Sports Betting - october

Thursday 1st October

I didn’t enjoy watching United’s Champions League game against Wolfsburg last night. In fact, when the score was still 0-0 after 55 minutes, my £200 buy of goals at 3 was looking extremely dodgy. I was contemplating whether to close my bet when some bloke called Dzeko popped up and scored for the visitors – he saved me £200. Giggs then equalised within minutes and when Carrick poked in the third of the game in the 78th minute, I was level. There were no more goals, but I couldn’t complain… I had dodged a bullet.

I was given a tip for Rum King in Newmarket’s 2.35pm race, but only remembered when the tipster in question rang me up to see if I’d backed it - there is no worse phone call to receive (there probably is, but I’m talking from a punting point of view). To add plenty of salt to the wound, I bought £10 of Hunting Tiger at 17 on the index in the 3.45pm race and listened to it finish 8th of nine on my mobile. Nothing like starting the month as you mean to go on!

Friday 2nd October

A Friday wouldn’t be a Friday without a nice three hour car journey in rush hour to Wolverhampton (for the second week running!). I had a work commitment there and was desperate to try and beat the traffic, so set off early. Sadly, about two million other people had the same idea and the M4, A34, M40, M42 and M5 were bumper to bumper for most of the way.

However, the pain of sitting in traffic was somewhat eased by Special Duty’s performance in the Cheveley Park Stakes at 2.30pm. Not only had I bought £20 of her on the 50 index at 24, I had also backed her ante-post for next year’s 1000 Guineas at a decent price. The traffic was suddenly bearable!

I arrived at Dunstall Park as the runners were going down to start for the opener and took my place at the table in the restaurant. I bought £10 of the money horse Kersivay at 16 on the index and ordered a pint of orange and lemonade. Kersivay came late (as did my orange and lemonade) and finished a well beaten second. Unfortunately, my orange and lemonade was simply a lemonade with a slice of orange in it. I explained to the waitress that I wanted an orange juice and lemonade mixture and her snappy response was brilliant - ‘Well, you should have said that shouldn’t you’.

I got her back though. When ordering food, I asked for Chicken cooked in a creamy sauce with bacon and some potatoes, green beans, carrots and courgettes. ‘You mean the Chicken Supreme’, she said. ‘Just wanted to avoid any confusion’, I replied. However, the smile was soon wiped off my face when Monsieur Reynard was done a neck in the next.

Saturday 3rd October

I’m not sure what the rules are about listening to racing commentaries at the back of a church during a wedding, but I’m pretty sure that it’s okay if you use hands free! I didn’t want to risk it though as I was sitting next to the world’s most terrifying woman and I’m sure she didn’t have any positions at Newmarket. The Vicar announced that ‘today is all about three ‘C’s’… Companionship, Community and… he then asked the congregation to guess the last one. Surely he didn’t have a massive position on the Cambridgeshire too! I was tempted to shout out ‘Cambridgeshire’, but didn’t feel it was the time or the place.

Anyway, I think he may have had a flutter because he seemed to speed things up a lot late on and seemed desperate to get outside before 3.40pm. Like me, he bolted out of the church and I wondered whether he was on the Irish good thing Salute Him as well? Sadly, Salute Him was never actually mentioned in commentary behind Supaseus, which I’m sure was a punishment from above.

Anyway, I soon got my money back by buying goals at Old Trafford at 2.9. I was convinced that United would score at least that in the first half alone. Well, they didn’t, but I got away with it and their last minute equaliser netted me a bottle (£200). Sadly, that’s exactly what the best man didn’t have as he delivered a shocking speech to the floor - I say that because he didn’t look up once. For all he knew, we could have all pissed off. I wish we had!

Sunday 4th October

Really quite and relaxing day at home with the kids – no three hour car journeys or awful wedding speeches to sit through. We cut the grass together, we built a bomb fire and we played football. Daddy even managed to sneak off and watch the Arc. Daddy lost £100 by buying Vision D’Etat on the index, but still enjoyed the race. Sea The Stars is a superstar and he is certainly the best I have ever seen.

I won £30 back by selling £100 of total goals in the Chelsea v Liverpool game at 2.30. I was a bit disappointed in the end that there were two goals as at one stage, it looked a certain nil-nil. Why are there so many goals being scored in the Premiership this season?

Monday 5th October

Mrs Esdaile’s 33rd Birthday – I called her double-carpet this morning which went down quite well. I took her and some of her (I should say our) friends out for dinner at a lovely local restaurant. It really was a great night… particularly as I bought £7 of Shane Watson’s runs at 55 in the final of the Champions Trophy in South Africa, when the Mrs was getting ready. He went on to record his second consecutive ton of the tournament and won me £350. When it came to proposing a toast at dinner, you don’t know how close I was to raising my glass to Shane instead of my wife. Then again, if I’d done that, I wouldn’t be here writing this now!

Tuesday 6th October

Nothing to report except that our au pair broke my car – irritating! ‘’Bill, there may be a slight problem with your car”, she said. What kind of a statement is that? The slight problem in question cost £314 to repair, so my attempt to win the money back surrounded a £10 buy at 14 of my old friend Monsieur Reynard at Catterick in their opener. Like me, he hadn’t had the best of times at Wolverhampton on Friday night and was looking for compensation. Like my car, it was given a terrible ride by a female and suffered as a consequence! Make-up 0 and another £140 to add to the £314!

Wednesday 7th October

No betting action of note although markets are beginning to appear on the Rugby League Grand Final. I’m keen to get with Leeds but don’t really want to pay more than 5 to get with them. At this stage it looks like I’ll have to take them on the handicap index at -4. On the night I’ll be looking to buy Danny McGuire try minutes as he’s in good form and is what you would call a big match player – I hope!