Wow. Yesterday was simply the most amazing day of my life.
Off on honeymoon shortly. Be back in 3 weeks.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Quick update
So sorry for the lack of updates recently. I just never realised there was quite so much to do in the lead up to the big day. It sounds ridiculous but I honestly haven't managed more than an email or two for proper work this week while sport - both trading and simply watching - has been next to impossible.
Didn't catch a moment live of the last test between England and India. Caught some highlights one night and India looked in total control. Saw it ended in a draw which I guess is all they needed.
Been a bit stressed this week with trying to get everything sorted in time. Just been snowed under with last minute problems (Grrrr) and trying to get everything we knew about done. Was also given a flash drive with some stag photos on it which had a fecking nasty trojan on it that took hours to sort out. My fault I guess for not scanning it before opening it. :-(
We also seemed to have planned our honeymoon right bang in the middle of the protest at Heathrow by the crusty types. :-P Really not sure if we're going to be able to make it to the airport or not when we need to so are having to come up with all kinds of plans. Some stress we don't need...
Just wanted to quickly say a big thankyou for all the kind messages that have been left over the last few days. Much appreciated. The big day is Saturday. Been using all my weather prediction skills from cricket trading to try and come up with a nice sunny day for it but so far it's proving near impossible. Near 100% cloud cover with light showers and the possibility of thunderstorms seems to be the general message. Bollocks bad luck. But we're keeping our fingers crossed.
Anyway, I'll do a quick entry tomorrow too. I'm sorry I can't remember your name but there was a guy from Betfair who got in contact when I first started the blog who was getting married the day before me. I make that tomorrow so best of luck mate and hope it all goes well.
Right, I'm knackered. Still got the place names and drinks vouchers to do before bed though. Luckily I've been given an impressive selection of single malts to keep me going :-). Back tomorrow with the last update before the wedding.
Didn't catch a moment live of the last test between England and India. Caught some highlights one night and India looked in total control. Saw it ended in a draw which I guess is all they needed.
Been a bit stressed this week with trying to get everything sorted in time. Just been snowed under with last minute problems (Grrrr) and trying to get everything we knew about done. Was also given a flash drive with some stag photos on it which had a fecking nasty trojan on it that took hours to sort out. My fault I guess for not scanning it before opening it. :-(
We also seemed to have planned our honeymoon right bang in the middle of the protest at Heathrow by the crusty types. :-P Really not sure if we're going to be able to make it to the airport or not when we need to so are having to come up with all kinds of plans. Some stress we don't need...
Just wanted to quickly say a big thankyou for all the kind messages that have been left over the last few days. Much appreciated. The big day is Saturday. Been using all my weather prediction skills from cricket trading to try and come up with a nice sunny day for it but so far it's proving near impossible. Near 100% cloud cover with light showers and the possibility of thunderstorms seems to be the general message. Bollocks bad luck. But we're keeping our fingers crossed.
Anyway, I'll do a quick entry tomorrow too. I'm sorry I can't remember your name but there was a guy from Betfair who got in contact when I first started the blog who was getting married the day before me. I make that tomorrow so best of luck mate and hope it all goes well.
Right, I'm knackered. Still got the place names and drinks vouchers to do before bed though. Luckily I've been given an impressive selection of single malts to keep me going :-). Back tomorrow with the last update before the wedding.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Maximum loss but happy days
Yesterday's Result: £799.88
Ouch! Not good. I've not had the time to double check yet but have a feeling that could be my biggest loss since starting the blog. As it's also probably the last opportunity I'm going to have a trade before I get back from honeymoon it's not really the best way to leave things either. But on the plus side I guess I'm still in profit for the month. So what happened? Well, in between some poor trading circumstances conspired against somewhat. To be perfectly honest though I just have more important things on my mind other than trading right now. So it's probably time to stop anyway.
The wedding is less than two weeks away and we're frantically trying to get everything ready. Still got to do the order of services, table plan, place cards, favours, free drinks things, cravat making and seemingly a million other things. Tonight we're off to pick Emma's wedding dress up and visit the venue to finalise details. All very exciting but getting stressful. Got to have a think about my speech and buy some presents at some point as well. On the plus side the honeymoon is all sorted and all I have to do now is pick the travellers cheques up tomorrow. :-)
Aside from all of that things have gone more than a bit, well, frankly mental, with my proper work / business. Totally snowed under but with some good things happening. Certainly looking forward to chilling on the honeymoon :-)
Missed Monday's Pro40 cricket as I went to watch my local football team's legends play a charity match. A little surprised they managed to muster 22 players to be honest ;-) but all in a good cause and there was even a queue at the burger bar for Alcohol Only! If only that happened every match. :-)
Last night's Pro 40 between Derbyshire and Leicestershire turned into a bit of a disaster. Not going to go into it all here but basically I had to leave the game for large periods during which I was left with little option but to tie in reds / reduce greens when otherwise I'd have probably held the positions. Finally, when I got to do it with no distractions I had just about the biggest market move possible against me in two balls. (I'd backed the fielding team at the death and the number 10 batsmen hit two sixes in two balls!) I figure the only thing worse than that is two sixes from two front foot no balls.
Anyway, it caused carnage in the markets, I couldn't dump all my position until after the second six and by then I'd doubled my red and was just over my max loss limit. I'd had the good sense to only get involved to the extent where the worst case scenario was the maximum loss. I didn't actually expect to make it but them's the breaks! The market moved slightly more than I anticipated, hence the extra few quid loss over the maximum loss. With hindsight I should have just left the match earlier when it became obvious I couldn't give it the attention it required. I don't normally like to get involved at the death of matches with big swings possible too so that was no doubt another error.
That's probably it on the trading front now until I get back from honeymoon. Can't do tonight's, not going to get the opportunity to watch most the test match, let alone trade it, and next week is looking pretty full too. Hell, turns out I'm even getting married! Might sneak in an innings somewhere. Have to see. Otherwise it'll be all systems go for the Twenty20 World Cup after the honeymoon. Will still update the blog a few times in the meantime though.
So that's that. Did my bollocks today. But in all honesty am more stressed about wedding stuff and the proper work developments. Wish you all good luck in your punting over the next few weeks and if you have the time why not check some more new blogs I'm going to be linking to - Roberts Racing and Tony Quinlan.
Right, gotta dash. Rambled right on there. Thought that was going to be a quick short entry!
Ouch! Not good. I've not had the time to double check yet but have a feeling that could be my biggest loss since starting the blog. As it's also probably the last opportunity I'm going to have a trade before I get back from honeymoon it's not really the best way to leave things either. But on the plus side I guess I'm still in profit for the month. So what happened? Well, in between some poor trading circumstances conspired against somewhat. To be perfectly honest though I just have more important things on my mind other than trading right now. So it's probably time to stop anyway.
The wedding is less than two weeks away and we're frantically trying to get everything ready. Still got to do the order of services, table plan, place cards, favours, free drinks things, cravat making and seemingly a million other things. Tonight we're off to pick Emma's wedding dress up and visit the venue to finalise details. All very exciting but getting stressful. Got to have a think about my speech and buy some presents at some point as well. On the plus side the honeymoon is all sorted and all I have to do now is pick the travellers cheques up tomorrow. :-)
Aside from all of that things have gone more than a bit, well, frankly mental, with my proper work / business. Totally snowed under but with some good things happening. Certainly looking forward to chilling on the honeymoon :-)
Missed Monday's Pro40 cricket as I went to watch my local football team's legends play a charity match. A little surprised they managed to muster 22 players to be honest ;-) but all in a good cause and there was even a queue at the burger bar for Alcohol Only! If only that happened every match. :-)
Last night's Pro 40 between Derbyshire and Leicestershire turned into a bit of a disaster. Not going to go into it all here but basically I had to leave the game for large periods during which I was left with little option but to tie in reds / reduce greens when otherwise I'd have probably held the positions. Finally, when I got to do it with no distractions I had just about the biggest market move possible against me in two balls. (I'd backed the fielding team at the death and the number 10 batsmen hit two sixes in two balls!) I figure the only thing worse than that is two sixes from two front foot no balls.
Anyway, it caused carnage in the markets, I couldn't dump all my position until after the second six and by then I'd doubled my red and was just over my max loss limit. I'd had the good sense to only get involved to the extent where the worst case scenario was the maximum loss. I didn't actually expect to make it but them's the breaks! The market moved slightly more than I anticipated, hence the extra few quid loss over the maximum loss. With hindsight I should have just left the match earlier when it became obvious I couldn't give it the attention it required. I don't normally like to get involved at the death of matches with big swings possible too so that was no doubt another error.
That's probably it on the trading front now until I get back from honeymoon. Can't do tonight's, not going to get the opportunity to watch most the test match, let alone trade it, and next week is looking pretty full too. Hell, turns out I'm even getting married! Might sneak in an innings somewhere. Have to see. Otherwise it'll be all systems go for the Twenty20 World Cup after the honeymoon. Will still update the blog a few times in the meantime though.
So that's that. Did my bollocks today. But in all honesty am more stressed about wedding stuff and the proper work developments. Wish you all good luck in your punting over the next few weeks and if you have the time why not check some more new blogs I'm going to be linking to - Roberts Racing and Tony Quinlan.
Right, gotta dash. Rambled right on there. Thought that was going to be a quick short entry!
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Twenty20 finals day
Yesterday's Result: £408.06
It's one of my favourite days of the cricket season and yesterday's Twenty20 finals bash didn't disappoint. Blazing sun, cracking sixes, breath taking fielding, a hattrick, some last over thrillers and triumphant underdogs. Making the day even sweeter was somewhere in amongst it all I even scraped some profit together too. Though I did also manage to have the most expensive cup of tea I'm ever likely to have...
Semi-final 1: Lancashire v Gloucestershire £72.13
Oh Lanky Lanky. How could it all go so wrong? Superstars properly pummelled by an unfancied team. Guess some would say that's the answer right there. ;-)
To be fair Lancashire didn't get off to the best of starts. Their leading Twenty20 batsmen Mal Loye seized up with back spasms just before the match and was ruled out while just minutes before Dominic Cork was hunched over in agony after taking a ball in the, well, balls.
