Belated Happy 40th

I have been to busy to blog but its a belated happy birthday for Kimiko Date Krumm who turned 40 a few days ago. A lady who gave up tennis at the age of 27 and then because her husband wanted to see her play more often 12 years later came out of retirement.

At the 2009 Korea Open, she won her first WTA Tour level match after the return, against Lee Ye Ra then came up with a second victory right after over Alisa Kleybanova, coming back from a set and 5-2 down. In the quarterfinals Kimiko defeated top seed Daniela Hantuchova in three sets lasting over two and a half hours. Date Krumm prevailed with the score 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4. In the semifinals she defeated defending champion Maria Kirilenko 3-6 6-2 6-4. In the final, which was held one day before her 39th birthday, Kimiko Date Krumm defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 to win her first WTA Tour title since her comeback. Thus, she became the second-oldest player in the Open era to win a singles title on the WTA Tour, after Billie Jean King, who won Birmingham in 1983, aged 39 years, 7 months and 23 days.

This week the day before her 40th she beat Maria Sharapova in three sets and then on her birthday she followed it up with a victory over Daniela Hantuchova where after losing the first set 6-2, she produced ten winning games on the trot. Needless to say at 4-0 down in the decider Miss Hantuchova retired before I think she had a complete and total meltdown.

She then lost to French Open champion Francesca Schiavone in the third round 6–3, 6–3, but to still be competing and winning at the very highest level is a fantastic achievement.



Been a fairly quiet last few days. Been using real money for the tennis strategy as most of the games seem to be in the middle of the night so I cant really monitor them unless I stick money in to see when they get matched etc.. Not sure what to make of it but lets see. I was down to the tune of £150 but now its only a pound so the recovery is underway ! Watch this space for the ebook, just need Steve Davidsons email address...

Picked a few football games yesterday to lay the draw. The first was Spurs who after watching the first 10 minutes I thought this is going to be a goal fest but at 0-0 at half time I was starting to worry especially after the penalty miss. Came good though and all the backers off over 4.5 at half time made some money. The second game was in Argentina where looking at the stats I fancied a result and luckily the home team was two up by half time. I had come out of that at 1-0 though as I am still a bit wary of this type of bet.



Had a good day with the horses as having picked ten out I had two places at 12/1 and 20/1 six unplaced and two winners at 12/1 and 4/1 giving a profit of £ 340.




Tomorrow the Golf starts. I dont really understand all the hype but then again Golf and F1 are my least favourite sports but they are played and watched by millions so good luck to Europe. If any of you get Pete Norsteds newsletter I will have a go at his Ryder Cup strategy for Friday and Saturday.

FIXED !!!!!!!!!!!!

I seem to be getting inundated with emails screaming FIXED. It must be the new thing to keep bombarding people with this crap. Yesterday I had ten from the same monkeys telling me that a game was fixed and to back Numancia it was free money. So they lost 1-0, what a surprise. Last week had a few regarding tennis and another Brazilian football match both again were losers !
As if there arent enough idiots on the betfair forum giving out free money tips.

Over the past five days I have been paper trading some ideas for football, horse racing and tennis without sadly, much success. As you can see from below its been quiet for me as I try to get some different ideas together for October.


The SBP had a mixed weekend with all three A bets coming in on the college football.

But both A and B bets going down in the NFL. So next weekend will start with the C bet.

The jury really is still out with Ian Erskine as I struggle with his selections. His FTS system had three picks and yet again this weekend he hit a draw. As i already said I didnt trade any football this weekend as I decided to sit back and paper trade this as well. I think now is a good time to reflect on a few things to see if they really are going to work or if it is just me.
I cant understand how the Betfair Football Trader Steve manages to get such a high profit for the FTS as a lot of games end in draws and if the dog scores first the price on the draw retracts plus you have to hit the odd 0-0 occasionally.

The other service under review is Bet Cat. I have being using half stakes on all their picks for a couple of months now so the losses are not as great but with the lack of bets and the lack of winners it is becoming a bit of a struggle.

I will be taking it easy this week as I protect this months winnings and try to get some new stuff in place for October.If anyone has any ideas please leave a comment.

