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
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