Flintoff replaced Loye as an opener but failed to fire. In fact only Brad Hodge among the batsmen really showed any proper form and as the wickets fell the market's love affair with Lancashire began to lose its shine. The average 1st innings score at Edgbaston in Twenty20 is 163. The average first innings score on Twenty20 finals day is 158. Lancashire scraped to 148. Still, they had a host of star bowlers to fall back on including Murali and Flintoff, as well as the likes of Anderson, Cork, Chapple and Keedy.
Asked at the change of innings what I thought on the Betfair cricket forum I said I was equalish small green, would put a free bet on Gloucestershire, the Lancashire price would disappear over the hill if Spearman got going but I was waiting to see what would happen early doors in the run chase before getting too involved. As it turns out Gloucestershire strolled it winning by 8 wickets with 19 balls to spare. Spearman effectively steered Gloucestershire home with 86 off 55 balls. And as Anderson was in the middle of going for 23 off his second over I was starting to lump on. So how did I make just £72.13 - just a few quid more than my equal green at the change of innings? What happened?
My future father in law. That's what happened! Emma was out and he turned up on the off chance we were in. Was riding his bike near by, with my future brother in law, and they popped in. No problems with that. Always got time for family, they're a good laugh and we all get on. So anyway, I obviously levelled out equal green from the positions I'd literally just opened and made the teas.
They were only here for 40 minutes or so. By the time I got back Gloucestershire were 1.01. Turns out it was one of those great markets where the price more or less went into freefall. My favourite type really. Just about one way traffic, very low risk and the perfect scenario to let winning positions run. I've worked out roughly what I'd have expected to make on the game. I won't go into figures suffice to say that was without doubt the most expensive cup of tea I'll ever have! And, to top it all, they left before Emma got back!
Semi-final 2: Sussex v Kent £658.31
Kent drive me crazy. Never a team to do things the easy way their games are often rollercoaster rides and this one was no exception. Last year's Pro40 shows the team doesn't know when to give up graciously and lose a match - but is more than happy to try and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They're at it again this season too. The fact that both teams traded below 1.25 is enough in itself to indicate massive swings in fortunes in this match. The game also had its fair share of other flip flops too. Not one for the faint-hearted and I switched positions a few times on this one.
Sussex batted first and got off to a blistering start. 61 from the first 6 overs, though after 5 overs the run rate was 11.8! I always say that as a yardstick 60 from 6 or better is a superb start for the batting team and the plunge in the Sussex price reflected it. After starting out bullish on Kent I'd switched and was moderate green Sussex and larger red Kent.
It all changed when Kent started to take the pace off the ball, it became harder to get away, and under the pressure two quick wickets fell. First Wright was caught and then Goodwin was run out attempting a crazy second run. At that stage I dumped two-thirds of my Kent red at around 1.68ish. The rest of the innings was all about some superb Kent fielding, particularly the run out of Adams for the 5th wicket. Sussex went from 60/0 to 102/6 and given the collapse must have been happy to scrape to 140. By then I'd long switched to Kent again. They don't make it easy for us!
Kent's reply got off to a flyer. There were 6 4s before a single, wide, bye or no ball was registered. Denly again did his England credentials no harm and Key gave a batting masterclass hitting 68 off 54 balls to steer Kent home not out. In true Kent style though they left it close even after that cracking start. So close that with 30 needed from around 25 balls I layed them at 1.13 after the third wicket fell. As I said at the time on the Betfair forum I've seen Kent too many times not to! Us traders are nothing but fickle. :-) Especially when Kent are involved!
I wasn't let down. Two overs later I layed Sussex at 1.55. And from memory they went even lower. Kent were up to their usual tricks. But ended up winning the match after needing 9 off the last over. Naved's two front foot no balls for free hits not helping Sussex's cause.
So that was that. One to raise the blood pressure in true Kent style. And a cracking game of Twnety20 to boot. Superb stuff.
The final: Gloucestershire v Kent 323.16
Had a shocker on this one. Got into a right mess trying to push a position too far and ended up with one of the worst looking books I've had in a long time. At one stage my red on Sussex was around 39 times the size of my green on Kent! Now that's a proper fuck up in anyone's book!! Sure, at that stage Kent were sub 1.2 and it was near the end of the match. And even a Kent wicket at that stage would have left me well within the maximum loss I allow myself on any event. Still, it's not the type of situation I want to experience too often - especially with Kent seemingly doing their best to lose the match yet again. Eventually, as Kent decided to hand the advantage back to Sussex, I had to level out at around £500 red the pair and by the end of the match was pretty happy to only drop £323.
It was all going so well to start with too. Another quick start from Gloucestershire, the batting team, though this time with Marshall rather than Spearman doing the damage. Again though Kent managed to restrict the batting team after the initial fielding restrictions and then a hatrick from McLaren really put the squeeze on. Old Dickie Bird would have been hopping like a good un. The score was 111!
Fantastic to see a hatrick any time, let alone the finals day of Twenty20. But unfortunately it was also the cause of my loss. As the 3 wickets fell obviously the Kent price did too. I made a classic mistake and got involved too deeply in comparison to my existing book thinking that was effectively the match. I always had in mind I could get out but a poor spell from Malinga shortly after blew the price out quickly and I ended up sitting on a pretty awful position until the change of innings.
I was concerned at that stage. I fancied Kent to make the 147 they needed to win. However, an early wicket would have taken me past my maximum allowable loss per event. So after considering it all I dumped just about all my Kent green. Too much of a risk to keep the position open. Would have broken bankroll rules. And would have left me down on the day. Was time to just bite the bullet. For the most part for the rest of the match I just sat waiting for a few key moments to get involved while hoping Kent won.
Despite Key going earlyish this time round good knocks from Denly again, Walker and Stevens eventually saw Kent Home. But the last few overs were total carnage in the market. Kent went to 1.13 before blowing it big time. Was all happening so fast but I'm pretty sure Gloucestershire also traded at 1.13 before the end of the game with huge swings in the market.
With 4 overs to go I wasn't liking Kent's progress and levelled out red for around £500 each side. From there on it was crazy. Yoyoing odds. Opportunities to win or lose small fortunes. Panic. I got in some lays of Kent on dot balls, though always keeping within the max loss limit, and in the penultimate over, with Gloucestershire massive odds on, I was looking at a nice green on them, but an unacceptable red on Kent. I decided to level out again, accept the loss and enjoy the last over. Pleased I did as Greenidge got tonked and a no ball finally handed the win to Kent with 3 balls to spare. Thrilling stuff. Which, with 78p on the cup winner market left me with the £408.06 for the day.
So, Kent won only their third domestic title in 29 years - and to top the day off the Kent Spitfire also won the Mascot Race. Ironically beating Lanky the Giraffe by a neck! Cricket also ran out a winner. It was a brilliant day's entertainment. Exciting to watch and leaving me salivating at the prospect of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup when I get back from honeymoon.
It's one of my favourite days of the cricket season and yesterday's Twenty20 finals bash didn't disappoint. Blazing sun, cracking sixes, breath taking fielding, a hattrick, some last over thrillers and triumphant underdogs. Making the day even sweeter was somewhere in amongst it all I even scraped some profit together too. Though I did also manage to have the most expensive cup of tea I'm ever likely to have...
Semi-final 1: Lancashire v Gloucestershire £72.13
Oh Lanky Lanky. How could it all go so wrong? Superstars properly pummelled by an unfancied team. Guess some would say that's the answer right there. ;-)
To be fair Lancashire didn't get off to the best of starts. Their leading Twenty20 batsmen Mal Loye seized up with back spasms just before the match and was ruled out while just minutes before Dominic Cork was hunched over in agony after taking a ball in the, well, balls.
Flintoff replaced Loye as an opener but failed to fire. In fact only Brad Hodge among the batsmen really showed any proper form and as the wickets fell the market's love affair with Lancashire began to lose its shine. The average 1st innings score at Edgbaston in Twenty20 is 163. The average first innings score on Twenty20 finals day is 158. Lancashire scraped to 148. Still, they had a host of star bowlers to fall back on including Murali and Flintoff, as well as the likes of Anderson, Cork, Chapple and Keedy.
Asked at the change of innings what I thought on the Betfair cricket forum I said I was equalish small green, would put a free bet on Gloucestershire, the Lancashire price would disappear over the hill if Spearman got going but I was waiting to see what would happen early doors in the run chase before getting too involved. As it turns out Gloucestershire strolled it winning by 8 wickets with 19 balls to spare. Spearman effectively steered Gloucestershire home with 86 off 55 balls. And as Anderson was in the middle of going for 23 off his second over I was starting to lump on. So how did I make just £72.13 - just a few quid more than my equal green at the change of innings? What happened?
My future father in law. That's what happened! Emma was out and he turned up on the off chance we were in. Was riding his bike near by, with my future brother in law, and they popped in. No problems with that. Always got time for family, they're a good laugh and we all get on. So anyway, I obviously levelled out equal green from the positions I'd literally just opened and made the teas.
They were only here for 40 minutes or so. By the time I got back Gloucestershire were 1.01. Turns out it was one of those great markets where the price more or less went into freefall. My favourite type really. Just about one way traffic, very low risk and the perfect scenario to let winning positions run. I've worked out roughly what I'd have expected to make on the game. I won't go into figures suffice to say that was without doubt the most expensive cup of tea I'll ever have! And, to top it all, they left before Emma got back!
Semi-final 2: Sussex v Kent £658.31
Kent drive me crazy. Never a team to do things the easy way their games are often rollercoaster rides and this one was no exception. Last year's Pro40 shows the team doesn't know when to give up graciously and lose a match - but is more than happy to try and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They're at it again this season too. The fact that both teams traded below 1.25 is enough in itself to indicate massive swings in fortunes in this match. The game also had its fair share of other flip flops too. Not one for the faint-hearted and I switched positions a few times on this one.
Sussex batted first and got off to a blistering start. 61 from the first 6 overs, though after 5 overs the run rate was 11.8! I always say that as a yardstick 60 from 6 or better is a superb start for the batting team and the plunge in the Sussex price reflected it. After starting out bullish on Kent I'd switched and was moderate green Sussex and larger red Kent.
It all changed when Kent started to take the pace off the ball, it became harder to get away, and under the pressure two quick wickets fell. First Wright was caught and then Goodwin was run out attempting a crazy second run. At that stage I dumped two-thirds of my Kent red at around 1.68ish. The rest of the innings was all about some superb Kent fielding, particularly the run out of Adams for the 5th wicket. Sussex went from 60/0 to 102/6 and given the collapse must have been happy to scrape to 140. By then I'd long switched to Kent again. They don't make it easy for us!
