Ulster drew first blood with early points on the board against the favourites starting strong and applying plenty of pressure to finally force Leinster to concede a penalty for Ruan Pienaar to convert.

It wasn’t long before Leinster turned the game up a gear and a strong forward surge in the thirteenth minute resulted in O’Brien just managing to touch the ball down on the white line as he was tackled. Both sides opted for a running style of rugby and the game really opened up as both sides ran the ball and probed each other’s defences.

The Ulster defence just managed to hold back Sexton just before he reached the line and then defending on the other side of the field to stop another attack as the pressure was turned up. A superb Brian O’Driscoll inside pass after a mini-break in midfield opened up the Ulster defence, and the ball was finally switched to Healy who was tackled on the line but his momentum enabled him to ground the ball for a second. Sexton converted for a 14-3 lead.

Ulster failed to make their heavy pressure tell when youngster Paddy Jackson hooked a drop-goal attempt to the left. But a stunning 50-metre penalty from scrum-half Pienaar gave them hope on the stroke of half-time as they went into the break eight points adrift.

Leinster piled on the pressure at the start of the second half with another forward-dominated move ending with referee Owens awarding a penalty try as Ulster deliberately collapsed a maul inches from their line. Sexton converted for a convincing 21-6 lead.

Constant pressure from one side of the field to the other eventually saw the ball floated from Paddy Wallace to Tuohy and the big lock dived in for a try on the hour, sealing victory over what was now a well and truly beaten Ulster side. Ulster had full-back Stefan Terblanche sent to the sin-bin for a bad off-the-ball tackle and Sexton kicked a third penalty before a fifth try in the final minute.

Irish Captain Brian O’Driscoll praised his team mates saying that the cup was won before the final on Saturday.

“When we won the Heineken Cup for the first time we talked about laying down a legacy and doing something for us to be remembered by. We are going some way to doing that and moving in the right direction, but I know this team is hungry for more success,” said O’Driscoll.

“It is enjoyable day in day out going into work because you know you are going to be pushed by the guy next to you. We play for each other and that showed out there.

“The energy from all 23 was phenomenal. There were two try scorers among the guys who came on and that speaks volumes for where we are at as a squad.

“I only came in for the knock-out stages, for the important parts, but the hard graft was done in the Pool stages by people like Eoin O’Malley, who is sitting at home having had a cruciate ligament operation yesterday. This medal will be part his and all the other guys who have played this season.”

Heineken Man of the Match Sean O’Brien was also full of praise for the effect of “pulling on the blue jersey” and praised the efforts of everyone throughout the season.

“It is such a strong squad and any team we have put out has done well this year. We never panic, we trust our system and we did that at times,” said O’Brien.

“There were lots of mistakes out there, but we held onto the trophy which is the main thing.”

Whether this paves the way for a legacy of Leinster rugby as European Champions we will only know this time next year.

Five days of being ripped off, told what to dress like and basically made like you’re an inconvenience, how we love it!

Let’s start with the car park: £18 to leave your car in a rutted field. If you’re really persuasive you may be able to park within 200 yards of the entrance or, rather like me a few years ago when trying to use a car label you couldn’t really use for that meeting, be directed to the ‘press’ car park.

Now knowing what prima donnas some members of the press corps can be, I really cannot see them parking on what was the side of a 1:4 hill nearer to Bracknell than it was Ascot! Still at least a golf buggy came to give us a lift. Of course once you do finally reach the entrances – oh and by the way if you’re in need of a ticket, ask around , you might if you’re very, very lucky be able to spot some gentlemen selling them at varying rates – then you have to satisfy the criteria to get in.

Woe betide anyone not in a shirt, jacket and tie. After all, Her Majesty will be looking down on her subjects – how dare she be subjected to open necked shirts! Alas no one takes HM on a tour of the toilets after the last race, proving that wearing a tie makes one behave no better.

You may feel like a drink after all this, even if it’s only water; again don’t try to smuggle any of that in as you may get threatened with a year in the tower like I did before. No, you go and buy a little bottle with the Ascot logo on it for about the same cost as 10 litres in a supermarket and enjoy!

Time to go for a cool down and stand on the pitch. Let’s put the umbrella up and keep the sun off (even though Ascot’s stand does a marvellous job of that anyway). No! You can’t; take it down or we will throw you out. So, yes it seems everyone’s treated with the same disdain.

