pinpoint also made it through.
And in the main event the TV Trophy, I had to include Bubbly Eagle after an eye-catching recent win in front of the cameras and he was the most impressive performer of the night as it happens, and is now heavy odds on from the opening quote of 2/1.
By the way in last Saturday's Irish St Leger final at Limerick my saver on Bar Blackstone prompted by the draw came to the rescue and I broke even on the event though it was sad to see original ante post favourite Timor Blue get badly injured after being bowled over from an unsuitably wide posting.
Elsewhere, my gaelic football outright bets continued to bowl along nicely as 125/1 shots Antrim shocked their more illustrious opponents Donegal with a one point win in Ballybofey. They now meet Cavan in the Ulster semi final though in reality the chances of them beating Tyrone or Derry in the final itself would seem exceedingly slim - thats why I had been hoping initially for an each way option when I saw the price - the bookies aren't daft though lol.
Cork also did the business against Kerry with a comfortable win to land the odds of 6/4 and I also have 13/8 about them winning Munster with rank outsiders Limerick the opposition in the final.
I also had a bit of a dabble on the 4/11 for Kildare to beat Wexford as they were being backed down at all rates earlier in the week (best price was 3/10 at the off) and although it was no cakewalk they did eventually take the spoils.
Its unfortunate Derry have been clobbered by the disciplinary panel for their exploits in the brutal match against Monaghan earlier in the Championship, losing a couple of their main players, as otherwise I would quite fancy their chances against Tyrone at decent odds.
The balance perhaps has tipped against them now however, especially with the Redhands at pretty much full strength, though the odds of 11/5 are so tempting I will still have a small dabble but with far less confidence.
I've also got a double in progress as Essendon defeated Melbourne in the AFL today and that rolls on to Mayo to defeat Roscommon in Connacht tomorrow, both were quite shortish odds-on chances though.
And in the cricket Pakistan (backed at 17/2) are through to the final against Sri Lanka so hoping for a payout there, though they will probably need to get the impressive Dilshan out fairly quickly and then fend off their highly inventive bowling attack too.
Typically I had New Zealand each way but have got win only on the Pakistanis, but they are the sort of mercurial team who on their day can perhaps be a match for anyone though sometimes being capable of a complete implosion too.
Sad to see that Setanta's rescue bid has seemingly failed tonight with the Russian investor unable or unwilling to conclude a deal and with the Premier League football package now taken away too, its hard to see how they can carry on from here which is a great shame. Whatever some may say about their experiences with the customer service, the channel did offer some diverse sport and for me it was quite refreshing to get away from an almost never ending diet of non stop football.
Anyhow thats it for now
All the best Rick
Friday, 12 June 2009
Two hours drain cleaning highlight of the week
It comes to something when the highlight of my week is a two hour drain-cleaning event but things aren't quite that bad in reality.
Harolds Cross Greyhound Stadium in Ireland hosts the exotically-titled Accelerated Drain Cleaning Stakes tonight with eight first round heats for the stayers and the final due to be televised on Setanta TV in early July.
They perhaps wisely appear to have called it by its long standing title of the Corn Cucuhulainn in their television schedules however, assuming they stay on air that long that is.
As I speak there seems to have been a mystery backer moved in to save Setanta from the brink and I wish them good luck in their rescue of a company that seemed to be verging on down and out earlier in the week, so much so that I cancelled my subscription rather than risk another annual fee going west with little or no return.
I won't have any hesitation signing on with them again if they can secure their future, though perhaps in the current climate it would be better to pay monthly rather than in an annual lump sum as I have done until now.
I seem to be going dogs mad at the moment - on Monday I paid my first ever visit to Monmore Greyhound Stadium in Wolverhampton for the Summer Stayers Classic, as ever I picked a few ante post fancies (who thankfully all got through on the day) and perhaps the most impressive were the two market leaders Corrig Vieri, who admittedly tied up a bit near the end but showed electric pace, and Droopys Carvalho, who is awesome on the odd occasions that he does hit the lids.
Of course its usually free entry in the afternoon at the dog tracks and there was a reasonable crowd in attendance for a weekday, though the traffic and my hopeless sense of direction meant I only just got there in time for the first heat despite leaving myself a good two hours driving time.
I printed out an AA routefinder but as usual kept pre-empting the turn-offs and ended up down a deserted avenue more than once, I call it the scenic route!
Sky's Tuesday night meeting saw Hurleys Hero lift the Cock o The North which was an ante post pick for me at 8/1 (I unfortunately missed all the bigger prices being jack of all trades and maybe master of none lol) and also backed the champion hurdler Platinumlancelot on the night, albeit at the shortish odds of 2/5 (some were going 1/5).
This week the Sky cameras are at Hall Green in Birmingham for the Gymcrak final and I'm represented this time by Droopys Bogat (14/1), Centurion Enry (14/1) and Eye OnThe Storm (16/1) so hoping for another fair payout there.
The Coral Olympic is another interesting event just started at Hove with a few of the main protagonists from the Derby involved - over the longer trip I'd probably want to be against the likes of Ballymac Ruso and Glenard Sunrise so have sided with Thurlesbeg Joker (10/1), Cabra Boss (12/1) and Magna Venturer (6/1) though the first two both go from the first semi final with only two set to qualify in a tough heat.
Back in Ireland, I probably picked far too many in the Oaks at Shelbourne Park and lost half of them last time around, meaning I have four through to the third round - Skywalker Queen (10/1), Cool Cousin Suzy (16/1), Lady Glenard (20/1) and Home Belle (33/1) though over a shortish trip of 525yds alot seemingly depends on the start in that particular event.
Also the St Leger final is held at Limerick and although I have Chicken Supper (12/1) and Timor Blue (6/1) through, they aren't well served by the draw in boxes 4 and 6 respectively. In the circumstances I've had to have a saver on Bar Blackstone who looks well berthed in box two at 7/2 and can maybe lead on the inside.
I'm not sure whether it was the last event of the previous season or the first of the next but the Jiangsu Snooker Classic was held in Ding's birthplace of Wuxi City last week and my original decision to oppose the hometown man looked a bit sick when he reached the final.
However I needn't have worried as one of my outright picks young Mark Allen made amazingly short work of him with a 6-0 win to land a nice bet at 10/1 so my strategy paid off in the end it seemed.
One disappointing aspect of the event was the lack of betting opportunities overall (most firms seemed to withdraw prices after the first day, maybe due to lack of interest perhaps). I could understand the latter round robins not being priced up due to some suspicious games in the past but would have thought there should be some odds available for the semis and final of a World Snooker promoted event.
Another poor aspect was the difficulty in getting live feeds, the usual Sopcast channels seemed to be off-air and I eventually stumbled upon a website that needed a program downloading to view Guangdong Sports which eventually did the trick (despite originally depositing a Trojan Horse along with it!!)
Although it wasnt linked to that, the day of the final I then lost internet connection when the next door neighbour started broadcasting on my wavelength at 6am in the morning - can you believe it - and my computer kept trying to connect to the wrong modem but eventually I managed to sort it out - just in time for the snooker to go off air thanks to Ding's rather tame effort.
Not that I'm complaining - the next event is the Sangsom Six-Red International held in Bangkok in July - last year Paddies priced up the final (Ricky Walden beat Stuart Bingham) I seem to recall but shouldn't imagine there will be much betting available for that one either, even though I have found an internet feed already for the semis and final which are live on the National Channel 11.
My World Cup cricket picks are still surviving as I speak, despite New Zealand players dropping like flies with all kinds of injury problems and Pakistan fielding in general like they just had five pints of strong lager per man as a matter of course before they set foot on the grass.
At least they both seem to have been pitched into the easier of the two groups, Sri Lanka not withstanding.
In the gaelic football, Dublin sneaked through in the Leinster Championship with an unimpressive win over Meath but thats another outright bet still in the mix, and I also had a nice bet on Cavan at 6/4 to beat Fermanagh which they did by one point, I had them as favourites on my ratings though few other experts seemed to agree.
In Seanie Johnston however, they do have a real top class scorer which is worth its weight in gold and the visitors as usual struggled to convert some neat play into actual points due to wayward finishing.
The two Munster giants Cork and Kerry meet again this week after the latter forced a draw with a late fightback on their home patch but without injured talisman Keiran Donaghy they may struggle again I feel so have taken the 6/4 match odds about the Rebel county and 13/8 for the provincial championship too, a market I had originally ducked at first glance.
The aussie rules betting looks first in line for the chop at present as my big priced winner from a few weeks ago has been keeping me afloat of late, I had another loser today when Carlton at decent odds went down narrowly to St Kilda.
I'm now pretty much even on it for the year which was pretty much the case last term until I mis-read a stat from my spreadsheets and had a lumpy bet on the wrong team which then meant a silly chasing bet the following week and I ended up rather out of pocket, my discipine has been pretty strong since then though thankfully.
Anyhow, better get back to studying the drain cleaning...
All the best
Rick
Harolds Cross Greyhound Stadium in Ireland hosts the exotically-titled Accelerated Drain Cleaning Stakes tonight with eight first round heats for the stayers and the final due to be televised on Setanta TV in early July.
They perhaps wisely appear to have called it by its long standing title of the Corn Cucuhulainn in their television schedules however, assuming they stay on air that long that is.
As I speak there seems to have been a mystery backer moved in to save Setanta from the brink and I wish them good luck in their rescue of a company that seemed to be verging on down and out earlier in the week, so much so that I cancelled my subscription rather than risk another annual fee going west with little or no return.
I won't have any hesitation signing on with them again if they can secure their future, though perhaps in the current climate it would be better to pay monthly rather than in an annual lump sum as I have done until now.
I seem to be going dogs mad at the moment - on Monday I paid my first ever visit to Monmore Greyhound Stadium in Wolverhampton for the Summer Stayers Classic, as ever I picked a few ante post fancies (who thankfully all got through on the day) and perhaps the most impressive were the two market leaders Corrig Vieri, who admittedly tied up a bit near the end but showed electric pace, and Droopys Carvalho, who is awesome on the odd occasions that he does hit the lids.
Of course its usually free entry in the afternoon at the dog tracks and there was a reasonable crowd in attendance for a weekday, though the traffic and my hopeless sense of direction meant I only just got there in time for the first heat despite leaving myself a good two hours driving time.
I printed out an AA routefinder but as usual kept pre-empting the turn-offs and ended up down a deserted avenue more than once, I call it the scenic route!
Sky's Tuesday night meeting saw Hurleys Hero lift the Cock o The North which was an ante post pick for me at 8/1 (I unfortunately missed all the bigger prices being jack of all trades and maybe master of none lol) and also backed the champion hurdler Platinumlancelot on the night, albeit at the shortish odds of 2/5 (some were going 1/5).
This week the Sky cameras are at Hall Green in Birmingham for the Gymcrak final and I'm represented this time by Droopys Bogat (14/1), Centurion Enry (14/1) and Eye OnThe Storm (16/1) so hoping for another fair payout there.
The Coral Olympic is another interesting event just started at Hove with a few of the main protagonists from the Derby involved - over the longer trip I'd probably want to be against the likes of Ballymac Ruso and Glenard Sunrise so have sided with Thurlesbeg Joker (10/1), Cabra Boss (12/1) and Magna Venturer (6/1) though the first two both go from the first semi final with only two set to qualify in a tough heat.
Back in Ireland, I probably picked far too many in the Oaks at Shelbourne Park and lost half of them last time around, meaning I have four through to the third round - Skywalker Queen (10/1), Cool Cousin Suzy (16/1), Lady Glenard (20/1) and Home Belle (33/1) though over a shortish trip of 525yds alot seemingly depends on the start in that particular event.
Also the St Leger final is held at Limerick and although I have Chicken Supper (12/1) and Timor Blue (6/1) through, they aren't well served by the draw in boxes 4 and 6 respectively. In the circumstances I've had to have a saver on Bar Blackstone who looks well berthed in box two at 7/2 and can maybe lead on the inside.
I'm not sure whether it was the last event of the previous season or the first of the next but the Jiangsu Snooker Classic was held in Ding's birthplace of Wuxi City last week and my original decision to oppose the hometown man looked a bit sick when he reached the final.
However I needn't have worried as one of my outright picks young Mark Allen made amazingly short work of him with a 6-0 win to land a nice bet at 10/1 so my strategy paid off in the end it seemed.
One disappointing aspect of the event was the lack of betting opportunities overall (most firms seemed to withdraw prices after the first day, maybe due to lack of interest perhaps). I could understand the latter round robins not being priced up due to some suspicious games in the past but would have thought there should be some odds available for the semis and final of a World Snooker promoted event.
Another poor aspect was the difficulty in getting live feeds, the usual Sopcast channels seemed to be off-air and I eventually stumbled upon a website that needed a program downloading to view Guangdong Sports which eventually did the trick (despite originally depositing a Trojan Horse along with it!!)
Although it wasnt linked to that, the day of the final I then lost internet connection when the next door neighbour started broadcasting on my wavelength at 6am in the morning - can you believe it - and my computer kept trying to connect to the wrong modem but eventually I managed to sort it out - just in time for the snooker to go off air thanks to Ding's rather tame effort.
Not that I'm complaining - the next event is the Sangsom Six-Red International held in Bangkok in July - last year Paddies priced up the final (Ricky Walden beat Stuart Bingham) I seem to recall but shouldn't imagine there will be much betting available for that one either, even though I have found an internet feed already for the semis and final which are live on the National Channel 11.
My World Cup cricket picks are still surviving as I speak, despite New Zealand players dropping like flies with all kinds of injury problems and Pakistan fielding in general like they just had five pints of strong lager per man as a matter of course before they set foot on the grass.
At least they both seem to have been pitched into the easier of the two groups, Sri Lanka not withstanding.
In the gaelic football, Dublin sneaked through in the Leinster Championship with an unimpressive win over Meath but thats another outright bet still in the mix, and I also had a nice bet on Cavan at 6/4 to beat Fermanagh which they did by one point, I had them as favourites on my ratings though few other experts seemed to agree.
In Seanie Johnston however, they do have a real top class scorer which is worth its weight in gold and the visitors as usual struggled to convert some neat play into actual points due to wayward finishing.
The two Munster giants Cork and Kerry meet again this week after the latter forced a draw with a late fightback on their home patch but without injured talisman Keiran Donaghy they may struggle again I feel so have taken the 6/4 match odds about the Rebel county and 13/8 for the provincial championship too, a market I had originally ducked at first glance.
The aussie rules betting looks first in line for the chop at present as my big priced winner from a few weeks ago has been keeping me afloat of late, I had another loser today when Carlton at decent odds went down narrowly to St Kilda.
I'm now pretty much even on it for the year which was pretty much the case last term until I mis-read a stat from my spreadsheets and had a lumpy bet on the wrong team which then meant a silly chasing bet the following week and I ended up rather out of pocket, my discipine has been pretty strong since then though thankfully.
Anyhow, better get back to studying the drain cleaning...
All the best
Rick
Friday, 5 June 2009
No return on the Derby (or the Betfair forum!)
Highlight of the last week was undoubtedly the Greyhound Derby at Wimbledon even though from a punting perspective it couldnt have turned out any worse - suppose that shows I'm just a sports fan at heart as it still made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up at the finish.