Kent's reply got off to a flyer. There were 6 4s before a single, wide, bye or no ball was registered. Denly again did his England credentials no harm and Key gave a batting masterclass hitting 68 off 54 balls to steer Kent home not out. In true Kent style though they left it close even after that cracking start. So close that with 30 needed from around 25 balls I layed them at 1.13 after the third wicket fell. As I said at the time on the Betfair forum I've seen Kent too many times not to! Us traders are nothing but fickle. :-) Especially when Kent are involved!
I wasn't let down. Two overs later I layed Sussex at 1.55. And from memory they went even lower. Kent were up to their usual tricks. But ended up winning the match after needing 9 off the last over. Naved's two front foot no balls for free hits not helping Sussex's cause.
So that was that. One to raise the blood pressure in true Kent style. And a cracking game of Twnety20 to boot. Superb stuff.
The final: Gloucestershire v Kent 323.16
Had a shocker on this one. Got into a right mess trying to push a position too far and ended up with one of the worst looking books I've had in a long time. At one stage my red on Sussex was around 39 times the size of my green on Kent! Now that's a proper fuck up in anyone's book!! Sure, at that stage Kent were sub 1.2 and it was near the end of the match. And even a Kent wicket at that stage would have left me well within the maximum loss I allow myself on any event. Still, it's not the type of situation I want to experience too often - especially with Kent seemingly doing their best to lose the match yet again. Eventually, as Kent decided to hand the advantage back to Sussex, I had to level out at around £500 red the pair and by the end of the match was pretty happy to only drop £323.
It was all going so well to start with too. Another quick start from Gloucestershire, the batting team, though this time with Marshall rather than Spearman doing the damage. Again though Kent managed to restrict the batting team after the initial fielding restrictions and then a hatrick from McLaren really put the squeeze on. Old Dickie Bird would have been hopping like a good un. The score was 111!
Fantastic to see a hatrick any time, let alone the finals day of Twenty20. But unfortunately it was also the cause of my loss. As the 3 wickets fell obviously the Kent price did too. I made a classic mistake and got involved too deeply in comparison to my existing book thinking that was effectively the match. I always had in mind I could get out but a poor spell from Malinga shortly after blew the price out quickly and I ended up sitting on a pretty awful position until the change of innings.
I was concerned at that stage. I fancied Kent to make the 147 they needed to win. However, an early wicket would have taken me past my maximum allowable loss per event. So after considering it all I dumped just about all my Kent green. Too much of a risk to keep the position open. Would have broken bankroll rules. And would have left me down on the day. Was time to just bite the bullet. For the most part for the rest of the match I just sat waiting for a few key moments to get involved while hoping Kent won.
Despite Key going earlyish this time round good knocks from Denly again, Walker and Stevens eventually saw Kent Home. But the last few overs were total carnage in the market. Kent went to 1.13 before blowing it big time. Was all happening so fast but I'm pretty sure Gloucestershire also traded at 1.13 before the end of the game with huge swings in the market.
With 4 overs to go I wasn't liking Kent's progress and levelled out red for around £500 each side. From there on it was crazy. Yoyoing odds. Opportunities to win or lose small fortunes. Panic. I got in some lays of Kent on dot balls, though always keeping within the max loss limit, and in the penultimate over, with Gloucestershire massive odds on, I was looking at a nice green on them, but an unacceptable red on Kent. I decided to level out again, accept the loss and enjoy the last over. Pleased I did as Greenidge got tonked and a no ball finally handed the win to Kent with 3 balls to spare. Thrilling stuff. Which, with 78p on the cup winner market left me with the £408.06 for the day.
So, Kent won only their third domestic title in 29 years - and to top the day off the Kent Spitfire also won the Mascot Race. Ironically beating Lanky the Giraffe by a neck! Cricket also ran out a winner. It was a brilliant day's entertainment. Exciting to watch and leaving me salivating at the prospect of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup when I get back from honeymoon.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Start the Kab - Ali proves a point
Yesterday's Result: £1,007.11
Here's the earlier blog entry on the Davydenko match fixing allegations.
When you're on a roll I guess you're on a roll. And at the moment I'm considering entry to this! No, seriously, I was lucky enough to have another great result in yesterday's Pro40 match between Essex and Worcestershire. Obviously well pleased again and hoping I can carry the good form into tomorrow's Twenty 20 finals.
As could perhaps be expected this summer even Essex's County Ground, statistically the driest ground in county cricket, couldn't escape the rain completely. Luckily the match wasn't delayed too long though and the game was only shortened to 38 overs aside.
Worcestershire batted first and got off to a flyer. A couple of early wickets then slowed them down but a Jaques century provided a solid backbone to the innings, led to some useful partnerships and resulted in a not too shabby 225 by the innings break. The total included a quickfire 19 of 17 balls from Kabir Ali at the end that included a truly enormous six. You could be forgiven for thinking he was showing the Twenty20 World Cup selectors what he thought of their decision to leave him out of the 30 man squad.
I'd said on the Betfair cricket forum towards the end of the Worcestershire innings that I wasn't convinced by the 1.8 about Essex. And during the innings break I said if I had a free bet it would go on Worcestershire. I decided to keep my powder dry though until the start of the innings. I was sat on around £350 green each side and just wanted to see what the ball movement etc was like. It's no secret what the key to the game was. Essex needed a quick start to prevent being totally strangled out of the game by the spinners. Worcestershire needed quick wickets to pile the pressure on and raise the required run rate.
Well a couple of balls into Kabir Ali's first over and the movement was massive. After his quick but impressive knock he'd obvioulsy decided to show the selectors what he could do with the ball too. And that turned out to be a hell of a lot. Put simply he ripped through the Essex top order taking four wickets in an impressive opening spell. I got some on before the first wicket fell, some more after and never really looked back. It was always going to be a struggle for Essex after such a poor start and with the required run rate already spiralling above 6 an over. It wasn't too long before the Worcestershire price was sub 1.1, and eventually 1.01.
An impressive 7th wicket partnership for Essex bounced the Worcestershire price a little - peaking at 1.08 / 1.09 but if the match wasn't effectively over before that was broken it was after. In the end Worcestershire ran out comfortable winners by 62 runs. Shame Bumble wasn't on commentary to give us the "Start the Kab" line. Not surprisingly Ali picked up the Man of the Match award. And answered the selectors in the best possible way.
I actually made £1000.64 on the match. The other £6.47 came from the Hampshire v Nottinghamshire match the day before. Didn't think I was going to be able to do any of it. A last minute change of plans meant I could catch a few overs in the middle of the match. I screwed up ending up with an all red position at the end of the first innings but was able to quickly turn it around at the start of the second. Basically the minute I could go all green I did - and then headed out for drinks and dinner. Shame as the second innings looked like one way traffic in the market and it could have turned into quite a profitable one. Still, all work and no play....
Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow a lot. Twenty20 finals day is one of the highlights of the domestic cricket season and I hope it's a cracker. Best of luck if you brave the markets!
Finally, one more blog I didn't mention yesterday. Freddy has started one over at Life and Sports Punting. He keeps a daily record of profit and loss with commentary on what he got up to. Had a losing start but is turning it around nicely. And it seems having to write about losses is already helping with discipline!
Here's the earlier blog entry on the Davydenko match fixing allegations.
When you're on a roll I guess you're on a roll. And at the moment I'm considering entry to this! No, seriously, I was lucky enough to have another great result in yesterday's Pro40 match between Essex and Worcestershire. Obviously well pleased again and hoping I can carry the good form into tomorrow's Twenty 20 finals.
As could perhaps be expected this summer even Essex's County Ground, statistically the driest ground in county cricket, couldn't escape the rain completely. Luckily the match wasn't delayed too long though and the game was only shortened to 38 overs aside.
Worcestershire batted first and got off to a flyer. A couple of early wickets then slowed them down but a Jaques century provided a solid backbone to the innings, led to some useful partnerships and resulted in a not too shabby 225 by the innings break. The total included a quickfire 19 of 17 balls from Kabir Ali at the end that included a truly enormous six. You could be forgiven for thinking he was showing the Twenty20 World Cup selectors what he thought of their decision to leave him out of the 30 man squad.
I'd said on the Betfair cricket forum towards the end of the Worcestershire innings that I wasn't convinced by the 1.8 about Essex. And during the innings break I said if I had a free bet it would go on Worcestershire. I decided to keep my powder dry though until the start of the innings. I was sat on around £350 green each side and just wanted to see what the ball movement etc was like. It's no secret what the key to the game was. Essex needed a quick start to prevent being totally strangled out of the game by the spinners. Worcestershire needed quick wickets to pile the pressure on and raise the required run rate.
Well a couple of balls into Kabir Ali's first over and the movement was massive. After his quick but impressive knock he'd obvioulsy decided to show the selectors what he could do with the ball too. And that turned out to be a hell of a lot. Put simply he ripped through the Essex top order taking four wickets in an impressive opening spell. I got some on before the first wicket fell, some more after and never really looked back. It was always going to be a struggle for Essex after such a poor start and with the required run rate already spiralling above 6 an over. It wasn't too long before the Worcestershire price was sub 1.1, and eventually 1.01.
An impressive 7th wicket partnership for Essex bounced the Worcestershire price a little - peaking at 1.08 / 1.09 but if the match wasn't effectively over before that was broken it was after. In the end Worcestershire ran out comfortable winners by 62 runs. Shame Bumble wasn't on commentary to give us the "Start the Kab" line. Not surprisingly Ali picked up the Man of the Match award. And answered the selectors in the best possible way.
I actually made £1000.64 on the match. The other £6.47 came from the Hampshire v Nottinghamshire match the day before. Didn't think I was going to be able to do any of it. A last minute change of plans meant I could catch a few overs in the middle of the match. I screwed up ending up with an all red position at the end of the first innings but was able to quickly turn it around at the start of the second. Basically the minute I could go all green I did - and then headed out for drinks and dinner. Shame as the second innings looked like one way traffic in the market and it could have turned into quite a profitable one. Still, all work and no play....
Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow a lot. Twenty20 finals day is one of the highlights of the domestic cricket season and I hope it's a cracker. Best of luck if you brave the markets!
Finally, one more blog I didn't mention yesterday. Freddy has started one over at Life and Sports Punting. He keeps a daily record of profit and loss with commentary on what he got up to. Had a losing start but is turning it around nicely. And it seems having to write about losses is already helping with discipline!
