Today's Hero

I will admit that Tom Cannon is not a jockey I have made particular note of before. A quick results check will show that he had a good day today, with two wins at Plumpton to take his season's total to twenty six. But it needs a quick view of the video below to see quite what a great day he had.

Two other gentleman will have particular memories of the incident. Cannon's mount, the odds-on favourite Inthejungle, went on to win the race by 18 lengths. And £330 was matched on Betfair at 1000. It seems extremely likely that the same lucky punter then laid off £165k at 1.29. The unlucky punter may be having a bad evening.

Winners and losers. It's what it's all about.

Praying Mantis On A Bicycle

Well it’s a better title than ‘Irregular Update’. And, no, of course it’s not a bicycle. That’s stupid. Anyway, here’s the update.

Betfair

I think the major problem I’ve had with my trading / betting over the last year is inconsistency. Of everything - staking, method, style - but mainly caused by a lack of routine. Work determines time on Betfair, and life determines time on Betfair. At a time when I feel I’ve got numerous small ‘edges’ up my sleeve, and my head in a calm and confident place, I could really get stuck into bank building. But I haven’t spent the time on the exchange, and my recent forays have been a little frustrating – I can take positives from sessions where I’ve remained calm when things have gone against me and ended nicely in the green, but I then seem to have lapses in concentration. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but when my time on Betfair is limited, I tend to go searching for opportunities, sometimes with irritating results. However, the April P&L remains green by six hundred quid or so (if below its monthly high point), and it’s certainly comforting when a period seems fairly negative, whilst the numbers turn out positively. I’ve had more than a few times when the opposite has occurred.

Impatience In The Homeland

It’s a couple of months since three Football League chairmen from Yorkshire-based clubs ( Leeds, Huddersfield and Sheffield Wednesday) decided that panic was a better play than patience, and sacked their respective managers despite each club hovering around the play-off positions. So how’s it all looking?

Well, Wednesday fans are presumably fairly pleased with Dave Jones, remaining unbeaten during his tenure, although they have been outperformed by their city rivals and may end up in the play-offs. With only a 25% chance of success IMO -‘who’s in form in May’ is rarely consistent with who has been the best side throughout the season - they may end up as play-off losers, no better than they would have done under Gary Megson. The additional positive is that Megson’s teams have never been renowned for their stylish play, whilst Jones has prepared many attractive teams over the years. So the home regulars may well be seeing better football at Hillsborough.

Huddersfield have made little forward progress under Simon Grayson, and have lost four of their last five games. But, mainly due to Lee Clark’s tenure, they’ll make the play-offs. There’s still a chance for Grayson’s team to gain promotion, but only if that happens could the management change be seen as remotely successful. In both Wednesday’s and Huddersfield’s cases, I’d be concerned that a team in hot form (Stevenage or Brentford) could sneak into the play-offs and then cause an upset come Wembley time.

And what of my own team? Leeds play-off hopes are already dead and gone. The only achievement United are likely to win is the ‘red card’ trophy, carelessly losing four players in the last few games. Perversely, Leeds fans tend to enjoy the rough and tumble, so this new ‘dirty Leeds’ trait won’t do Neil Warnock any harm in the short term. But if next season starts as badly as this one has ended, and the quality of football continues to sink, the move for Warnock may look pretty piss-poor.

As with gambling, patience usually wins out.

London

My first few blog posts upon arrival in London noted a little celebrity spotting. In my head I’ve been waiting to find four consecutively to take part in my own imaginary version of ‘Celebrity Come Dine With Me’. So my latest four spots are as follows –

Josh Lewsey, Vanessa Feltz, Graham Norton, Tim Lovejoy

I’m sure that would make a decent show.

I also have a ‘super-celeb-spot’, ie one that occurred within a football pitch length of our flat. In the local Waitrose, Olympic silver medallist – John Regis.

Squaring The Circle

Following my recent Sugar Ray Leonard celeb spot here, Soccerdude lowered the tone with his own celeb-spot post, which ended with a urinal-based episode involving the genitalia of two Knights of the Realm and an unsavoury incident involving someone best forgotten. So simply to bring this discussion to a rounded end (and because it made me chuckle at the time), a week after reading Soccerdude’s post, I went to see American rock musician Craig Finn at the Hoxton Bar & Grill. And whilst occupied at the urinal myself, who should appear alongside me but Craig Finn himself.

And, being a builder with high morals and reputation, I kept my eyes firmly fixed forward. Take this on board, dude.