The ante post favourite Fear Zafonic had finally gotten his preferred trap draw in 1 and came away well, disputing it with raceday favourite Ballymac Ruso from the traps.
Ruso drifted into the middle before coming back at the bend, but brushed against Zafonic's backside and caused mayhem to himself and Farloe Reason, with their scrimmaging also baulking the wide runner Wise Thought - ironically all three affected were my remaining ante post bets!!
Meanwhile the trap 5 dog and 25/1 outsider on the day Kinda Ready (100s ante post) collided with Glenard Sunrise on trap rise but had the track craft to switch inside at the bend, avoiding the melee and giving chase to the leader though a good four lengths adrift.
In a barnstorming finish, the rank outsider ate up the ground on the run-in to get up right on the line in spine tingling fashion to land a first ever Derby for champion trainer Mark Wallis. What a brilliant race, almost as good as last years Irish Derby but for me that holds sway as I backed the winner that day lol.
The supporting card went rather better for me on Saturday though, as I landed the Derby Consolation Plate with Head ItOn Ellis. I saw this chap run a blinder earlier in the year when I was at Nottingham and he brought that form to the table at Wimbledon here to land a 20/1 outright bet (the 25/1 appeared after I had backed it typically lol). Have to say Ninja Jamie the favourite was a little unlucky in running - I also had him in my portfolio - but financially it was the better result as it stood.
Platinumlancelot also landed the Champion Hurdle as a 9/4 ante post punt, though as I had a couple of others too as safeguards, didnt make too much on that but the dog won in great style and certainly has exceptional pace for a jumper.
And to crown the night in style renowned stayer Vaticon Iona won the marathon by coming fast and late to mow down Go Amber Go in the finale for a great nights racing, theres really nothing I'd rather be doing than experiencing evenings like this even if I'm in my own living room at the time lol.
So overall I couldnt grumble even if taking the Derby as its own entity I lost a tidy sum - not helped by backing a non runner for £100 before the event even started!
I admittedly like to have a few strings to my bow in the ante post markets but it did me no good in the Scurry Cup Sprint event at Belle Vue as all my contenders have bowed out before the final, a bit of a rare event as usually at least one of my usual four or five sneak through.
But there was better news in the Cock O The North run at the same track with three picks reaching the final in Noelles Saka, Gabba Gabba Hey and Hurleys Hero. Sky will be covering both events conclusions in its programme on Tuesday.
Hall Green's Prestige Stakes is also underway and I go into the semi finals well represented at present whilst in the Irish St Leger semis I have three contenders in Timor Blue, Cabra Cool and Chicken Supper, though I remember that when the latter two were drawn in adjoining boxes in the Laurels final last year, they ruined each others chances so hoping the same doesnt happen this time.
It took the bookies a while to price up the Irish Oaks which looks extremely competitive and hence I think I have made a record number of picks with about eight running for me at this stage though all at fairly tasty odds so only needs one of them to win it for a nice profit.
When I was last with you my team Derbyshire had just scored back to back victories in the Twenty20 Cup but how things have changed since. Four successive losses have confirmed that those early results were somewhat of a flash in the pan and indeed things had changed so much that I actually backed Leicestershire to win last nights match at the County Ground, which they did at 13/10 despite scoring only 144.
The Phantoms' effort lacked any fluency at all with the bat and they fell 14 runs short in the end - perhaps I was lucky when I got the money at Grace Road by backing my home county in retrospect!!
In the outright market I'm faring reasonably well at present as Sussex and Lancashire head their groups, plus Yorkshire are also in a qualification place at the moment though Gloucestershire have bombed out in this tournament having performed very well in the Friends Provident previoualy.
In the World Twenty20 Cup I went in early with bets on Pakistan at 17/2, who have now drifted, and New Zealand at 11/1 who have contracted - I dont tend to watch international cricket as much as the county stuff so in a way they're educated guesses having looked back at the one day results for the last few months or so - at least these teams seem to have held their own against some of the better outfits during that time.
The Jiangsu Classic snooker is underway and now at the semi final stage. My picks were Mark Allen and Ryan Day both at 10/1 as they seemed to be in the weaker of the two groups and with the top two qualifying I wanted to be against Ding Junhui who hadn't impressed me at all of late.
However Ding has made it through despite an early loss to compatriot Li Hang. The home town favourite came back well after that setback and beat Ryan Day 2-0 in a shootout for a qualification place which means I am now only represented by Mark Allen who finished runner up in the section.
The other group saw Shaun Murphy at the head of affairs (he now plays Allen) with Marco Fu getting through too to meet Ding in the other semi.
Mark Selby didnt quite make it but nevertheless knocked in a 147 in the group stages so some consolation there.
In the gaelic games outrights Tipperary came through a stiff test with Cork to reach the semi finals of the Munster hurling championship and are now odds on (I'm on at 7/4) while in the football, Galway (evens) as I told you last week are in the semi finals of Connacht and Derry (11/2) likewise in Ulster after a fairly brutal match with Monaghan.
Finally I got around to contacting Betfair at long last to ask about why I had been banned from their forum and whether it was time to let bye-gones be bye-gones.
I quoted 1/2 to a betting buddy that I wouldnt be given the time of day and so it proved, they wouldnt say why I had been banned but just issued a terse semi-automated response that I wasnt getting back any time soon.
Yes I mentioned the word purple a few times but I would dispute that warrants a lifetime ban personally, whatever I have said away from their forum!
I emailed them back telling them they hadnt explained why I was originally banned but all they sent back was a customer service survey, to which I gave them 1 for their answer to my original question and 2 for how highly would you recommend Betfair to a friend, both out of 10, arent I a generous chap lol.
If you're a straight up football or horse player, get down the Daq is my advice - I'm still catching up the form for the gee gees but I'm determined to pump some money purple's way in the near future through these avenues - I'm not talking astronomical amounts but every little helps I'm sure.
And yes you may have to wait a little while longer to get a repsonse on the Daq forum but the clientele tends to be a little more polite than some others in the main and if you're struggling for patience you can always join a clique and synchronize watches, that'll do the trick I'm sure.
Catch you later - not on the Betfair forum though lol
All the best
Rick
The ante post favourite Fear Zafonic had finally gotten his preferred trap draw in 1 and came away well, disputing it with raceday favourite Ballymac Ruso from the traps.
Ruso drifted into the middle before coming back at the bend, but brushed against Zafonic's backside and caused mayhem to himself and Farloe Reason, with their scrimmaging also baulking the wide runner Wise Thought - ironically all three affected were my remaining ante post bets!!
Meanwhile the trap 5 dog and 25/1 outsider on the day Kinda Ready (100s ante post) collided with Glenard Sunrise on trap rise but had the track craft to switch inside at the bend, avoiding the melee and giving chase to the leader though a good four lengths adrift.
In a barnstorming finish, the rank outsider ate up the ground on the run-in to get up right on the line in spine tingling fashion to land a first ever Derby for champion trainer Mark Wallis. What a brilliant race, almost as good as last years Irish Derby but for me that holds sway as I backed the winner that day lol.
The supporting card went rather better for me on Saturday though, as I landed the Derby Consolation Plate with Head ItOn Ellis. I saw this chap run a blinder earlier in the year when I was at Nottingham and he brought that form to the table at Wimbledon here to land a 20/1 outright bet (the 25/1 appeared after I had backed it typically lol). Have to say Ninja Jamie the favourite was a little unlucky in running - I also had him in my portfolio - but financially it was the better result as it stood.
Platinumlancelot also landed the Champion Hurdle as a 9/4 ante post punt, though as I had a couple of others too as safeguards, didnt make too much on that but the dog won in great style and certainly has exceptional pace for a jumper.
And to crown the night in style renowned stayer Vaticon Iona won the marathon by coming fast and late to mow down Go Amber Go in the finale for a great nights racing, theres really nothing I'd rather be doing than experiencing evenings like this even if I'm in my own living room at the time lol.
So overall I couldnt grumble even if taking the Derby as its own entity I lost a tidy sum - not helped by backing a non runner for £100 before the event even started!
I admittedly like to have a few strings to my bow in the ante post markets but it did me no good in the Scurry Cup Sprint event at Belle Vue as all my contenders have bowed out before the final, a bit of a rare event as usually at least one of my usual four or five sneak through.
But there was better news in the Cock O The North run at the same track with three picks reaching the final in Noelles Saka, Gabba Gabba Hey and Hurleys Hero. Sky will be covering both events conclusions in its programme on Tuesday.
Hall Green's Prestige Stakes is also underway and I go into the semi finals well represented at present whilst in the Irish St Leger semis I have three contenders in Timor Blue, Cabra Cool and Chicken Supper, though I remember that when the latter two were drawn in adjoining boxes in the Laurels final last year, they ruined each others chances so hoping the same doesnt happen this time.
It took the bookies a while to price up the Irish Oaks which looks extremely competitive and hence I think I have made a record number of picks with about eight running for me at this stage though all at fairly tasty odds so only needs one of them to win it for a nice profit.
When I was last with you my team Derbyshire had just scored back to back victories in the Twenty20 Cup but how things have changed since. Four successive losses have confirmed that those early results were somewhat of a flash in the pan and indeed things had changed so much that I actually backed Leicestershire to win last nights match at the County Ground, which they did at 13/10 despite scoring only 144.
The Phantoms' effort lacked any fluency at all with the bat and they fell 14 runs short in the end - perhaps I was lucky when I got the money at Grace Road by backing my home county in retrospect!!
In the outright market I'm faring reasonably well at present as Sussex and Lancashire head their groups, plus Yorkshire are also in a qualification place at the moment though Gloucestershire have bombed out in this tournament having performed very well in the Friends Provident previoualy.
In the World Twenty20 Cup I went in early with bets on Pakistan at 17/2, who have now drifted, and New Zealand at 11/1 who have contracted - I dont tend to watch international cricket as much as the county stuff so in a way they're educated guesses having looked back at the one day results for the last few months or so - at least these teams seem to have held their own against some of the better outfits during that time.
The Jiangsu Classic snooker is underway and now at the semi final stage. My picks were Mark Allen and Ryan Day both at 10/1 as they seemed to be in the weaker of the two groups and with the top two qualifying I wanted to be against Ding Junhui who hadn't impressed me at all of late.
However Ding has made it through despite an early loss to compatriot Li Hang. The home town favourite came back well after that setback and beat Ryan Day 2-0 in a shootout for a qualification place which means I am now only represented by Mark Allen who finished runner up in the section.
The other group saw Shaun Murphy at the head of affairs (he now plays Allen) with Marco Fu getting through too to meet Ding in the other semi.
Mark Selby didnt quite make it but nevertheless knocked in a 147 in the group stages so some consolation there.
In the gaelic games outrights Tipperary came through a stiff test with Cork to reach the semi finals of the Munster hurling championship and are now odds on (I'm on at 7/4) while in the football, Galway (evens) as I told you last week are in the semi finals of Connacht and Derry (11/2) likewise in Ulster after a fairly brutal match with Monaghan.
Finally I got around to contacting Betfair at long last to ask about why I had been banned from their forum and whether it was time to let bye-gones be bye-gones.
I quoted 1/2 to a betting buddy that I wouldnt be given the time of day and so it proved, they wouldnt say why I had been banned but just issued a terse semi-automated response that I wasnt getting back any time soon.
Yes I mentioned the word purple a few times but I would dispute that warrants a lifetime ban personally, whatever I have said away from their forum!
I emailed them back telling them they hadnt explained why I was originally banned but all they sent back was a customer service survey, to which I gave them 1 for their answer to my original question and 2 for how highly would you recommend Betfair to a friend, both out of 10, arent I a generous chap lol.
If you're a straight up football or horse player, get down the Daq is my advice - I'm still catching up the form for the gee gees but I'm determined to pump some money purple's way in the near future through these avenues - I'm not talking astronomical amounts but every little helps I'm sure.
And yes you may have to wait a little while longer to get a repsonse on the Daq forum but the clientele tends to be a little more polite than some others in the main and if you're struggling for patience you can always join a clique and synchronize watches, that'll do the trick I'm sure.
Catch you later - not on the Betfair forum though lol
All the best
Rick
Friday, 29 May 2009
Phantoms frightening the opposition
Still in the middle of a hectic sport-watching schedule this week with the Twenty20 county cricket campaign now just getting into full swing and amazingly enough Derbyshire my local team for once getting off to a flyer with back to back wins, why didnt I take that 50/1 outright beforehand!
At least I partook in some of the 5/6 to beat Leicestershire yesterday which was never really in doubt from an early stage and the trip up to Durham before that was a very pleasant one too with the Phantoms again making short work of the pre tournament favourites no less.
Notts come to the County Ground tonight and that usually attracts the biggest crowd of the campaign so will be setting off early for that one and then Yorkshire are up at our secondary ground Chesterfield on Sunday which should also attract a healthy gathering.
The weather has certainly perked up too at just the right time and it was blisteringly hot down in Ruislip on Sunday when a bumper crowd gathered to see London (or Londain as it is in gaelic) put up a creditable show against the much more illustrious Galway in the first round of the Connacht Championship, though a late penalty concession rather put a spoke in the final scoreline with an eleven point loss.
The hurlers scored a comfortable win on Saturday over Fermanagh in front of a much more modest turn-out.
The highlight of the weekend was probably the Here and Now Show at Wembley Arena though, the last stop off for this particular line-up and it really was a great night. Howard Jones came across particularly well reeling off most of his repertoire of hits and surprisingly Altered Images and Clare Grogan who I never really took to back in the 80s sounded quite refereshing too, not to mention the old favourite Kid Creole too (though still no Bongo Eddie as the house band held sway). A much better show than the Christmas Party I attended when there was just a truncated line-up doing a few songs each.
Should also give a mention to old-stagers 10cc who I also saw a couple of weeks ago, led by only original member Graham Goulding nowadays though still with a couple of other band members who have been with them for some time and this also was a cracking nights entertainment for a very reasonable entry fee, great value for money.
On to the greyhounds and last weekend saw the final of the Ladbrokes 600 in Shelbourne Park and although I scooped the each way part of the bet with 20/1 shot Dundrum Minor finishing fourth, College Causeway my main selection found trouble in running and failed to catch Accordello on the run in, the latter holding on by a length. Ironically it was my old favourite Jemmy Doodlebeag, who I was hoping would do me a favour by holding up the eventual winner, who cut my selection off at the bend so perhaps serves me right for having such devious thoughts lol.
Elsewhere the Scurry Cup, Cock o The North and Irish St Leger are all underway but all eyes will be on Wimbledon on Saturday night for the final of the Derby.
I have three in the final, Ballymac Ruso and Wise Thought who are vying for favouritism along with the perhaps not so well drawn Farloe Reason. If Ruso can get clear as he has been doing in the last two rounds he should win but he may have to battle for the lead with the three other fast starting railers so in these circumstances perhaps the wide seed Wise Thought can skip around the outside to glory. Fear Zafonic the original ante post favourite has drawn his preferred box in one but even on his best form in this perhaps needs to improve a little, as with any dog here though if he gets a lead to the bend he would be a big player.