Davydenko, Betfair and match fix allegations
Right, let's get it clear from the start. I ain't saying Davydenko fixed the result of his tennis match with Vassallo and deliberately lost. And I'm not publishing any comments that specifically say he did. What I will do is discuss the facts and people can draw their own conclusions, fair or foul.
Of course, the tennis forum on Betfair is always full of accusations of match fixing. Normally from sore losers who've done their proverbials. Every now and then though some of the allegations appear to have more merit than others and recently there's been a spate. Blogger One Percent has outlined a few examples here and especially here.
So why all the accusations about yesterday's match between Davydenko, the world number 4, and Vassallo, the world number who he? (He's 87th). Well let's look at a few facts. Bookmakers suspended betting when it was clear people were taking Vassallo at any price. Betfair itself has suspended settlement of the market pending "investigation and consultation with relevant regulatory authorities" and will be discussing the case in an "emergency meeting" this morning. The story has also hit the mainstream media. For example, you can read about it and hear Betfair's Mark Davies discuss the case on the BBC here. The ATP itself has yet to officially comment on the story but is presumably going to look in to the whole matter telling The Guardian it would be "innapropriate" to say anything until the facts are investigated.
So what caused all this gnashing of teeth? Simple really. Davydenko retired from the match allowing Vassallo to progress through to the next round. Nothing so unusual with that you'd think. Until you look at the betting patterns during the game. For starters £3.4 million had been matched before the game and during the first set - 10 times the usual amount for a game of this size. The odds were more than a little bizarre too. Of course, you could argue that people knew Davydenko was injured and likely to break down. But when you look at the prices you can't help but see why there are suspicions.
Davydenko's price started off ar around 1.2 on Betfair. He won the first set convincingly 6/2 - with no sign of injury - but his price had steadily drifted to 5.3! When a single break down in the second set he'd traded in the 9s!! He retired in the third with a pain in his left foot. Look at that in the cold light of day and the investigation is not entirely surprising. We can but wait for the results.
Of course, the unfolding match and result caused a meltdown on the Betfair tennis forum. Lots of burnt fingers and lots of big winners. Given the betting patterns you have to say Betfair is correct to suspend settlement, pending investigation, in accordance with its 2003 Memorandum of Understanding with the ATP.
That didn't stop the boys on the tennis forum reaching their own conclusions though. As well as the numerous threads on the subject there was a concerted effort to edit Davydenko's Wikipedia entry. The changes were being switched back almost as they were being made but a look through the history page for Davydenko shows you the kind of things being said. Among the early edits were this one (see the end of the 2007 section) and this one. (see Equipment and Trivia). They're still going on this morning, albeit more subtle.
So there you have it. In the red corner we have those accusing Davydenko of being involved in match fixing. In the blue those who say that's bollocks and he was unfortunate to suffer an injury and was correct in his decision to retire from the match rather than risk aggravating it. An investigation is ongoing and no doubt I'll have more to say about it when the outcome is announced.
UPDATE: 11.45am. Betfair, following consultation with the ATP, has decided to VOID all bets placed on this match. I had no financial interest in this match but the right, if unprecedented, decision for me.
Of course, the tennis forum on Betfair is always full of accusations of match fixing. Normally from sore losers who've done their proverbials. Every now and then though some of the allegations appear to have more merit than others and recently there's been a spate. Blogger One Percent has outlined a few examples here and especially here.
So why all the accusations about yesterday's match between Davydenko, the world number 4, and Vassallo, the world number who he? (He's 87th). Well let's look at a few facts. Bookmakers suspended betting when it was clear people were taking Vassallo at any price. Betfair itself has suspended settlement of the market pending "investigation and consultation with relevant regulatory authorities" and will be discussing the case in an "emergency meeting" this morning. The story has also hit the mainstream media. For example, you can read about it and hear Betfair's Mark Davies discuss the case on the BBC here. The ATP itself has yet to officially comment on the story but is presumably going to look in to the whole matter telling The Guardian it would be "innapropriate" to say anything until the facts are investigated.
So what caused all this gnashing of teeth? Simple really. Davydenko retired from the match allowing Vassallo to progress through to the next round. Nothing so unusual with that you'd think. Until you look at the betting patterns during the game. For starters £3.4 million had been matched before the game and during the first set - 10 times the usual amount for a game of this size. The odds were more than a little bizarre too. Of course, you could argue that people knew Davydenko was injured and likely to break down. But when you look at the prices you can't help but see why there are suspicions.
Davydenko's price started off ar around 1.2 on Betfair. He won the first set convincingly 6/2 - with no sign of injury - but his price had steadily drifted to 5.3! When a single break down in the second set he'd traded in the 9s!! He retired in the third with a pain in his left foot. Look at that in the cold light of day and the investigation is not entirely surprising. We can but wait for the results.
Of course, the unfolding match and result caused a meltdown on the Betfair tennis forum. Lots of burnt fingers and lots of big winners. Given the betting patterns you have to say Betfair is correct to suspend settlement, pending investigation, in accordance with its 2003 Memorandum of Understanding with the ATP.
That didn't stop the boys on the tennis forum reaching their own conclusions though. As well as the numerous threads on the subject there was a concerted effort to edit Davydenko's Wikipedia entry. The changes were being switched back almost as they were being made but a look through the history page for Davydenko shows you the kind of things being said. Among the early edits were this one (see the end of the 2007 section) and this one. (see Equipment and Trivia). They're still going on this morning, albeit more subtle.
So there you have it. In the red corner we have those accusing Davydenko of being involved in match fixing. In the blue those who say that's bollocks and he was unfortunate to suffer an injury and was correct in his decision to retire from the match rather than risk aggravating it. An investigation is ongoing and no doubt I'll have more to say about it when the outcome is announced.
UPDATE: 11.45am. Betfair, following consultation with the ATP, has decided to VOID all bets placed on this match. I had no financial interest in this match but the right, if unprecedented, decision for me.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Betting blog links
I've added a whole load of new betting blog links to the right hand side column. Been meaning to do it for ages and then lost the list of those I was supposed to add so apologies if I've missed anyone out. Please just let me know and I'll add the link.
If anyone else has a betting blog and wants to exchange links that would be great. Again, just leave a comment or send an email. I'll add all the new ones into the betting blog directory and update that too shortly when I get a bit more time.
Of the new ones there's a good selection of stuff. Some are tipping sites, some have some good discussion on trading topics and some are just personal betting records. I'll let you explore without saying too much about any of them though I think I may have a bit fan in Dip over at Find Free Lay! (Good luck with the blog mate.)
Anyway, the new blogs I've added are listed below. Enjoy!
Cloning Arteta
Trade On Sports
One Percent
2 Barters
Man of Mystery
Talk Bet
Jimmakos
Spudy's Blog
Richard Wildman
Heads N Tails
Football Trader
Find Free Lay
If anyone else has a betting blog and wants to exchange links that would be great. Again, just leave a comment or send an email. I'll add all the new ones into the betting blog directory and update that too shortly when I get a bit more time.
Of the new ones there's a good selection of stuff. Some are tipping sites, some have some good discussion on trading topics and some are just personal betting records. I'll let you explore without saying too much about any of them though I think I may have a bit fan in Dip over at Find Free Lay! (Good luck with the blog mate.)
Anyway, the new blogs I've added are listed below. Enjoy!
Cloning Arteta
Trade On Sports
One Percent
2 Barters
Man of Mystery
Talk Bet
Jimmakos
Spudy's Blog
Richard Wildman
Heads N Tails
Football Trader
Find Free Lay
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Biggest win on Betfair
2nd Test Result: £3049.08
Wow. That's a big win for me. Certainly my biggest since I started the blog nearly 18 months ago anyway. And one that's left a rather large smile on my face. Sure, I know it's smallfry to some of the pros who make a living off Betfair. But these things are all relative and I'm chuffed to bits with it.
I made the profit on the 2nd test match between England and India. Enjoyable game to watch for the most part. Great to see Michael Vaughn back in form with a superb century and the match was also notable for Sachin Tendulkar becoming only the third batsmen to pass the 11,000 test runs mark. I kept meaning to do daily updates for the test to outline my thoughts and what was going on but am just really busy with a work project and trying to get everything ready in time for the wedding. I'll try and update more regularly over the next few weeks. Much of what I thought I was posting on the Betfair cricket forum anyway in the daily match threads. (My forum username on there is bftrader if you want to say hi)
So how did I make the profit? Well one way I sometimes look at a test match is to go by the rough and ready generalisation that the team that wins the most sessions wins the match. It's not always true but on this occasion is quite a useful way of looking at what I did. On the whole I won money session to session and day on day but did have a couple of shockers.
I didn't get involved in the match market at all before the 1st morning. And then I just went through one of those purple patches where everything I touched seemed to go right. I recently had a similar experience where everything I touched went wrong so it's nice to see Lady Luck balancing things out. Basically the start of the match was delayed. There was no real rain. In fact the sun was shining for the most part. The problem was a waterlogged outfield. So I was trading the weather which included a very small shower. To cut a long story short the market was yoyoing quite heavily and with the information I had I just kept catching it right. The result was that by the start of play I was £1.3k green any result. As well as somewhat stunned!
By the end of day 1 it was £1.6k green any result, £2.1k by the end of day 2, and £2.3k by the end of day 3 - though by then I was small green England and larger on India and the draw. Basically I took the view that England were too short after a poor start in the earlier stages of the match and layed accordingly as I mentioned on the Betfair forum. Couple that with some pretty short term positions on the draw and India and that's how the profit built.
Day 4 was a real up and down affair. Patience is always a big part of trading. Choosing the moments to get involved is key. Not doing anything for the sake of doing something. Well, in test matches you need a lot of patience! For the first three days I'd traded patiently and relatively well. I continued that into Day 4, getting to about £2.45k any result when I decided to weight my book pretty heavily towards India. Yes, they won, but I went too early. Ended up wiping the best part of £1k from each result when I hit a trade stop. Which was gutting as very shortly after the England wickets I'd hoped for arrived like proverbial buses. Don't like to dwell on what ifs but when I opened that India position I knew I needed wickets or it would cost me. The wickets came but started too late for my book. Unfortunately jumping the gun on India cost me a far larger win. But equally if I hadn't had got out at the stop and the wickets continued to remain in tact I would quickly have been looking at zero profit. So I have no real issue of getting out at the stop.