A New High.

A big day for me with a lovely 33/1 winner which pushes me onto a new high for the year. I had four picks with one placed at 10/1 ,two unplaced and that winner. It was in the 3.25 at Redcar called Sea Salt. I occasionally go for long shots, not as much as I used to but this one just struck me as a bit of value and so it proved as it won in a photo finish.

I've had a few hit the crossbar this month after a cracking August so this was really pleasing. This cleared me over a grand and to back it up later in the day I got a tip for Select Committee in the 5.40 which also won.



Had a great day on the footy with eight games picked out this morning on the BL software. I had two go against me but the other six were positive. I must admit its very time consuming ploughing through stats but at the moment I am shortlisting the right games and getting rewards for the amount of time and effort being put in. Lets see if its just a flash in the pan.
Only had a few horse lays and that was going well until the last one of the night bolted up costing me £175 but nevertheless a pleasing day.

Ying And Yang.

How do you write that you are pissed off even after winning a few quid? Today was one of them days when I had so much going on with me trying to get involved in to much stuff. I really should know after a year of full time trading/betting that it doesnt work that way, at least for me. I know this but I still do it and today I will no longer write about it because it wont happen again, so there!
The last company I worked for one of their five philosophies was to focus on the positive, until it was time for your review then they would just giving you a slating so here goes:

POSITIVES :Today I have to try to do that and reflect on the good stuff. Starting with the horses some nice lays coming in. The famous lay an AP McCoy horse under 4/1, which in my case was two odds on shots that both got beat one by a nose! Apparently his horses are always over backed because of the jock, but does it work? I am sure somebody out there has got a bit of software that can work it out in no time at all. I didnt place a single horse bet today.

The football was profitable as per yesterday I went through the in play market and looked at the stats and came up with a number of games to have a go at. I ended up just doing two matches but both gave the desired result.

I also had time to try my horse lay system on the dogs with £ 2 stakes and won £ 21, it all adds to the kitty its just a shame there's not enough money about in that market.

NEGATIVES: Some terrible trading on one tennis match which I am still amazed I didnt come out with some profit on instead of a £ 40 loss, that was basically because I gave up trying to chase something that I was constantly cocking up and going against all my own trading rules. In the end I just took the loss and moved on. Unfortunately I had my head up my arse, and so while pissing about wih a tennis match I missed a horse lay. The horse duly lost and this error cost me £ 192 which is an awful lot of money. When I explained to my better half she said to me "Why dont you write it all down on a pad?" To which I replied " I do "

Because I am prone to sometimes forget a bet or two I think the thing to do is just lay them in the morning as i find they all drift or steam the same amount and it all comes out in the wash ( I hope.)

Final negative is my £ 50 each way I had on Everton to win the Carling Cup. Surely they could have given me a better run for my money I mean jesus they aint gonna win nothing else are they?

Legend Or Arrogant ?

Ronnie O'Sullivan fired a remarkable 147 break at the World Open in Glasgow after halting play when on eight points to check the prize for a maximum.

He was told there was no separate purse but cleared up to beat Mark King 3-0.

The 34-year-old appeared content to end on the pink in the final frame and had to be persuaded to pot the black.

After potting the first red and black in frame three O'Sullivan halted proceedings to ask what the prize for a 147 was, only to be eventually told there was no additional purse and only a £4,000 sum for the highest break.

He potted some outstanding balls in his maximum, achieved in barely 10 minutes - even with the delay when researching about the 147 prize - but shook hands with King after disposing of the pink.

Referee Jan Verhaas persuaded O'Sullivan to finish the break and he duly slammed in the black in nonchalant fashion.

"I wasn't going to pot the black to be honest with you because I asked the ref and was told there was no break prize for a 147," O'Sullivan admitted to the BBC.

"I wanted to make sure because if there was a decent prize then I would definitely have gone for it and I thought I might as well go for it anyway.

"Jan talked me into it [potting the black]. My whole thing was I was going to make 140 and leave the black What's the point of making a 147 if they're only going to give you four grand for it?

"I'm surprised. They're getting stingier. I thought Barry Hearn was supposed to be putting more money into the game, not taking it out.