In the consolation plate, Ninja Jamie seemingly holds all the aces and ought to have too much pace for the opposition which includes my other bigger priced selection Head ItOn Ellis while the Champion Hurdle looks very open and I'm rooting for Platinumlancelot, The Other Outlaw or Freedom Man.
Finally the snooker also refuses to take a back seat and the invitational Jiangsu Classic starts in China on Wednesday with Ding Junhui attempting to defend his crown in his birthplace of Wuxi City though I've not really had a proper look at it yet.
All the best for now
Rick
At least I partook in some of the 5/6 to beat Leicestershire yesterday which was never really in doubt from an early stage and the trip up to Durham before that was a very pleasant one too with the Phantoms again making short work of the pre tournament favourites no less.
Notts come to the County Ground tonight and that usually attracts the biggest crowd of the campaign so will be setting off early for that one and then Yorkshire are up at our secondary ground Chesterfield on Sunday which should also attract a healthy gathering.
The weather has certainly perked up too at just the right time and it was blisteringly hot down in Ruislip on Sunday when a bumper crowd gathered to see London (or Londain as it is in gaelic) put up a creditable show against the much more illustrious Galway in the first round of the Connacht Championship, though a late penalty concession rather put a spoke in the final scoreline with an eleven point loss.
The hurlers scored a comfortable win on Saturday over Fermanagh in front of a much more modest turn-out.
The highlight of the weekend was probably the Here and Now Show at Wembley Arena though, the last stop off for this particular line-up and it really was a great night. Howard Jones came across particularly well reeling off most of his repertoire of hits and surprisingly Altered Images and Clare Grogan who I never really took to back in the 80s sounded quite refereshing too, not to mention the old favourite Kid Creole too (though still no Bongo Eddie as the house band held sway). A much better show than the Christmas Party I attended when there was just a truncated line-up doing a few songs each.
Should also give a mention to old-stagers 10cc who I also saw a couple of weeks ago, led by only original member Graham Goulding nowadays though still with a couple of other band members who have been with them for some time and this also was a cracking nights entertainment for a very reasonable entry fee, great value for money.
On to the greyhounds and last weekend saw the final of the Ladbrokes 600 in Shelbourne Park and although I scooped the each way part of the bet with 20/1 shot Dundrum Minor finishing fourth, College Causeway my main selection found trouble in running and failed to catch Accordello on the run in, the latter holding on by a length. Ironically it was my old favourite Jemmy Doodlebeag, who I was hoping would do me a favour by holding up the eventual winner, who cut my selection off at the bend so perhaps serves me right for having such devious thoughts lol.
Elsewhere the Scurry Cup, Cock o The North and Irish St Leger are all underway but all eyes will be on Wimbledon on Saturday night for the final of the Derby.
I have three in the final, Ballymac Ruso and Wise Thought who are vying for favouritism along with the perhaps not so well drawn Farloe Reason. If Ruso can get clear as he has been doing in the last two rounds he should win but he may have to battle for the lead with the three other fast starting railers so in these circumstances perhaps the wide seed Wise Thought can skip around the outside to glory. Fear Zafonic the original ante post favourite has drawn his preferred box in one but even on his best form in this perhaps needs to improve a little, as with any dog here though if he gets a lead to the bend he would be a big player.
In the consolation plate, Ninja Jamie seemingly holds all the aces and ought to have too much pace for the opposition which includes my other bigger priced selection Head ItOn Ellis while the Champion Hurdle looks very open and I'm rooting for Platinumlancelot, The Other Outlaw or Freedom Man.
Finally the snooker also refuses to take a back seat and the invitational Jiangsu Classic starts in China on Wednesday with Ding Junhui attempting to defend his crown in his birthplace of Wuxi City though I've not really had a proper look at it yet.
All the best for now
Rick
Friday, 22 May 2009
Only the odd aubergine this week...
As you may know I'm continuing my ongoing push to try and catch up with the horse racing form whilst keeping my eyes on every other sport imaginable but that conversely means that I never quite seem to manage it!
The closest I got was a week and a half behind last October but then the snooker season intervened and I'm now a couple of months off the pace again and attempting to wade through my backlog of Racing Posts - ever the professional!
It does have some benefits though as I still get to read the musings of the late great Sir Clement Freud (who sadly passed away in April at the age of 85) for a while yet - I liked the bit about his Cheltenham selections being stuffed like aubergines (though wish they had won for him) and Prestbury Park being such a great place to be, that is unless you held the slightest desire to remain solvent.
I remember him telling a story about a stand up show he did on one of his tours and at the end, apologetically in his usual deadpan style, he asked for the owner of a car of a certain number plate to stay behind afterwards and exchange insurance details as he had accidentally reversed into it in the venue's car park, the crowd thought this was a great encore and heady laughter rang down the aisles until he re-inforced that it was actually true and he was really inviting an offer for that person to step forward after the show!!
David Ashforth also tells us he's off to America (he's probably there now!!) and gives us his life story of how he got where he is today.
Thought I maybe ought to reveal a bit more of myself in that respect here, no not by unveiling my torso or putting up a mugshot which all the Racing Post journalists seem quite partial to - think I'd like to remain incognito just in case the selections didnt win myself, but its probably company policy or something like that.
I remember in my days as a nipper hating football with a vengeance until all of a sudden I decided I quite liked it and started playing at about the age of seven - a late developer compared with most - though a promising clogging career was cut short when I sold a backpass short in a school match resulting in the decisive losing goal and was never picked again. I tell a lie, I was a sub in the next match but the fact there was one sub too many on the bench that day perhaps should have told me I shouldnt really have been there and there was a miscommunication lol. What an unforgiving lot they were!!
I also propped up the school cricket team in the lower order and occasionally bowled too which was as well as our opening two batsmen seemed to play as if it was a test match and we often seemed to end up with no wickets down yet only having scored about four an over. I think I was a bit of an all or nowt bowler, mainly leg spin, on the right wicket I could skittle almost an entire team but on some of the smaller grounds I was despatched over the ropes to such an extent that the crowd ought to have had danger money.
As a batsman I accidentally devised a great way of getting rid of any short leg fielder as one particular unfortunate in that position had just got up from his crouching-down position when I missed a ball to the wicket-keeper and I decided to practice the shot again (I'd seen them do this on the TV), however he bobbed up just at the wrong time and I connected with my thick wooden bat right across his rather less thick head, hopefully no long term damage was done!
As I got bigger the weight of my bats tended to increase too but not in proportion unfortunately - I think I'd been watching too much of Beefy Botham at the time - and eventually my form deserted me mainly due to the fact that I could hardly lift the bat up off the floor before the ball had whizzed by straight on to middle stump!
My first betting interests came at around junior school stage, I think my first ever bet was in the Lincoln Handicap from memory - an each way which got placed - my grandma used to take the bets up to the bookies for me - and from that moment on I was hooked. I certainly remember backing Mon Fils, the 1973 2000 Guineas winner at 50/1 and my eyes boggled at the amount of money I got back from a piddling stake as it was in those days. I'm not sure the bookie in question was too keen on what were mostly akin to a shopping list of horses names, perhaps a penny on each one, but at least I didnt have to face the music. He apparently complained about it to my gran every weekend as she appeared through the door with something akin to a medieval scroll.
I also used to run my own snail racing cards in the back garden in a purpose made cardboard box, lovingly sticking miniature numbers on their backs with sellotape and then sprinkling them with water to get them to show an interest before placing them on the track. A full betting market was formed beforehand, all the form was published and remember one or two deluded friends used to come round to experience these big events too! My parents put a stop to these when one day the rebellious molluscs found an escape route from my disintegrating sodden box after a rainstorm and our rather leafy garden quickly became an unleafy one as the following weeks progressed.
I was almost exclusively a horse player until fairly recently when the fixture list seemed to be spiralling out of control and due to extra travelling with the amalgamation of working departments to an outlying area plus longer hours, I had far less time on my hands.
So I switched to sports betting and immediately seemed to hit a rich vein on the snooker especially, I think it helps having an insight into the game as I have played at an amateur level for many years and in my day have beaten such luminaries as one time World Championship runner up Nigel Bond no less (though modesty prevents me from mentioning it usually).
With new technology coming in and redundancies in the offing, it didnt take a rocket scientist to realise our typesetting department (for a branch of newspapers) was soon for the chop so I thought I'd try a few other sports and see how I got on with those in preparation for giving the betting a prominent role once the axe fell on the real job.
This also brought me around to the gaelic football which I always loved watching on World of Sport as a young un - they mainly showed it when all other sports were washed out - and now the dogs which I always felt a bit of a lottery but by playing the ante post markets you can still get some nice prices and hopefully have your picks progress through the various competition heats to the finals.
I've also tried some others - the rugby league has been aborted as I never really understood the tactical side of the game though reckon I would be better placed nowadays to profit, the ice hockey which I havent cracked as yet but am still working on it, aussie rules - this has been going OK this year and is a close relation of the gaelic football of course; and also the cricket which I'm pretty even on overall. Oh and also hurling of course, another gaelic game but not so far as successful for me as that variety of football. Plus the odd dabble for or against my own team Derby County when an opportunity beckons, its got to be some kind of advantage to see a team week in week out when the bookies are pricing up from afar.
Anyway with that in mind this weekend I'm off down to Ruislip to watch London's gaelic games teams in action - the hurling team who have been doing quite well at a moderate level take on Fermanagh in the Ulster Championship on Saturday afternoon whereas on Sunday a much bigger crowd will be in attendance to witness the gaelic football team up against Galway in the Connacht Championship. As you can tell from the differing geographical sections I think they just put London in where it fitted the numbers best!
To my delight I then noticed theres a Here and Now Party at nearby Wembley Arena on Saturday night so quickly snapped up a ticket for that and a great weekend is in the offing hopefully. Had originally been thinking of going down to Wimbledon that evening to see the semi finals of the Greyhound Derby as I still have some interest in that but couldnt pass up the chance to see Kid Creole (or for that matter The Coconuts) one more time so will be relying on Sky+ now for the dogs.
That said was thinking about calling in at Coventry greyhounds on the way back as an alternative but will see how I feel on the journey back as I don't want that backlog of Racing Posts to get too high!
Plus Tuesday sees the start of the Twenty20 campaign for Derbyshire's cricket team (who are priced up as 50/1 rank outsiders) and I'm off up to the Riverside with a few friends to see them take on the tournament favourites Durham and then back down to Grace Road, Leicestershire on Thursday.
Its not been the busiest betting week but after some deliberating I stuck with World Series Grand Finale winner in Portugal Shaun Murphy to double up in Killarney in the first leg of this series Tour and he obliged at 13/8.
It always looked a case of either him or Higgins once again but with the fallout of the World final maybe affecting the winner more than the runner up, I felt Murphy was the one to plump for at similar prices. Ken Doherty was a possible in his home country but you had to forgive him some very poor form and a stark lack of match practice in recent months so soon dispensed with that idea.
It turned out quite a decent earner as I also backed the Irish No 1 ranked youngster Jason Devaney to get top break of the wildcards at 13/8 which he did with a 55 (the next highest was only 29) and also got 11/10 Jimmy White to beat Ken in the semi and 2/5 Murphy to defeat White in the final (some were going as low as 1/7 for that scenario).
Had a bit of a stock-take on the snooker betting after the World Championships as the season as a whole didnt really go to plan - most of the profits were made from one big priced outright winner - and hopefully I've pinpointed a few areas of improvement from hereon in on the baize, perhaps I'd gotten a little complacent after doing so well on it from an early stage.
You may remember I had a bit of an inquest initially in mid season but didnt have the time to go into such depth and hopefully that has been addressed now.
On the dogs, Faypoint Man (an ante post pick at 6/1) landed the Oran Majestic Classic at Shelbourne last Saturday winning from one of my other selections Skywalker Queen in second place. And in the Ladbrokes 600, College Causeway, Dundrum Minor and Mid West Blue all made it through to this weekend's final though a big danger to all is Accordello, who did a flying time in the semi final from the front.
Perhaps an old favourite Jemmy Doodlebeag may help me out this time around by leading that one up in the early stages as otherwise he would be a very tough nut to crack if he sees daylight ahead of him.
The pessimistic view of my Derby picks wasn't entirely vindicated thankfully or at least not just yet as I still have three at the semi final stage. Ballymac Ruso and Wise Thought go in the first heat along with the one time ante post favourite Fear Zafonic (now narrowly deposed) and I also have Farloe Reason in the other heat.
Just hoping they can get through to the final at this stage though would probably settle for two of them making it. Have already lost about four or five contenders along the way of course so won't be making any astronomical sums out of it whatever and could be a fair reversal if it doesnt go my way (the withdrawal of Thurlesberg Joker without running didnt do me any favours).
Catch you later
Rick
The closest I got was a week and a half behind last October but then the snooker season intervened and I'm now a couple of months off the pace again and attempting to wade through my backlog of Racing Posts - ever the professional!
It does have some benefits though as I still get to read the musings of the late great Sir Clement Freud (who sadly passed away in April at the age of 85) for a while yet - I liked the bit about his Cheltenham selections being stuffed like aubergines (though wish they had won for him) and Prestbury Park being such a great place to be, that is unless you held the slightest desire to remain solvent.
I remember him telling a story about a stand up show he did on one of his tours and at the end, apologetically in his usual deadpan style, he asked for the owner of a car of a certain number plate to stay behind afterwards and exchange insurance details as he had accidentally reversed into it in the venue's car park, the crowd thought this was a great encore and heady laughter rang down the aisles until he re-inforced that it was actually true and he was really inviting an offer for that person to step forward after the show!!
David Ashforth also tells us he's off to America (he's probably there now!!) and gives us his life story of how he got where he is today.
Thought I maybe ought to reveal a bit more of myself in that respect here, no not by unveiling my torso or putting up a mugshot which all the Racing Post journalists seem quite partial to - think I'd like to remain incognito just in case the selections didnt win myself, but its probably company policy or something like that.
I remember in my days as a nipper hating football with a vengeance until all of a sudden I decided I quite liked it and started playing at about the age of seven - a late developer compared with most - though a promising clogging career was cut short when I sold a backpass short in a school match resulting in the decisive losing goal and was never picked again. I tell a lie, I was a sub in the next match but the fact there was one sub too many on the bench that day perhaps should have told me I shouldnt really have been there and there was a miscommunication lol. What an unforgiving lot they were!!
I also propped up the school cricket team in the lower order and occasionally bowled too which was as well as our opening two batsmen seemed to play as if it was a test match and we often seemed to end up with no wickets down yet only having scored about four an over. I think I was a bit of an all or nowt bowler, mainly leg spin, on the right wicket I could skittle almost an entire team but on some of the smaller grounds I was despatched over the ropes to such an extent that the crowd ought to have had danger money.
As a batsman I accidentally devised a great way of getting rid of any short leg fielder as one particular unfortunate in that position had just got up from his crouching-down position when I missed a ball to the wicket-keeper and I decided to practice the shot again (I'd seen them do this on the TV), however he bobbed up just at the wrong time and I connected with my thick wooden bat right across his rather less thick head, hopefully no long term damage was done!