It's not as if I can be too hard on myself anyway given the final result. Well pleased with it. Anyway, as the wickets fell I obviously got back on India and by the end of Day 4 I was over £3k green on them with large liabilities on the draw and England. The price was 1.01-1.02 so I left a lay in at 1.01 to cover my liabilities and it got matched over night. Throwing money away maybe but for reasons I again explained on Betfair this morning.
So, that was that. A great test match to both watch and trade. I know I don't normally put screenshots up but as this has been my biggest win since I started the blog I thought I'd pop one up for posterity. Well, both that and I'm often asked to. (By the way, I'm sure it's a commission round up thing but notice that missing 2p from the screenshot to settlement?! Got me thinking about Richard Pryor in Superman 3!!)
Anyway, I've noticed in the past I'll often have a relatively big loss after a nice win so will be trying to avoid this next time I get involved. Will probably miss tomorrow's Pro40 game on Sky but am hoping to catch Thursday's before one of the highlights of the season - the Twenty20 finals day on Saturday. Proper cricket it might not be but it's bloody good fun to watch and trade. Not for the faint hearted but I'm hoping I can repeat last year's success!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Poor timing leads to loss
Daily Result: £270.81
Not the best of days really. Traded 6 events for varying amounts of time. Managed to win on 5 of them. But had a heavy loss on the other. In fact not much less than the maximum loss I allow myself on non-cricket trading.
The big loss (£472) came on the darts in the Priestly v Wade match from the World Matchplay. Not too much to say except I had a shocker. Everynow and then you get one of those events where everything you touch appears to go straight against you. Well, this was one of those. I've tried looking at it with hindsight to see if I should have done anything different but even with that benefit I don't spot any standout mistakes. Some small ones sure but nothing too heavy apart from the fact that I should probably have just quit the match for a smaller loss as it went on and my position kept getting worse. I won't list all the points I got involved in that cost me. Anyone who saw the match will know there were big swings in player standards, a seemingly impossibly high number of missed doubles and some shocking darts inbetween some truly exceptional scoring and finishing. I just caught the swings wrong. Time after time. :-(
That loss came on my first event of the day so I had a quick break and made reminded myself not to chase. Made £139 on the next match between King and Jenkins and £17 during a quick look into the Van Gerwen v Baxter game. By then I was concentrating on the cricket between Northamptonshire and Lancashire. The market saw the usual weight of money for Lancashire. Couldn't believe some of the prices I was seeing and eventually had to oppose it. Lancashire ultimately won though and their price never went above their SP until 5 balls from the end of the match. They just about scraped home in the last over though and I made less than £10 on the match. Still had a hefty green on Northants though and for a moment in that last over thought I might just land a nice result.
For a while the match looked like it was going to be an easy Lancashire victory so also had a messaround on some short odds darts in the evening games involving Taylor and Barneveld while the cricket was still on. Made £20 each on those to help eat into the earlier loss.
So, a losing day. The first for a while. But not as bad as it could have been. Pretty happy to only register the £270 loss after being over £470 down at one point. Won't be able to do tomorrow's cricket but will hopefully get a look in on some darts at some point in the afternoon.
Not the best of days really. Traded 6 events for varying amounts of time. Managed to win on 5 of them. But had a heavy loss on the other. In fact not much less than the maximum loss I allow myself on non-cricket trading.
The big loss (£472) came on the darts in the Priestly v Wade match from the World Matchplay. Not too much to say except I had a shocker. Everynow and then you get one of those events where everything you touch appears to go straight against you. Well, this was one of those. I've tried looking at it with hindsight to see if I should have done anything different but even with that benefit I don't spot any standout mistakes. Some small ones sure but nothing too heavy apart from the fact that I should probably have just quit the match for a smaller loss as it went on and my position kept getting worse. I won't list all the points I got involved in that cost me. Anyone who saw the match will know there were big swings in player standards, a seemingly impossibly high number of missed doubles and some shocking darts inbetween some truly exceptional scoring and finishing. I just caught the swings wrong. Time after time. :-(
That loss came on my first event of the day so I had a quick break and made reminded myself not to chase. Made £139 on the next match between King and Jenkins and £17 during a quick look into the Van Gerwen v Baxter game. By then I was concentrating on the cricket between Northamptonshire and Lancashire. The market saw the usual weight of money for Lancashire. Couldn't believe some of the prices I was seeing and eventually had to oppose it. Lancashire ultimately won though and their price never went above their SP until 5 balls from the end of the match. They just about scraped home in the last over though and I made less than £10 on the match. Still had a hefty green on Northants though and for a moment in that last over thought I might just land a nice result.
For a while the match looked like it was going to be an easy Lancashire victory so also had a messaround on some short odds darts in the evening games involving Taylor and Barneveld while the cricket was still on. Made £20 each on those to help eat into the earlier loss.
So, a losing day. The first for a while. But not as bad as it could have been. Pretty happy to only register the £270 loss after being over £470 down at one point. Won't be able to do tomorrow's cricket but will hopefully get a look in on some darts at some point in the afternoon.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
I'm back
Daily Result: £373.94
Well that was all a bit messy. Four days of drunken excess in Spain for my stag and I feel like I've aged about 10 years. Which I guess is better than the 15 years or so it looks like I have. Think it's fair to say we went for it and comfortably surpassed expectations! It's all a bit hazy but I arrived home knackered, safe and in one piece. So well done the Best Man. Job's a good'un. :-)
Had the mother of all lie ins today but just about made it up in time for the Pro40 match between Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. Given all the flooding while I was away I wasn't expecting to do any cricket but when I realised there was a real prospect of getting a full game in I decided to give it a go. Small stakes for the most part just to ease back into things so was more than happy with the £370 or so profit.
Not much to say about the game really except Warwickshire got off to a good start with the bat and then blew it. Had an awful end to their innings which resulted in a below par score of 191 that Nottinghamshire knocked off with ease. Swann's 80 off 53 negated the much discussed floodlight effect as by the time they started to kick in the required run rate was around 3. Notts eventually wrapped the match up to win by 6 wickets with 50 balls to spare.
Had a very quick peek into the darts after. Just a few legs of the Terry Jenkins v John Part match at the World Matchplay. Hope to fit in a few matches during the tournament and just wanted to check out what the picture delay was like. All seemed fine so hopefully I'll get a look in tomorrow.
Looks like I missed some carnage in the England v India test match from Lords. Must have been some big winners and losers on that little lot. Looking forward to getting stuck into the second test but fear it could become another 5 day weather watch. Still, at least the darts can keep us all busy if it rains. :-)
Well that was all a bit messy. Four days of drunken excess in Spain for my stag and I feel like I've aged about 10 years. Which I guess is better than the 15 years or so it looks like I have. Think it's fair to say we went for it and comfortably surpassed expectations! It's all a bit hazy but I arrived home knackered, safe and in one piece. So well done the Best Man. Job's a good'un. :-)
Had the mother of all lie ins today but just about made it up in time for the Pro40 match between Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire. Given all the flooding while I was away I wasn't expecting to do any cricket but when I realised there was a real prospect of getting a full game in I decided to give it a go. Small stakes for the most part just to ease back into things so was more than happy with the £370 or so profit.
Not much to say about the game really except Warwickshire got off to a good start with the bat and then blew it. Had an awful end to their innings which resulted in a below par score of 191 that Nottinghamshire knocked off with ease. Swann's 80 off 53 negated the much discussed floodlight effect as by the time they started to kick in the required run rate was around 3. Notts eventually wrapped the match up to win by 6 wickets with 50 balls to spare.
Had a very quick peek into the darts after. Just a few legs of the Terry Jenkins v John Part match at the World Matchplay. Hope to fit in a few matches during the tournament and just wanted to check out what the picture delay was like. All seemed fine so hopefully I'll get a look in tomorrow.
Looks like I missed some carnage in the England v India test match from Lords. Must have been some big winners and losers on that little lot. Looking forward to getting stuck into the second test but fear it could become another 5 day weather watch. Still, at least the darts can keep us all busy if it rains. :-)
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Stag
So I'm off to Spain later for four days of stag type things. Think it's fair to say it's a wedding tradition I don't mind following. :-)
Looking forward to it loads. Sure there'll be some photographic evidence of something I'd rather not be reminded of at the end of it all but in between the drinking we'll be chilling by pools and getting some surfing in on some of Europe's finest waves.
Also got an obligatory visit to a casino planned. On these one-off trips I'm always tempted to brush up on my counting skills and, leaving subtlety at home, try to massacre the blackjack tables with ridiculous hikes in stakes on favourable counts before some friendly pit bosses have a word. Probably just stick to some basic strategy though and have a laugh. Last two holidays I've been on with my best man I've been lucky enough to cover the costs with a few hours of piss taking. Be nice to make it three from three. Probably do my bollocks at it now. :-(
So anyway. Will be a bit quiet for a few days now. On the blog front at least. In the meantime good luck with your betting and trading. I'll be back next week. :-)
Looking forward to it loads. Sure there'll be some photographic evidence of something I'd rather not be reminded of at the end of it all but in between the drinking we'll be chilling by pools and getting some surfing in on some of Europe's finest waves.
Also got an obligatory visit to a casino planned. On these one-off trips I'm always tempted to brush up on my counting skills and, leaving subtlety at home, try to massacre the blackjack tables with ridiculous hikes in stakes on favourable counts before some friendly pit bosses have a word. Probably just stick to some basic strategy though and have a laugh. Last two holidays I've been on with my best man I've been lucky enough to cover the costs with a few hours of piss taking. Be nice to make it three from three. Probably do my bollocks at it now. :-(
So anyway. Will be a bit quiet for a few days now. On the blog front at least. In the meantime good luck with your betting and trading. I'll be back next week. :-)
Cricket trading at last!
Yesterday's result: £446.52
So I finally got to trade a full cricket match yesterday for the first time in ages. Good to finally bank some decent green again. Does make you wonder how the recent weather has impacted on full time cricket traders. All the rain has had an effect on my bottomline. Must have hit those who deal in bigger numbers far more. Still, every cloud and all that. At least I've had a chance to catch up with lots of work.