I suppose some people love it and go year on year, but maybe one day they might realise that we’ve now lurched into the 21st century and people are no longer wishing to be treated like something found on the bottom of your shoe.

Come what may, we will be there. £2 each way bets a speciality and on the Saturday we may even put a bar mat on the joint, because when you’re fishing for your change you must have somewhere to put the drink down. Those bookmakers’ joints come in handy.

Suppose though, even for a NH lover like me, seeing Frankel and Black Caviar in the flesh, if not in the same race, makes a little of it worthwhile. Be lucky and, if you’re at Ascot (and have a jacket, tie, or hat on ladies), come and say hello.

Then there was the revelation that there is still some sense left in the world, directly resulting in Kenny Dalglish getting canned. Honestly, does anyone else agree with me when I say, he genuinely didn’t have a clue what he was doing!? Believe it or not Kenny, the game has changed in the past 20 years; plus bringing on Carroll and taking off a winger is not the cleverest thing you can do!

Anyway, enough of all that, it is old hat now. Back to the focus of the betting blog and another entry into the million and one unlucky bets.

At the beginning of each season, in traditional fashion, my Dad and I put £100 in each and effectively burn it. We put together about ten or so season-long bets that we follow for about three weeks until they already look doomed. The bets tend to involve the usual nonsense such as Rooney to score more than Aguero, Chesterfield to finish above Rochdale etc etc. I’m sure you know the score.

Anyway having put six or seven of those together we then get to work on the couple of highly ambitious, life changing-accas, obviously brimming with enthusiasm.

This season’s ridiculous acca consisted of seven selections, and there happened to be £18 left in the kitty… so an £18 acca it was. Should the miracle happen, and all seven oblige, the princely sum of £262k would be winging our way courtesy of a local William Hill.

I’m sure you know what’s coming: unbelievably six won and there’s always that one. Well actually no or should I say not yet. I am such a moaner that I’m writing this blog with still two legs to go, fully expecting them to cop. Although you are right, one obviously has already lost!

So here we go: the unveiling of the selection and the bets which is another ‘nearly story’:

• Blackburn to be relegated at 3/1… never in doubt
• Swansea to finish top promoted side at 3/1… nice little 87th minute winner on the last game of the season
• Southampton to be promoted at 5/1… once again from pillar to post
• Borussia Dortmund to win the Bundersliga at 7/2… cruised it, eventually winning by 8 points
• Luton to be promoted at 7/4… in the playoff final and 5/6 to win it… certainties
• Huddersfield to be promoted at 11/8… in the playoff final and also certainties!

So I know what you’re thinking, what’s the selection that let us down? Well the world’s most hated football team in the Tarr family is… DERBY!!

Bloody Derby – we backed them at 4/1 to be relegated and they never looked in any danger. In fact if my memory serves me right, they even topped the table for a few weeks back in September. All in all another sob story, but with a culprit… Dad why did you have to go to the Exeter v Derby pre-season friendly and why did Derby have to play so poorly and get beat 3-0!

Oh well there’s always next season and another £100 to waste.

The first ¼ final went to the Irish with Razldazl Rioga trained by Dolores Ruth. Rioga was lead early on by kennel mate Razldazl Buggatti who showed blistering early pace to lead from the traps. Down the back straight Rioga showed tremendous pace to take over from hard way to go on to go on to win convincingly in 28.48.

Taylors Sky qualified in second but totally missed the break again. He will need to start showing his trapping skills that everyone knows he is capable of now it’s getting to the business end of the competition.

The second ¼ final was won by the much improving Coolavanny Bert in 28.48. He has really taken to Wimbledon and his trapping is just going from strength to strength. Farloe Ironman ran another respectable race but just couldn’t live with Coolavanny Bert’s pace and got beat by two lengths. Judicial Ruling qualified in third after missing his break.

The third ¼ final was won by Dolores Ruth with track record holder Razldazl Jayfkay. He flew from the boxes and made all in 28.41. He hasn’t missed his break in this competition yet but can he go through the whole competition doing so!? I wouldn’t be rushing into betting him a 5/4 to do so!!

Droopys Loner is the only bitch left in the Derby and really deserves to be through to the semi-finals. Bubbly Phoenix did very well to qualify in third after missing the break by three lengths.

The fourth ¼ final went to Ireland again with Droopys Jet scoring for Frazer Black and confirming the good impression he made last Saturday. He blew away early leader Blonde Snapper down the back straight to go on to win by a length and a half in 28.52. Westmead Adonis plugged on to qualify in third.