"I've had loads of 147s so I don't really get excited by it and thought I needed to give myself something to go for. I just thought 'why not?'"

My Betfair screen shot shows a £4 profit but believe me I am really happy about that as at one stage it was not looking to clever. I had a heavy horse lay that won in the first race and from then on it was damage limitation. I managed to get the majority of it back on a few other nags.

This morning i spent a couple of hours pouring over the in play football matches on Betfair and after checking up on some stats I came up with a few games that I wanted to get involved with. Amazingly they all went pretty much too plan ,I suppose the only issue was that I bailed out in all of them and greened up because I couldnt face the stress of watching the market waiting for the dreaded suspend sign to come up, followed by the couple of minute wait to see if its gone for or against you. I think thats why I enjoy the horse racing because if you are going to do your nuts its over quickly, where as football and tennis is sometimes like a death by a thousand cuts as you sit stewing at the PC. Anyway all the results went my way and if I hadnt of got out I would have had a £ 360 profit instead of £120, but I was taught that "your first profit is your best profit."

So it was a bit of a role reversal as the profits came from my own bets. I had eight bets with two losses, five placing at 20/1 Dramatic Jewel, 14/1 Trikirk, 12/1 Spinning Bailwick, 10/1 Tayacoba and 15/2 Strictly Lambadda and thankfully a winner at 8/1.

The total profit from these was £ 370. I cant be bothered to cut and paste them all so here's the winner.

The Irish racing has been good to me over the last six weeks and long may it continue.

Another Busy Day.

A positive day to the tune of £ 250 but another very long one. My horse picks are still floundering, and out of seven picks I didnt get one place. It seems at that moment I am picking plenty of donkeys. A few of them really steamed in price and I definitely found value but the horses in question obviously didnt know that ! The seven of them cost me £ 350.

The only horse lay lost winning me £ 240 and I also got involved in more football than I have done for a long while. I used the bettor logic software to pick out a few games and I had one FTS game that also chipped in to the winning total of just over £ 200. In the tennis I lost £40 thinking that in a deciding Davis Cup rubber it would have some swings but it didnt really as Stepanek went down in straight sets. If he had won the second set tie break I could have greened up for a nice profit. He had the chances but didnt take them.


The SBP came through on the final C bet in the NFL . I had £ 122 on the Bills + 13.5 on the B bet but they got stuffed so i had £ 275 on San Diego -6.5. They won by about 20 points I think so netting me £ 107 on the day.


The NCAA SBP bets overnight also came through on the B bet but I didnt back it as I was asleep. There was an A bet that lost but I didnt do that either as I thought if that lost which it did I wouldnt be awake for the next one, so I missed out on another £ 50 profit.

The totals now stand at + £ 351 on the NCAA and +£ 50 on the NFL.

No Reward.

Quick entry (as the vicar said to the actress) as I am most tired after a day off winning no wonga.

Horses, no winners from five picks but had a couple of places the best being Steele Tango @ 12/1 coming second, Bet Cat had three picks all losing and the poor run continues. Loss of £200 in total.

Below is my Betfair screen print. Again the horse lays were good but the Football brought me down and I showed a profit of a pound !

The killer on the football was an FTS game from Ian Erskine. AC Milan v Catania was the lay the draw call and at 5.2 on Betfair it was a bit on the high side. Anyway it finished 1-1 and gave me a hefty loss. I managed to get some back on the other FTS game and the system 3 bet which came in.
I am now down £500 with the FTS system on his picks since the start of the season and up £250 on the system 3 picks. I imagine he will get some grief in his inbox in the morning from his disgruntled followers !

SBP had an A bet overnight on Nevada +3 and they won there match easily so giving me £50.

There were three other bets to follow. The first an A bet on Vanderbilt +12, they actually won by about 10 points I think so that won another £ 50. I had to split the bet because Paddy Small Penis Power wouldnt take a lousy £50 win, muppets.
So the late bet was another A bet with Arizona State +12 going down by just the 1 point so giving another £ 50.


There is another bet overnight which will be an A bet and a couple tomorrow in the NFL which will be a B and if a loser the third will be the C!