Made most of yesterday's profit on the Twenty20 quarter final between Sussex and Yorkshire. Wasn't able to fully concentrate on the start of the game though as I had to sort my Nottinghamshire position out in the outright market. Rain the previous day meant yet another match - the Notts one - had been abandoned without a ball being bowled. A quick rule change by the ECB meant it was played yesterday instead. Unfortunately I wasI so focussed on getting some work done before the 7pmish start of the televised game that I totally forgot about the earlier starts. Not the shrewdest move I'll ever make!
By the time I realised the games were on Notts had collapsed from a good start. Luckily some of my lay of them in the outright market had been taken. But not all. Which was annoying as I'd have dumped it all at a higher price without hesitation if I'd been concentrating. With Notts looking like losers I wanted out but there wasn't the liquidity in the outright market so I covered the loss on the match market.
Sussex v Yorskshire was pretty good viewing. Sussex's 193 was always going to be a stiff chase. The average 1st innings score at the ground is 149 and a successful chase would have made it the biggest at the ground. Add in the lights factor and Sussex were obvioulsy big jollies at the change of innings.
Rather than lump on further though I decided to wait a short while and see if Kent could get off to a good start before being contained by the Sussex spinners. The price did make it a tick or two higher with a 6 off the third ball but an early wicket saw the price plunge. And it got lower as they fell behind the rate. So I missed a few ticks worth of extra green but was happy with the trading decision. And with the end result. Pleased with the best part of £450. Wish I could be given more than £10 an over for every cricket match I watch!
Profit on the whole this month is going to be well down on the last few though but that's simply because there's been so much rain I just haven't traded as much. Going away for a long weekend tomorrow too so am not going to be involved at all in the 1st test between England and India from Lords. Good luck if you're able to get involved! :-)
So I finally got to trade a full cricket match yesterday for the first time in ages. Good to finally bank some decent green again. Does make you wonder how the recent weather has impacted on full time cricket traders. All the rain has had an effect on my bottomline. Must have hit those who deal in bigger numbers far more. Still, every cloud and all that. At least I've had a chance to catch up with lots of work.
Made most of yesterday's profit on the Twenty20 quarter final between Sussex and Yorkshire. Wasn't able to fully concentrate on the start of the game though as I had to sort my Nottinghamshire position out in the outright market. Rain the previous day meant yet another match - the Notts one - had been abandoned without a ball being bowled. A quick rule change by the ECB meant it was played yesterday instead. Unfortunately I wasI so focussed on getting some work done before the 7pmish start of the televised game that I totally forgot about the earlier starts. Not the shrewdest move I'll ever make!
By the time I realised the games were on Notts had collapsed from a good start. Luckily some of my lay of them in the outright market had been taken. But not all. Which was annoying as I'd have dumped it all at a higher price without hesitation if I'd been concentrating. With Notts looking like losers I wanted out but there wasn't the liquidity in the outright market so I covered the loss on the match market.
Sussex v Yorskshire was pretty good viewing. Sussex's 193 was always going to be a stiff chase. The average 1st innings score at the ground is 149 and a successful chase would have made it the biggest at the ground. Add in the lights factor and Sussex were obvioulsy big jollies at the change of innings.
Rather than lump on further though I decided to wait a short while and see if Kent could get off to a good start before being contained by the Sussex spinners. The price did make it a tick or two higher with a 6 off the third ball but an early wicket saw the price plunge. And it got lower as they fell behind the rate. So I missed a few ticks worth of extra green but was happy with the trading decision. And with the end result. Pleased with the best part of £450. Wish I could be given more than £10 an over for every cricket match I watch!
Profit on the whole this month is going to be well down on the last few though but that's simply because there's been so much rain I just haven't traded as much. Going away for a long weekend tomorrow too so am not going to be involved at all in the 1st test between England and India from Lords. Good luck if you're able to get involved! :-)
Monday, July 16, 2007
Rain, wedding pics and Twenty20
So I haven't traded again since the last update. Sunday's cricket was again washed out without a ball being bowled. While I had other commitments on Monday meaning I was unable to do the game.
Not all doom and gloom though. One of the things I had to do Monday was meet our wedding photographer again. Wow he's good! And I'm glad we booked him last year as it seems he's so much in demand his prices have disappeared off the affordable radar. Luckily we're contracted up at last year's price list though. :-)
Pictures were important to us for the big day so are something we didn't skimp on. In a previous job I've spent enough hours hidden in coffee stinking cars and vans with snappers to have an idea about what is and isn't a good picture. And this guy's work was impressive. Refreshing too. Didn't want a big list of posed pics. Just a few important ones. On the whole he and his assistant will be doing more of a reportage style catching the day as it happens rather than getting everyone to line up for hours. We'll then have around 1500 pictures to choose from to put in an album which we're having done like a large printed book. All looks amazing and we're both excited. To top it all the photographer is a genuinely nice bloke too. :-)
Anyway, apologies if you prefer to read about the trading stuff rather than the wedding stuff. But there are some (yes, you know who you are!) who couldn't give a toss about the trading and just want to hear about the wedding plans. And as there's been nothing trading wise to write about I thought I'd do a quick catch up.
Tomorrow we're back to the Twenty20. The televised match is Nottinghamshire v Kent. Have been tempted to get out of my outright back of Nottinghamshire incase their quarter final with Kent is reduced to a 5 over shoot out. Weather looks ok so far though so I'll leave it and hopefully take another look when they reach finals day. Trouble is there's not the liquidity to get out at a decent price so I'm kind of stuck anyway.
In the non-televised game I'm considering a rare punt. Like the 1.72 available about Gloucestershire to make it a hattrick of Twenty20 wins over Worcestershire this season. Looking at it I'm actually better off taking this price away from Betfair at the moment. Both
Ladbrokes and Stan James
go 8/11 without commission. Again, will look at the weather but if I think it will be a full match I'll probably have a nibble with one of those. That's not a tip by the way! All things considered I was just surprised by the price.
Anyway, hopefully be back tomorrow with a Twenty20 result or two to chat about.
Not all doom and gloom though. One of the things I had to do Monday was meet our wedding photographer again. Wow he's good! And I'm glad we booked him last year as it seems he's so much in demand his prices have disappeared off the affordable radar. Luckily we're contracted up at last year's price list though. :-)
Pictures were important to us for the big day so are something we didn't skimp on. In a previous job I've spent enough hours hidden in coffee stinking cars and vans with snappers to have an idea about what is and isn't a good picture. And this guy's work was impressive. Refreshing too. Didn't want a big list of posed pics. Just a few important ones. On the whole he and his assistant will be doing more of a reportage style catching the day as it happens rather than getting everyone to line up for hours. We'll then have around 1500 pictures to choose from to put in an album which we're having done like a large printed book. All looks amazing and we're both excited. To top it all the photographer is a genuinely nice bloke too. :-)
Anyway, apologies if you prefer to read about the trading stuff rather than the wedding stuff. But there are some (yes, you know who you are!) who couldn't give a toss about the trading and just want to hear about the wedding plans. And as there's been nothing trading wise to write about I thought I'd do a quick catch up.
Tomorrow we're back to the Twenty20. The televised match is Nottinghamshire v Kent. Have been tempted to get out of my outright back of Nottinghamshire incase their quarter final with Kent is reduced to a 5 over shoot out. Weather looks ok so far though so I'll leave it and hopefully take another look when they reach finals day. Trouble is there's not the liquidity to get out at a decent price so I'm kind of stuck anyway.
In the non-televised game I'm considering a rare punt. Like the 1.72 available about Gloucestershire to make it a hattrick of Twenty20 wins over Worcestershire this season. Looking at it I'm actually better off taking this price away from Betfair at the moment. Both
Anyway, hopefully be back tomorrow with a Twenty20 result or two to chat about.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Pro40 cricket trading
Daily Result: £163.97
Well the good news is the rain relented and we finally got some live domestic cricket on tv. The bad news was it was a pretty dull game and not the best for trading. Still, managed to turn a profit and did ok on the spreads too so a pretty good result despite the match.
The game I got involved with was the Leicestershire v Kent Pro40 match. Fancied Kent from the off with such a strong batting line up. 10 of their team had first class hundreds. The 11th batsman merely a first class 90! Was hoping they'd bat first, set a nice total and enable me to ride the price down to 1.01.
Unfortunately Leicester won the toss and rightly chose to bat. They got off to a good start but as Kent started to take the pace of the ball batting got harder and the final total of 176 was below par but certainly defendable.
The real issue at that stage was how the Kent batsmen got on against the slower Leicestershire bowlers who have a deserved reputation for relative tightness. It never came down to it though. No doubt fearful of the spinners Kent came out to get off to a quick start and they did. Got ahead of the rate and stayed there. Even sending the No. 11 Cook in at no. 3 to have a smash. The plan worked as by the time the spinners came on the required run rate was so low it was simply a case of taking singles as and when. In the end Kent cantered to a 6 wicket win with more than 6 overs left to spare.
Trading wise it was all a little quiet. I made a mistake in the first innings which left me green Leicestershire and red Kent. I decided to just leave things until I had a better idea of the result. Unfortunately that eventually meant getting on Kent which led for a smaller win but my stakes were relatively small - first game back and all that - and I'm happy with the £160 or so. Was actually more interested in the spreads today and picked up a similar amount on them.
Will no doubt have a look in on the Lancashire v Essex Pro40 tomorrow though will be unable to do much of the match so will again keep the stakes small and just try and keep a pretty level green book as I go.
Well the good news is the rain relented and we finally got some live domestic cricket on tv. The bad news was it was a pretty dull game and not the best for trading. Still, managed to turn a profit and did ok on the spreads too so a pretty good result despite the match.
The game I got involved with was the Leicestershire v Kent Pro40 match. Fancied Kent from the off with such a strong batting line up. 10 of their team had first class hundreds. The 11th batsman merely a first class 90! Was hoping they'd bat first, set a nice total and enable me to ride the price down to 1.01.
Unfortunately Leicester won the toss and rightly chose to bat. They got off to a good start but as Kent started to take the pace of the ball batting got harder and the final total of 176 was below par but certainly defendable.
The real issue at that stage was how the Kent batsmen got on against the slower Leicestershire bowlers who have a deserved reputation for relative tightness. It never came down to it though. No doubt fearful of the spinners Kent came out to get off to a quick start and they did. Got ahead of the rate and stayed there. Even sending the No. 11 Cook in at no. 3 to have a smash. The plan worked as by the time the spinners came on the required run rate was so low it was simply a case of taking singles as and when. In the end Kent cantered to a 6 wicket win with more than 6 overs left to spare.