As I got bigger the weight of my bats tended to increase too but not in proportion unfortunately - I think I'd been watching too much of Beefy Botham at the time - and eventually my form deserted me mainly due to the fact that I could hardly lift the bat up off the floor before the ball had whizzed by straight on to middle stump!
My first betting interests came at around junior school stage, I think my first ever bet was in the Lincoln Handicap from memory - an each way which got placed - my grandma used to take the bets up to the bookies for me - and from that moment on I was hooked. I certainly remember backing Mon Fils, the 1973 2000 Guineas winner at 50/1 and my eyes boggled at the amount of money I got back from a piddling stake as it was in those days. I'm not sure the bookie in question was too keen on what were mostly akin to a shopping list of horses names, perhaps a penny on each one, but at least I didnt have to face the music. He apparently complained about it to my gran every weekend as she appeared through the door with something akin to a medieval scroll.
I also used to run my own snail racing cards in the back garden in a purpose made cardboard box, lovingly sticking miniature numbers on their backs with sellotape and then sprinkling them with water to get them to show an interest before placing them on the track. A full betting market was formed beforehand, all the form was published and remember one or two deluded friends used to come round to experience these big events too! My parents put a stop to these when one day the rebellious molluscs found an escape route from my disintegrating sodden box after a rainstorm and our rather leafy garden quickly became an unleafy one as the following weeks progressed.
I was almost exclusively a horse player until fairly recently when the fixture list seemed to be spiralling out of control and due to extra travelling with the amalgamation of working departments to an outlying area plus longer hours, I had far less time on my hands.
So I switched to sports betting and immediately seemed to hit a rich vein on the snooker especially, I think it helps having an insight into the game as I have played at an amateur level for many years and in my day have beaten such luminaries as one time World Championship runner up Nigel Bond no less (though modesty prevents me from mentioning it usually).
With new technology coming in and redundancies in the offing, it didnt take a rocket scientist to realise our typesetting department (for a branch of newspapers) was soon for the chop so I thought I'd try a few other sports and see how I got on with those in preparation for giving the betting a prominent role once the axe fell on the real job.
This also brought me around to the gaelic football which I always loved watching on World of Sport as a young un - they mainly showed it when all other sports were washed out - and now the dogs which I always felt a bit of a lottery but by playing the ante post markets you can still get some nice prices and hopefully have your picks progress through the various competition heats to the finals.
I've also tried some others - the rugby league has been aborted as I never really understood the tactical side of the game though reckon I would be better placed nowadays to profit, the ice hockey which I havent cracked as yet but am still working on it, aussie rules - this has been going OK this year and is a close relation of the gaelic football of course; and also the cricket which I'm pretty even on overall. Oh and also hurling of course, another gaelic game but not so far as successful for me as that variety of football. Plus the odd dabble for or against my own team Derby County when an opportunity beckons, its got to be some kind of advantage to see a team week in week out when the bookies are pricing up from afar.
Anyway with that in mind this weekend I'm off down to Ruislip to watch London's gaelic games teams in action - the hurling team who have been doing quite well at a moderate level take on Fermanagh in the Ulster Championship on Saturday afternoon whereas on Sunday a much bigger crowd will be in attendance to witness the gaelic football team up against Galway in the Connacht Championship. As you can tell from the differing geographical sections I think they just put London in where it fitted the numbers best!
To my delight I then noticed theres a Here and Now Party at nearby Wembley Arena on Saturday night so quickly snapped up a ticket for that and a great weekend is in the offing hopefully. Had originally been thinking of going down to Wimbledon that evening to see the semi finals of the Greyhound Derby as I still have some interest in that but couldnt pass up the chance to see Kid Creole (or for that matter The Coconuts) one more time so will be relying on Sky+ now for the dogs.
That said was thinking about calling in at Coventry greyhounds on the way back as an alternative but will see how I feel on the journey back as I don't want that backlog of Racing Posts to get too high!
Plus Tuesday sees the start of the Twenty20 campaign for Derbyshire's cricket team (who are priced up as 50/1 rank outsiders) and I'm off up to the Riverside with a few friends to see them take on the tournament favourites Durham and then back down to Grace Road, Leicestershire on Thursday.
Its not been the busiest betting week but after some deliberating I stuck with World Series Grand Finale winner in Portugal Shaun Murphy to double up in Killarney in the first leg of this series Tour and he obliged at 13/8.
It always looked a case of either him or Higgins once again but with the fallout of the World final maybe affecting the winner more than the runner up, I felt Murphy was the one to plump for at similar prices. Ken Doherty was a possible in his home country but you had to forgive him some very poor form and a stark lack of match practice in recent months so soon dispensed with that idea.
It turned out quite a decent earner as I also backed the Irish No 1 ranked youngster Jason Devaney to get top break of the wildcards at 13/8 which he did with a 55 (the next highest was only 29) and also got 11/10 Jimmy White to beat Ken in the semi and 2/5 Murphy to defeat White in the final (some were going as low as 1/7 for that scenario).
Had a bit of a stock-take on the snooker betting after the World Championships as the season as a whole didnt really go to plan - most of the profits were made from one big priced outright winner - and hopefully I've pinpointed a few areas of improvement from hereon in on the baize, perhaps I'd gotten a little complacent after doing so well on it from an early stage.
You may remember I had a bit of an inquest initially in mid season but didnt have the time to go into such depth and hopefully that has been addressed now.
On the dogs, Faypoint Man (an ante post pick at 6/1) landed the Oran Majestic Classic at Shelbourne last Saturday winning from one of my other selections Skywalker Queen in second place. And in the Ladbrokes 600, College Causeway, Dundrum Minor and Mid West Blue all made it through to this weekend's final though a big danger to all is Accordello, who did a flying time in the semi final from the front.
Perhaps an old favourite Jemmy Doodlebeag may help me out this time around by leading that one up in the early stages as otherwise he would be a very tough nut to crack if he sees daylight ahead of him.
The pessimistic view of my Derby picks wasn't entirely vindicated thankfully or at least not just yet as I still have three at the semi final stage. Ballymac Ruso and Wise Thought go in the first heat along with the one time ante post favourite Fear Zafonic (now narrowly deposed) and I also have Farloe Reason in the other heat.
Just hoping they can get through to the final at this stage though would probably settle for two of them making it. Have already lost about four or five contenders along the way of course so won't be making any astronomical sums out of it whatever and could be a fair reversal if it doesnt go my way (the withdrawal of Thurlesberg Joker without running didnt do me any favours).
Catch you later
Rick
Friday, 15 May 2009
Boston fightback fails in overtime
It was certainly a late one last night as I stayed up to watch the Stanley Cup quarter final (or Eastern Conference semi final if you prefer!) deciding game between Boston and Carolina which didnt finish until something like 4.30am.
If you remember I'd backed the Bruins at 33/1 each way so another couple of series wins would pay the place part of the bet though I had tbh written them off somewhat when they went 3-1 down.
A couple of wins later though and optimism was renewed at 3-3 though it was always going to be a tough decider as the Hurricanes were not backing down and so it proved, going all the way to extra time before a rather soft rebound off netminder Tim Thomas left Scotty Walker to poach the winner for Carolina from close range.
It was unfortunate for Thomas who had been one of the stars of the season for Boston but also for me as my potential four figure winnings (had the ante post been landed) likewise disappeared into the abyss.
That said, I didnt really feel they looked like potential champions here with their attacking play perhaps lacking a bit of real top quality, too many pucks being fired rather predictably straight at the solid Cam Ward. Boston had looked very good around Christmas time building up a considerable buffer to land the Eastern Conference but perhaps peaked a couple of months too soon in retrospect.
Also looking back on the ice hockey betting for the season makes rather painful viewing and although I should really clip it from the roster, I have learned some lessons this time around and might give it a limited bash again next year depending on how the other sports are performing.
Russia did at least land the IIHF World Championship last Sunday to scoop my ante post bet of 9/4 with a 2-1 win over Canada but that event too recorded overall losses.
None of the World Pool Masters first round bets proved very auspicious either as Tony Drago disposed of an out of sorts Nils Feijen to scupper my double and then Fu Jian-Bo lost 8-7 in a decider to favourite Mikka Immonen. The event was eventually won by Brit Darren Appleton, a 9/1 outright shot, who defeated Holland's Nick Van Den Berg 8-4 in the final. There were perhaps luckily no prices available from the second round onwards as the compiler most likely had the weekend off thankfully!
Yet more woe came about when Mayo failed to overturn the -16 handicap deficit at New York in the gaelic football - in fact they trailed by four points to nil early doors - but despite eventually gaining an 11 pt lead at half time they eased off somewhat in the second period and the final margin was just 15. Hats off to the handicapper at Paddies, though he did later change it to -18 in line with most of the others!
It wasnt all doom and gloom though. The World Series of Snooker Grand Finale at Portugal turned in a profit, despite Graeme Dott losing 5-4 to Shaun Murphy in the semi finals when I'd backed him at 9/1 in the outright. I still plundered a few quid by supporting Higgins to beat Maguire at 5/6 in the semi (he won 5-3) and having seen that rather scrappy affair I also went in on Murphy to win the final at 11/10 which he did 6-2.
The new season of World Series starts just a week later in Killarney on Saturday with Murphy and Higgins again the main protagonists on paper though you wonder if they might have put their cues away for a week after a hectic schedule and also if Ken Doherty might have made an extra effort for this in his home country, though his recent form is hardly inspiring, losing to the 14-year-old whizz-kid Luca Brecel in Portugal last weekend.
The cricket bets also produced some dividends as I managed three out of three in the Friends Provident Trophy, Gloucestershire to beat Durham at 10/11, Sussex to do the same at 11/10 and Essex to defeat Glamorgan at 4/7 who all obliged.
Gloucestershire, a 33/1 outright pick, look set to qualify for the quarter finals as I speak, as they top their group with Yorkshire my other candidates vying for second place with Sussex at present.
Kent my Division 2 County Championship picks at 9/4 have also sprung to life in the last few weeks with an amazing win over Essex after being forced to follow-on and then making short work of Glamorgan to move into second place in the table with a game in hand.
I'll be having a look at the Twenty Twenty prices this week with that competition just around the corner, hopefully the weather will pick up as I have tickets for all Derbyshire's group games.
On the greyhound front, the majority of my remaining Derby picks made it through although I'm still far from confident in my portfolio there, I do think the Irish Derby at Shelbourne is a bit more of a fairer test for all types of dog as often the one in front at the first bend will go on to win at the Don if its a good un, which isnt really the type of race that tickles my fancy too much.
Speaking of Shelbourne, I have Faypoint Man at 7/1 and Skywalker Queen at 10/1 into the final of the Oran Majestic Classic and in the Ladbrokes 600, all my four made it into the semi finals though College Causeway and Dundrum Minor go head to head from adjoining stalls in one of them which isnt ideal, with my other contenders being Mid West Blue and Skywalker Night.
Finally, its ironic that betting was once considered one of the roots of all evil, yet perhaps now its becoming quite respectable when we see some of the supposed bastions of Parliament allegedly resorting to all kinds of skulduggery when compiling their expense forms. They're not the only ones of course, what with banks out for all they can get when you go a smidgeon overdrawn on one account for the odd day when they can see you have ample amounts in other ones which they themselves have recommended to you, parking fees springing up everywhere you care to look, insurance companies bumping up premiums until you show them you can get it cheaper elsewhere, speed traps designed to make money rather than the ultimate goal of safety, long hours for small wages, its all a bit depressing and cynical for me.
At least in our game its all upfront, you strike a bargain on the table and each side is happy before the off, no need for any shenanigans to try and increase your lot afterwards, hold on a minute though I'm forgetting Betfair and the premium charge arent I lol. I've honestly never heard anything quite so ridiculous as winning a string of straight bets and then being told to pay some of it back as you've won too much, I think that one still takes the biscuit! OK maybe traders are a different kettle of fish I'll concede.
Anyhow thats all for now, hope you didnt mind my Victor Meldrew moment there at the end (or has everyone forgotten who he is now lol!)
See you soon
Rick
If you remember I'd backed the Bruins at 33/1 each way so another couple of series wins would pay the place part of the bet though I had tbh written them off somewhat when they went 3-1 down.
A couple of wins later though and optimism was renewed at 3-3 though it was always going to be a tough decider as the Hurricanes were not backing down and so it proved, going all the way to extra time before a rather soft rebound off netminder Tim Thomas left Scotty Walker to poach the winner for Carolina from close range.
It was unfortunate for Thomas who had been one of the stars of the season for Boston but also for me as my potential four figure winnings (had the ante post been landed) likewise disappeared into the abyss.
That said, I didnt really feel they looked like potential champions here with their attacking play perhaps lacking a bit of real top quality, too many pucks being fired rather predictably straight at the solid Cam Ward. Boston had looked very good around Christmas time building up a considerable buffer to land the Eastern Conference but perhaps peaked a couple of months too soon in retrospect.
Also looking back on the ice hockey betting for the season makes rather painful viewing and although I should really clip it from the roster, I have learned some lessons this time around and might give it a limited bash again next year depending on how the other sports are performing.
Russia did at least land the IIHF World Championship last Sunday to scoop my ante post bet of 9/4 with a 2-1 win over Canada but that event too recorded overall losses.
None of the World Pool Masters first round bets proved very auspicious either as Tony Drago disposed of an out of sorts Nils Feijen to scupper my double and then Fu Jian-Bo lost 8-7 in a decider to favourite Mikka Immonen. The event was eventually won by Brit Darren Appleton, a 9/1 outright shot, who defeated Holland's Nick Van Den Berg 8-4 in the final. There were perhaps luckily no prices available from the second round onwards as the compiler most likely had the weekend off thankfully!
Yet more woe came about when Mayo failed to overturn the -16 handicap deficit at New York in the gaelic football - in fact they trailed by four points to nil early doors - but despite eventually gaining an 11 pt lead at half time they eased off somewhat in the second period and the final margin was just 15. Hats off to the handicapper at Paddies, though he did later change it to -18 in line with most of the others!
It wasnt all doom and gloom though. The World Series of Snooker Grand Finale at Portugal turned in a profit, despite Graeme Dott losing 5-4 to Shaun Murphy in the semi finals when I'd backed him at 9/1 in the outright. I still plundered a few quid by supporting Higgins to beat Maguire at 5/6 in the semi (he won 5-3) and having seen that rather scrappy affair I also went in on Murphy to win the final at 11/10 which he did 6-2.
The new season of World Series starts just a week later in Killarney on Saturday with Murphy and Higgins again the main protagonists on paper though you wonder if they might have put their cues away for a week after a hectic schedule and also if Ken Doherty might have made an extra effort for this in his home country, though his recent form is hardly inspiring, losing to the 14-year-old whizz-kid Luca Brecel in Portugal last weekend.
The cricket bets also produced some dividends as I managed three out of three in the Friends Provident Trophy, Gloucestershire to beat Durham at 10/11, Sussex to do the same at 11/10 and Essex to defeat Glamorgan at 4/7 who all obliged.
Gloucestershire, a 33/1 outright pick, look set to qualify for the quarter finals as I speak, as they top their group with Yorkshire my other candidates vying for second place with Sussex at present.
