Backed 2, 1 made the cut........

Too much work makes Ad a dull boy, or at least mildly frustrated at a lack of afternoons in front of the box clutching little slips of hope!
But finally a Saturday at home with Kev (my retired greyhound,) a few Stella and a bluster of flutters, plenty going on this weekend so,

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP LUCAS GLOVER O/R WINNER
DUSTIN JOHNSON O/R WINNER

Lucas Glover is a Major winner! He is joint leader going into the weekend with a 4 shot advantage over the overly popular (this weekend) Rory McIlroy and yet he is fifth best in most bookies lists.
Dustin Johnson, I must admit, is one of the 2 I backed Wednesday night, the other being >whisper it< Matt Kuchar (early flight home.) I was flabbergasted to see 95 available for a player who has contended at this highest level and went close to winning G-Mac's US OPen @ Pebble Beach (blustery conditions.) I will be able to see how conditions affect the early starters before deciding wether to opt out of that one.

GERMAN MOTO GP MARCO SIMONCELLI RACE WINNER E/W

This fella is quick, he's huge, but he's quick and IMO deserves to win a Moto GP. If he can qualify front row this morning and get a decent enough start Sunday afternoon, i.e don't crash or lose too much ground early on Stoner, Lorenzo, Pedrosa et al, he has shown enough in practice to say he could take a hand in this races' finish. Thanks to Lorenzo's win LTO most place terms are 1,2,3.

GERMAN 125CC MOTO GP JONAS FOLGER RACE WINNER E/W
GERMAN MOTO2 GP STEFAN BRADL RACE WINNER

Huge fields always contest both of these races. Stefan Bradl started the Moto2 season strongly but has encountered a couple of indifferent races, Folger has struggled in all fairness but both are part of the home contingent and off level weights, home advantage is worth 5kmph.

SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP FINAL AUSTARLIA O/R WINNER

4/1 doesn't sound like that much of a long shot and if I'm honest I shouldn't be backing against the favourites but 8/15's aren't for me.
The final is being staged in Poland and Thomas Gollub is hitting World Championship form but in last weekends semi final, Australia showed cracking team spirit and that could go a long way to upsetting the odds, the draw is crucial.

Just 5 flat races on C4 this afternoon, summer jumping is just wrong, so no great reasoning but here's what I'll be backing in those:

2:20 Newbury PASTORAL PLAYER (Moore/Morrison s.r 21%)
2:35 Newmarket WILD COCO (Ahern/Cecil s.r 23%)
2;55 Newbury WATNEYA (in form combination)
3:10 Newmarket GIVE YOUR VERDICT (Fallon/Stoute say no more)

Stay tuned to @rudgey76 on Twitter for bet updates and more picks including Womens World Cup Final and Super League fixtures.

Good Luck and Gamble Responsibily.

Anyone for Tennis?......

Last week was not great, our picks were fairly disasterous!
Darren Bent never got a sniff of a chance in a poor England performance, VR never reaxhed better than fifth in Catalunya, GMac shot something like a 78 on the Saturday and 8 of our Union Jack horse picks were beat.
Positives were Steve Stricker eventually winning the Memorial and Pour Moi out Dancing Brave, Dancing Brave with one of the most amazing jockey celebrations I will ever see. Don't think anything will ever beat Mikael Barzalona punching the air in victory before he's even passed the horse in the lead! Unbelievable.

Tonnes of Motorsport to get involved in this weekend, brief picks follow:

CANADIAN F1 G.P FERNANDO ALONSO RACE WINNER e/w 1/5 1,2,3

Ferrari are due a strong showing and started to come good around this time last season, at 9/2 in places we'll get most of our stakes back with a podium finish.

BRITISH MOTO G.P ANDREA DOVIZIOSO RACE WINNER e/w 1/3 1,2
BRITISH MOTO G.P 125CC JOHAN ZARCO RACE WINNER e/w 1/3 1,2
BRITISH MOTO2 G.P ANDREA IANNONE RACE WINNER e/w 1/3 1,2,3

Dovi is a previous winner in England although I believe at a different track. With inclement weather expected a shock could occur, the Honda is obviously the fastest bike on the grid this year and when Dovizioso last won a G.P the weather was changeable.

Small stakes e/w in the 125 class due to ridiculous e/w terms on offer with most bookmakers due to odds on favs, but no markets w/o the fav?
5/1 best price about Iannone for the Moto2 could be worth taking but if he is a bigger price after qualifying, I'll be backing him again.

DANISH SPEEDWAY G.P THOMAS GOLLOB O/R WINNER

No each way on this as Gollob is starting to run into some good form and at around 4/1 I believe this to be the best bet of the weekend, given some luck in the draw.

BMW ITALIAN OPEN GOLF MATTEO MANASSERO O/R WINNER

Going into the final 2 rounds the young Italian is just one shot off the lead and I reckon he is a different grade to the rest of this field and in years to come will be proven right.
I am trying to abstain from horses this weekend due to a little meeting starting next Tuesday, which I believe to be the greatest horse show on the planet, which just leaves,

ATP AEGON CHAMPIONSHIP QUEENS MENS TENNIS ANDY MURRAY O/R

At 6/4 he is a bit short for me to be backing him on his own so I may put him in a few trixies mixing up my petrolhead selections, but I expect him to beat any of the 2 he has left to face and the ensuing Wimbledon hype will make him a perfect lay.

GOOD LUCK AND GAMBLE RESPONSIBLY

Talking of Derby Picks.....

Last week's horse picks on C4 pretty much rescued our weekend, with Jenson Button's charge to victory, spoilt by Vitaaly Petrov deciding to park his Renault in the wall with 6 laps to go. I'm convinced Button on his fresher tyres would have eventually got past the Ferrari and Red Bull.
This week's automotive shenanigans comes in the form of the Catalunya Moto G.P.
Now if you're into backing shorties Casey Stoner @ 8/11 looks absolute banker material, especially after the first 2 practice sessions but you know that's not how this blog rolls:

CATALUNYA MOTO G.P VALENTINO ROSSI e/w 1/5th 1,2,3

The Doctor is gradually getting the Ducati where he wants it to be, to the detriment of poor Nicky Hayden again, but #46 knows how to win round here and IMO will be targeting a start from the front 2 rows and if his qualifying goes well enough we may be able to trade out of some of the 20 that is available on Betfair.
The other 2 classes I'm gooing to leave till after qualifying as progression from the rear of the field is easier than in the top class and we may be able to eek out some value further down the fields.

Today sees a host of Euro 2012 qualifiers including Englands return fixture v Switzerland. They won the away fixture 3-1, with goals from Rooney, Adam Johnson and Darren Bent and with Roonet suspended and Defoe ruled out with injury, I feel Darren Bent will be Englands main goal threat.

EURO 2012 QUALIFIER DARREN BENT FIRST GOALSCORER v Switzerland

Having broken his international duck, as a substitute v the Swiss, he went on to net his next 2 England appearances. I think the ball will go into the Swiss box with regularity from out wide and Bent's prowess in the box will see him get at least one if not more.(Betfred may be offering their Double Delight on the game where they double your players price if he scores twice.)

A couple of golf picks to give us some Sunday afternoon interest:

SAAB WELSH OPEN GRAEME MCDOWELL
THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT STEVE STRICKER

G-Mac is looking ominously comfortable on the TwentyTen course agin and the 7/4 available in places could double up nicely with Stoner in the MotoGp.
As for the Memorial, followers of this timeline will have seen a treble posted Wednesday featuring 2 golf picks and a Derby pick, Shane Lowry blew up by the Usk but Stricker is 3 clear of the field going into the weekend and although our 25's have gone his steady style should see few chasers eat into that advantage through the last 36 holes.
Talking of Derby picks, I'll be going in with a Union Jack trixie with lots of cracking terrestial racing available, once again, no great discussion, just the picks.

1:40 Epsom Trojan Nights (Haggas/Ahern in form, Goodwood form)
2:10 Epsom Norse Gold (Elsworth/Fallon 25% s.r with 2y.o's)
2:20 Donc Shamdarley (progressive handicapper)
2:40 Epsom Nationalism (Gosden RTF% 70)
2:50 Donc Bronze Prince (quick across the card double)
3:10 Muss Bridle Belle (step up in trip)
3:15 Epsom Masamah (Ryan/Spencer 26% s.r with 4 y.o+)
3:25 Midsummer Fair (rough French Guineas ignored)
4:00 EPSOM DERBY POUR MOI

Thats the lot for this weekend, Good Luck if you're punting.

Almost Forgot About Champions League Final.....

Can't remember what I last posted on here to explain away such bad and rash decisions, so let me just crack on with telling you about a whole load more for Saturdays sporting action.
It's pay weekend for me so rather unsurprisingly there's shed loads going in the enemy's coffers, for a while at least.

F1 MONACO GRAND PRIX JENSON BUTTON RACE WINNER (e/w)
HEIKI KOVALEINEN POINTS FINISH

Jenson Button has won as many World Championships as Seb Vettel and once more around Monaco but is almost 12 times his price for Sundays race?
His chancey strategies and brilliance with tyre wear is going to pay dividends one weekend, so why not this one?
Points finish betting is a market I've just started to dabble in but actually gives you a whole race of action, unless something goes spectacularly wrong for your pick.
Lotus have finally started to deliver on their promise of improved performance and Kovaleinen experience could see hi, outstay some of the younger teams inexperienced drivers.

LEAGUE 2 PLAYOFF FINAL TORQUAY UTD (90 minutes)

The Gulls are unbeaten v Stevenage in 6 meetings and have not conceded a goal in their last 4 meetings with their promotion rivals, nuff said, surely?

C4 RACING 8 RACES LIVE FROM 2:05p.m

2:05 ACTIVATE (@narrowthefield)
2:20 EKTIBAAS (B.Hills colt out of Haafhd)
2:35 MARCH ON BEETROOT (think the Codemaster race will work out well)
2:50 LAJOOJ (galloping track, Barzalona back on board)
3:05 FERDOOS (Varian)
3:25 WHAT ABOUT YOU (Fahey/Fallon 25% s.r)
3:35 SHAKESPEAREAN (deceptive form figures)
3:45 GABRIAL (Dark Angel colts can do no wrong)
5:45 CAT O'NINE TAILS (RUK only, @narrowthefield)

there's a union jack with singles thrown in, fancy any?