Goalkeepers – Hart no brainer, okay with Ruddy, but surely Rob Green was a strange choice after a year in the Championship where his form was no better than ok and that clanger at the World Cup still in our minds?

Defenders – It would appear it was Terry or Ferdinand and I think Rio should have got the call, if they can’t both go because one is accused of racially abusing the other’s brother then surely the accused should miss out. Before you shout innocent until proving guilty, do you think if you were accused of this in your workplace you would be at the xmas party. Anyway on recent form Terry, who has been bordering on a liability for Chelsea, surely can’t have been the pick.

I would have had Micah Richards some way in front of Glen Johnson after Kyle Walker was ruled out with injury and the rest of the defence just about picked themselves.

Midfield – Most of these picked themselves but I am not sure many other than Roy and close members of the Downing family would have picked Stewart. I am struggling to think of any player in the League who had a more disappointing season than Downing and his inclusion in front of the vastly superior Adam Johnson has left me bewildered.

There are others that I would have left at home and I think Carrick should have got a place as he is probably our best passer of the ball. Actually after struggling I think Jordan Hendderson nearly under-achieved as much as Downing and unbelievably he is on standby. I can understand Roy not wanting to watch many of Liverpool’s games but did nobody tell him how poor these players have been.

Forwards – Straight pick between Wellbeck and Sturridge and for me I would have picked Sturridge. Maybe Wellbeck’s growing partnership with Rooney tipped the balance but, by the time Wayne is available, we could be checking on flights back home.

As I said at the start it is all about opinions but for me Roy’s already look pretty dodgy!

As the easy-life-socialist-staff and well-fed benefit-drong slouch back on their sofas, forcing some more greasy crisps into their already full mouths, they are so quick to point at their huge televisions and make jealous and uneducated comments about how much money they deem self-employed business people to have.

If they were able to open their small minds, I would like them all to come over to Ireland and meet John at John’s Snooker and receive a moving lesson in hard work, pride, and dignity. John, the owner and proprietor of John’s Snooker, is one of the fallen not-staff. His snooker hall is in an out-of-town shopping-centre, where over half the units are empty, or may as well be.

I have been in Ireland for a few days, electrocuting some of the spreads staff who wrongly thought they were out of sight and thus out of mind, and also going down to Tralee to witness the incredible start of Star Bingo. We had been tipped-off that the lower half of John’s enormous snooker club might be a good place to open our second bingo hall. On the way back to Dublin, from Tralee, we had arranged a detour to meet him, press the flesh, and look at the possibility of opening a new unit on his site.

When we arrived, John was waiting just inside the automatic front doors, in his freshly ironed John’s Snooker t-shirt. Just behind him, stood like a sentry, was a rotund lady, manning a mop and bucket, waiting for his further instructions. We were then given a guided tour of John’s Snooker. There must have been half a dozen pool tables, many other table-tennis-tables, pin-ball machines, darts boards and other games, spread around the ground floor. All looked new or newish and like the toilets, I noticed when relieving myself, were immaculate. This was clearly an operation run in a clockwork and military fashion by John and his round cleaning assistant, who we shall call ‘Bertha’ from here on.

John and Bertha invited us up to the first floor to see the snooker hall and have a cup of coffee. On inspection, the top floor was a serious snooker club. There were many mounted photos on the walls of John in the company of past and present snooker greats, during better times, in his proud club. Around us were at least a dozen snooker tables but the room was in virtual darkness but for one table being played on in the far left hand corner. We were the sole guests in the cafe area and were each hospitably served a cup of coffee by Bertha.

John sat and told us that business had been hard for some time and that he was now working nights elsewhere to subsidise the club (TRUE not-staff). Trade was the same in all the snooker clubs around Ireland, and he was now willing to explore any option for John’s Snooker to survive in some form or another. At this point a crashing sound came from the far left hand side of the snooker hall. We all looked up and saw one of the two playing members whacking his cue against the side of the table. Having just been told by John that snooker tables cost him £2,500 each, this sent a sudden shiver of anger up and down my body and I had a deep urge to wrap the probably now broken snooker cue around the offending member’s neck. John was beaten though. He just looked down, shoulders dropping, in silence, and slowly and gently crushed his paper cup in his hand.