Kent my Division 2 County Championship picks at 9/4 have also sprung to life in the last few weeks with an amazing win over Essex after being forced to follow-on and then making short work of Glamorgan to move into second place in the table with a game in hand.
I'll be having a look at the Twenty Twenty prices this week with that competition just around the corner, hopefully the weather will pick up as I have tickets for all Derbyshire's group games.
On the greyhound front, the majority of my remaining Derby picks made it through although I'm still far from confident in my portfolio there, I do think the Irish Derby at Shelbourne is a bit more of a fairer test for all types of dog as often the one in front at the first bend will go on to win at the Don if its a good un, which isnt really the type of race that tickles my fancy too much.
Speaking of Shelbourne, I have Faypoint Man at 7/1 and Skywalker Queen at 10/1 into the final of the Oran Majestic Classic and in the Ladbrokes 600, all my four made it into the semi finals though College Causeway and Dundrum Minor go head to head from adjoining stalls in one of them which isnt ideal, with my other contenders being Mid West Blue and Skywalker Night.
Finally, its ironic that betting was once considered one of the roots of all evil, yet perhaps now its becoming quite respectable when we see some of the supposed bastions of Parliament allegedly resorting to all kinds of skulduggery when compiling their expense forms. They're not the only ones of course, what with banks out for all they can get when you go a smidgeon overdrawn on one account for the odd day when they can see you have ample amounts in other ones which they themselves have recommended to you, parking fees springing up everywhere you care to look, insurance companies bumping up premiums until you show them you can get it cheaper elsewhere, speed traps designed to make money rather than the ultimate goal of safety, long hours for small wages, its all a bit depressing and cynical for me.
At least in our game its all upfront, you strike a bargain on the table and each side is happy before the off, no need for any shenanigans to try and increase your lot afterwards, hold on a minute though I'm forgetting Betfair and the premium charge arent I lol. I've honestly never heard anything quite so ridiculous as winning a string of straight bets and then being told to pay some of it back as you've won too much, I think that one still takes the biscuit! OK maybe traders are a different kettle of fish I'll concede.
Anyhow thats all for now, hope you didnt mind my Victor Meldrew moment there at the end (or has everyone forgotten who he is now lol!)
See you soon
Rick
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Higgins defies age stats to lift World crown
I'm getting better at timekeeping, only a day late with this one, but still reckon its best to keep a regular posting date otherwise it will all get a bit willy nilly, am I rambling already lol.
The World Snooker Championship finished with a couple of winners for me having backed John Higgins to take both the match and the highest break of his final with Shaun Murphy and both obliged at the same price of 5/6. So although I actually finished a fair bit up on the match betting, I overstaked a bit on the outrights and also on some of the extra markets that crop up every World Championship so ended up slightly down overall.
Thats a bit disappointing as have usually done quite well in the flagship event betting wise in the past, but it was close as I reckon if Mark Selby had edged out John Higgins instead of the other way around, things could well have been different. Fair play to John though, a sterling effort of matchplay snooker all the way through and the oldest player to take the title since Joe Johnson over 20 years ago, which shows how competitive the modern era is with the conveyer belt of young and hungry players coming into the game.
It will be interesting to see if that trend continues with a few snooker clubs closing down in the last year or two, but would imagine that the bigger cities will still be thriving with plenty of talent.
Theres no rest for some of the participants in the Worlds as they go straight on to the World Series grand finale in Portugal which is now underway. My outright pick is Graeme Dott each way at 9s and he is in action against young whizzkid Luca Brecel, a 14-year-old from Belgium as I speak, the latter having already disposed of Jimmy White and Ken Doherty to get to the quarter final.
Also had a nice six-fold acca up in the league stages of this, all at shortish odds, but still paid a touch over 5/2 so off to a decent start anyhow though will probably keep bets to a minimum given the format and end of season feel.
Also had a nice winner in the Peterborough Puppy Derby last Tuesday on Sky when my ante-post pick Barnfield Rocky powered home from his rail draw to land the 14/1 odds and supplemented that one with Bandit Blue who I also backed on the night at evens in one of the supporting events on the sharp Midlands track where the start is so vital.
I wasn't totally happy with my early Greyhound Derby picks in the ante post market however and lost one of them last night when Tyror Hestor fluffed the start though Bandicoot Tipoki, Head Iton Ellis, Wise Thought and Farloe Reason all made it through. Tonight Jesters Nap and Ballymac Ruso make their bids to reach the next round too, have I really backed that many lol!!
The next round of the Ladbrokes 600 takes place tonight at Shelbourne with College Causeway the ante post favourite being my biggest outlay though I also have Dundrum Minor, Mid West Blue and Skywalker Night in this one, the latter two only just scraping through last time around though.
And also the Oran Majestic Classic semi finals are held on the same card with Faypoint Man, Tip and Tin and Skywalker Queen all in contention for me.
There was disappointment in horse racing's 1,000 guineas when my 8/1 ante post bet on Rainbow View (odds on on the day) didnt bear fruit as the filly seemed to dislike the firmer ground and could only stay on at one pace in fifth. Perhaps she'll need to wait for the rains or else step up in trip to be seen to best effect now.
It was nice to pick up a decent return on the aussie rules on Friday when Essendon Bombers surprised the Hawthorn Hawks at best odds of 9/2, I thought the visitors were being priced up on last seasons form there so had a nice sum of money on both the match odds and handicap and Brisbane added to the coffers by defeating Richmond at 4/5 this morning.
In the gaelic football tomorrow, the Connacht Championship starts and I've backed Mayo to reel in their -16 handicap at New York at 10/11, most of the more illustrious Irish teams have managed to overcome similar burdens in the past though of course the recession may mean the American minnows have a bigger pool of players to choose from. The lines have changed to -18 though in the last couple of days so hopefully the early bird has caught the worm!!
The ice hockey has never quite happened for me on the betting front but I'm continuing to work on it as I love to watch the games. The match betting is showing a loss on the current World Championships which come to a conclusion tomorrow with my outright picks Russia facing Canada in a repeat of last years final, so at least theres the chance of some compensation. The Canadians however will start favourites to avenge last years overtime defeat as they have generally looked the more impressive in this event with a few of the Russian stars missing in the NHL play offs this time around (which didnt seem likely at the time I struck the bet!!).
Also unlikely are the chances of my Stanley Cup outright bet on Boston Bruins being cashed in, as they now trail 3-1 to Carolina in a best of 7 series so have no room for error now and were generally outplayed in the latest match. Will also be taking a bit of a loss on the chin there in the series bet which I thought looked a decent wager at 8/15 but its certainly not looking too hot now!!
This years World Pool Masters, sponsored by Matchroom, got underway last night and although the outrights looked far too trappy, I had a few dabbles on the match bets.
Imran Majid beat Johnny Archer in the Mosconi Cup the last time they met so took the 7/4 about him only to see him bomb out 8-2 in the first round, though the first leg of my double Shane Van Boening won by a similar score against the young Korean girl Ram Cha, that rolls on to Nils Feijen beating Tony Drago tonight.
Also chanced the outsider Fu Jian-Bo at 15/8, now into 7/4 against Mikka Immonen.
All the best for now
Rick
The World Snooker Championship finished with a couple of winners for me having backed John Higgins to take both the match and the highest break of his final with Shaun Murphy and both obliged at the same price of 5/6. So although I actually finished a fair bit up on the match betting, I overstaked a bit on the outrights and also on some of the extra markets that crop up every World Championship so ended up slightly down overall.
Thats a bit disappointing as have usually done quite well in the flagship event betting wise in the past, but it was close as I reckon if Mark Selby had edged out John Higgins instead of the other way around, things could well have been different. Fair play to John though, a sterling effort of matchplay snooker all the way through and the oldest player to take the title since Joe Johnson over 20 years ago, which shows how competitive the modern era is with the conveyer belt of young and hungry players coming into the game.
It will be interesting to see if that trend continues with a few snooker clubs closing down in the last year or two, but would imagine that the bigger cities will still be thriving with plenty of talent.
Theres no rest for some of the participants in the Worlds as they go straight on to the World Series grand finale in Portugal which is now underway. My outright pick is Graeme Dott each way at 9s and he is in action against young whizzkid Luca Brecel, a 14-year-old from Belgium as I speak, the latter having already disposed of Jimmy White and Ken Doherty to get to the quarter final.
Also had a nice six-fold acca up in the league stages of this, all at shortish odds, but still paid a touch over 5/2 so off to a decent start anyhow though will probably keep bets to a minimum given the format and end of season feel.
Also had a nice winner in the Peterborough Puppy Derby last Tuesday on Sky when my ante-post pick Barnfield Rocky powered home from his rail draw to land the 14/1 odds and supplemented that one with Bandit Blue who I also backed on the night at evens in one of the supporting events on the sharp Midlands track where the start is so vital.
I wasn't totally happy with my early Greyhound Derby picks in the ante post market however and lost one of them last night when Tyror Hestor fluffed the start though Bandicoot Tipoki, Head Iton Ellis, Wise Thought and Farloe Reason all made it through. Tonight Jesters Nap and Ballymac Ruso make their bids to reach the next round too, have I really backed that many lol!!
The next round of the Ladbrokes 600 takes place tonight at Shelbourne with College Causeway the ante post favourite being my biggest outlay though I also have Dundrum Minor, Mid West Blue and Skywalker Night in this one, the latter two only just scraping through last time around though.
And also the Oran Majestic Classic semi finals are held on the same card with Faypoint Man, Tip and Tin and Skywalker Queen all in contention for me.
There was disappointment in horse racing's 1,000 guineas when my 8/1 ante post bet on Rainbow View (odds on on the day) didnt bear fruit as the filly seemed to dislike the firmer ground and could only stay on at one pace in fifth. Perhaps she'll need to wait for the rains or else step up in trip to be seen to best effect now.
It was nice to pick up a decent return on the aussie rules on Friday when Essendon Bombers surprised the Hawthorn Hawks at best odds of 9/2, I thought the visitors were being priced up on last seasons form there so had a nice sum of money on both the match odds and handicap and Brisbane added to the coffers by defeating Richmond at 4/5 this morning.
In the gaelic football tomorrow, the Connacht Championship starts and I've backed Mayo to reel in their -16 handicap at New York at 10/11, most of the more illustrious Irish teams have managed to overcome similar burdens in the past though of course the recession may mean the American minnows have a bigger pool of players to choose from. The lines have changed to -18 though in the last couple of days so hopefully the early bird has caught the worm!!
The ice hockey has never quite happened for me on the betting front but I'm continuing to work on it as I love to watch the games. The match betting is showing a loss on the current World Championships which come to a conclusion tomorrow with my outright picks Russia facing Canada in a repeat of last years final, so at least theres the chance of some compensation. The Canadians however will start favourites to avenge last years overtime defeat as they have generally looked the more impressive in this event with a few of the Russian stars missing in the NHL play offs this time around (which didnt seem likely at the time I struck the bet!!).
Also unlikely are the chances of my Stanley Cup outright bet on Boston Bruins being cashed in, as they now trail 3-1 to Carolina in a best of 7 series so have no room for error now and were generally outplayed in the latest match. Will also be taking a bit of a loss on the chin there in the series bet which I thought looked a decent wager at 8/15 but its certainly not looking too hot now!!
This years World Pool Masters, sponsored by Matchroom, got underway last night and although the outrights looked far too trappy, I had a few dabbles on the match bets.
Imran Majid beat Johnny Archer in the Mosconi Cup the last time they met so took the 7/4 about him only to see him bomb out 8-2 in the first round, though the first leg of my double Shane Van Boening won by a similar score against the young Korean girl Ram Cha, that rolls on to Nils Feijen beating Tony Drago tonight.
Also chanced the outsider Fu Jian-Bo at 15/8, now into 7/4 against Mikka Immonen.
All the best for now
Rick
Friday, 1 May 2009
Even the banks are against me!!
Hello, almost missed the Friday deadline again, had totally forgotten about the blog and then it suddenly came into my mind, might as well get it out of the way anyway, such enthusiasm!!
The World Snooker Championship betting hasnt been the greatest. I've eventually gone into profit on the match betting despite a pretty disastrous start but the outright and sundry bets I've had like player with highest tournament break, number of qualifers progressing, best qualifier, etc have all fallen flat on their face.
Coupled with that is the fact that when lumping on Shaun Murphy to defeat Stephen Hendry in the second round I accidentally went overdrawn on that particular account and incurred a three figure charge due to a couple of other transactions going through on the same day. At least I managed to get it reduced by half after ringing them up and putting on my Mr Angry voice but could have done with being a bit angrier I think!!
Its not out of the question that I could finish almost level but wouldnt be able to afford another loser for sure and I currently have Shaun Murphy as my latest bet once again (this time from available funds!!) and he currently leads Neil Robertson 9-7 in his semi final. John Higgins looks to have wrapped up the other one with a healthy lead over Mark Allen though the odds looked a bit prohibitive beforehand in that one so didnt play.
Another World Championship currently taking place is the IIHF ice hockey event. My outright picks Russia were surely weakened somewhat when Washington Capitals overturned a 3-1 deficit in the NHL play offs to qualify for the next stage and thus deprive them of three of their prospective best players. So Canada have understandably since shortened in the market. Both look set to qualify for the quarter finals with some comfort though the Russian defence is causing some concern (beating Sweden 6-5 after overtime in their latest match).
The Czech Republic my other picks have lost their last two group matches so I think they are probably up against it, whilst they should still qualify in fourth place they are likely now to play one of the top teams in the quarter finals.
In the match betting I'm pretty even so far but have enjoyed watching the games I have seen and it should only get better from hereon in with the weaker teams now beginning to bite the dust (do they have dust on ice rinks?)
In the NHL play off series betting as I mentioned earlier the New York Rangers rather imploded against Washington from a strong position so my 2/1 bet which was looking good at one stage didnt pay off in the end, however Carolina (5/4) rescued their series with a last gasp win over New Jersey, scoring two goals in the last couple of minutes to overturn a deficit in the deciding game.
In the next round I'm siding with my outright Stanley Cup picks Boston Bruins to beat Carolina in the second round best of seven series at odds of 8/15.
In the Friends Provident Trophy cricket my two outright picks Yorkshire and Gloucester go head to head this weekend at Headingley having both won their opening two games so at least one of them will be in a strong position and hopefully the loser of that game can kick on afterwards and maybe join them in the next stages.
My final gaelic football outright hope of last weekend's league finals went the way of the two others when Derry lost by three points to Kerry, which meant I also lost the +3 handicap bet which was tied. I think they were a bit unlucky however tbh as they lost their most dangerous forward Paddy Bradley early in the game and the referee tended to be very generous with a few of the Kerry frees in my opinion (though of course it could be the money talking!!)
And finally on to the greyhound racing. Commisserations to connections of Capel Wilson first and foremost, winner of his eight previous races and one of my outright bets for the Regency at Hove, he unfortunately broke his hock and will be retired forthwith, though at least he has a loving home with the owner to go to.
I did however also have Lorrys Options in my portfolio and he boosted the coffers a little by winning at 5/1 (ante post).