BYRON NELSON GOLF NICK WATNEY O/R WINNER

This is just a sporting bet with the hopes of moving day going his way and some interest available to me Sunday night

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP WENTWORTH GOLF MATTEO MANASSERO O/R WINNER

Same logic as above, with a little more certainty of getting a late runner Sunday afternoon, this young kid is goood.

CZECH SPEEDWAY GP CHRIS HOLDER (e/w)

This guy did us a favour 2 weeks back winning the Swedish G.P at a tasty 18/1 and with another decent looking draw 12/1 looks like they're underestimating the Aussie again.
oh! And I almost forgot....

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL VIDIC FIRST GOAL (e/w)
UTD H/T DRAW F/T
BARCELONA WIN IN EXTRA TIME

I've already read a million opinions on how this game is going to be played and finished, so I'm not going to bore anybody with mine, they're just for a small interest I just would love to see over 4.5 goals.

Thats all folks, be lucky, if not in love then in life!

Struggling on......

Posts from Boom or Bust have been few and far between of late due to an increased demand on my time in other areas, but thanks to a bad back and qualifying in China affecting our prices, a later than midnight post is in order.

My current suffering of bad luck is working it's way through all areas of my life at the moment but my motto has always been, you'll never score unless you keep shooting (insert obvious Torres pun at leisure.)

With the snooker World Championships starting up in the morning, a quick reminder of our ante post picks from the previous couple of posts,

WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIPS O/R MARK SELBY
WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIPS O/R DING JUNHUI

In addition to these two, I have invested another, smaller each way bet,

WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIPS O/R SHAUN MURPHY

I would be utterly flabbergasted if we did not get a run deep into week 2 from at least one of these guys.

As for the weekend accumulators, our main hopes are carried by,

F1 CHINESE G.P LEWIS HAMILTON
W.S.C 1ST RND NEIL ROBERTSON
W.S.C 1ST RND MARK WILLIAMS
F.A CUP SEMI FINAL BOLTON WANDERERS 90mins
F.A CUP SEMI FINAL MAN UTD 90mins

With a good performance from Hamilton in this mornings qualifying session, live on BBC1 from 6a.m, we could be sitting on some good value, when the bet was placed we got 4/1 about the McLarwn driver claiming victory on Sunday morning, an early start (10:30a.m) is also on the cards for Neil Robertson taking on recent China Open winner, Judd Trump.

Saturday Soccer:

Premier League BLACKPOOL v Wigan Athletic
Championship PRESTON N.E v Sheff Utd
League Two SHREWSBURY TOWN v Stockport County

Fingers crossed for this lot, laters.

Tuesday Chances

Had a small football acc tonight:

Real Madrid
Inter Milan over 2.5 goals
Burton Albion
Southampton
Bournemouth

Couple of odds against in there and I think the evens I saw about 3 or more at the San Siro tonight looks value.

I've also had a little interest at 2-0 in the Real/Spurs game, can't see Spurs getting much joy tonight.
I'm also quite tempted to back Chelsea outright for the Champions League before the quarters kick off.

Little reminder of the few ante post picks we put up on our last post,

U.S Masters golf
Matt Kuchar

World Snooker Championship
Ding Junhui
Mark Selby

I've mixed these up in trebles with a couple of Grand National runners, Niche Market and What A Friend.

Finally got word from round the campfire about Vamizi running in the 3m6f race at Exeter this afternoon, stick that in another acc with tonights footy!

Good Luck.

Making Up For Lost Time?!

Full on, competitive Euro 2012 qualifiers are the main draw on this weekends coupon and I've had my eye on a 3 timer since Wednesday.

Spain + Italy + England treble
3.96 Betfred 3.68 PaddyPower 3.68 StanJames

The negatives are Spain's price looks extremely short, they're not playing mugs in the Czech Republic, Italy seem to have drifted from odds on to odds against in the last couple of days and England are far from convincing at the moment. But all 3 surely have enough quality to negotiate victories against the respective opponents?
Now the near 3/1 price on this treble is a little on the short side for this blog so my intention is to put these three teams into 4 timers with a golfer and two snooker players, highlighted lower down just to get a decent amount rolling on to those ante post picks.

Friday night is full of sporting action.
There are the Spain and Italy qualifiers I touched on above, top class Super League, seeded players entering the fray in Miami's ATP event and some English football league games.

Spain 90 mins
Italy 90 mins
St.Helens 80 mins
Wigan 80 mins
MK Dons 90 mins
John Isner ATP Miami
Sam Querry ATP Miami

20.64 betfred 19.73 paddypower 19.56stanjames

All odds on in the above acca with Wigan v Warrington the strongest danger to letting us down.

The quiet week previous to this post, as always, was due to end of the month financial restrictions, i.e broke and with some major sporting events happening in April, I'm investing now before it's all gone.
Firstly, the snooker World Championships. I'll be surprised if the winner doesn't come from the top half of the draw and I'm backing 2 players who I expect to meet prior to the winner taking on Neil Robertson in the semi finals.
Mark Selby 13/2
Ding Junhui 9/1

Beyond the Worlds and the Grand National in April, there's also the US Masters in Augusta. I've had one player in mind for this tournament since his FedEx Cup performances at the end of last year.
I think his temperament and style of play will carry him a long way into the second Sunday of April.
Matt Kuchar 40/1

Hopefully we Kop something tonight to keep us interested for most of the month.

@rudgey76

Been a while......

But confident of coming back with a winning acc today.
Steered clear of sports betting for the past fortnight as I immersed myself in Cheltenham formbooks, to some degree of success in that I only finished slightly down over the four days, which compared to other years can almost be considered a win!
I had a little rollup on yesterdays 6 Nations handicap coupon but only got Scotland right, with England rolling over in Dublin and Wales getting a bit of a spanking.
Tons of stuff we could get involved in today so I've tried to be a little conservative, which I do find difficult, but have a look at these,

PLAYERS TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS DAY MARK SELBY O/R
QATAR MOTO GP CASEY STONER RACE WINNER
INDIAN WELLS TENNIS FINAL RAFAEL NADAL
EPL FIXTURE LIVERPOOL 90 MINS
SERIE A FIXTURE NAPOLI

Stan James 28.50 Paddy Power 27.99 BetFred 26.76 SportingBet 24.70

Napoli need to win tonights Italian game to keep any title dreams alive, they don't have a great record v Cagliari but a win is vital.
Mark Selby finally managed to beat Mark Williams this year in yesterdays quarter final, both semis and final are played today in Dublin, so bets for the outright need to be on before 12p.m kickoff.
Casey Stoner's move to Honda seems seamless and he dominated qualifying yesterday and the Honda bikes dominated all practice sessions, Pedrosa will lead after lap 1 but Stoner's quicker overall race pace should see him past his team mate by around lap 5 or 6 and I can see him winning by a good margin.
In the tennis, Djokovic is looking to remain unbeaten this year but I'm taking Nadal to inflict Novak's first defeat of 2011. Their h2h reads 17-7 to the Spaniard and the recent wins for Djoko were towards the end of 2009, when Nadal was struggling physically.
Finally I'm taking Liverpool to end their recent troubles after Europa League games.
'Pool have lost their 3 away games in the EPL following European nights.
Prior to the beach ball incident which gifted Sunderland a 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light last season, Liverpool had won the previous 6 meetings between the side.

Bet Responsibly

@rudgey76

Cheeky One for the weekend

Kept it quiet during the week, occupying myself with next weeks festival form studying. Couldn't resist all the action taking place this weekend, with 6 Nations rugby and F.A Cup swinging back into action.

6 NATIONS FIXTURE FRANCE -16
6 NATIONS FIXTURE IRELAND +1
F.A CUP FIXTURE MAN UTD 90 MINS
ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURE Q.P.R
ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURE PORTSMOUTH
ENGLISH LEAGUE 1 FIXTURE BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION
LA LIGA FIXTURE ZARAGOZA v VALENCIA OVER 2.5 GOALS

After going close with last weekends over 2.5 eightfold, I've given myself 9 to keep an eye on this afternoon,

OVER 2.5 GOALS
CREWE v CHESTERFIELD
STOCKPORT v BURTON
CHARLTON v BRENTFORD
ROCHDALE v EXETER
LEYTON ORIENT v OLDHAM
LEEDS v IPSWICH
SCUNTHORPE V LEICESTER
PORTSMOUTH v MIDDLESBOROUGH
Q.P.R v CRYSTAL PALACE

As a warm up to next weeks equine jolliness, I've dipped my toes into Sandowns Imperial Cup card too,

1:55 CUCUMBER RUN
3:00 ALPINE EAGLE
3:35 TANTE SISSI


Small stakes e/w just for interest.

@rudgey76

So many Grade 1's, so little time...

I am currently trying to sort out the Cheltenham Festival Grade 1 races during my every spare moment, thus leaving me no time to have a butcher's at football coupons.
But how can anyone resist a cheeky punt on the Europa League, the only good thing about a Thursday, I reckon.
Therefore I am following a fellow betting blogger, blindly.
He runs a superb blog covering the majority of sports betting and the link below will take you to the picks.


http://t.co/vzPIr0J

Good Luck if you're following the Vic Page tonight. (@keejayOV)

Dream the impossible dream, but 12 seems a lot!

Yesterday we put 6 homes up as an acc, none of them lost but only 3 of them won.
The over 2.5 goal acca, 9 games, saw 7 go over, 1 feature just 2 and one end goalless, thats 77% correct. Clutching at straws, I know. Not going to debate Arsenal or Leeds Rhinos.
I'm putting 12 up today! And if I'm totally honest, I haven't really taken any time over picking them, I will place another bet, wittle them down to a more realistic number, but I'll let you decide which they should be, so any suggestions gratefully received.

LIVERPOOL v MAN UTD OVER 2.5 GOALS 13:30
UDINESE 90mins v Bari 14:00
INTERNAZIONALE 90mins v Genoa 14:00
NAPOLI 90mins v Bari 14:00
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 90mins v Wolves 16:00
OLYMPIQUE LYON -1 v Arles 16:00
FC COPENHAGEN 90mins v Midtjylland 17:00
STANDARD LIEGE v CLUB BRUGGE OVER 2.5 GOALS 17:00
BESIKTAS 90mins v Trabzonspor 17:00
SPORTING LISBON 90mins v Beira Mar 18:00
MARSEILLE 90mins v Lille 20:00
REAL MADRID 90mins v Racing Santander 20:00

1010.39 Paddy Power(Lyon-2) 671.18 Stan James 436.19 SportingBet 194.28 BetFred(2 missing markets)

With 4 of the picks going before 4 p.m, a second rollup beginning with Spurs will keep us interested for a short while, should things go tits up with Uniteds bore draw with Liverpool or Udinese failing to beat the worst away record in Serie A.

