The Return Of Pim-Pim.......and a gubbing!

I’ve been playing around on Betfair for the last week or so, making zero headway, due to a lack of aim and focus. I’ll leave the in-depth analysis for a later post, but I’d decided today that a substantial deposit into my bank, followed by some serious and consistent concentration, was the only way forward for me. I arrived home, and before I started my ‘new phase’, I decided to lay a couple of horses simply to round up my bank to a ‘£00’ figure as a starting point. The first lay hacked up! ( Azure Mist, 4.50 Yarmouth ). Pissed off, I decided the deposit was delayed until a day when my mood had improved.

A little later, Caroline Wozniaki lined up against the local ‘lucky-loser’ – Anne Kremer – in Luxembourg. Dead cert. But not enough cash in my bank for a worthwhile bet, so I stuck just £15 on to win a quid! ( I’m a sucker for rounding up balances ) before popping out with Mrs B for half an hour. Check out the Betfair forum for more detail of what happened, but to summarise –

At 5-5 40-A first set, Wozniaki called the trainer, took an injury time-out and had her thigh heavily strapped. From that moment, she destroyed Kremer, moving to 7-5, 5-0. She then shook hands and retired! A 1.01 gubbing. Carnage.

From reading the forum, it seems that at 3-0 second set, a guy on the forum had warned everyone that Wozniaki’s dad had told her to retire at 5-0, so that the local girl could win! I’m sure this will keep the forum excited for a few hours.

I’m just feeling lucky. This could easily have been my first bet after a major bank deposit. Phew.


A look forward to tomorrow, and a match of interest in Stockholm. To those who have only been following tennis for a couple of years, the name of Joachim Johansson may mean little. The 27 year-old Swede with the ‘Pim-Pim’ nickname has a current world ranking of 511 after an injury ravaged couple of years, but for a short while during the middle of the decade he was a rising force in the game, with a career-high ranking of number nine in early 2005, based around a huge serve ( I’m talking Karlovic-style ). Unfortunately this great strength led to ongoing shoulder problems, which in turn led to his retirement in early 2008.

I noted his tentative ATP Tour comeback a couple of weeks ago in Malaysia. Having played one Challenger tournament per month through the summer, the Kuala Lumpar ATP tournament was a warm-up for his main target for the year – to compete in his home event in Stockholm. He still managed to blow away Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets in the opening round, and follow that by reaching 6-4, 6-6 against Richard Gasquet before going down in three sets. Interestingly, he commented on his own lack of match fitness after the Hewitt victory, and withered in the third set against Gasquet. In Stockholm, he beat 83-ranked Peter Luczak in straight sets in the first round and tomorrow evening plays Juan Monaco ( who’s had injury problems in the last couple of weeks ). Johansson is currently 1.51 and, if I’m home in time, I’ll be on Johansson with the hope of greening-up after the first set. He will be extremely motivated and I expect a quick start. It may be that his comeback has a limited shelf-life, so this tournament is a huge one for Johansson. But if it goes to three sets – get on Monaco.


On non-sporting matters, two news items today have made me doubt the future of humanity. Firstly, I note the nomination as ‘Celebrity Mother of the Year’ for Katie Price, a plastic-breasted self-publicist with no discernable talent who seems happy to hawk her children around the world to suit her own agenda, regardless of what may be best for them. This decision can presumably only have been made on the basis that she is popular with the brain-dead.

A similar audience must also be those targeted by the producers of the record which will this week become Britain’s biggest-selling single of 2009 – some manufactured soulless pap sung by Cheryl Cole, wife of Ashley and former nightclub punch-up specialist. I understand how a song performed on primetime TV on a Saturday evening to fifteen million people is likely to sell in large quantities, but am deflated by the ease with which the audience continue to fall for this same trick year after year, buying fourth-rate drivel regardless of what their ears are telling them.

Maybe this is evolution – eventually we will all become brainwashed zombies who do exactly what we are told to by the black box in the corner of the lounge. Darwin didn’t see that coming.