I shall be concentrating from hereon in mainly on the ante post market as opposed to individual races in dog racing as I feel it suits by style better as I always prefer to take the bigger prices for slightly lesser stakes than the other way around.
In the Peterborough Puppy Derby, I got two through to the final out of five original contenders. The final is live on Sky on Tuesday night and I shall be rooting for either Barnfield Rocky from trap one at 14/1 or Droopys Alvaro from three at 25/1 in what looks a very open event.
The first heats of this year's Greyhound Derby at Wimbledon were held this evening. I added Jesters Nap to my roster today and he qualified in second place behind the ante post favourite Fear Zafonic while my other one in action Wise Thought also filled the runners up berth from a horrible draw behind Windy Millar.
The heats continue tomorrow night.
In Ireland the Oran Majestic Cup second round heats take place on Saturday. I lost Barefoot Bryan from my opening gambit of dogs last week when he crashed out after interference but my other ones made it through so still go in pretty mob handed for the next stage. Also the Ladbrokes 600s starts on the same evening with the charismatic College Causeway the star turn after diverting here from the English Derby which had been mooted as his original target. He looked just about worth a bet at 6/4 best price if only to glean a bit of excitement along the way given his late running style while others I give a shout to at the prices are Mid West Blue at 14s and a couple of each way candidates in Dundrum Minor at 20s and Skywalker Night at 40s.
The curtain came down on another snooker season when I lost my club billiards final in the week, thereby failing to record a tenth success in the event which I suppose would have been a bit of a landmark, even though only a handful usually enter. It is played on a handicap basis and I had to give up 70pts which proved too much to turnaround. In fact half way through I had hardly made any impression at all but did come with a late run to reduce it to 20-odd before my opponent got the winning score.
Overall though not a bad season as our team finished fourth in the league and I did reach a couple of other individual semi finals too.
All the best for now
Rick
The World Snooker Championship betting hasnt been the greatest. I've eventually gone into profit on the match betting despite a pretty disastrous start but the outright and sundry bets I've had like player with highest tournament break, number of qualifers progressing, best qualifier, etc have all fallen flat on their face.
Coupled with that is the fact that when lumping on Shaun Murphy to defeat Stephen Hendry in the second round I accidentally went overdrawn on that particular account and incurred a three figure charge due to a couple of other transactions going through on the same day. At least I managed to get it reduced by half after ringing them up and putting on my Mr Angry voice but could have done with being a bit angrier I think!!
Its not out of the question that I could finish almost level but wouldnt be able to afford another loser for sure and I currently have Shaun Murphy as my latest bet once again (this time from available funds!!) and he currently leads Neil Robertson 9-7 in his semi final. John Higgins looks to have wrapped up the other one with a healthy lead over Mark Allen though the odds looked a bit prohibitive beforehand in that one so didnt play.
Another World Championship currently taking place is the IIHF ice hockey event. My outright picks Russia were surely weakened somewhat when Washington Capitals overturned a 3-1 deficit in the NHL play offs to qualify for the next stage and thus deprive them of three of their prospective best players. So Canada have understandably since shortened in the market. Both look set to qualify for the quarter finals with some comfort though the Russian defence is causing some concern (beating Sweden 6-5 after overtime in their latest match).
The Czech Republic my other picks have lost their last two group matches so I think they are probably up against it, whilst they should still qualify in fourth place they are likely now to play one of the top teams in the quarter finals.
In the match betting I'm pretty even so far but have enjoyed watching the games I have seen and it should only get better from hereon in with the weaker teams now beginning to bite the dust (do they have dust on ice rinks?)
In the NHL play off series betting as I mentioned earlier the New York Rangers rather imploded against Washington from a strong position so my 2/1 bet which was looking good at one stage didnt pay off in the end, however Carolina (5/4) rescued their series with a last gasp win over New Jersey, scoring two goals in the last couple of minutes to overturn a deficit in the deciding game.
In the next round I'm siding with my outright Stanley Cup picks Boston Bruins to beat Carolina in the second round best of seven series at odds of 8/15.
In the Friends Provident Trophy cricket my two outright picks Yorkshire and Gloucester go head to head this weekend at Headingley having both won their opening two games so at least one of them will be in a strong position and hopefully the loser of that game can kick on afterwards and maybe join them in the next stages.
My final gaelic football outright hope of last weekend's league finals went the way of the two others when Derry lost by three points to Kerry, which meant I also lost the +3 handicap bet which was tied. I think they were a bit unlucky however tbh as they lost their most dangerous forward Paddy Bradley early in the game and the referee tended to be very generous with a few of the Kerry frees in my opinion (though of course it could be the money talking!!)
And finally on to the greyhound racing. Commisserations to connections of Capel Wilson first and foremost, winner of his eight previous races and one of my outright bets for the Regency at Hove, he unfortunately broke his hock and will be retired forthwith, though at least he has a loving home with the owner to go to.
I did however also have Lorrys Options in my portfolio and he boosted the coffers a little by winning at 5/1 (ante post).
I shall be concentrating from hereon in mainly on the ante post market as opposed to individual races in dog racing as I feel it suits by style better as I always prefer to take the bigger prices for slightly lesser stakes than the other way around.
In the Peterborough Puppy Derby, I got two through to the final out of five original contenders. The final is live on Sky on Tuesday night and I shall be rooting for either Barnfield Rocky from trap one at 14/1 or Droopys Alvaro from three at 25/1 in what looks a very open event.
The first heats of this year's Greyhound Derby at Wimbledon were held this evening. I added Jesters Nap to my roster today and he qualified in second place behind the ante post favourite Fear Zafonic while my other one in action Wise Thought also filled the runners up berth from a horrible draw behind Windy Millar.
The heats continue tomorrow night.
In Ireland the Oran Majestic Cup second round heats take place on Saturday. I lost Barefoot Bryan from my opening gambit of dogs last week when he crashed out after interference but my other ones made it through so still go in pretty mob handed for the next stage. Also the Ladbrokes 600s starts on the same evening with the charismatic College Causeway the star turn after diverting here from the English Derby which had been mooted as his original target. He looked just about worth a bet at 6/4 best price if only to glean a bit of excitement along the way given his late running style while others I give a shout to at the prices are Mid West Blue at 14s and a couple of each way candidates in Dundrum Minor at 20s and Skywalker Night at 40s.
The curtain came down on another snooker season when I lost my club billiards final in the week, thereby failing to record a tenth success in the event which I suppose would have been a bit of a landmark, even though only a handful usually enter. It is played on a handicap basis and I had to give up 70pts which proved too much to turnaround. In fact half way through I had hardly made any impression at all but did come with a late run to reduce it to 20-odd before my opponent got the winning score.
Overall though not a bad season as our team finished fourth in the league and I did reach a couple of other individual semi finals too.
All the best for now
Rick
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Hectic time as sporting interests converge
Another late one this week as there's a lot of concurrent betting interests taking place at the moment. The World Championships are taking place in both snooker and ice hockey (which also has the Stanley Cup play offs in play) while the greyhounds continue unabated and then theres the gaelic football league finals being played out as I speak this weekend, the cricket getting into full swing with the Friends Provident Trophy and the aussie rules ongoing.
Thats without even catching up with the horse racing!!
The snooker hasnt started particularly well in the first week with the bet on the number of qualifiers progressing soon looking a non starter as the seeds enjoyed the upper hand in round one - the only ones to fall being Peter Ebdon and Joe Perry, the latter of whom was one of the few favourites I had backed in a single lol.
At least the five-strong acca of Ronnie, Higgins, Carter, Maguire and Robertson came in without too much fuss and I'm hopeful the second round will produce a better showing. Already weighed in are the 6/4 Hendry against Ding in an epic battle as well as the short odds about Day beating Bond, I dont often play at that end of the market but in this instance it did look a bit of a gimme over the long distance and so it proved.
Still have Day and Selby each way in the outright too along with a win bet on Maguire so with Ronnie out of the way since his loss to Allen, hoping for a decent showing from that trio in this and would also help if the Jester or Mags could top the highest break which currently stands at 140.
In the ice hockey as I speak I've recorded last nights action in the NHL play offs and not yet seen it but of my charges, Boston Bruins cruised through 4-0 against Montreal in the first stage so the 33/1 e/w bet is still a runner though Philadelphia were trailing Pittsburgh 3-2 last night while my other picks Calgary had pulled back to 2-2 against Chicago (all best of sevens).
In the series betting I opposed the Flames however and stuck Chicago in a double with Boston so at least I'm in a position to cover and also had bets at odds against on New York Rangers to oust Washington at 2/1 (currently 3-2 up) and Carolina at 5/4 to beat New Jersey (currently 3-2 down).
The IIHF World Championships in Switzerland also started this week, and a big factor is always to identify which players are missing from the rosters due to the clash with the NHL play-offs. Also the teams who exit in the first round of those quite often let their players go on to join the original squads at the Worlds so its a bit of a complex operation as a punter. However considering all options I decided to weigh in with Russia at 9/4 to back up last years success with a back up bet on the Czech Republic at 13/2, both could benefit if a couple of teams currently trailing do bite the dust in the play offs. Will also be looking for a bit of value in the point spreads, as the early stages are often mismatches with the big guns in the main taking on the minnows at highly restrictive odds.
The Allianz League gaelic football finals are played out this weekend and already two of my finalists Antrim and Monaghan have bit the dust rather disappointingly, losing out to Sligo and Cork respectively. I had been pretty confident about the former team especially but it wasnt to be on the day. As I speak Derry are taking the field against hot favourites Kerry in a repeat of last years Division 1 final so will be very disappointing if all three fail at the final hurdle.
There was a bit of a glimmer as I backed Tipperary on the +3 handicap against Down in the Div 3 final and they actually won the match in extra time and have done a similar bet on Derry too.
Overall though slightly disappointing that my outright picks havent so far produced on the day, though it may help me get a few more quid on on the net as seem to have been heavily restricted with a few of the firms after a good run, which has meant a trip to the shops where they will happily lay you (admittedly with slightly quizzical looks as they dont get much call for the GAA in the middle of England it seems!!)
My latest outright bet is Galway each way for the All Ireland hurling title, if they avoid odds on favs Kilkenny until the provincial final (which is a 66% chance) they will be kept apart from that rival until the final of the main event so it looked worth a gamble at the best price of 12/1 as I feel they do have some room for improvement on their league showing.
For this years cricket I've plumped for Hampshire in Division 1 of the County Championship, they had a good start with an early win over Worcester but since then Marcus North has been recalled for Australia and it is certainly a blow to lose his services after he originally came in to replace injured overseas player Imran Tahir.
After some dithering I was maybe swayed by the Racing Post's tip for Kent at 9/4 in Division 2 though have since seen some of their fans airing concerns about the depth of the bowling attack so hope thats not another lame duck I've been talked into lol.
In the Friends Provident I plumped for Yorkshire at 14s and Gloucestershire at 33s before belatedly realising the groups were no longer regionalised and they were both contesting the same section, at least two go through however so all is not lost .... yet!!
Had a nice winner in the aussie rules this week when Essendon scored a last gasp win at just over 2/1 against Collingwood but Sydney were a bit of a letdown as they slumped to a loss at bottom placed Fremantle at 4/6 but still finished up on the week at least.
The greyhounds overall were a bit of a loss maker this week, my finalists in the Easter Cup at Shelbourne could only managed third and fifth so no payout there while the sole representative in the Golden Sprint at Romford also didnt trouble the judge.
There was better news with Blonde Fern landing the Blue Riband at Hall Green at 16/1 however.
Also Capel Wilson, Lorrys Options and Hill Tipoki all advanced to Tuesday's Regency final so have half the field gunning for me there while have a multiple interest in a couple of other events at present the Peterborough Puppy Derby and the Oran Majestic Cup, the latest big event at Shelbourne.
The first round of the greyhound derby heats take place next week at Wimbledon and not totally happy with some of my early picks, especially Thurlesberg Joker who as the connections muted (all too late for me) was unlikely to run (and doesnt!), but will watch the opening heats for more clues and take it from there.
Currently I have Slip The Lark (not quite regained last years form after a lay off) 40/1, Head ItOn Ellis (promising pup but not done it yet against the older generation) 66/1, Bandicoot Tipoki (another promising pup but has been missing the break a bit) 50/1, Tyrur Hestor (electric pace but stepping up from sprints) 50/1 and Wise Thought (just getting back into gear after a break, proven in this class) at 25/1. As if those arent enough!!
Also have to mention my football team Derby who despite a horrendous injury list secured their Championship status yesterday with a 1-0 home win over already relegated Charlton Athletic, well done Nigel and the lads!!
Anyway thats it for now, all the best
Rick
Thats without even catching up with the horse racing!!
The snooker hasnt started particularly well in the first week with the bet on the number of qualifiers progressing soon looking a non starter as the seeds enjoyed the upper hand in round one - the only ones to fall being Peter Ebdon and Joe Perry, the latter of whom was one of the few favourites I had backed in a single lol.
At least the five-strong acca of Ronnie, Higgins, Carter, Maguire and Robertson came in without too much fuss and I'm hopeful the second round will produce a better showing. Already weighed in are the 6/4 Hendry against Ding in an epic battle as well as the short odds about Day beating Bond, I dont often play at that end of the market but in this instance it did look a bit of a gimme over the long distance and so it proved.
Still have Day and Selby each way in the outright too along with a win bet on Maguire so with Ronnie out of the way since his loss to Allen, hoping for a decent showing from that trio in this and would also help if the Jester or Mags could top the highest break which currently stands at 140.
In the ice hockey as I speak I've recorded last nights action in the NHL play offs and not yet seen it but of my charges, Boston Bruins cruised through 4-0 against Montreal in the first stage so the 33/1 e/w bet is still a runner though Philadelphia were trailing Pittsburgh 3-2 last night while my other picks Calgary had pulled back to 2-2 against Chicago (all best of sevens).
In the series betting I opposed the Flames however and stuck Chicago in a double with Boston so at least I'm in a position to cover and also had bets at odds against on New York Rangers to oust Washington at 2/1 (currently 3-2 up) and Carolina at 5/4 to beat New Jersey (currently 3-2 down).
The IIHF World Championships in Switzerland also started this week, and a big factor is always to identify which players are missing from the rosters due to the clash with the NHL play-offs. Also the teams who exit in the first round of those quite often let their players go on to join the original squads at the Worlds so its a bit of a complex operation as a punter. However considering all options I decided to weigh in with Russia at 9/4 to back up last years success with a back up bet on the Czech Republic at 13/2, both could benefit if a couple of teams currently trailing do bite the dust in the play offs. Will also be looking for a bit of value in the point spreads, as the early stages are often mismatches with the big guns in the main taking on the minnows at highly restrictive odds.
The Allianz League gaelic football finals are played out this weekend and already two of my finalists Antrim and Monaghan have bit the dust rather disappointingly, losing out to Sligo and Cork respectively. I had been pretty confident about the former team especially but it wasnt to be on the day. As I speak Derry are taking the field against hot favourites Kerry in a repeat of last years Division 1 final so will be very disappointing if all three fail at the final hurdle.