@rudgey76

@charliesheen "Face it folks, you just feel better when you say it. #WINNING.

Charlie Sheen, nervous breakdown or a string of losing weeks as long as my own!
After many days of deteriorating confidence, I've gone for scatter gun approach today.
There are that many I don't have time or space for the unending statistical analysis, deep breath, here they come:

OVER 2.5 GOALS
NEWCASTLE UTD v EVERTON
READING v MIDDLESBOROUGH
PETERBOROUGH UTD v EXETER CITY
AFC BOURNEMOUTH v OLDHAM ATHLETIC
SHEFF WEDS v PLYMOUTH ARGYLE
CHARLTON ATHLETIC v TRANMERE ROVERS
SWINDON TOWN v WALSALL
CREWE ALEXANDRA v BURTON ALBION
NORTHAMPTON TOWN v SHREWSBURY TOWN

I'll have a goals galore on the above too, just in case of 1-1's.

HOME WINS
PORTSMOUTH
NORWICH CITY
PETERBOROUGH UTD
AFC BOURNEMOUTH
WYCOMBE WANDERERS
ROTHERHAM UTD

BetFred 27.34 Stan James 27.15 SportingBet 25.49 Paddy Power 25.04

And then,

ARSENAL 90mins v Sunderland
JUVENTUS v AC MILAN OVER 2.5 GOALS
BAYER LEVERKUSEN 90 mins v Wolfsburg
EXCELSIOR v PSV OVER 2.5 GOALS
PSG 90 mins v Auxerre
ST.HELENS 80mins v Catalan Dragons
LEEDS RHINOS 80mins v Warrington Wolves

Paddy Power 62.72 Stan James 59.36 SportingBet 54.98 Betfred 38.49

Back to the Original Idea.....

Sort of lost track of what I was trying to achieve with this blog in recent posts.
The idea was for big priced accas not piddly 11/2 trebles, not that we're getting much success with either! But we carry on punting regardless.
Gone for 5 selections tonight, 3 footy games and 2 Super League handicaps.
Wigan played as recently as Sunday evening, losing out in the World Club Challenge after throwing everything at their NRL counterparts, but just coming up short. Salford will offer up nowhere near such resistance and the handicap varies between 12 and 14 points, that may be covered before halftime.
Harlequins have started the season amazingly well and because of their 3 year long, losing record v the Giants, they are in receipt of between 6 to 8 points at home. Harlequins are 3 wins from 3 starts including a humbling of the might Leeds Rhinos last Friday, good form in my opinion.
Borussia Dortmund at home v Cologne, is a home banker. BvB have won 6 of the last 7, home and away v FC Koln and the last meetings at the Signal Iduna Park have gone to BvB on aggregate 9-3.
Roma away at Lecce, looks like a possible banana skin, but Lecce have never beaten Roma, home or away, in 19 meetings. Roma's recent change of manager, chosen by Totti and co. seems to have reignited the desire to qualify for Champions League football next season. Recent away wins at Juventus and Milan show they have no problems travelling.
A real chance is also taken with Anderlecht. Despite this being a home fixture, it's against their closest rivals in Belgiums Jupiler League. Anderlecht have won 7 of the last 8 meetings at home v Genk. Genk are unbeaten in their last 12 matches, whereas Anderlecht have lost their last 3, a two legged Europa League tie v Ajax and a league game inbetween, prior to those defeats Anderlecht were unbeaten in 14 league games.

SUPER LEAGUE HANDICAP WIGAN WARRIORS -12/14
SUPER LEAGUE HANDICAP HARLEQUINS -6/8
BELGIAN JUPILER LEAGUE FIXTURE ANDERLECHT 90 mins
SERIE A FIXTURE ROMA 90mins
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURE BOR. DORTMUND -1/2

prices vary due to handicap lines
22.22 Paddy Power
20.35 SportingBet
13.13 BetFred (no BVB handicap)

Good luck if you're punting.

To Be Expected

After going so close Monday night, a complete reversal of fortune the following evening should come as no surprise. All 3 picks went for a burton with Espanyol and Southampton both losing and Exeter and Tranmere only managing a 1-1 draw.
Picks are thin on the ground tonight, but thanks to those lovely fellas at A McLean Bookmakers (TeleBet 0800 121 4567) we have a little free money to play with tonight!

Man City are home bankers, haven't been beaten at the Eastlands since before Christmas and Mancini surely needs silverware.
Valencia v Barcelona, over 2.5 goals. 6 of the last 7 meetings between these two have gone over.
French Cup PSG to beat their second division opponents. Le Mans are top of Ligue 2 but PSG, are unbeaten in 11 games at home including against the likes of Seville and Borussia Dortmund, agreeably sides much better than the likes of Le Mans.
Finally Arsenal v Leyton Orient and I've gone for Samir Nasri to score anytime, the stats tend to show that without either Fabregas or Van Persie in the side, both unavailable due to injury, Nasri brings himself to the fore, I've played it safe with the anytime but wouldn't be surprised if he popped in with the first.

ENGLISH F.A CUP FIXTURE MAN CITY 90 mins
SPANISH LA LIGA FIXTURE VALENCIA v BARCELONA OVER 2.5 GOALS
COUP DE FRANCE FIXTURE PSG 90 mins
ENGLISH FA CUP FIXTURE SAMIR NASRI ANYTIME SCORER for Arsenal v Leyton Orient

A McLean Bookmakers 9.24 Stan James 7.32 SportingBet 6.68 BetFred 6.64 Paddy Power 6.52

Really Close.....

Really close to collecting last night 2 out of 3 and the third was just a goal shy of collecting! I'd even changed my mind twice on the losing selection, once from overs to both to score and then back again, believe it or not.
Lots of footy action tonight and not much else going on sports wise.
I'll open up with the cardinal sin of football betting, odds on away from home.
I hear you, a fool and his money and all that, but Southampton away at struggling Walsall, surely has the looks of a decent odds compiler?
Their two meetings last season both went the way of the Saints, to an aggregate score of 8-2. Saints haven't lost a game since going out of the F.A Cup to Man United.
Walsall have shown improvement of late, since the previous manager left but their record so far this season against teams in the top half of League One is not great.
Secondly, Exeter City v Tranmere Rovers to go over 2.5 goals.
Last seasons two meetings both went over 2.5 goals, 2-1 and 3-1. Exeter currently sit 3rd in the overs/unders table with an average of 3.16 per game with Tranmere at 2.65 p.g. The Imps last 5 home games have all gone over and Tranmere's last 3 aways have all gone over.
Finally, over to Primera Liga in Spain for Espanyol v Mallorca.
Espanyol's home form is what has seen them remain firmly in the top 6 so far this season, recent defeats to two teams above them forgiven, Saturday night they beat Sociedad 4-1 and the home game prior to home defeats by Villareal(3rd) and Real Madrid(2nd), saw them beat Zaragoza 4-0. Mallorca have not won an away game in 7 attempts with just one draw managed of those 7 games. The head to head table shows, of the 13 games between these two played at the Cornella El Prat, Espanyol have won 9 drawn 2 and lost 2.

LA LIGA ESPANYOL 90 mins v Mallorca
ENGLISH LEAGUE ONE SOUTHAMPTON 90 mins v Walsall
ENGLISH LEAGUE ONE EXETER CITY v TRANMERE ROVERS OVER 2.5 GOALS

6.77 Stan James 6.61 Paddy Power 6.38 SportingBet 6.31 Betfred

Good Luck if you're punting.

There's only three selections!!

Only three of Saturdays 7 picks collected and fortunately, yesterday I was too hungover to post my picks on here.
Three footy matches tonight with a doozy over in Serie A, as table toppers Milan face rival title challengers, Napoli, who currently sit third behind resurgent Inter.
Nine recent meetings between these two sides at the San Siro have resulted in 5 home wins and 4 draws. The 6 game form table shows Napoli have picked up 1 point more than Milan and their goal difference is equal on +9. Further scrutiny of the form table and you see Milan's last 3 homes have yielded 7 points, 6 goals for and zero against, and this is what leads me to fall on the side of Milan for this fixture.
Tonights Premier League encounter comes from the Britannia Stadium for Stoke City v West Brom and as an Albion follower I'm refusing the absolute gimme of Stoke taking all 3 points. Stoke have won 7 of their last 8 meetings with WBA, home and away, Albions sit bottom of the 6 match form table with just 3 points, while Stoke are 3-0 at home scoring 7 and conceding just 2 in the same table. The pick in this game for me is both teams to score. Over the course of the season so far Albion are behind only Blackpool in averaging the most goals per game, I can actually see West Brom scoring but Stoke are regular scorers at home, even against the best sides, forced to pick a score I'd plump for 2-1 to the Potters.
Finally the bottom of the table clash in La Liga Primera, where once again I'm looking for over 2.5 goals.
Only one game between this pair has ever finished 0-0 in a Copa Del Rey game back in 06 and of the other 8 contsets just two 1-0's. Malaga currently average 3.38 goals per game with Almeria weighing in at 2.67. This may start out as a tight affair but an early goal, ideally from Almeria will see plenty of forward action, overall I see Malaga taking the 3 points tonight.

SERIE A MILAN 90 MINS v Napoli
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE STOKE CITY V W.B.A OVER 2.5 GOALS
SPANISH LA LIGA MALAGA V ALMERIA OVER 2.5 GOALS

Paddy Power 6.59 Betfred 6.59 6.30 SportingBet

Good Luck if you're punting!

Dipping our toes back in...