Trading wise it was all a little quiet. I made a mistake in the first innings which left me green Leicestershire and red Kent. I decided to just leave things until I had a better idea of the result. Unfortunately that eventually meant getting on Kent which led for a smaller win but my stakes were relatively small - first game back and all that - and I'm happy with the £160 or so. Was actually more interested in the spreads today and picked up a similar amount on them.
Will no doubt have a look in on the Lancashire v Essex Pro40 tomorrow though will be unable to do much of the match so will again keep the stakes small and just try and keep a pretty level green book as I go.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Another washout
Daily Result: £6.08
Can anyone remember a summer where the cricket has been so interrupted by the rain? It seems to be perpetual as soon someone is silly enough to pack their kit bag. We've seen some matches played out in appalling conditions but today's Worcestershire v Hampshire game never even got started. Rained off without the covers even being removed. And that was at a reserve ground after the original venue had been flooded!
Which was all particularly galling as I haven't traded any cricket for around a week - only to find it's still bloody raining when I return and fire up the software!! To be fair the outlook wasn't looking good all day. Which made the Sky Sports commentators assurances that we'd have play "soon" all the more comical. Especially as it was pissing down behind them. And rather dark. Still, guess they've got a job to do and being bullish about "getting some live cricket in" keeps the advertisers happy.
Of course, the trading action was all on the completed match market. Decided not to get involved as I didn't fancy a few hours staring at weather radars. Got on with some work instead and just had it on in the background. And that's how I came by today's profit. News came after a couple of hours that that no play would be possible for a few more hours. Read through the lines and that realistically meant no play at all but we're not going to say it because we'll lose the few sad desperate viewers we have. So I loaded up the market and was surprised to see a chunk of money available about No Completed Match at 1.22. I submitted £50 for the hell of it expecting to miss it but got around half of it matched. So someone unsurprisingly beat me to it. The only real surprise was I got any of it at all. But I did so I made a few quid. Hey, it all counts! The odds finally went to 1.01 a short while later when it was announced the match was being abandoned.
So, not the most auspicious starts to my trading after the recent break. All this rain is starting to cost me money! Still, I'll try again tomorrow. Leicestershire v Kent in the Pro40. Let's hope we get some play this time.
Can anyone remember a summer where the cricket has been so interrupted by the rain? It seems to be perpetual as soon someone is silly enough to pack their kit bag. We've seen some matches played out in appalling conditions but today's Worcestershire v Hampshire game never even got started. Rained off without the covers even being removed. And that was at a reserve ground after the original venue had been flooded!
Which was all particularly galling as I haven't traded any cricket for around a week - only to find it's still bloody raining when I return and fire up the software!! To be fair the outlook wasn't looking good all day. Which made the Sky Sports commentators assurances that we'd have play "soon" all the more comical. Especially as it was pissing down behind them. And rather dark. Still, guess they've got a job to do and being bullish about "getting some live cricket in" keeps the advertisers happy.
Of course, the trading action was all on the completed match market. Decided not to get involved as I didn't fancy a few hours staring at weather radars. Got on with some work instead and just had it on in the background. And that's how I came by today's profit. News came after a couple of hours that that no play would be possible for a few more hours. Read through the lines and that realistically meant no play at all but we're not going to say it because we'll lose the few sad desperate viewers we have. So I loaded up the market and was surprised to see a chunk of money available about No Completed Match at 1.22. I submitted £50 for the hell of it expecting to miss it but got around half of it matched. So someone unsurprisingly beat me to it. The only real surprise was I got any of it at all. But I did so I made a few quid. Hey, it all counts! The odds finally went to 1.01 a short while later when it was announced the match was being abandoned.
So, not the most auspicious starts to my trading after the recent break. All this rain is starting to cost me money! Still, I'll try again tomorrow. Leicestershire v Kent in the Pro40. Let's hope we get some play this time.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The blog after the wedding
First of all apologies for the lack of updates recently. I mentioned in my last post it would be a quiet period on the trading front and it has been. In fact I've traded precisely zero events since my last entry. Just not been anything suitable for me to get involved with. Couple that with my celebrating my birthday this week, being silly busy on some proper work projects and trying to get everything ready for the wedding and I've not had a lot of spare time to blog.
Anyway, the quiet period has led to me getting a few emails over the last week asking if that's it for the blog. I've mentioned previously that I've saved enough for both the wedding and honeymoon and it seems some of you were nice enough to worry I might be stopping! Well, the answer is no. I won't be stopping the blog. I will be continuing it after the wedding.
Obviously I'll be changing the focus somewhat. And I intend to cover more general betting exchange and trading topics as I find these posts tend to get more comments. Which I figure means they are more interesting to people stopping by for a read. :-) There's a heap of topics I'm hoping to get through but will also keep the daily profit / loss format going with discussion on each event. Afterall, writing about the profits and losses helps keep my trading focussed and disciplined. And that's one of the reasons I started the blog in the first place.
So there you go. I will be carrying on after the wedding. And, time permitting, I will be trading in the run up to the wedding. In fact I'm hoping to trade the first televised Pro40 match of the season this afternoon between Worcestershire and Hampshire. Following that there's televised cricket each day until I head off to Spain on my stag next Friday which means I'll hopefully be trading and updating the blog daily again.
Anyway, the quiet period has led to me getting a few emails over the last week asking if that's it for the blog. I've mentioned previously that I've saved enough for both the wedding and honeymoon and it seems some of you were nice enough to worry I might be stopping! Well, the answer is no. I won't be stopping the blog. I will be continuing it after the wedding.
Obviously I'll be changing the focus somewhat. And I intend to cover more general betting exchange and trading topics as I find these posts tend to get more comments. Which I figure means they are more interesting to people stopping by for a read. :-) There's a heap of topics I'm hoping to get through but will also keep the daily profit / loss format going with discussion on each event. Afterall, writing about the profits and losses helps keep my trading focussed and disciplined. And that's one of the reasons I started the blog in the first place.
So there you go. I will be carrying on after the wedding. And, time permitting, I will be trading in the run up to the wedding. In fact I'm hoping to trade the first televised Pro40 match of the season this afternoon between Worcestershire and Hampshire. Following that there's televised cricket each day until I head off to Spain on my stag next Friday which means I'll hopefully be trading and updating the blog daily again.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Tennis and darts trading
Daily Result: £176.32
Had an enjoyable day away from trading yesterday. Big family get together for my gran's 80th birthday in the afternoon and drinks and a curry in the evening with some family and friends. Had a quick look in today at the men's final from Wimbledon, and caught some of the end of the Desert Classic from Las Vegas this evening.
Wimbledon was a total washout for me this year. With all the rain and delayed / interrupted matches I barely got involved. Made a small profit on the tournament but looking back through my results I'm surprised at how few markets I had a go at. Been very busy yes, and preferring the cricket, but still surprised at how few of the matches I did. Caught some of the end of today's match but on the whole just watched it rather than trading it. Time is getting scarecer and scarcer as we approach the wedding but hopefully I'll be able to step up the tennis trading.
As for the darts I had a look in on each of today's three matches. Dipped into both the semi finals and did maybe the first 6 or 7 legs of the final itself. Made a profit on each match so pretty pleased. In fact, the weather has been so awful recently that looking back over my last week's results darts has been my most profitable sport. Ahead of cricket and then tennis. Not often that happens!
Anyway, Sky's televised cricket for the next few days is the county championship match between Lancashire and Yorkshire. First day was rained off today and I'd be surprised if they get underway on time tomorrow. The draw is obvioulsy very short. Liquidity will be poor too so I might just give that one a miss and get on with some other work.
Looking ahead it should be a quiet period on the trading front. The Pro40 cricket season starts on Friday and there's no tennis or darts on for a while. I'll be away in Spain for my stag for the first test between England and India too. So results wise the blog should be quiet for a while. Still, that should give me time to update some links and discuss a few issues I've been meaning to for a while. As well as get on with some proper work and get everything prepared for the wedding!
Had an enjoyable day away from trading yesterday. Big family get together for my gran's 80th birthday in the afternoon and drinks and a curry in the evening with some family and friends. Had a quick look in today at the men's final from Wimbledon, and caught some of the end of the Desert Classic from Las Vegas this evening.
Wimbledon was a total washout for me this year. With all the rain and delayed / interrupted matches I barely got involved. Made a small profit on the tournament but looking back through my results I'm surprised at how few markets I had a go at. Been very busy yes, and preferring the cricket, but still surprised at how few of the matches I did. Caught some of the end of today's match but on the whole just watched it rather than trading it. Time is getting scarecer and scarcer as we approach the wedding but hopefully I'll be able to step up the tennis trading.
As for the darts I had a look in on each of today's three matches. Dipped into both the semi finals and did maybe the first 6 or 7 legs of the final itself. Made a profit on each match so pretty pleased. In fact, the weather has been so awful recently that looking back over my last week's results darts has been my most profitable sport. Ahead of cricket and then tennis. Not often that happens!
Anyway, Sky's televised cricket for the next few days is the county championship match between Lancashire and Yorkshire. First day was rained off today and I'd be surprised if they get underway on time tomorrow. The draw is obvioulsy very short. Liquidity will be poor too so I might just give that one a miss and get on with some other work.
Looking ahead it should be a quiet period on the trading front. The Pro40 cricket season starts on Friday and there's no tennis or darts on for a while. I'll be away in Spain for my stag for the first test between England and India too. So results wise the blog should be quiet for a while. Still, that should give me time to update some links and discuss a few issues I've been meaning to for a while. As well as get on with some proper work and get everything prepared for the wedding!
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Darts trading
Yesterday's Result: £45.40
Just a quick catch up today as off out for a surprise 80th birthday for my gran very shortly. Big family get together been planned for months. Some have even come from Australia so here's hoping it's a good day.
Emma got home from China yesterday and we got some shopping and house stuff done. Trying to get all the big jobs around the house out the way before the wedding. All getting very close now but the house is starting to look good. After a 13 hour flight she was tired so we decided to stay in for the evening. Yet more rain meant the televised Twenty20 match was cancelled. Caught a bit of the darts though. I know this rain is persistent but with the darts being played indoors in the middle of a desert. I'd like to see the rain mess with that!
Made £145.40 on the darts looking into a few games. Had the misfortune to catch the utter crock of shite Manley and Osborne served up. Not seen darts that poor on television for a while. Awful stuff.