John is one of Ireland’s many fallen not-staff. In a country where a disinterested drong recieves a council house, €900 a month, plus steady cough and wonky leg extras, there is little incentive to work. But it is the not-staffs, the competitors, the employers, the independent risk-takers, LIKE JOHN, that the government in Ireland, or ANY country for that matter, should be helping. He has not given up. He is there, on the ropes, bouncing back, out of hope, nothing else, every day, for more. Why is life so cushioned for life’s non-triers? Why are corporate-scum-banks being bailed out and their wage-slaves being fed and watered better than ever before? When ministers for business, clueless MPs, and the chancellor are hob-nobbing and chuckling to each other in a self-satisfied manner, why are they not remembering businesses like John’s Snooker? It just makes me so angry.

As we said our goodbyes and strolled back out into the car-park, we, to a man, agreed that John’s Snooker was not the destination for our next foray into the bingo world for Star Bingo. I felt so sad about that. I wanted to work with John. I wanted to help Bertha and him get going again. But I can’t. It’s not right, because ‘it’s not a deal’. It’s as simple as that. John is in his own dinghy, at the front, looking out for land ahoy, with Bertha at the back, holding onto the rudder for her dear life, as the waves crash over them again and again. And he probably won’t survive. That’s business though, I’m afraid. That’s what thousands of not-staffs are living through every day. And that’s something that a wage-slave, however successful (a wage slave is a wage slave), an MP, the chancellor, or a fat, arrogant and spoilt city boy will never understand or appreciate.

March on, John. March on, man.

Ben x

Something of a plunge is developing on England to win the first Test of the summer against West Indies that starts on Thursday at Lord’s.

Andrew Strauss’s men had been a standout 4-7 on Monday night after the forecast for the five-days in St John’s Wood had started to brighten and West Indies had lost their warm-up game with the Lions by ten wickets on Sunday.

On Tuesday evening, they are no bigger than a general 4-9 even though Windies quicks Kemar Roach, Ravi Rampaul and Fidel Edwards all declared themselves fit to play.

Plenty of cloud, which should help Strauss’s proven pace attack prosper, is expected at Lord’s but the forecast is not too bad.

The Windies batting looked suspect at Northampton despite a century for Kieran Powell and 50s for Darren Bravo and Shiv Chanderpaul in their second innings – Bravo hit two 50s in the match. Roach twisted his ankle on Friday and then got hit on the hand batting, while Rampaul reported a stiff neck on Sunday morning and sent down only four overs.

Roach is as short as 2-1 favourite to be top West Indies’ wicket-taker at Lord’s and 11-4 to top their wickets -list at the end of the three-game series that continues at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston. Rampaul has only just returned to the squad following illness and a shoulder injury.

And he replaced Edwards in last month’s third and final Test against Australia in Dominica when Edwards, who may not be up to full speed yet despite sending down 27 overs at Wantage Road, hurt his back.

Jonny Bairstow is 10-1 to top-score in England’s first innings at Lord’s if given his Test debut as expected.

I’m personally not one for backing short prices but all things considered England at 4/9 look a fair price to me given the predicted weather conditions and the weakness of the West Indies team.

The European tour hosts the Volvo World Matchplay this week and the event does for a change have a global feel to it with players competing from all continents. The US tour event this week is the Byron Nelson and a strong field, headed by last week’s Players winner Matt Kuchar, should ensure a good contest.

Glenn’s Big Bet
Jonas Blixt
Current odds 90/1

Once again I am looking beyond the bigger names for my selection and have landed on Sweden’s Jonas Blixt. Blixt was US educated and helped his university to its first National Championship. Although of European descent he has only played a handful of times on the European tour and in all honesty cut no ice.

His fortunes changed markedly last season on the Nationwide Tour. After making only half the cuts in the first dozen events he played he then had two tied second place finishes in his next four events. To prove that was no fluke he finished with five top tens in his next eight events which included another second place finish.

One of those second places was achieved with a 63-64 weekend which showed he had the temperament in the heat of battle to post low numbers. Blixt earned the right to play on the main tour this year with a 5th place finish on the money list.

He has made a somewhat steady start to this season: five missed cuts intermingled with decent if unspectacular finishes. However the last two events he has finished 13th at the New Orleans Classic and 9th at the Wells Fargo, which was a hot contest and is definitely the best finish of his career.

The Swede’s stats suggest his all-round game is in good order and consistent in all areas as it is difficult to highlight his best points. He ranks 3rd in eagles and sand saves and 39th overall. One area that may help this week is his driving accuracy. If he can keep it in play off the tee and continue in the same vain he has been then he could become another first time winner on the PGA Tour.