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Diary of a Spread Bettor

Wednesday 3rd March 2010

Thursday 25 February
When you’ve sold £150 of goals at 2.1, sold £5 of shirts at 37 and £5 of goals multiplied by corners at 21, the last thing you want is an early goal. I sat down to watch last night’s Inter Milan v Chelsea game and was still readjusting the cushion when Milito scored for the hosts within three minutes. The early goal was bad enough as it was, but the fact that the number between Milito’s shoulder blades was "22" spelt potential disaster.

Luckily, that was the only goal in the first half and the corner count was low. I remember thinking to myself at the beginning of the second period that a potentially disastrous result was now looking rosy when almost immediately Kalou popped up to equalise with "21" on his back. Then, before I’d even had the chance to sit down, Cambiasso (number 19) put Inter back in front. When I did eventually sit down, I didn’t see that Daisy (our seven-year-old pug dog) had taken my seat. It was like watching WWF wrestling on Sky as she scrambled out from underneath me with a whimper!

Things were now looking desperate, but thankfully there were no more goals or corners! I ended up losing exactly £200 on the night (£135 on goals, £125 on shirts and a £60 win on the goals v corners multiple). I now know what the expression "losing your bottle" actually means!

Friday 26 February
I got given a tip in the Warwick 4.25pm. Apparently, Lavenoak Lad was a good thing in the 3 mile 5 furlong slog in bottomless ground with just 10 stone in the saddle (I bet Daisy wished I only weighed 10 stone, she is definitely still wary of me – thinks I sat on her on purpose!).

Anyway, back to Warwick and I bought £15 of Lavenoak at 18 before a hefty gamble developed. The beast was eventually sent off favourite and more importantly bolted up by a fast diminishing 1/2 length. I was suddenly £480 richer and the Milan v Chelsea debacle was soon forgotten.

Saturday 27 February
Kempton was passed fit to race despite another night of heavy rain and I arrived on course just before midday. There was rather a depressingly small crowd present to watch one of the better day's racing in the jumps calendar. Apparently the rain "keeps people away" according to one of the management team at the track. Well, it was raining at Twickenham when I was there before Christmas for the All Blacks game and there wasn't a spare seat in the house. In fact, I got pretty wet on my way to the Emirates the other night, but 60,000 others made the same damp journey! Racing has its problems at the moment and the Nicky Henderson Punjabi benefit hurdle was hardly the most punter friendly opening race. Even I managed to pick the 1/8 winner... each-way of course!

I bought £15 of Madison Du Berlais on the index for the big race at 15. David Pipe, his trainer, was sitting on my table and felt that the old boy could win easily or bomb out with no in between. Well, he ran an "in betweeny" sort of race to finish fourth and lost me £75 on the way. By the way, I asked Pipe for a Festival winner and he said his best chance was The Package in the William Hill Chase...get on!

I left Kempton and listened to the England game in the car. I sold £20 of points at 38 on the basis that the rain would halt the flow of points. Sadly, it didn't rain, but there were still only 36 points, so I wrestled back £40. There weren't many Englishman cheering on the Irish defence in the closing minutes, but I was one!

Sunday 28 February
My three-month-old godson came to lunch (with his parents!), so punting opportunities were limited. However, he watched his first ever Carling Cup Final and even he was amazed that Vidic wasn't even booked for the tackle on Agbonlahor (why was he wearing gloves by the way?) that led to the penalty.

Anyway, a 1-1 scoreline wasn't the ideal situation after 13 minutes for a man who had sold £150 of goals at 2.3 in the game. Basically, I had 77 minutes left and 0.3 of a goal to play with... Nice!

Thank God only Rooney added to the scoreline and I escaped with a £45 loss. Bookings made up at 40 points which was the only result because I considered buying them in-running at 54!

I played football with Alfie (my two-year-old son) afterwards and he declared straight away that he "no like football" (he's not Spanish; it’s just the way he speaks). "I like hoobering" (his way of saying hoovering)... While other little boys are dreaming about walking out through the tunnel at Wembley, Alfie is thinking about cleaning it!

Monday 1 March
Other than backing The Package for the Cheltenham Festival at 10/1, no real bet to tell you about. Sat next to a man on train who had such a snoring problem, my laptop bag nearly got sucked into his slobbering gob!

Tuesday 2 March
The second One Day International between Bangladesh and England got underway at breakfast time and I tuned in to see the hosts 72/2 after 17 overs with dangerman Iqbal already back in the pavilion. I decided that England were about to rip through them and sold both batsmen’s 50-ups in-running. Kayes was well set at one end on 29 not out, yet I sold £7 at 13. Meanwhile, Rahim had only 5 to his name, so I decided to nick £28 by selling £7 at 4.

I can confirm that there is no such thing as free money. The pair batted for nearly an hour and a half and put on 90 runs. Kayes fell for 63 (amazingly at the point at which I sold him), but sadly Rahim batted on and on...he eventually fell for 76 and I lost £154 trying to nick £28! I don’t like cricket!

Wednesday 3 March
I am determined to get with Egypt against a patched up England side, therefore I have sold £150 of supremacy at 1.3 and £6 of England leading minutes at 36. There you have it, I have laid my cards on the table. You can’t get pharaoh than that!

Diary of a Spread Bettor appears courtesy of Sporting Index.

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