There was a bit of a glimmer as I backed Tipperary on the +3 handicap against Down in the Div 3 final and they actually won the match in extra time and have done a similar bet on Derry too.
Overall though slightly disappointing that my outright picks havent so far produced on the day, though it may help me get a few more quid on on the net as seem to have been heavily restricted with a few of the firms after a good run, which has meant a trip to the shops where they will happily lay you (admittedly with slightly quizzical looks as they dont get much call for the GAA in the middle of England it seems!!)
My latest outright bet is Galway each way for the All Ireland hurling title, if they avoid odds on favs Kilkenny until the provincial final (which is a 66% chance) they will be kept apart from that rival until the final of the main event so it looked worth a gamble at the best price of 12/1 as I feel they do have some room for improvement on their league showing.
For this years cricket I've plumped for Hampshire in Division 1 of the County Championship, they had a good start with an early win over Worcester but since then Marcus North has been recalled for Australia and it is certainly a blow to lose his services after he originally came in to replace injured overseas player Imran Tahir.
After some dithering I was maybe swayed by the Racing Post's tip for Kent at 9/4 in Division 2 though have since seen some of their fans airing concerns about the depth of the bowling attack so hope thats not another lame duck I've been talked into lol.
In the Friends Provident I plumped for Yorkshire at 14s and Gloucestershire at 33s before belatedly realising the groups were no longer regionalised and they were both contesting the same section, at least two go through however so all is not lost .... yet!!
Had a nice winner in the aussie rules this week when Essendon scored a last gasp win at just over 2/1 against Collingwood but Sydney were a bit of a letdown as they slumped to a loss at bottom placed Fremantle at 4/6 but still finished up on the week at least.
The greyhounds overall were a bit of a loss maker this week, my finalists in the Easter Cup at Shelbourne could only managed third and fifth so no payout there while the sole representative in the Golden Sprint at Romford also didnt trouble the judge.
There was better news with Blonde Fern landing the Blue Riband at Hall Green at 16/1 however.
Also Capel Wilson, Lorrys Options and Hill Tipoki all advanced to Tuesday's Regency final so have half the field gunning for me there while have a multiple interest in a couple of other events at present the Peterborough Puppy Derby and the Oran Majestic Cup, the latest big event at Shelbourne.
The first round of the greyhound derby heats take place next week at Wimbledon and not totally happy with some of my early picks, especially Thurlesberg Joker who as the connections muted (all too late for me) was unlikely to run (and doesnt!), but will watch the opening heats for more clues and take it from there.
Currently I have Slip The Lark (not quite regained last years form after a lay off) 40/1, Head ItOn Ellis (promising pup but not done it yet against the older generation) 66/1, Bandicoot Tipoki (another promising pup but has been missing the break a bit) 50/1, Tyrur Hestor (electric pace but stepping up from sprints) 50/1 and Wise Thought (just getting back into gear after a break, proven in this class) at 25/1. As if those arent enough!!
Also have to mention my football team Derby who despite a horrendous injury list secured their Championship status yesterday with a 1-0 home win over already relegated Charlton Athletic, well done Nigel and the lads!!
Anyway thats it for now, all the best
Rick
Friday, 17 April 2009
Open look to snookers main event
Well its been a pretty busy week but best to get it all out of the way before the onset of the fortnight of the World Snooker Championships which get underway at Sheffield on Saturday.
It's one of those years where nobody has been totally convincing so you could say it has an open look to it but if Ronnie O Sullivan is anywhere near his best you'd think that might be good enough unless someone can hit their very best form for this particular fortnight.
Anyhow at odds of around 9/4 I'm leaving him alone this year as you could get 4/1 last time around with perhaps a slightly easier run overall.
In the Rocket's quarter most of the players are in the attacking vein which should suit him but Ryan Day ran him close a few seasons back here and I backed him e/w at 40/1 for this earlier in the season, and thankfully he did return to some kind of form in China when he reached the semi finals before losing to John Higgins. If he gets past the dogged Stephen Lee, he would probably face Peter Ebdon and despite the latter's shock success in the Far East, I would expect the Welshman to have too much for him on this occasion.
As ever I'm picking AT LEAST one from each quarter lol, though have played five in this one, once again perhaps overdoing it slightly stakes wise but the odds are on offer for a long time so perhaps understandable in the circumstances!!
The second quarter was another one where I went in early, this time on Mark Selby again e/w at 8/1 and was not particularly happy to see him come out of the hat against Ricky Walden, who has won a ranking event already in Shanghai I seem to recall for some reason!! Selby has mainly flattered to deceive this season so its time for him to put some meat on the bones if he's to salvage something from it - as one of the supposed elite players he perhaps should avoid getting too bogged down in some of his matches and take it to the opposition.
I was undecided for a long while about quarter three, so suppose this must have been the most difficult to pick from. Eventually came down on the side of Mark Williams at 33s, who has shown slight improvement this year to probably rejoin the top 16, but he then put in a disappointing show in China, losing to the hitherto out of form Mark King 5-2. So I changed tack and decided to wade in on Ding Junhui too despite him trading at 16s after being 22/1 only a few days earlier without picking up his cue in the meantime.
When he did pick up his cue he produced one of his worst performances of the year in a very disjointed loss to young wildcard Xaio Guodong, a century break in one of the early frames being his only saving grace. He now goes into the event with his top 16 place in jeapardy, and at the end of the day I'd give him two pieces of advice.
One is to try to get that twitch sorted in his eyelid, it must be distracting for a professional snooker player and I'd be doing my utmost to eradicate it at all cost - apologies to him if he has tried and failed but there is a nifty trick with some sellotape that can help - I know cos I've done it myself!! The second is that at the end of the day you have to play without thinking of the consequences, its no good playing under extreme pressure, if you dont relax you wont produce your best so stay calm at all times and concentrate on this first and foremost. Its not always easy but its also something I want to try and bring into my game next season after throwing away a few matches near the end purely by being so tensed up, and that's just in the local league!!
The final quarter is surely set up for Stephen Maguire, who however has rarely shown his best form this term, which is a worry but does mean he is fairly fresh. He needs to click into gear but the draw gives him every chance of doing so up against the likes of his practice partner Jamie Burnett and the winner of Mark King and Rory McLeod.
In the match betting, I've plumped for outsiders Gould, Higginson, Walden, Hendry and McLeod at the odds available and also taken Perry and Ding (again before his China loss) to oust potting machines Cope and Wenbo.
One of the best value bets seem to be the McLeod highest break against King which is currently trading at 11/8. He's had at least nine centuries this season to King's one (in fact some quote him as having scored eleven though cant see where the other two are coming from myself!) and even if the Crucible nerves get to him he has plenty of time to get used to the surroundings over the long matches here.
Also took the earlier 6/1 about there being six or seven first round qualifiers progressing to round two, this has obliged in three of the last five years - as a safeguard I've had a saver on four or five too at 13/8 - according to published stats in the Racing Post there has never been less than four make it through in the last twelve years so hopefully there will be no damage done and the prospect of a big payout.
Some rather more speculative bets were in the "qualifier to go the furthest" and "tournament top break" markets, in the former I'm siding with Lee, Walden, Higginson and Greene and in the latter Selby, Maguire and Fu. I'm never afraid of backing a player in one market and opposing him in another depending on prices but I realise its not everybody's cup of tea.
Some of the first frame odds also looked a bit generous on the outsiders to me so have played these on McLeod 5/4, Gould 6/4, Higginson 6/4 and Greene 13/8, again hoping first time nerves dont scupper some of those.
And to round it off (though it was actually my first bet of the round) had an accumulator on O Sullivan, Higgins, Carter, Robbo and Maguire to oblige in round one which pays 2/1.
So as you can see plenty to go at over the next few days.
Elsewhere its been an up and down sort of week. My gaelic football treble came up last weekend though the handicap bet on Laois looked silly when Monaghan ran riot against them in the final league game, though at least I have backed them in the outright Division 2 market at 5/1, and they now meet Cork in the final. I've also got Derry at 8/1 taking on Kerry in the Division 1 decider and Antrim (who I added after the first set of games) up against Sligo in Division 4 at 3/1.
Nothing much appeals on the match betting front this week but have added a few outright bets for the summer. In the All Ireland Championship, I've sided with four who I hope will give a run for the money - Dublin 8/1, Cork 11/1, Derry 20/1 and Monaghan 33/1. The latter two meet early doors in Ulster so one of them will have to go the scenic route via the qualifiers but feel they might be capable of doing so nevertheless.
In the provincial championships I think Dublin at 6/4 ought to have just too much for the likes of Meath and Kildare now they have their full quota of players back and Galway with Joe Bergin back in the fold look reasonable even money shouts to oust their likely rivals Mayo. Ulster as ever looks very competitive but would just give Derry the edge - Vics lengthened their price to 11/2 last week on the back of Monaghan's big win but then only allowed bets of up to £4 on their website!! Not sure what the idea of that was but they are my main picks from the North with an outside bet on Antrim at 125/1 (now 80/1) which I admit is highly unlikely but they dont meet the real big guns in the section until the final - pity there was no each way available!!
My aussie rules treble bit the dust when Carlton lost their discipline near the end of their match with Essendon, resulting in a narrow defeat by just four points. A free right in front of the posts was crucial for the visitors at the end of the third quarter, following what looked a harsh decision against the home team resulting in a goal. So in the space of a few seconds there was a 12-point turnaround just as the Blues were getting into gear. This week I'm chancing my arm a bit and taking on the mighty Geelong with Adelaide at almost 11/4 on the exchanges - although the Cats have been winning they havent been totally destroying the opposition as they did for much of last year so this time I'm hoping they might be edged out of it.
Things have been pretty even steven on the dogs this week, have pulled most of it back after a tardy start to the week. Despite getting the ante post bet of Cabra Cool at 14/1 up in the Scottish Derby, a few other bets in that event rather whittled down the payout and the news that the vanquished favourite Thurlesbeg Joker was unlikely to go for the English Derby means another few bob down the Swannee unless theres a change of heart.
In the Easter Cup at Shelbourne, Oran Classic (8/1) and Tip and Tin (50/1) made it through to the final for me and have added Advantage Johnny (3/1) who looks to have a good makeup on Saturday night though will obviously be mainly cheering on my other ones.
The Blue Riband at Hall Green has seen my fancies Jogadusc Ace and Blonde Fern (both 16s) make it through to the last six - that will be live on Sky next Tuesday - while the semi finals of the Golden Sprint are held at Romford tonight where I have five in contention at present, but not the favourite this time for once!!
And the staying event that is the Regency kicked off at Hove yesterday with my four selections all making it through to the semi finals, would personally be surprised if the prize didnt go to one of the two at the head of the market here - Capel Wilson or Lorrys Options.
As I stated at the head of my post, its been rather hectic this week, started out on Monday with a trip to Pride Park to see the Rams play all the good football and somehow contrive to lose 3-2 to league leaders Wolves, it really was a travesty of a scoreline but symptomatic of the recent quality of defending, we now have just a five point buffer over the relegation places but hopefully can eek out another couple of points which should be enough for safety. There is an incredibly long list of injuries at present so it may not be easy getting over the last hurdle but Charlton Athletic the bottom team are still to visit us so that looks the one we should possibly be earmarking for success.
Went to the local point to point at Flagg Moor, reputedly the country's highest course, on Easter Tuesday and was good fun to be back at the races again after a bit of a hiatus.
The first race was a members event over the stone walls, the only event of its kind in the country, and very unusually featuring a pure Arabian bred amongst the contenders. I didnt play on that one but it went to Twist and Shout, who carried no less than 13st 7lb to victory and still had time to miss out a fence, turn back and jump it, and still overtake the others. That said, there seemed to be three different opinions as to which way they got onto the racecourse proper (they start out in the hills!) so you needed about six pairs of eyes even for as many runners!!
One of the best bets of the day looked to be Indian Rising in the next, so on seeing the price lengthen to 6/4, leapt in with my wedge of notes only to see it continue to drift right out to 9/4!! All the money was for the Classic Cliche horse Lake Baikal, who had a formline of PPP but that didnt seem to be deterring those in the know. As it happens my fancy led coming into the second last where the market rival was beginning a challenge but unfortunately went lame on landing so an unfortunate way to end what looked like being an epic battle up the run in.
I lost a bit on the next when favourite Noble Persian was turned over by Test of Friendship, who relished making all and grinding the opposition into the ground over this stiff 3m 4f course which really does test the stamina of those that take part with a few very sharp inclines along the way.
I had to wait until the fifth race for my next winner when previous course victor Opio obliged in a hack canter, admittedly at odds of only 1/2, but there was never really a moments worry as he toyed with the opposition and never came off the bridle under Tom Greenall.
As I was a few quid up on the last race and enjoying the day so much, decided to have one final flutter, again I couldnt really see past the favourite, which was the Pistolet Bleu gelding Aldea but after a sticky jump on one of the steep climbs leading up to the straight he had a little too much ground to make up and could only finish a length second to the six year old Father Owen.
But all in all great to be out and about at such a scenic venue, it might not quite be on a par with Hexham for beauty but when its less than half an hour home as the crow flies it will do for me!
Wednesday saw a trip to Sheffield to see 80s group Ultravox give their anniversary show an outing, by the end of the night everyone went home well satisfied after hearing their old favourites given an airing.
But on the Thursday one or two were not so happy after attending the "Legends of Snooker" event at Derby Assembly Rooms. The event started with Jimmy White taking on a "seventeen year old from the Milton Keynes area" and suffering an embarrassing drubbing in the one frame they played.
This was followed by what turned out to be the high point of the night but that wasnt saying a great deal when John Virgo came out and set up a few trick shots for the spectators to come out and play. These worked for the most part, but when Virgo himself took on some of the more testing ones near the end he hardly managed any of them!! That said he did provide a mildly entertaining commentary, though even this was hampered by a dodgy microphone which brought back memories of Norman Collier in his heyday (who by chance I am also going to see at Buxton later in the year as part of the Best of British Variety show!)
And of course we did get some bona fide impersonations of some of the stars of yesteryear like Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins as well as a few humorous Tony Knowles references "I'll do an impression of him if one of the calendar girls in attendance wants to lie on the table".
There then followed an advertised break of 20 minutes which turned out to be more like 45 minutes, which seemed quite long after only just under an hour of the proceedings. One wondered whether some of them were finding difficulty getting out of the bar but eventually Jimmy re-appeared to take on the other legend no less than Alex Higgins, who received a tumultuous welcome as he came out into the arena looking surprisingly sprightly.
Unfortunately, it soon became apparent it was a bit of a mismatch nowadays, with Jimmy going for practically everything and Alex only mustering breaks of 20-odd at best and doing a surprisingly good impersonation of Griffiths himself when pontificating over some of the shots as if it was the World Championships. The referee looked frightened to death in case he upset Alex in some way and would mostly freeze as if caught in a time capsule no matter how ungainly the pose every time Higgins took to the table.
There was one particularly over exuberant spectator who repeatedly shouted "come on Alex" time and again and Higgins began to get more upset with this, eventually asking the referee to remove the spectator from the audience, with four or five in the crowd shouting "get him out" too. Personally thought this was a bit over the top for shouting encouragment at an exhibition (he was after all only yelling out between shots), and the referee just settled on a firm rebuke. In fact it might have become more entertaining if we saw a few shenanigans from Higgins, as I'm sure thats what brought alot of the paying customers in on the night anyway!!
