Novak, give us the sinking feeling…

Plenty of news from this week’s betting blog, with all the big bets struck from the previous seven days.

Sunday, and about the quietest day of the week at Star HQ, so it gave us a chance to watch what was in my humble opinion the best ever Grand Slam tennis final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Having laid the Serb for plenty of big bets in the ante-post market we found ourselves in a very odd position on Friday morning: we were cheering on Andy Murray. Ok, not to Saltire-waving, Braveheart-watching, listening-to-Andy-Stewart (he was a Scottish singer by the way, not the mop headed owner of Big Buck’s) levels, but suffice to say a ‘Cmon Andy’ or two was heard.

The rest as we know is history, but to be fair to Murray he showed plenty of mettle. I have had plenty of stick in the office but I have now changed my tune and will say that Murray will win a Grand Slam.

Of course the final gave us another chance, especially as Rafa had an extra day off and a slightly easier game in beating Federer in his semi, and the bottle shown by the Spaniard as they slugged it out through the Melbourne night was immense. If he’d had been at the Battle Of Trafalgar, Nelson would have been sailing back to England before you could say ‘Kiss me Hardy’.

Alas for us the Serb obliged in a cracking match and gave us a bit of a slap after Azerenka obliged in the Ladies final the day before, beating Sharapova in a one sided ‘Gruntathon’ that lasted all of an hour. Now call me sexist but the ladies’ winners get the same as the men’s winner. Is that right?

Away from the tennis, the FA cup 4th round proved lively over a long weekend. We saw a £100k wager on Spurs (Tax Free) to beat Watford on Friday night; somebody obviously managed to read Redknapp’s team sheet for a bit of gambling advice before we could get a grasp on it. Anyway I think it’s fair to say that even the most ardent Spurs fan would say they were not value for their 1-0 win. No consolation for us, we pay on the results, not points victors!

Another £100k wager came for Chelsea in the West London battle with QPR. Now this game has obviously had plenty of coverage leading up to it in the Terry/Ferdinand saga – suffice to say the thought of another player refusing to shake Terry’s hand (legend/hero/leader, oops I’ve been brainwashed by Chelsea!) meant the pre-match handshake was cancelled. The match itself was a damp squib, settled by a very soft penalty. But a pair of £100k wagers obliged.

The horse racing front saw a mixed week. Getting Broadbackbob beaten at Cheltenham on festival trials day on the Saturday helped, counteracting an each way wager on 11/1 winner at Lingfield, John Louis. Ouch! Those bigger priced winners do hurt.

Back to the trials day and from a personal point of view I had a bittersweet taste seeing ‘The Giant Bolster’ win. This is a horse I’ve followed over a cliff, backed him at a big price for the Paddy Power Gold Cup after he had been ‘intensively schooled by Yogi Briesner’ only to see him unseat early on! Personally I’d have asked Yogi for a refund. Of course I wasn’t on Saturday when he ran a useful field ragged!

Not much to get the pulse racing on the horse front with any big bets earlier in the week. A £50k punt on Destroyer Deployed sunk at Hereford, but a £30k punt on Ile De Re at Huntingdon obliged.

Also a few lively exchanges on Friday evenings all-weather meeting at Wolverhampton stayed in the satchel. A £20k wager on Margate went into the sea, though an each way gamble later in the evening on Beneath got the each way part of the bet.

The all-weather has proved something of a punters’ benefit over the last few winters; this year so far touching wood it’s been a little kinder to us. That will now spark a week of all-weather gambles that we will be on the receiving end of!

Back to today before I sign off – Hurricane Fly was impressive in winning the Irish Champion at Leopardstown. We are now 10/11 from 7/4.

The football at half time, though, doesn’t leave us with much hope though, as we have seen a £66k Asian handicap wager on Villa +1.25. If you saw Per Metesacker and were told he has got 70 odd caps for his country, you would think he plays for Luxembourg or Lichtenstein maybe… but Germany! No!

Anyway over and out till next week and Good Punting!