After last Sunday's bitter, bitter, bitter disappointment (9/10 picks winning,) I'm easing my way back in with a gentle 7 timer to trouble the Old Enemy with.
Firstly I believe England will see off France at Twickenham, rather comfortably.
34-10, 26-18, 25-17. Those are 3 of the last 4 scores between England and France at Twickenham in 6 Nations competition and I wouldn't be surprised to see a score closer to the first one mentioned this afternoon.
The televised Super League encounter this evening between Crusaders RL and Bradford is going the way of the Welsh home side for me. A victory tonight sees them clear of their 4 point deduction for going into financial administration, it's their first home game of the season and the Bulls have been heard talking of needing time for new squad members and coaches to bed in, which sounds like getting excuses in early to me, the Crusaders will more than likely win HT/FT too but safety first with lots of wet weather around Britain today, scoring could be low.
In Dubai, where wet weather is a rarity, the ATP final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, I have going the way of the former World Number 1.
Despite the recent loss to Nole at the Aussie Open, Fed had won their previous 3, 3 set matches and still holds a 12-7 head to head record. Federer has won this tournament 3 times previously and has not dropped a set on his way to todays final whereas Djoko has dropped a set twice this week and a slow start from him today and it could be over quick smart, with Federer winning in two sets.
Finishing with 4 footy picks.
In le Championnat, Stade Rennes at home v Nice sees 2nd place playing 17th with 5 wins in their last 6 meetings with Nice at home, the other ending in a draw.
Renne have won their last 3 home games 7-0 on aggregate, Nice have managed 2 draws and a loss in their last 3 aways with a minus 4 goal difference.
Through to the Bundesliga match of the season possibly.
Can Bayern Munich halt Dortmunds seemingly inevitable march to only a seventh Bundesliga title in their 100 year history.
I've gone for over 2.5 goals because the Bundesliga currently has 16 of it's 18 teams averaging over 2.5 goals per game and recent meetings between these two sides have seen 2-1 twice, 3-1 twice and a 5-1 and recently Munich have been scoring for fun.
As easy as he is to dislike, Robben to score anytime looks a decent bet too.
The only Serie A action today sees Juventus take on Bologna at the Stadio Olimpico, where in 12 matches v Bologna they have not lost and after a poor showing v Lecce last Sunday (Buffon sent off early didn't help,)Del Nieri will be expecting a strong showing from his side in front of a home crowd to put their Champions League chase back on track.
Finally, La Liga action with Deportivo La Coruna hosting Real Madrid.
Madrid are 2/5 shots despite having a pretty woeful record at the Riazor, 1 win in 17 visits! That almost makes the general evens about Depor having a goal start worth taking but I've gone for overs on the goals again with the last 10 games between them averaging 3.5 goals per game.

LIGUE 1 STADDE RENNE v Lens
SERIE A JUVENTUS v Bologna
LA LIGA DEPORTIVO LA CORUNA v REAL MADRID OVER 2.5 GOALS
BUNDESLIGA BAYERN MUNICH v BORUSSIA DORTMUND OVER 2.5 GOALS
6 NATIONS ENGLAND v France
SUPER LEAGUE RUGBY CRUSADERS RL v Bradford Bulls
ATP DUBAI FINAL ROGER FEDERER

A McLean Bookmakers 32.53 BetFred 30.26 29.88 Paddy Power 28.92 Sportingbet

I'll be posting a small footy acca on my Twitter timeline, @rudgey76, later today, before the 3 o'clock kickoffs.
Good Luck if you're punting.

Does it ever get tiresome......

It's starting to a little.
You look at the form, dissect head to heads, homes and aways, form tables and teams just turn it on it's head at times for no good apparent reason! SWINES!
Anyway, today sees the last of the account being emptied on three tennis finals, a snooker final, two Super League teams and four football teams, ludicrous!

SERIE A FIXTURE AC MILAN
SERIE A FIXTURE NAPOLI
LA LIGA FIXTURE SEVILLE
LA LIGA FIXTURE VILLAREAL
WELSH OPEN SNOOKER FINAL JOHN HIGGINS
ATP MARSEILLE FINAL ROBIN SODERLING
ATP BUENOS AIRES FINAL NICOLAS ALMAGRO
ATP MEMPHIS FINAL ANDY RODDICK
SUPER LEAGUE FIXTURE WARRINGTON WOLVES
SUPER LEAGUE FIXTURE WIGAN WARRIORS

45.42 Paddy Power 43.56 BetFred 41.21 SportingBet

AC Milan have won the last 8 meetings with Chievo home and away. Nuff Said.
Napoli have won all their Serie A fixtures at home v Catania by an aggregate of 4-0(3 games.)
Villareal have hit a bit of a flat spot the last few weeks but should use this home game v rock bottom club Malaga as a stepping stone to a return to form.
Seville have won all 3 home games v Hercules by an aggregate score of 7-0, their recent form has not been good but they have earlier in the season put runs of wins together v lesser sides.
The 3 tennis finals, all picks are odds on favorites for very good reason. All 3 are ranked above their opponents, Soderling and Almagro hold winning head to head records v Cilic and Chela respectively, with Raonic, Roddicks opponent coming off the back of last weeks win, may be feeling the effects of his longest stint of playing competitive Tour tennis. Roddick has also won this title twice before, as recently as 2009.
John higgins is my last hope in getting Stephen Bloody Maguire beat this week, it's become a bit of a vendetta to not let the dour Scotsman win this tournament this afternoon. Higgins is provisionally ranked number one with Maguire at eight, Higgins has won their two most recent encounters.
The two Super League teams, Warrington and Wigan will want to win this afternoons clashes, simply so as not to lose ground on the Rhinos who after a shaky start at the Millenium, won impressively Friday night. Therefore wins feel essential for these two so early in the campaign.

Unless we recoup recent losses today, it could be a quiet midweek, so wish us a little luck,eh?

Keep Backing.....

2 out of the bonus 4 won yesterday and 4 of the "Solid" 6.
Ali Carter keeping up his good form took out our selection, Ding Junhui, in the quarter finals yesterday but we'll be taking "Captain" Carter on again today with John Higgins who looks to be keeping up his winning form after yesterdays fairly comfortable dispatching of Matthew Stevens. Higgins has a 2-1 head to head in 2011. In the other semi, Stephen Maguire kept up his bad name in my household by beating last weeks German Masters winner Mark Williams, who we had in our chancey extras. He faces our selection for today, Mark Selby, who reached the final last Sunday but fell a couple of frames short, losing 9-7 to Mark J, hopefully he'll have another final appearance tomorrow to try and make amends.
The Open13 tennis tournament in Marseille has alson reached the semi final stage and after deciding Tursunov wouldn't be making his way to the arena today with Melzer his opponent in the quarters, he duly obliged by beating yesterday's pick in 3 sets. He squares up against another last week winner in Robin Soderling who is playing his best and most consistent tennis of his career. Will fatigue be a factor, hopefully not as Soderling has reached 2 Grand Slam finals which are 2 weeks of consecutive play and even a so-so showing from the tall Swede should be good enough to make another final appearance tomorrow.
The other Open13 semi sees Marin Cilic line up as the outsider v Mikael Youznhy who saw off another of our selections yesterday. Their head to head doesn't read to well for our pick either as Youznhy holds a 4-0 record, but Youznhy has been on court a lot in the last fortnight, reaching the quarters last week and playing two 3 setters the last two days where as Cilic has seen off dangerous opponents in straight sets.
As for football, I've gone for strong home favourites with good head to head records with their respective opponents:

SERIE A FIXTURE INTER MILAN
LA LIGA FIXTURE VALENCIA
LA LIGA FIXTURE REAL MADRID
LIGUE 1 FIXTURE OLYMPIQUE MARSEILLE
ENGLISH F.A CUP CHELSEA
OPEN13 TENNIS ROBIN SODERLING
OPEN13 TENNIS MARIN CILIC
WELSH OPEN SNOOKER JOHN HIGGINS
WELSH OPEN SNOOKER MARK SELBY

35.71 Stan James 34.57 Paddy Power 28.57 SportingBet 14.75 BetFred
(at time of writing BetFred hadn't priced up their tennis matches)

Aside from these I'm having a footy acca from the English League action taking place today:

CHAMPIONSHIP SWANSEA CITY
LEAGUE ONE PETERBOROUGH UNITED
LEAGUE ONE CHARLTON ATHLETIC
LEAGUE ONE COLCHESTER UNITED

7.93 BetFred 7.57 Paddy Power 7.30 Stan James 7.02 SportingBet

Best of British!cont....

With Charlton making their recent results look stupid against Exeter and Chelsea immediately falling under the "Torres = No Trophy" curse, I've gone back in on tonights action, using matches that hadn't yet kicked off and adding a couple of guesses:

Welsh Open Snooker Mark Selby
Engage Super League fixture Huddersfield Giants
Bundesliga Fixture Bayern Munich
Serie A fixture Palermo
Serie A fixture Inter Milan
La Liga fixture Valencia
La Liga fixture Real Madrid

I'll try and post some odds via Twitter(rudgey76)
This sports following is expensive, fingers crossed.

Solid +4

Despite a 147 from Steve Hendry in yesterdays Welsh Open action, he couldn't stop himself losing to Stephen Maguire and as far as Europa League games go, they're deadlier than early rounds of our League cup.
All in all, another no score draw for the page.
Today we're trying another tactic, we're going with a solid short priced 6 timer to try and boost our weekend funds, then adding a further 4 selections to make merry with.