Goodnight.

Fruitful.

Friday turned into a stress free day as a nice profit was made from the first race onto the later ones. Firstly I picked six horses with four losers but finally a couple of winners instead of places. The first winner Sister Red led all the way and returned at 10/1 which was the price I got in the morning. It drifted a bit on track but done the business.


The second winner was a very nice touch as i had layed the odds on favourite in the same race and my horse got up on the line to pip it at 14/1 winning me £ 420 plus the £ 50 lay money. The other way round and I would have broke even.


I managed to trade a lot of races today as I didnt have that many lays and this helped concentrate me and keep me ticking over.


Thought I would use the Bettor Logic software and had a look at the Doncaster/Leeds game at half time. I discovered that Doncaster had only won 4 of 17 home games that were goalless at half time and the odds to break even would need to be 4.25. As they were 2.66 I had a very small lay on them.


I also checked how they fared against teams that were promoted as Leeds were, again with a half time score of 0-0. Believe it or not they had two other goalless first halves against promoted teams and both games had gone on to finish 0-0, just as this did.
So i made £13 on the footy, not a lot but a start!

Back To Work.

Back to the land of the living after a great trip to Spain. I thought it was Alicante but I ended up in a lovely hotel slap bang in the middle of Benidorm, as you can imagine it was a bit lively. The weather was fantastic and I loved swimming in the warm med.

So lets begin with SBP the B bet I placed before going away came in so pushing my profit upto £195. After that he had three losing A,B and C bets on the same night which would have wiped out my profit and left me about £ 200 down. Luckily I didnt do any betting while away so missed these as well as the first A bet on the NFL which also lost. I shall continue with these as hopefully I have dodged a bullet but these types of bets carry a health warning as it really is the C bets that make you your money. Once these go against you you are in big trouble. Mind you its all swings and roundabouts for me as three matches I was emailed to back as draws all finished level so ( Everton 3-3, Wigan 1-1, Spurs 1-1) this would have covered my SBP losses anyway.

Todays horses were a bit uninspiring as I had just the one winner and three places out of ten bets so giving me a small loss of £ 70.

The Betfair account was better as a few lays lost and I did a bit of footy.


Ian Erskines systems are doing OK i missed the weekend when he kept the system 3 results at 100% with another two winners and also his FTS bets came in. Again I can only go on my results but the system 3 games have made me £ 200 but I am down £120 on his FTS games. I am an elite member so we are supposed to get mentored which is all well and good but it isnt showing any profit yet, and he never posts up profits or figures so you have no idea if what he says is true.

Finally today I signed up for Bettor Logic which is a football based piece of software which i have been playing with for most of the day. I dont really do much football mainly because I cant seem to make any money at it but from this weekend I shall have a few bets just from there stats. You can have pre match data and in play data and this is supposed to give you value odds as well as about a million other things. It could be information overload but as the first two weeks are a free trial I shall see if I can do anything profitable.

Below is this weeks game between At Madrid and Barca. As you can see backing Athletico would have given you a 13 point profit since 2005, so are they value at 4/1? I fancy the over 2.5 market which even at 1.52 looks good. Maybe there are some footy experts who can tell me ?

Round Up.

Managed to get myself a trip to Alicante tomorrow and wont be back until next Tuesday so just a quick post up with todays results. Firstly got a B bet with SBP over night so will see how that goes and if it is a loser will try to get the C bet on while I am away.

A roundabout day as the lays lost me money for the first time in a while but I managed to back three winners out of six bets so actually made a small profit of £ 60.




Have a great weekend.

Black Balled.