Turns out I lost £100 on my outright Wimbledon bet too as Roddick lost his quarter final. Second time I've had an outright market bet for £100 recently and never really had the chance to trade out for a profit. I got that one wrong. Even if he'd won yesterday he would have had to face Federer next. That's where I thought I'd get out for a profit. But it seems the market had looked at their head to head record, didn't give Roddick a chance and, despite his winning several matches, Roddick's odds just seemed to lengthen each time he won - no matter how convincgly. Annoyed about that as I spent some time considering the bet and clearly just got it wrong.
Anyway, got to go. Good luck if you get involved in today's 3rd ODI between England and West Indies - or any event for that matter!
Just a quick catch up today as off out for a surprise 80th birthday for my gran very shortly. Big family get together been planned for months. Some have even come from Australia so here's hoping it's a good day.
Emma got home from China yesterday and we got some shopping and house stuff done. Trying to get all the big jobs around the house out the way before the wedding. All getting very close now but the house is starting to look good. After a 13 hour flight she was tired so we decided to stay in for the evening. Yet more rain meant the televised Twenty20 match was cancelled. Caught a bit of the darts though. I know this rain is persistent but with the darts being played indoors in the middle of a desert. I'd like to see the rain mess with that!
Made £145.40 on the darts looking into a few games. Had the misfortune to catch the utter crock of shite Manley and Osborne served up. Not seen darts that poor on television for a while. Awful stuff.
Turns out I lost £100 on my outright Wimbledon bet too as Roddick lost his quarter final. Second time I've had an outright market bet for £100 recently and never really had the chance to trade out for a profit. I got that one wrong. Even if he'd won yesterday he would have had to face Federer next. That's where I thought I'd get out for a profit. But it seems the market had looked at their head to head record, didn't give Roddick a chance and, despite his winning several matches, Roddick's odds just seemed to lengthen each time he won - no matter how convincgly. Annoyed about that as I spent some time considering the bet and clearly just got it wrong.
Anyway, got to go. Good luck if you get involved in today's 3rd ODI between England and West Indies - or any event for that matter!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Farcical but fun
Daily result: £126.79
Got involved in the Twenty20 between Surrey and Sussex today as well as taking a low stake interest on some of the evening's darts from the Las Vegas Desert Classic.
The cricket was a little beyond a joke. Absolutely no doubt in my mind that if the Sky cameras had not been there we would not have had a game. Though I'm sure the consideration of Surrey having to refund 18,000 tickets helped make the decision to play a five over shoot out in pouring rain.
Ok, so I made a profit on the game. Just under £20. But it was clearly too dark to play. And although watching Twenty20 in pouring rain has become a regular occurence this year the umpires were quite clear before the match that they would not start in the rain. Funny then how just before the cut off point to get a 5 over match in the conditions had improved enough to play. Despite the fact it was clearly raining as the first ball was bowled. Call me a cynic but three words. Sky. Ticket refunds.
Thing is it's just a matter of time before someone gets injured in those conditions. Mud covered players sliding around, fielders not moving for a ball because they simply don't see it, the wet ball slipping from the bowlers hands resulting in beamers. Some might say it's just not cricket!
Some of the quotes from the players were "the light was diabolical", "there's a safety issue", "it was awful to play in" and "we don't want the players to get injured". And that was from the winning captain. Surrey captain Mark Butcher, whose side lost, was clearly unhappy at having to play before even a ball was bowled.
Anyway, whatever the rights and wrongs we got an exciting 5 over slogfest. I made around £95 on the match winner market, but lost £75 on the completed match market. Great fun to trade from a selfish perspective. And some good banter on the Betfair cricket forum. But keep playing in those conditions and a player will get hurt. Not a question of if. Just when. Put it this way. If Freddie Flintoff was just back from injury, the England players had been released to the counties and it was Lancashire playing last night would Peter Moores be happy for him to play in those conditions? Exactly.
Spent a couple of hours in the evening doing some darts. Looked in on 4 matches doing each one to varying degrees. Won on 3 and lost on 1. The matches were very quick - the first to 6 legs. Not done the darts for a while so kept the stakes small and just got used to the speed of the markets again. Happy with the results. The loss was smaller than the three wins and I picked up a little less than £110. Hope to get another look in over the next few days.
Got involved in the Twenty20 between Surrey and Sussex today as well as taking a low stake interest on some of the evening's darts from the Las Vegas Desert Classic.
The cricket was a little beyond a joke. Absolutely no doubt in my mind that if the Sky cameras had not been there we would not have had a game. Though I'm sure the consideration of Surrey having to refund 18,000 tickets helped make the decision to play a five over shoot out in pouring rain.
Ok, so I made a profit on the game. Just under £20. But it was clearly too dark to play. And although watching Twenty20 in pouring rain has become a regular occurence this year the umpires were quite clear before the match that they would not start in the rain. Funny then how just before the cut off point to get a 5 over match in the conditions had improved enough to play. Despite the fact it was clearly raining as the first ball was bowled. Call me a cynic but three words. Sky. Ticket refunds.
Thing is it's just a matter of time before someone gets injured in those conditions. Mud covered players sliding around, fielders not moving for a ball because they simply don't see it, the wet ball slipping from the bowlers hands resulting in beamers. Some might say it's just not cricket!
Some of the quotes from the players were "the light was diabolical", "there's a safety issue", "it was awful to play in" and "we don't want the players to get injured". And that was from the winning captain. Surrey captain Mark Butcher, whose side lost, was clearly unhappy at having to play before even a ball was bowled.
Anyway, whatever the rights and wrongs we got an exciting 5 over slogfest. I made around £95 on the match winner market, but lost £75 on the completed match market. Great fun to trade from a selfish perspective. And some good banter on the Betfair cricket forum. But keep playing in those conditions and a player will get hurt. Not a question of if. Just when. Put it this way. If Freddie Flintoff was just back from injury, the England players had been released to the counties and it was Lancashire playing last night would Peter Moores be happy for him to play in those conditions? Exactly.
Spent a couple of hours in the evening doing some darts. Looked in on 4 matches doing each one to varying degrees. Won on 3 and lost on 1. The matches were very quick - the first to 6 legs. Not done the darts for a while so kept the stakes small and just got used to the speed of the markets again. Happy with the results. The loss was smaller than the three wins and I picked up a little less than £110. Hope to get another look in over the next few days.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Into profit for the month
Daily Result: £799.84
Ah, that's better. Good day's result and puts me back into the green for the month after yesterday's loss. Always nice to get back into winning ways after a heavyish drop.
Made the profit on three events although I actually only traded the 2nd ODI between West Indies and England today. Picked up around £665 on that. Another £115 or so came from the existing green I had from the Roddick v Mathieu match from yesterday. And another £20 or so came from the Kiefer v Djokovic match that I'd left all green a few days ago. Had forgotten about that. And it shows just quite how much rain has interrupted this year's Wimbledon. Think I dipped into that on Sunday or Monday.
Was pleased with the ODI result. Back to winning ways on the cricket. The rain interruptions were a little annoying and cost me a little but on the whole I was happy with how I traded the match. I missed the start of the match but by the time I'd joined the West Indies were off to a good start and although the England price had drifted I was still surprised to see it so short. Seems to be a large weight of money pushing the England price down in these ODI and Twenty20 games and I opposed it today after weighing up the match situation.
I kept the stakes quite small to start with and just enjoyed the Chanderpaul innings. Class. Might have started slow but held the innings together, was on a strike rate of 87.7 by the time he made his century and over 95 by the time he was out for 116. His third wicket partnership of 175 with Samuels was an Edgbaston record and really set the game up for the Windies' victory. After some fantastic acceleration at the end of the innings England were left needing 279 to win. Just one run shy of Australia's record chase at the ground. Never really likely to be made but a goodish start, coupled with weather worries, saw some nice early market movement.
Anyway, the furniture I've been banging on about arrived. And now some of it is going back. Don't expect to pay what I've paid for an oak table that's been damaged and repaired before I get it. Shop was fine about it. Another 5 weeks for delivery though. :-( Sending one of the chairs back too. Everything else was fine though and it looks great.
Looking into tomorrow I've a busy day lined up. House to clean before Emma gets back from China early Friday (and after all the DIY that's a lot to do!), shopping to be done, the small matter of some proper work and, at some stage, I'm hoping to get a look in at the tennis, cricket and darts.
Ah, that's better. Good day's result and puts me back into the green for the month after yesterday's loss. Always nice to get back into winning ways after a heavyish drop.
Made the profit on three events although I actually only traded the 2nd ODI between West Indies and England today. Picked up around £665 on that. Another £115 or so came from the existing green I had from the Roddick v Mathieu match from yesterday. And another £20 or so came from the Kiefer v Djokovic match that I'd left all green a few days ago. Had forgotten about that. And it shows just quite how much rain has interrupted this year's Wimbledon. Think I dipped into that on Sunday or Monday.
Was pleased with the ODI result. Back to winning ways on the cricket. The rain interruptions were a little annoying and cost me a little but on the whole I was happy with how I traded the match. I missed the start of the match but by the time I'd joined the West Indies were off to a good start and although the England price had drifted I was still surprised to see it so short. Seems to be a large weight of money pushing the England price down in these ODI and Twenty20 games and I opposed it today after weighing up the match situation.
I kept the stakes quite small to start with and just enjoyed the Chanderpaul innings. Class. Might have started slow but held the innings together, was on a strike rate of 87.7 by the time he made his century and over 95 by the time he was out for 116. His third wicket partnership of 175 with Samuels was an Edgbaston record and really set the game up for the Windies' victory. After some fantastic acceleration at the end of the innings England were left needing 279 to win. Just one run shy of Australia's record chase at the ground. Never really likely to be made but a goodish start, coupled with weather worries, saw some nice early market movement.
Anyway, the furniture I've been banging on about arrived. And now some of it is going back. Don't expect to pay what I've paid for an oak table that's been damaged and repaired before I get it. Shop was fine about it. Another 5 weeks for delivery though. :-( Sending one of the chairs back too. Everything else was fine though and it looks great.
Looking into tomorrow I've a busy day lined up. House to clean before Emma gets back from China early Friday (and after all the DIY that's a lot to do!), shopping to be done, the small matter of some proper work and, at some stage, I'm hoping to get a look in at the tennis, cricket and darts.
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