Solid:

John Higgins Welsh Open v Matthew Stevens
Ding Junhui Welsh Open v Ali Carter
Leicester City 90 mins v Bristol City
Olympique Lyonnais 90 mins v Nancy
Leeds Rhinos 80 mins v Hull FC
Jurgen Melzer Open13 v Dmitry Tursunov

11.77 Stan James 11.75 Paddy Power 11.54 Betfred 11.20 SportingBet

+4:

Mark Williams Welsh Open v Stephen Maguire
Jo Wilfred Tsonga Open13 v Mikhael Youznhy
Fc Nurnberg 90 mins v E.Frankfurt
St.Helens 80 mins v Salford City Reds

64.44 BetFred 64.19 Stan James 61.63 Paddy Power 59.55 SportingBet

Not all of the "Solid" 6 are gimmes, though you would be confident of Leicester continuing their good form v Bristol City tonight. The Foxes sit top of the Championship form table with a 3-0-0 home record, scoring 10 conceding 4.
Lyon have not lost in 9 home games v Nancy and need the win to claw back some ground on the 4 clubs above them in Ligue 1.
Nurnberg are a real leap of faith, they are in good form compared to Frankfurt but recent meetings between the 2 are littered with low scoring draws apart from Nurnbergs 07/08 double over Eintracht.
Melzer may have gone close to being the most improved player on the tour last year despite his 28 year age and Tursunov could probably count semi final appearances in the last 12 months on one hand.
Tsonga's record v Youznhy stands at 2-2 but the two in the Russians favour come from injury walkovers and Tsonga has been in fine fettle in 2011.
John Higgins currently sits at number 1 in snookers World rankings and should be confident of seeing off a somewhat resurgent Matthew Stevens(which we seem to say the same time every year before Worlds in April, then he disappears again.)
Carter has a lot of decent form over the last 6 months but with Junhui breaking the shackles of that first big win, there's a feeling the fllodgates may open and he could be worth an investment in Newport for the outright.
Mark Williams is in fine form, some of the best of his ditinguished career, he's in the plus four due to Maguire being a bit of a spoiler for me over the years.
Early season Super League form can be decidedly dodgy but Leeds have beaten Hull, home and away for the last 3 seasons and Salford are still waiting for new signings to be cleared to play giving St.Helens a nice easing into their campaign.
Apart from Williams(13:00) and Tsonga(17:30) all other fixtures kick off after 19:00.

Absolutely No Idea

Shocking stuff in Rome and the "Sausage Train" just keeps on rolling.
The Rocket misfired and Verdasco slipped up in 3 sets to a wild card qualifier! So with the abandonment of Dundee Utd v Hamilton, our score read 6-41 which put us over the 50% target, but still no returns.
Due to technical difficulties, i.e Sky Broadband acting up all morning, I have literally picked this acc on the go via mobile betting sites and hunches.

Welsh Open fixture Ryan Day
Welsh Open fixture Neil Robertson
Welsh Open fixture Ali Carter
Europa League fixture Liverpool
Europa League fixture Lille
Europa League fixture Benfica
Europa League fixture Besiktas

Rhyme there is none and I'm struggling for reason, the snooker players are odds on against players they've beaten in the past, the footy teams, liverpool are playing, at times, with a new found desire and would be expected to beat Sparta Prague in any normal season. Lille are strong in Ligue 1 at home, Benfica, like a few Portugese sides at the moment, have real flair and strong competitiveness on the European stage. Besiktas have a strong Portugese influence in their side at the moment and may be hoping a decent run in this competition will ressurect their domestic title challenge.
Hopefully I will post the price for this acca on Twitter (@rudgey76) once I've harassed some of the old enemy for returns!

11 Selections? Should be a million.....

Cardiff and Burnley and Tottenham v Milan both came up short on the goals for us last night. Charlton lost and Northampton managed to share 6 goals with Morecambe, so no great shakes yesterday although our snooker picks seem in good nick and with a few of those chucked in today, I'm hopeful of hitting a % of over 50 in todays selections. I'm also dipping my toes into a few tennis matches:

Welsh Open John Higgins 15:00
Welsh Open Mark Selby 19:00
Welsh Open Ronnie O'Sullivan 19:00
ATP Memphis Open Lleyton Hewitt 17:30
ATP Memphis Open Mardy Fish 20:10
ATP Memphis Open Fernando Verdasco 01:00
Bundesliga 1 fixture Hamburg v St.Pauli 17:45
Serie A fixture Internazionale v Fiorentina 17:30
SPL fixture Dundee Utd v Hamilton Academicals 19:45
UEFA Champions League Roma v Shakhtar Donetsk 19:45
UEFA Champions League Arsenal v Barcelona over 2.5 goals 19:45

134.44 SportingBet 126.03 Paddy Power 122.84 BetFred

To be honest the snooker and tennis selections speak for themselves once you've surveyed the opposition, all the players would be disappointed to progress no further.
Arsenal's game going over on the goals looks a gimme.
Roma are solid at home in the league and are in desperate need financially to progress further in the CL, they'll want to be taking a 2 or 3 goal lead back to the Ukraine in 2 weeks time.
Dundee Utd beat the Accie's 2 games back 3-1 away from home and with Hamilton rock bottom, United should be looking for a comfortable home win.
Inter Milan seem to be playing every other day but after Sundays defeat to Juventus, they'll be wanting to bounce back against a Fiorentina side with 1 win in their last 5.
And finally the possible St.Pauli spanner in the works! The "Sausage Train" team have been picking up wins recently but from teams in their immediate vicinity, Hamburg will be hoping to close up on the Europa League spots with a win at home this evening.

Restaurants are half the price on the 15th!!

I told the missus I was unlucky that a few others had booked Monday 14th Feb of at work before so I couldn't get that day off but the 15th was available!
That was before I saw AC v Tottenham was on tonight.
So thats another lie. There are a surprising amount of restaurants closed the evening after Valentines day!! But I've found a local place doing lunch, cheap!
Which will leave me enough to splurge on this ridiculous acca consisting of Champions League, English football league and Welsh Open snooker:

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AC MILAN V TOTTENHAM OVER 2.5 GOALS
ENGLISH CHAMPIONSHIP CARDIFF V BURNLEY OVER 2.5 GOALS
ENGLISH LEAGUE 1 FIXTURE AFC BOURNEMOUTH
ENGLISH LEAGUE 1 FIXTURE CHARLTON ATHLETIC
ENGLISH LEAGUE 2 FIXTURE ROTHERHAM UTD
ENGLISH LEAGUE 2 FIXTURE NORTHAMPTON TOWN
WELSH OPEN SNOOKER MARK ALLEN
WELSH OPEN SNOOKER MARK WILLIAMS
WELSH OPEN SNOOKER NEIL ROBERTSON
WELSH OPEN SNOOKER GRAEME DOTT

227.24 BetFred 219.09 Stan James 216.19 Paddy Power 195.41 SportingBet


Now Mark's Allen and Williams break off at 1300 hours U.K time so should anything go wrong while I'm at Dino's we can get back and place some interest in the rest of the day's sporting actione.
All 4 snooker players are ranked above todays opponents and are rightly favourites.
Tottenham conceded 4 last time they were at the San Siro and I can see, what constantly looks like a makeshift back 4, struggling to cope with Pato, Robinho and Ibra. I can also see Spurs scoring though with VDV passed fit to play and the possible inclusion of Luca Modric.
Cardiff and Burnley both currently average over 2.5 goals per game and recent meetings between the 2 have been littered with goals.
Bournemouth and Charlton are first and second in the League 1 form table and hopefully will both pick up 3 points tonight. Charlton haven't lost to Hartlepool in the 3 matches they have contested. Bournemouth have won their last 5 meetings with Bristol Rovers, who have lost their last 5 league 1 fixtures.
Rotherham and Northampton both have home games they should be more than up to winning games against teams beneath them in the table.

Off to Dino's for a nice bit of cannelloni.

Madness on a Monday

Palermo got us off to the worst possible start yesterday, their half eleven kickoff meaning we fell at the first hurdle on yesterdays acca. We went back in with the games kicking off later but fortunately, at the time, missing the QPR start. France and Leeds won their respective rugby matches, though not without difficulty, FC Cologne won, as did Lille but Everton and Villareal were poor, performance wise and left us waiting for our first collect since we began Boom or Bust.

Any quick glance would miss the opportunities available to compile a sporting rollup today, but us problem gamblers will always find something we can claim to be knowledgeable enough on:

EPL fixture Chelsea
La Liga fixture Athletic Bilbao
Turkish Super Lig fixture Fenerbache
Welsh Open fixture Jamie Cope
Welsh Open fixture Ryan Day

19.85 Betfred 20.21 W.Hill 19.95 Stan James 18.26 SportingBet 18.16 Paddy Power

Chelsea were on the improve until their disappointing performance v Liverpool and have a decent record at Craven Cottage in recent times.
Fenerbache have a tough fixture against fellow title rivals in a 6 o'clock kickoff but are 8-2-0 at home this season.
The Bilbao pick is risky as Mallorca have taken the majority of their points at home this season, but Athletic are in good form and have a team full of goals.
The 2 snooker picks are top players up against some of the games lesser lights and should give the evening session crowd few scares.

Good Luck if you're punting today.

Quick Apology

Johnny Foreigner's Euro picks were sent to me, I accidently deleted them and had posted the blog by the time I had received them again.

Ligue 1 PSG and Brest
Serie A Napoli DNB and Inter DNB
La Liga Valencia and Villareal
Bundesliga Schalke draw and Werder Bremen

PSG drew and Schalke won to put an end to @Johnny_Rudge's dreams.
As for my acc, PSG, Dortmund again and Liverpool let me down, 3 draws foiling the attempt.
If any of you are interested, I enjoyed my trip to my first ever jumps meet at Warwick.
Betting wise, after 6 races the only money I'd got coming back was 3 non runners at Newbury after that was rather tragically abandoned, in fact none of the coach trip I was on were in front on the day. Nobody seemed interested in the closing bumper due to their disbelief at WBA's ineptitude but I had scribbled WHAT A WARRIOR down on a slip waiting for the prices to dictate my stakes. I'm no Harry Findlay so my stakes were bare minimum but when 50/1 came up, I halved my minimum bet, who knew,eh? Anyway that actually put me up on the day so with a gentle tingle in my right leg, from hitting it repeatedly on Paddy Brennan's run in on the last winner at Warwick, I snuck a small double on Leicester and Spurs to win the late English kick offs, over 20 points up on the day!!
With our coffers slightly swollen we can take a few chances today:

EPL fixture Everton 16:00 k.o
English Championship fixture QPR 13:15 k.o
Bundesliga fixture FC KOLN 14:30 k.o
Ligue 1 fixture Lille 20:00 k.o
Serie A fixture Palermo 11:30 k.o
La Liga fixture Villareal 18:00 k.o
6 Nations fixture France 15:00 k.o
Super League fixture Leeds Rhinos 14:00 k.o

168.47 W.Hill 158.52 Paddy Power 151.96 BetFred 150.16 Stan James 130.85 SportingBet

Obviously we'll know our fate early with Palermo kicking off in afew minutes but should they fail to win I can put another acc on later using remaining kickoffs.

Good Luck if you're punting today.

See me on C4 Racing this afternoon.....