Todays big news concerning the snooker fixing probe. No surprise even with video evidence Higgins is cleared but charged with a lesser offence. Obviously if this had gone against him Snooker would have been thrown into chaos, was there ever a chance of a guilty verdict? From the BBC: John Higgins has been cleared of all match-fixing allegations made against him by the News of the World. But at a hearing in London, he admitted bringing the game into disrepute by not reporting the illegal approach made to him to discuss throwing frames. As a result, the three-time world snooker champion was fined £75,000 and banned for six months, backdated to May when he was originally suspended. Higgins, 35, said he accepted the decision by an independent tribunal. "I welcome today's judgment by Sport Resolutions and endorsed by the WPBSA [World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association] following their exhaustive enquiry into the allegations against me by a tabloid newspaper," the Scot said in a statement. "I was not guilty of any dishonesty and had no intention to fix a match and no intention to do anything corrupt." And he repeated his statement from May, made immediately after the accusations were made by the Sunday newspaper. "I have never been involved in any form of snooker match-fixing," he continued. "In my 18 years playing professional snooker, I have never deliberately missed a shot, never mind intentionally lost a frame or a match. "If I am guilty of anything, it is of naivety and trusting those who, I believed, were working in the best interests of snooker and myself." Higgins was handed the ban and fine for "intentionally giving the impression to others that they were agreeing to act in breach of the betting rules" and failing to report the matter to World Snooker. However, the charges of "agreeing or offering" to accept bribes and "agreeing to engage in corrupt or fraudulent conduct" were dropped. It means he will be free to resume his career on 2 November. The behind-closed-doors tribunal, which took place over two days, was conducted by Sport Resolutions UK, an independent dispute resolution service. Higgins was suspended after he and his then manager Pat Mooney were filmed by the Sunday newspaper allegedly accepting £261,000 to fix matches. The video appeared to show Higgins and Mooney meeting with an undercover reporter in Kiev, Ukraine, and agreeing to alter the outcome of frames in return for money. The newspaper alleged that Higgins inquired at the meeting about the best way to conceal the money he would receive for losing frames in four separate matches. In a published transcript, Higgins, who has won 21 ranking titles, said it would be easy to affect the outcome of a frame. Ian Mill QC, who headed the disciplinary hearing, described Higgins as "foolish" for the way he handled the situation but blamed Mooney for instigating the meeting out of "financial self-interest". The judgment said Mooney was aware at least three weeks before the meeting in Kiev that the journalist posing as a businessman wanted to "make money through gambling in circumstances where frames in snooker matches were deliberately thrown". In his verdict, Mill said Mooney had "committed the most egregious betrayals of trust", putting the entire career and professional future of Higgins "at serious and wholly unjustifiable risk". Mooney, who had already resigned from the board of the WPBSA, has been permanently suspended by the sport's governing body. While match-fixing charges were withdrawn, Mooney admitted bringing the game into disrepute by failing to disclose the approach and "intentionally giving the impression to others that they were agreeing to act in breach of the betting rules". The WPBSA issued its own statement at the end of the hearing in London. "Having studied all of the evidence in its entirety, the WPBSA and Sports Resolutions accept that there has been no dishonesty on the part of John Higgins and accordingly the WPBSA has withdrawn the allegations of match fixing against him," it read. "John Higgins has agreed to play a leading role in a new educational programme for snooker players, which will form part of the integrity unit to be set up by WPBSA disciplinary committee chairman David Douglas." World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn added: "John made a mistake in failing to report the meeting in Kiev. He has admitted this mistake and expressed great regret at what happened. "The evidence, which has been exhaustively studied by David Douglas and Sport Resolutions, suggests that he was led into this situation and did not instigate any discussions of corrupt activity. "It seems certain, in view of his previous record and the ambassadorial work he has done for snooker, that this was a mistake he will never repeat. I'm sure Sport Resolutions took these factors into account in coming to their verdict." Hearn added: "John has suffered a devastating blow to his career and reputation but he can come back from it - and he has pledged to help others learn from his experiences." Following the verdict, the News of the World issued a statement defending their story, which appeared on 2 May. "This result is a victory for News of the World investigative journalism," it read. "John Higgins has been found guilty, suspended and fined. Pat Mooney has been found guilty and banned for life. "Today's judgement is testament to the extraordinary work of our investigations editor Mazher Mahmood. We hope that the exposure of Higgins and Mooney will act as a deterrent to any other cheats in sport and help restore the integrity of snooker." Following another News of the World "fixing" sting operation, Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir are being probed by police and the International Cricket Council. ---------------------------------------- Still having trouble with my own bets as another three went by the way side with only one placing which was Noodles Blue Boy in the 5.20. It actually traded as low as 1.13 but only managed fourth place. When things arent falling for you this happens. Still a profitable day with the lays working even though I was down about £ 300 at one stage of the afternoon. The SBP has had one bet since my last post which was a loser. Thats three wins and one loser so onto the B bet which will be at the weekend. The bank stands at £+95.