Anyhow someone apparently got out of their seat to have words with the "heckler", but although I didnt see it myself, he instead tripped up and hurtled head first down the stairs into the railings that overhang the balcony which saved him from dropping down on the table below!
While this was very nasty, it also meant another long break in play while he was attended to by the medics (the time was already about 10.20pm and they had only gotten through three frames) plus people were getting restless, especially as one or other of the players was tending to leave the arena for five minutes at the end of the frame.
Eventually with no real prospect of Higgins putting up a meaningful fight and both of them producing some pretty low quality snooker in the main, we upped sticks and left with a few frames scheduled still to play. To me the night was far too stop-start and never really took off at all, plus thought the match between the undoubted legends desperately needed to be taken a bit more light-heartedly by the competitors than it was.
I suppose its difficult given Higgins' fiery temperament and frail voice after his battle with illness, but perhaps White should have been a bit more interactive with the audience himself to somehow get it going. As it was as one punter commented to me on the way out "that was the worst £17.50 I've ever spent, we should ask for our money back". And in truth it was hard to disagree, better to remember these legends as they were then I feel rather than tarnish the memory nowadays. Virgo I understand doesnt often appear on the bill with these two, but he at least was a bit of a saving grace on the day, but even then a bit like watching a comedian reeling off old material you already knew, and the whole event seemed uninspired and lacking in urgency.
Anyhow hope I haven't put you all off Saturday lol
All the best
Rick
It's one of those years where nobody has been totally convincing so you could say it has an open look to it but if Ronnie O Sullivan is anywhere near his best you'd think that might be good enough unless someone can hit their very best form for this particular fortnight.
Anyhow at odds of around 9/4 I'm leaving him alone this year as you could get 4/1 last time around with perhaps a slightly easier run overall.
In the Rocket's quarter most of the players are in the attacking vein which should suit him but Ryan Day ran him close a few seasons back here and I backed him e/w at 40/1 for this earlier in the season, and thankfully he did return to some kind of form in China when he reached the semi finals before losing to John Higgins. If he gets past the dogged Stephen Lee, he would probably face Peter Ebdon and despite the latter's shock success in the Far East, I would expect the Welshman to have too much for him on this occasion.
As ever I'm picking AT LEAST one from each quarter lol, though have played five in this one, once again perhaps overdoing it slightly stakes wise but the odds are on offer for a long time so perhaps understandable in the circumstances!!
The second quarter was another one where I went in early, this time on Mark Selby again e/w at 8/1 and was not particularly happy to see him come out of the hat against Ricky Walden, who has won a ranking event already in Shanghai I seem to recall for some reason!! Selby has mainly flattered to deceive this season so its time for him to put some meat on the bones if he's to salvage something from it - as one of the supposed elite players he perhaps should avoid getting too bogged down in some of his matches and take it to the opposition.
I was undecided for a long while about quarter three, so suppose this must have been the most difficult to pick from. Eventually came down on the side of Mark Williams at 33s, who has shown slight improvement this year to probably rejoin the top 16, but he then put in a disappointing show in China, losing to the hitherto out of form Mark King 5-2. So I changed tack and decided to wade in on Ding Junhui too despite him trading at 16s after being 22/1 only a few days earlier without picking up his cue in the meantime.
When he did pick up his cue he produced one of his worst performances of the year in a very disjointed loss to young wildcard Xaio Guodong, a century break in one of the early frames being his only saving grace. He now goes into the event with his top 16 place in jeapardy, and at the end of the day I'd give him two pieces of advice.
One is to try to get that twitch sorted in his eyelid, it must be distracting for a professional snooker player and I'd be doing my utmost to eradicate it at all cost - apologies to him if he has tried and failed but there is a nifty trick with some sellotape that can help - I know cos I've done it myself!! The second is that at the end of the day you have to play without thinking of the consequences, its no good playing under extreme pressure, if you dont relax you wont produce your best so stay calm at all times and concentrate on this first and foremost. Its not always easy but its also something I want to try and bring into my game next season after throwing away a few matches near the end purely by being so tensed up, and that's just in the local league!!
The final quarter is surely set up for Stephen Maguire, who however has rarely shown his best form this term, which is a worry but does mean he is fairly fresh. He needs to click into gear but the draw gives him every chance of doing so up against the likes of his practice partner Jamie Burnett and the winner of Mark King and Rory McLeod.
In the match betting, I've plumped for outsiders Gould, Higginson, Walden, Hendry and McLeod at the odds available and also taken Perry and Ding (again before his China loss) to oust potting machines Cope and Wenbo.
One of the best value bets seem to be the McLeod highest break against King which is currently trading at 11/8. He's had at least nine centuries this season to King's one (in fact some quote him as having scored eleven though cant see where the other two are coming from myself!) and even if the Crucible nerves get to him he has plenty of time to get used to the surroundings over the long matches here.
Also took the earlier 6/1 about there being six or seven first round qualifiers progressing to round two, this has obliged in three of the last five years - as a safeguard I've had a saver on four or five too at 13/8 - according to published stats in the Racing Post there has never been less than four make it through in the last twelve years so hopefully there will be no damage done and the prospect of a big payout.
Some rather more speculative bets were in the "qualifier to go the furthest" and "tournament top break" markets, in the former I'm siding with Lee, Walden, Higginson and Greene and in the latter Selby, Maguire and Fu. I'm never afraid of backing a player in one market and opposing him in another depending on prices but I realise its not everybody's cup of tea.
Some of the first frame odds also looked a bit generous on the outsiders to me so have played these on McLeod 5/4, Gould 6/4, Higginson 6/4 and Greene 13/8, again hoping first time nerves dont scupper some of those.
And to round it off (though it was actually my first bet of the round) had an accumulator on O Sullivan, Higgins, Carter, Robbo and Maguire to oblige in round one which pays 2/1.
So as you can see plenty to go at over the next few days.
Elsewhere its been an up and down sort of week. My gaelic football treble came up last weekend though the handicap bet on Laois looked silly when Monaghan ran riot against them in the final league game, though at least I have backed them in the outright Division 2 market at 5/1, and they now meet Cork in the final. I've also got Derry at 8/1 taking on Kerry in the Division 1 decider and Antrim (who I added after the first set of games) up against Sligo in Division 4 at 3/1.
Nothing much appeals on the match betting front this week but have added a few outright bets for the summer. In the All Ireland Championship, I've sided with four who I hope will give a run for the money - Dublin 8/1, Cork 11/1, Derry 20/1 and Monaghan 33/1. The latter two meet early doors in Ulster so one of them will have to go the scenic route via the qualifiers but feel they might be capable of doing so nevertheless.
In the provincial championships I think Dublin at 6/4 ought to have just too much for the likes of Meath and Kildare now they have their full quota of players back and Galway with Joe Bergin back in the fold look reasonable even money shouts to oust their likely rivals Mayo. Ulster as ever looks very competitive but would just give Derry the edge - Vics lengthened their price to 11/2 last week on the back of Monaghan's big win but then only allowed bets of up to £4 on their website!! Not sure what the idea of that was but they are my main picks from the North with an outside bet on Antrim at 125/1 (now 80/1) which I admit is highly unlikely but they dont meet the real big guns in the section until the final - pity there was no each way available!!
My aussie rules treble bit the dust when Carlton lost their discipline near the end of their match with Essendon, resulting in a narrow defeat by just four points. A free right in front of the posts was crucial for the visitors at the end of the third quarter, following what looked a harsh decision against the home team resulting in a goal. So in the space of a few seconds there was a 12-point turnaround just as the Blues were getting into gear. This week I'm chancing my arm a bit and taking on the mighty Geelong with Adelaide at almost 11/4 on the exchanges - although the Cats have been winning they havent been totally destroying the opposition as they did for much of last year so this time I'm hoping they might be edged out of it.
Things have been pretty even steven on the dogs this week, have pulled most of it back after a tardy start to the week. Despite getting the ante post bet of Cabra Cool at 14/1 up in the Scottish Derby, a few other bets in that event rather whittled down the payout and the news that the vanquished favourite Thurlesbeg Joker was unlikely to go for the English Derby means another few bob down the Swannee unless theres a change of heart.
In the Easter Cup at Shelbourne, Oran Classic (8/1) and Tip and Tin (50/1) made it through to the final for me and have added Advantage Johnny (3/1) who looks to have a good makeup on Saturday night though will obviously be mainly cheering on my other ones.
The Blue Riband at Hall Green has seen my fancies Jogadusc Ace and Blonde Fern (both 16s) make it through to the last six - that will be live on Sky next Tuesday - while the semi finals of the Golden Sprint are held at Romford tonight where I have five in contention at present, but not the favourite this time for once!!
And the staying event that is the Regency kicked off at Hove yesterday with my four selections all making it through to the semi finals, would personally be surprised if the prize didnt go to one of the two at the head of the market here - Capel Wilson or Lorrys Options.
As I stated at the head of my post, its been rather hectic this week, started out on Monday with a trip to Pride Park to see the Rams play all the good football and somehow contrive to lose 3-2 to league leaders Wolves, it really was a travesty of a scoreline but symptomatic of the recent quality of defending, we now have just a five point buffer over the relegation places but hopefully can eek out another couple of points which should be enough for safety. There is an incredibly long list of injuries at present so it may not be easy getting over the last hurdle but Charlton Athletic the bottom team are still to visit us so that looks the one we should possibly be earmarking for success.
Went to the local point to point at Flagg Moor, reputedly the country's highest course, on Easter Tuesday and was good fun to be back at the races again after a bit of a hiatus.
The first race was a members event over the stone walls, the only event of its kind in the country, and very unusually featuring a pure Arabian bred amongst the contenders. I didnt play on that one but it went to Twist and Shout, who carried no less than 13st 7lb to victory and still had time to miss out a fence, turn back and jump it, and still overtake the others. That said, there seemed to be three different opinions as to which way they got onto the racecourse proper (they start out in the hills!) so you needed about six pairs of eyes even for as many runners!!
One of the best bets of the day looked to be Indian Rising in the next, so on seeing the price lengthen to 6/4, leapt in with my wedge of notes only to see it continue to drift right out to 9/4!! All the money was for the Classic Cliche horse Lake Baikal, who had a formline of PPP but that didnt seem to be deterring those in the know. As it happens my fancy led coming into the second last where the market rival was beginning a challenge but unfortunately went lame on landing so an unfortunate way to end what looked like being an epic battle up the run in.
I lost a bit on the next when favourite Noble Persian was turned over by Test of Friendship, who relished making all and grinding the opposition into the ground over this stiff 3m 4f course which really does test the stamina of those that take part with a few very sharp inclines along the way.
I had to wait until the fifth race for my next winner when previous course victor Opio obliged in a hack canter, admittedly at odds of only 1/2, but there was never really a moments worry as he toyed with the opposition and never came off the bridle under Tom Greenall.
As I was a few quid up on the last race and enjoying the day so much, decided to have one final flutter, again I couldnt really see past the favourite, which was the Pistolet Bleu gelding Aldea but after a sticky jump on one of the steep climbs leading up to the straight he had a little too much ground to make up and could only finish a length second to the six year old Father Owen.
But all in all great to be out and about at such a scenic venue, it might not quite be on a par with Hexham for beauty but when its less than half an hour home as the crow flies it will do for me!
Wednesday saw a trip to Sheffield to see 80s group Ultravox give their anniversary show an outing, by the end of the night everyone went home well satisfied after hearing their old favourites given an airing.
But on the Thursday one or two were not so happy after attending the "Legends of Snooker" event at Derby Assembly Rooms. The event started with Jimmy White taking on a "seventeen year old from the Milton Keynes area" and suffering an embarrassing drubbing in the one frame they played.
This was followed by what turned out to be the high point of the night but that wasnt saying a great deal when John Virgo came out and set up a few trick shots for the spectators to come out and play. These worked for the most part, but when Virgo himself took on some of the more testing ones near the end he hardly managed any of them!! That said he did provide a mildly entertaining commentary, though even this was hampered by a dodgy microphone which brought back memories of Norman Collier in his heyday (who by chance I am also going to see at Buxton later in the year as part of the Best of British Variety show!)
And of course we did get some bona fide impersonations of some of the stars of yesteryear like Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor and Alex Higgins as well as a few humorous Tony Knowles references "I'll do an impression of him if one of the calendar girls in attendance wants to lie on the table".
There then followed an advertised break of 20 minutes which turned out to be more like 45 minutes, which seemed quite long after only just under an hour of the proceedings. One wondered whether some of them were finding difficulty getting out of the bar but eventually Jimmy re-appeared to take on the other legend no less than Alex Higgins, who received a tumultuous welcome as he came out into the arena looking surprisingly sprightly.
Unfortunately, it soon became apparent it was a bit of a mismatch nowadays, with Jimmy going for practically everything and Alex only mustering breaks of 20-odd at best and doing a surprisingly good impersonation of Griffiths himself when pontificating over some of the shots as if it was the World Championships. The referee looked frightened to death in case he upset Alex in some way and would mostly freeze as if caught in a time capsule no matter how ungainly the pose every time Higgins took to the table.
There was one particularly over exuberant spectator who repeatedly shouted "come on Alex" time and again and Higgins began to get more upset with this, eventually asking the referee to remove the spectator from the audience, with four or five in the crowd shouting "get him out" too. Personally thought this was a bit over the top for shouting encouragment at an exhibition (he was after all only yelling out between shots), and the referee just settled on a firm rebuke. In fact it might have become more entertaining if we saw a few shenanigans from Higgins, as I'm sure thats what brought alot of the paying customers in on the night anyway!!
Anyhow someone apparently got out of their seat to have words with the "heckler", but although I didnt see it myself, he instead tripped up and hurtled head first down the stairs into the railings that overhang the balcony which saved him from dropping down on the table below!
While this was very nasty, it also meant another long break in play while he was attended to by the medics (the time was already about 10.20pm and they had only gotten through three frames) plus people were getting restless, especially as one or other of the players was tending to leave the arena for five minutes at the end of the frame.
Eventually with no real prospect of Higgins putting up a meaningful fight and both of them producing some pretty low quality snooker in the main, we upped sticks and left with a few frames scheduled still to play. To me the night was far too stop-start and never really took off at all, plus thought the match between the undoubted legends desperately needed to be taken a bit more light-heartedly by the competitors than it was.
I suppose its difficult given Higgins' fiery temperament and frail voice after his battle with illness, but perhaps White should have been a bit more interactive with the audience himself to somehow get it going. As it was as one punter commented to me on the way out "that was the worst £17.50 I've ever spent, we should ask for our money back". And in truth it was hard to disagree, better to remember these legends as they were then I feel rather than tarnish the memory nowadays. Virgo I understand doesnt often appear on the bill with these two, but he at least was a bit of a saving grace on the day, but even then a bit like watching a comedian reeling off old material you already knew, and the whole event seemed uninspired and lacking in urgency.
Anyhow hope I haven't put you all off Saturday lol
All the best
Rick
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