I'll be the drunken goon trying to get a telling off from Big Mac.
In fact he and Taanya will more than likely be at Newbury not Warwick, poor old Warwick will probably get mad old Thommo or sleazeball Cattermole, anyway I'll be tapping up some knowledgeable Twitter horseracing types for tips later this morning.
As a result of todays adventure, this mornings picks are a little hurried and with even less confidence than usual:

6 NATIONS FIXTURE WALES
6 NATIONS FIXTURE FRANCE
EPL FIXTURE LIVERPOOL
ENGLISH LEAGUE 1 FIXTURE SOUTHAMPTON
ENGLISH LEAGUE 1 FIXTURE CHARLTON
FRENCH LIGUE 1 FIXTURE PSG
GERMAN BUNDESLIGA FIXTURE B.DORTMUND
ITALIAN SERIE A FIXTURE AC MILAN
SUPER LEAGUE 16 FIXTURE LEEDS RHINOS

72.09 W.HILL 67.93 BETFRED 64.11 SPORTINGBET 63.07 PADDY POWER

No great confidence in Charlton although they have won all three meetings with Peterborough.
Southampton and Liverpool look home bankers.
PSG, Dortmund and AC are all odds on, chasing domestic titles and playing much lesser opposition today, one drawback being Dortmund away from home but Kaiserslauten are on a four game losing streak.
France should have too much for Ireland but it won't be comfortable and Wales will have to play well to beat Scotland but they have won the last 3 meetings between the nations including one at Murrayfield.
Foolish to bet on an opening day of any season but the Rhinos have never lost a Magic Weekend fixture and I believe will be fired up to get a good marker down for St.Helens and Wigan for the rest of the season.

Good luck if you're punting today.

International Friendlies? Bookies Friendlies more like!

But I'm still going in regardless of the unpredictable nature of these games. I have picked out 7 selections all from games kicking off at 7:30 or after as it's easier for me to check scores at work once they've all gone home!
Not a great deal of science behind the picks but I do hold certain views on the games which will be briefly highlighted on the other side:

Germany v Italy over 2.5 goals
Holland v Austria over 2.5 goals
Argentina v Portugal over 2.5 goals
Poland v Norway over 2.5 goals
Spain v Columbia over 2.5 goals
Scotland to beat N.Ireland
France to beat Brazil

179.79 W.Hill 172.00 BetFred 171.70 Paddy Power
165.21 SportingBet

The Germans have been quite vocal over how much they want to win this game and in front of a home crowd in Dortmund, an early goal could see them overun Italy and end their 16 year wait to beat this particular opposition.
Holland v Austria ove rthe years has been absolutely chock a block full of goals and recent games for both sides against other opposition have seen plenty of scoreboard action too.
Argentina v Portugal in Switzerland should, SHOULD be an entertaining affair with Ronaldo v Messi and lots of other quality on show, I've gone for goals but this one I fear the most.
Poland v Norway in Portugal! The last 3 meetings between these two have gone over 2.5.
I almost put Spain to win to nil but for Carlos Puyol missing out, but I'm pretty sure this will go over with the quality the Spanish have going forward despite Columbia being fairly stingy in defence.
Something you won't hear to often next, Scotland should have too much quality tonight for their opposition! N.Ireland regulars are thin on the ground tonight whereas Scotland are at full strength, which includes Charlie Adam who may be the difference all on his own.
Big chance taken on France, but both managers are fielding works in progress, with Les Blues edging due to having played together a little more than the Brazil squad that has been selected, although the possibility of goals was tempting, France's recent record against Brazil and the home crowd swayed me into an attempted returns booster.

Good luck if you're punting!

If 1/4 shots get beat, what chance have you got?

Surprisingly none of our English football picks got beat although Bournemouth and Wycombe could only manage draws despite both leading at one point.
The house would have gone thanks to Ireland, having not seen either 6 Nations match yesterday, I can only surmise that Ireland weren't up to speed rather than Italy are ready to challenge for the title! France should have covered the handicap but didn't.
Bundesliga teams seem to have got wind of this blog and are colluding to derail our attempts to bring bookmakers to their knees and Villareal, I have no words?!
Here are todays picks, 2 accas:

EPL fixture West Ham v Birmingham Over 2.5 goals
EPL fixture Chelsea v Liverpool Both teams to score
Serie A fixture AC Milan
Serie A fixture Napoli
Eredivisie fixture Groningen
La Liga fixture Valencia
Ligue 1 fixture Olyimpique Lyonnais
Superbowl 45 Pittsburgh Steelers +3
61.31 W.Hill 59.87 Betfred 59.29 Stan James 53.78 Paddy Power 25.06 SportingBet(no qoute for #LFC + #CFC both to score)

Ben Roethlisberger Superbowl MVP
Serie A fixture AC Milan -1
EPL fixture Robbie Keane anytime goalscorer
EPL fixture Luis Suarez anytime goalscorer
106.64 BetFred (the only firm to have all prices available on Oddschecker)

Only a few of these picks I feel need explaining. West Ham and Birminghams last 2 EPL fixtures have both featured 9 goals and their last 3 meetings have both gone over 2.5.
Liverpool and Chelsea both to score seems a little chancey but with Torres certain to score and Kenny's new found freedom for his entire midfield, I reckon the free scoring in this weekends EPL will continue into its final leg.
In acca 2, if the Steelers are to win the Superbowl, it will more than likely be led by their QB which makes him almost a cert for the MVP. "Big Ben" has won 2 SuperBowl rings without picking up the MVP award so there is another reason to chuck him in.
Robbie Keane is a goalscorer in any side in the world and Suarez is a wild guess(sorry.)
Haven't heard any trumpeting from Johnny Foreigner so with not a lot of time to check, I presume his 7 grand Euro acc went West along with mine.

Good Luck if you're punting today.

Smash It In 'er Saturday

Ooooh! Jumpers for goal posts, it's a funny old game, harder to play against 10 men....my arse! Reading had all of the second half to patiently move the ball around with the extra man and opportunities would surely have come? Instead QPR score with 10 minutes to go and then who looks like they've got the extra man? I don't know, I was at work but I'm guessing that's thr rough jist of it. I did read a brief post mortem of BVB's 0-0 with Nurenburg, long spells of possession, few chances, hit the post with about 5 to go. Ajax cleared the -1 handicap and England won fairly comfortabley. By the time - knew my fate I'd forgotten about Captain Carter and his German raid and I still don't know the result now!
Anyway, onwards and upwards:

6 Nations fixture Ireland -12
6 Nations fixture France -14
Championship fixture Nottm Forest
Championship fixture Leicester
League 1 fixture Bournemouth
League 2 fixture Wycombe Wanderers
1.Bundesliga fixture B.Leverkusen
La Liga Primera fixture Villareal
104.76 W.Hill 90.60 BetFred 82.44 PP 82.77 SportingBet

If I had a mortgage to gamble, I would be seriously considering having the lot on Ireland -12. Couldn't believe it when I saw how highly the handicappers rate Italys chances or do they subscribe to a mystifying theory of this Irish side has seen better days?
Admittedly -14 for France, in my opinion, is the maker or breaker today.
They could be all square after the first 10 minutes or have the crowd on their backs after an hour for only being 3 in front. I reckon first match at home as defending champions Les Blues will be right up for it and despite recent good results for Scotland(probably because they're coached by an Englishman) France have an outstanding record in Paris v the Scots and -14 should have been the halftime handicap.
Yesterday I claimed all of Europe had been singing Dortmunds praises for their football, after last nights result, I'm sure I had my Bayer's mixed up.
Leverkusen are a young side with goals flooding in from young, energetic midfielders and a few from up front. They are away and had they been odds on I may have left them alone but at slight odds against they nicely bump the return up.
I really shouldn't have to explain Villareal at around 2/7 at home against one of the La Liga bottom 3.
The English football 4 timer is our most likely ranting post tomorrow but in brief they are all at home with recent good form on their side and also recent good head to head results against their respective oppositions.

Now I promised Johnny Foreigner(@Johnny_Rudge on Twitter) I'd post his picks off this weekends Euro Coupon, so here you are:

B.Mochengladbach
Bordeaux
Brest v Nancy over 2.5
Almeria
Villareal
Getafe
Bilbao
Udinese/Sampdoria Draw
Juventus
Pazzini anytime Inter v Roma

Well worth a quarter of anybodys point.
Good luck if you're punting today.

Cheeky little Friday night number!

Wednesday night was largely disappointing, the 90 minute betting acc scored 57%, and the mash up came in at a lowly 40% correct. Acca 2 was let down by Roma being unable to hold on to the lead they took after halftime, Bolton and Wolves concocted just one goal between them,late on and our Birmingham pick was in all sorts of trouble after Citeh scored in the fourth minute. The 43% in acca 1 included Watford and Notts County only managing draws and Napoli underperforming away from home. A last note on acca 1, I noticed quite a few mentions on my Twitter timeline (@rudgey76) cursing Watford being held to 1-1 by struggling Crystal Palace, we can all strike back at the Hornets Saturday afternoon by including 4/5 Notts Forest, which at the time of writing looks decent value for Homeies.
Tonight sees the start of a cracking weekend of sporting action, with the 6 Nations rugby kicking of in Cardiff, the climax of this years NFL season Superbowl 45, masses of soccer and a snooker tournament sneaking under the radar over in Germany.
3 of the afore mentioned are included in tonights shuffle:

Eredivisie fixture Ajax -1
Championship fixture Reading DNB
1.Bundesliga fixture B.Dortmund
6 Nations fixture England
German Masters fixture Ali Carter
12.61 Paddy Power 8.41 SportingBet 8.25 W.Hill 6.30 BetFred
(Before you all berate SB, BF and WH, PP are only offering Ajax -2 hence the inflated returns.)

Ajax have won their last 2 league games comfortably withou Suarez scoring or even playing I believe, Reading have a strong home record this season with QPR's form variable according to how Taraabt feels.
BVB are leading the Bundesliga and winning plaudits all over Europe for their current football. England are strong favs outright for 6 Nations glory and only with Wales on an alarming losing streak which hopefully will last one more test and Ali Carter who has a resurgence in form this season after a tepid end to 09/10 plays Joe Perry who is ranked 25 places lower.(World Rankings.)
So there you have it, take it or leave it, I've had a little at PP with the -2 but I'll have a smidge more somewhere at -1.
There'll be more picks tomorrow and a debut appearance from someone claiming to specialise in footballing matters on the mainland(Europe.)