Baffled.

Had Sunday off and went to see "Inception." Reminded me of being on acid especially when they wake up on the plane at the end, one of those films you need to see twice, or maybe three times, or maybe more !

Stayed up to watch the Murray game and was baffled like everybody else about the poor performance and the amount of trainer calls from all the players yesterday. As mentioned before I cant ever remember seeing Federer calling for a trainer or having parts of his body strapped before the start of a match. Yesterday had two other retirements in Llodra and Stakhovsky and it seems to me that these guys play so hard to get to where they are their bodies are giving up on them. Its really amazing to see how tennis has changed over the years.Murray and Stan both needed the trainer, as they said on TV it was becoming like an episode of Casualty. I was really disappointed as he is suppose to be super fit but after three sets yesterday he was telling his camp he couldnt continue. To me I think a lot of it is mental and maybe he just doesnt have the strength to cope at the very highest level. I hope I am wrong, but a disappointing sporting summer continues for the UK.

Not much on the racing front today. I had two bets both losers and dropped £ 100 there. The lays are coming along nicely and gave me a nice profit along with a bit of tennis that I managed to see this afternoon.
SBP gave out another two bets yesterday both won so not had to go to the B bet yet. So three winners from three gives me a £150 running profit.

Army beat Michigan 31-27 so only four points so the spread easily covered that.


East Carolina won their match 51 - 49.

Their is another bet tonight which I will update tomorrow.

A New Season.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man so they say and today saw the return of the Sports Betting Professor for the A,B,C bets on this seasons college football. I hope you know the drill but you bet an amount and if it losses you try to get it back over the next bet and if that losses then its last chance saloon for bet no 3. If by a miracle that one goes tits up then you start again with a hefty dent in the monetary fund. Unlike the government though you dont have the ability to print a load of dough to sort yourself back out.

Now the biggest problem for me was finding the bets as being told to back Illinois in the spread is fine but there are a couple of Illinois teams as I discovered. On checking this evenings results I thought my team had been beaten by thirty five points which considering the spread was only twelve meant I had lost. But wait, I had checked the wrong team and my team had lost by eleven so giving the first bet as a winner. The second is tonight and for the purposes of the blog I am betting to win £ 50 on each series of bets and will keep a record to see if he really does make money, but if it is as good as last seasons basketball it should help make me a few bob.

The horses racing was profitable I had a couple of lays that won their races but I managed to make it up and kicked in a nice profit .
The back bets just about broke even with six losers and just the one winner but that was enough to keep me level pegging.

New York, New York.

So good they named it twice as the song goes. I just love the tournament it is so raucous with sights and sounds everywhere. The ballboys are wearing there Ralph Lauren Polo gear and strutting around chewing gum. No under arm rolling of the balls for these kids oh no they are throwing them over arm the length of the court, what a contrast to Wimbledon.

Not much of a day for me made a bit from laying the horses but lost about £ 150 from my own back bets with three losers, and one that returned me back my stake.

Had a bit of a slow morning so placed some bets for the future. After having New Orleans last year to win the Super Bowl this year I have had a small bet on Baltimore. I have also had the Eagles to win their division and in the football Everton to win the Carling Cup.

I am looking forward to the NFL which starts soon and the College Football that I believe starts tomorrow.

A Drifter,A Moaner,A Groaner.

Amazing drift on a nag I backed this morning. Near race time I thought it had lost a leg on the way down as the price drifted like mad on Betfair. I had £40 on it at 11/1 with Stan James at BOG odds and the thing returned at 25/1 winning me over a grand. Fantastic !