Good luck if you're punting.

The World and his mate were on Watford last night...

I haven't read any reports into the draw at Vicarage Road but my Twitter timeline seemed full of non too pleasant feelings towards the Hornets after they failed to beat doomed Crystal Palace.
They weren't the only team to let me down as the Albion's continual ineffective setpiece defending let them down again, although match reports suggest it could have ended 11-10 with the Baggies hitting the post twice in the last 10 minutes after equalising. Good to watch for the neutrals!
As for the rest of last nights acc, Chelsea, Q.P.R, Bournemouth, Wycombe and overs at Peterborough all came in. We'll call that, clipping the outside of the post.

I've picked out two lines for tonight, some 90 minute victories in one and the other acc contains slightly leftfield picks.
Teams to win only stands thus:

Serie A fixture Roma
Serie A fixture Palermo
Serie A fixture Napoli
EPL fixture Tottenham Hotspur
EPL fixture Liverpool
League 1 fixture Notts County
Copa del Rey fixture Real Madrid
57.38 Betfred 44.00 SportingBet

Now the second acca, bear with me, it could get confusing:

Birmingham v Man City under 2.5 goals
Blackpool v West Ham over 2.5 goals
Bolton Wanderers v Wolves over 2.5 goals
Real Madrid -1 v Sevilla
HT draw FT Roma
45.87 Betfred 27.27 SportingBet

And just for the hell of it I'll stick the 2 overs in with the 90 minute bet.
After tonight it's heads down for the weekend action and boy is there some action, I may have to ask the bookies to take my accas on pieces of A4 there's so much going on.
Good Luck if you're punting tonight.

the World and his mate were on Watford last night....

An unsuprisingly poor start to proceedings!

What a joke that Asia Cup final was?
You could have visited any number of Conference matches Saturday afternoon and seen a better standard of football than was put on offer by Japan and Australia. The "Socceroos didn't even start with a striker on the pitch!
The finish from the Japanese lad was sublime but he could have done anuthing he liked with it, the time and space he was afforded in the area. I haven't seen as many swings and misses since the good lady tried her hand at pitch and putt over Sandwell Valley!
Andy Murray. If in the near future, you want to back the Scot to win a tennis major, find the best price on offer, come find me and I'll lay you double.
He is a bottler. I watched his first two appearances in major finals and was left feeling like if he ever caame up against anybody who wasn't Nadal or Federer, he would break the 75 year wait. I took the dog for a walk after seeing him lose the first, sit down and tell his coaching staff to calm down, it was only going to end one way. Is being British number 1 good enough for his talent? No. I picked a racket up in JD at the weekend and instantly became British number 35!
Anyway, midweek bonus with so much footy on and with no reasoning, rhyme or explanation here is what I've picked out for Tuesday night:

EPL fixture Chelsesa
EPL fixture West Brom
Championship fixture QPR
Championship fixture Watford
League 1 fixture Bournemouth
League 1 fixture Posh 3 or more
League 2 fixture Wycombe

Let's see how those get on.
The weekend has already got me bubbling and frothing at a potential acca fest, with tons of sports swinging their best bits about.
Good Luck.

Re-Invention

After last weeks dismal performance, ilovestevepalmer has been put out to pasture and in it's place arrives Boom or Bust.
No more picking short singles trying to create a better betting strike rate than Messi or Ronaldo's La Liga goalscoring exploits, from now on it's large accumulators for little money, trying to catch the bookies out with our stupifying knowledge of the sporting world.
Sticking to what we think we know best first up with a weekend football acc:

ASIA CUP OUTRIGHT AUSTRALIA
F.A CUP FIXTURE BOLTON WANDERERS
LIGUE 1 FIXTURE LORIENT
SERIE A FIXTURE INTER MILAN
SERIE A FIXTURE AC MILAN

Australia as a footballing nation will be desperate to take the spoils from this afternoons final appearance against Japan. Recent meetings have been split, 2 wins a piece and a draw. The Aussies cruised through their semi-final, beating Uzbekistan 6-0 while Japan had to struggle against S.Korea eventually going through on penalties. Also in the Socceroos favour is the big game experience that their starting 11 carries, plenty of EPL and European competition, but the safety first option of taking Australia to lift the trophy covers any spoiling tactics or nervousness the sides may field.
Bolton have not lost a home F.A Cup tie in the last 2 seasons and Wigan are rather bravely/stupidly fielding a much weakened side, that factor coupled with Wigans rather tepid cup record places this one in the home banker list.
Lorient v Brest I will not try and kid you that I'm anywhere near an expert on French football, but I know a man who is. James Eastham who writes a French football column for various magazines, put this up as his best bet of the weekend on his Betfair column, a link to said column can be found @james_eastham on Twitter or on the Betfair website.
Saturday night Italy's attacking force of Ibra, Robinho, Cassano roll into Catania unbeaten in their last 10 away games in all competions. Catania's home record this season is no disgrace but in recent weeks, Inter and Juve have both left having collected 3 points each and AC will not want to give anymore encouragment to the Serie A chasing pack.
Inter milan have responded to the recent chanage of manager, Leonardo coming in for Rafa Benitez and cajoling the side back into winning ways. A slight blip v Udinese came on the back of a few wins in a short space of time and although Palermo have at times restricted Inter a single point in some of their recent meetings, they haven't beaten the home side since 2005 and Internazionale have won their last 6 homes in all competitions.
17.26 BETFRED 15.87 SPORTINGBET 17.63 WILLIAM HILL
Now with not a lot of other sports taking a bit of a backburner this weekend I have put those five footy teams in a seperate acca with one other selection for a 6 timer:

AUSTRALIAN TENNIS OPEN FINAL ANDY MURRAY

Murray has won the last 3 meetings with Novak Djokovic, all on hard courts and all with some degree of comfort. Yes Nole has been here before and won it, but Murray is featuring in his 3rd major final and I believe he had his one struggle in his semi final whereas Djokovic may have left his final performance on the court v Federer in the semis. As a 6 fold this more than doubles the returns from the football alone.
35.89 WILLIAM HILL 32.79 SPORTINGBET 34.07 BETFRED

Good luck if you're punting.

Dad Said....

Very quiet.
Since last saturdays failings, Notts County 0-0 v Southampton and the treble consisting of a win, a loss and a draw, ilovestevepalmer has kept a pretty low profile during the following week.
Stoke were put up as a fancy at a decent price in their FA Cup tie v Cardiff City but they decided the extra half hour was just what they needed, so waited till extra time to put 2 past the Bluebirds.
The lack of picks midweek is not just a bit of a sulk either, as hopefully many others are noticing, January is as much of a stretch as December with all the catching up to do financially, so powder has to be spread elsewhere as opposed to where I'd like to chuck it.
Football wise, Saturday is proving difficult and the picks are not carrying a huge amount of confidence.

BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR v Newcastle Utd 3p.m k.o 6/5 general

I'd love to back this pick with a few stats and opinions, but aside from a recent league cup tie Spurs don't have a great record at St. James'.
As far as opinions go, Harry Redknapp has to agree, 3 points is whats required from a trip to Newcastle if he truly does believe his side are capable of breaking the duopoly of Man U and Chelsea and comparing the two possible starting XI's, 11/10 should be a great price, makes me think some odds compilers are Geordies (not like Newcastle fans to get caught up in unrealistic expectations?)

SOCCER SATURDAY DOUBLE HUDDERSFIELD + SOUTHAMPTON 3p.m k.o general 2/1.

2 strong challengers for the League 1 title this season and both should keep good runs going this afternoon.

OVER 2.5 GOAL TREBLE PORTSMOUTH V LEEDS/CARDIFF V WATFORD/CHARLTON V PLYMOUTH

Not a usual bet for us but a better option than sticking someone in our win bets that we don't have much faith in and also the over goals stats in these games show up strongly. Minimum stakes.

Look out for other sports picks posted up on Twitter later this weekend @rudgey76, there'll be NFL, European footy and maybe a bit of tennis and rugby union.
Some good horseracing at Ascot today and after our horse people put up a knocking good bet with Binocular last Saturday, I'll be checking in again with @KeejayOV @wayward_lad @theuphillbattle and @narrowthefield to see what they@ve come up with, but the final word will go to Fast Freddie, when asked last night if he fancied putting anything up as a selection today all he said was, "just follow Geraghty tomorrow son, just follow Geraghty," could be prophetic or pathetic.

Good luck with your bets and COME ON!!

More ups and downs.....

Late Sunday afternoon bets got off to flyer, we put Man City's F.A Cup tie v Leicester as an over 2.5 goals pick, both teams duly obliged before half time, leaving us thinking we were on for a good evening.
Unfortunately Ali Carter never really got into anywhere near his best shape v Peter Ebdon and the Philly Eagles let down our NFL double.
A joy to watch Sunday evening, despite the loss to our accounts, was Real Madrid v Barcelona, we took a chance with Villareal +1.5 and at one stage fancied us to be collecting as the Yellow Submarines twice went in front, but when the 3rd Real goal went in it felt fairly inevitable a 4th would soon follow.
Just a quick point regarding watching Real Madrid, I prefer to watch Real than Barca!!
At least Mourinho's men give the opposition the ball sometimes, sometimes they have to really try, watching Barcelona these days, in League action, carries a certain amount of inevitability that takes any fun out of trying to guess a bet.
At least one more win for us Sunday in the BDO Darts final where we picked over 11 sets and Wolfie ended up winning 7-5.
Into the working week and our Masters snooker betting resumed with a handicap pick on Graham Dott 1.5 in front of John Higgins, which the bald Scot didn't need as he beat Higgins outright. The same snookering day saw our ante post pick, Mark Williams take up the challenge and fail, leaving me free to back The Rocket to cruise to outright victory, with no Higgins or Selby to stand in his way. Anyway, that one went the same way as our other ante post Masters bet when Ronnie lost to little Mark Allen.
We followed that up with a punt on Marco Fu to beat "On Fire" Maguire, I think Maguire has the ability to be a world number one but he just doesn't have the same mental setup as a John Higgins or other such battlers. Fu won. The results at Wembley so far in the week had seen every bookies favourite beaten, so on that reckoning, I decided Tuesday was the day they both obliged, a lumpy double on Robertson and Murphy to do the bizzo fell at the Jamie Cope fence, in what has been described on Twitter at the time as a turgid game of snooker.
As back up to chancey bets on Tuesday, I went in with a shorty to guarantee a return.
South Africa to beat India in their first ODI eventually landed comfortably and I would be suprised if they didn't win the next too.
After seeing Villareal's gallant performance at the Bernabeau, Wednesday night saw them take on Seville, who recently improved almost took my money, but I plumped for Villareal. The game ended 3-3 which I probably should have seen coming with the way I ummed and ahhed.
The following night Real were back in action, taking on their Madrid neighbours in the Copa del Rey and I expected plenty of changes to the Real lineup and went with Athletico +1.5/2. Real won 3-1 so we got half our stake back.
Back to the snooker and I didn't fancy Jamie Cope to improve his performance sufficiently to take out Mark King who had beaten Mark Selby in trhe first round, he did, killing another double after Ding had seen us through the first leg.

SOCCER SATURDAY TREBLE LEEDS + SHEFF WEDS + CHESTERFIELD
Three homes to give us some interest this afternoon, all 3 0'clock kick offs.

LEAGUE ONE FIXTURE NOTTS COUNTY v Southampton

Another 3 o'clock kick off, but this single just minimum stakes. It just stood out to me as Notts County were a little overpriced at 6/1. Paul Ince has got them back into winning ways and although the Saints have been imperious in League One of late, no side is unbeatable and it's a funny old game.

Lots of action again this weekend including the great Kauto Star gunning for his 5th King George at Kempton and all the people I follow on Twitter regarding geegee's are betting for places, check out @wayward_lad @KeejayOV @theuphillbattle for their opinions which I trust with my hard earned.
Along with the unanimous verdict on Kauto, the reigning Champion Hurdler seems to be down as a banker amongst these three.

Stay tuned to @rudgey76 on Twitter for more bets posted on all the sporting action this weekend and good luck if you're having a punt yourself.

C'MON!!!

Weekend Update

Just a quick catch up on yesterdays blog and twitter bets.

Arsenal -2 was embarrassingly wide of the mark, the home side seemed to approach the game with a fairly relaxed attitude compared to the intensity Leeds showed and Arsenal although dominating possession were unable to create many clear cut openings. LOSER.
Our F.A Cup treble was affected within minutes of the blog being posted, by the announcement of Woy leaving Liverpool and King Kenny returning! I would still have backed Utd mind you, but even though Everton comfortably saw off their lower league opposition, Newcastle from various reports were shocking in defeat to Stevenage, meaning the acca was gone before the final leg today. LOSER.
Then it started getting good, 2 singles posted, Reading to beat West Brom and Brighton to beat Portsmouth both came in leaving us in front with our Gridiron Playoff acca yet to start. WINNERS.
Unfortunately our 4 team rollup on this weekends NFL Wildcard games didn't make it past the first matchup! The 1/6 New Orleans Saints got turned over by the Seattle Seahawks, dumping last years winners out at the first post season hurdle. Due to the late kickoff of the second game yesterday, Indianapolis at home to NY Jets, we didn't see our outsider pick for that game win and because I wasn't paying attention to the Saints going out, I missed the opportunity of backing the Jets singularly! LOSER.
Beyond the blog we posted a couple of bets on Twitter that caught my eye as the day progressed.
Deportivo draw no bet v Barcelona was just a case of me looking at historical results, with a couple going the home sides way and the thinking that even Barca can't stay unbeaten away from home all season. LOSER.
Over 41.5 points in the Premiership Rugby match between Leicester and Northampton seemed a good thing but only just got over the line with about 5 minutes remaining, a win is a win though. WINNER.
All in all, we finished a little in front for the weekend, mainly due to a couple of Cup shocks, hopefully improvement for today.
So far today, all Twitter posted, we have Man Utd in 90 minutes, BDO Darts Final to feature 11 or more sets and an ante post wager on the Masters snooker, with more to come including a double on our remaining NFL selections.

Keep Twitter posted.

COME ON!!

Packed Full of Jam!!

A brief synopsis of the past weeks gambling will reveal a not too bad week.
Bank Holiday Monday a footy treble consisting of QPR, Posh and Port Vale was denied by a late, late Bristol City equaliser at Loftus Road, but our away single on Watford broke us close enough to level for a punt on that nights Darts World Championship final. I'm not a great darts fan but can't resist a punt on a two horse race, went with the outsider of the pair, Adrian Lewis, who duly obliged.
That left us feeling like we were making progress with picking form, so Wednesday night I picked overs at St. James' and Bolton to win at home, Stam scoring with 10 minutes to go denying a 2 from 2 evening with Newcastle being 3 up by halftime.
Thursday brought along holiday fixtures in Italy and Spain, a lunchtime kickoff for AC Milan gave us an early opportunity to swell funds and they duly obliged clinching 3 points late on against Cagliari, attempted to play up those winnings by backing Espanyol in their Copa del Rey game v Athletic Madrid, which failed by finishing a draw and siding with Inter, managed for the first time by Leonardo, at home v Napoli.
A late start to Friday was guaranteed by the wonderful scenes Down Under as Englands great cricket side finally put the Baggy Greens out of their Ashes misery, hopefully World Cup glory awaits for them, with my money firmly attached ante post.
Started Friday ridiculously backing in the Asian Championships, teams no-one are familiar with and losing. To redeem ourselves we turned to the Aviva Premiership with a couple of bets sourced from third parties, looking back the unders is never a bet I'm happy placing but the handicap of +3 for Sale Sharks v Newcastle was quite a strong fancy and took us roughly just about in front from the start of the week, going into this F.A Cup weekend.

It's a huge sporting weekend and I will be spreading myself fairly thinly so all picks will be minimum stakes and brief in description.

F.A CUP TREBLE NEWCASTLE + EVERTON + MAN UTD

2 on Saturday and Utd on Sunday. I'm trusting the Toon and the Toffees to have too much for lower league opposition away from home and Utd couldn't be playing Liverpool at a better time with uncertainty over Woy's future and generally the team not playing well.

F.A CUP SINGLE READING v West Bromwich Albion

Minimum stake, Albion struggling with injuries and form will be entirely focused on Premier League safety and have twice previously gone out of this competition at Reading's hands.

F.A CUP SINGLE BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION v Portsmouth

Pompey are struggling to field a full team at the moment and despite some brave performances, the amount of football being played recently must be taking its toll and Brighton will fancy their chances at home with their current League form holding them steady at the top of League 1.

F.A CUP SINGLE ARSENAL -2 v Leeds Utd ITV 12:45p.m k.o

Arsenal have dished out some beatings to Leeds over recent years and their desperation for trophies this season will, as in the League Cup, see Wenger name a strong starting line up. Leeds will have one eye on keeping up their back to back promotion push in the Championship and may shuffle their pack slightly.

NFL WILDCARD PLAYOFF ACCA NEW ORLEANS SAINTS + BALTIMORE RAVENS + NEW YORK JETS + PHILADELPHIA EAGLES Starts 9:30 p.m tonight

This bet sourced from a third party consists of what would normally be 3 singles avoiding the short priced New Orleans, but such a full weekend leaves us taking a bit of a chance. The Ravens and Eagles are favourites for their matches but backable prices, the Jets are definite single material if anything goes wrong with the Saints.

Just a quick mention to Fast Freddy, our Horse Racing tipster, he has put 2 up in the Welsh National at Chepstow today, Watamu Bay and Maktu and his nap is French Opera at Sandown in the big handicap of the day.

Good luck if anybody follows.

COME ON!!!

KEEP ON KEEPING ON.....

Not great Saturday, Forest managing a draw from 2 down and Hull losing at home letting down our 5 team acca and Manchester United only just doing enough once again, winning rather fortunately, in my opinion, by just the one goal v W.B.A.

Onwards and upwards, lots of League football today and first up,

NPOWER CHAMPIONSHIP WATFORD v Scunthorpe Utd 3p.m k.o 5/4 Betfred 6/5 W.Hill 5/4 Totesport

I'm a little suprised to not find the Hornets a slight shade of odds on considering the current form of both sides, the Irons are rock bottom of the Championship form table with just one win in their last 6 games and that coming away at Burnley, resulting in Brian Laws getting removed from his post.
Watford are currently sitting in the playoff places on the back of picking up 13 points from a possible 18 over this busy football period, scoring 13 conceding just 4 in their last 4 games alone. The only concern being Watford have quite a young squad and so many games in such a short space of time may catch up with them.

BANK HOLIDAY TREBLE Q.P.R + PETERBOROUGH + PORT VALE
3 homes that should, fingers crossed, give us a decent run for our money in the 3 o'clock kick offs. Vale and Rangers are both coming into games off the back of away losses and Posh are picked mainly due to their ability to score and Walsall's dismal season so far.
3.95 Betfred 4.08 W.Hill 3.85 Totesport

Hopefully these couple of bets will get the New Year up and running for us.
Good Luck with whatever you're punting today.
C'mon!

All Too Infrequent

All too infrequent, both blogs to this post and winners in the second half of 2010.
After recent bouts of free bet misfortune, I have been doubting the strenth of my convictions but firmly believe in the old adage, "If you don't shoot you can't score.

Today I will be dabbling lightly in C4's televised action but will be taking advice from better informed racing people than myself, namely @KeejayOV @Narrowthefield @Carltelewin or anybody sounding remotely affirmative about a selectio.

Footy wise,

Barclay English Premier League MANCHESTER UTD -1 v W.B.A 12:45 p.m k.o Sky Sports. 6/5 Betfred 6/4 W.Hill 11/10 Totesport

West Brom are on an alarming slide back towards the relegation zone after being one of a whole host of teams to touch the dizzying heights of the top 8 this season and their reluctance to set out to spoil could play into the hands of a Utd side keen to wipe the disappointment of Tuesdays late leveller from Lee Bowyer of Birmingham City. I see Utd winning this 2 or 3 to nil.

Soccer Saturday Acca Man City + Tottenham + Hull + Nottm For + Southampton

Man City and Spurs are in there as shorties just to boost the returns but the 3 remaining selections all at home and are sides that are heading in the right direction in recent games, I'll probably have a larger stake on the treble with a smaller stake including the 2 Premiership teams.

Hopefully this is the first of a regular winning post in 2011, thanks for reading and good luck!

COME ON!!!