This win and another I had helped me a little because I was gutted as another I tried to back at 20/1 romped home without me on it ! The nag in question was in the 7.10 @ Clonmel and I tried to get on with Lads and Bet 365 but was given the option of 12/1 which I didnt think was value so gave it a miss. Theres nothing more frustraing than watching a horse dot up but with hindsight I wouldn't change my mind as I would end up taking a lot more losers on board. At 20/1 it was worth a punt but at 12/1 I didnt think so, its a fine line sometimes.

My tipster gave me the winner below and a couple of losers as well but still a nice profit and I also picked another four with two placing giving a slight loss of £ 100.

The lays were good as all three picks got turned over at very short odds to add to a very good day. Still having a go at the tennis but its a bit all over the place at the moment to be honest.


Well Andy Roddick turned on his usual charm last night, being an obnoxious prick while getting his arse whipped and arguing with a line judge.Tipsarevic took control of the night match after dropping the first set and Roddick later admitted that his outburst after being called for a foot-fault had been over the top.

"I wasn't upset with the call, I just expect my umpires to know their left foot from the right foot," said the 28-year-old.

"The stubbornness... I let mine get in the way. I got called for two others after that and have no issue with it. In the moment I was just stupefied.

"It's the fact I couldn't get her to admit it wasn't the right foot which infuriated me, the lack of common sense was unbelievable to me. We have got to be able to have a test like 'Point to your right foot, point to your left foot, now call lines.'

"In hindsight, did I let it go too far? Probably. It was probably a correctable mistake and I let it get to me more than I should have."

Nice to see the back of him, now to horse racing after yesterdays amazing punt left a few down in the mouth.

Racegoers at Hereford have just seen the most astonishing improvement from Am I Blue, who had never won a race in 16 previous attempts but hacked up by 19 lengths in a handicap hurdle just now, having been backed down to 5-1 from 33-1 this morning.

Trained near Bridgend by Delyth Thomas, Am I Blue has been well beaten in all five previous starts this year. In her last two runs, also in handicap hurdles, she was beaten 75 lengths and then 88 lengths. "Always struggling in rear, tailed off" was the form book comment when she ran at Newton Abbot last month.

Fascinatingly, Am I Blue was trained by Tim Vaughan when she ran in March. She had moved to Thomas before her next run, three months later.

Today, she was due to be ridden by Dean Coleman, a capable 5lb claimer, but Richard Johnson was announced as the rider shortly before the race. Johnson sent the horse straight to the front and, by the second-last, it was clear that her rivals were struggling to stay with her.

In a brief interview on At The Races after her success, Thomas said that the horse had been treated for a shoulder problem. She professed not to know why the horse had been backed and suggested it was because Johnson was in the saddle - hardly a credible explanation, since no one expected Johnson to be riding.

Let's hope the stewards ask some serious questions and get some answers. This sort of unexplained improvement, accompanied by major support in the betting market, is the kind of thing that gives racing a bad name

3.42pm No formal enquiry at Hereford
: The stewards have announced that they will not hold a formal inquiry into Am I Blue's win, having heard from the trainer that the filly benefited from spinal therapy since its last run and appreciated the change of tactics.

Given the astonishing improvement in such a short time, surely they had no option but to call a full inquiry, or else refer the whole matter to the British Horseracing Authority, who would be in a better position to consider the betting-related evidence?

Downing Tools.

Well the country will be up in arms if we dont qualify for Euro 2012 but what is going on? The players seem to be voting with their feet by opting out with injuries even though we all know that they will all be fit and raring to go in a couple of weeks when the teams that pay their vast wages call them into action. Are the clubs now completely ruling the roost, or are the players fed up with fans and the media alike and decided well if they slag us off we wont bother playing. Added to this is the Capello situation , where maybe the players are fed up of being treated like children by their head master and wouldnt mind seeing the back of him as well. Have a read below and decide for yourself what sort of team we will be sending out for the upcoming qualifiers:

Tottenham striker Peter Crouch is out of England's squad for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria at Wembley on Friday and Switzerland next Tuesday.

Crouch has been ruled out with a back injury and will not be replaced.

Goalkeepers Ben Foster (knee) and Scott Carson (back) missed Tuesday's training and 19-year-old Arsenal reserve keeper James Shea had to make up the numbers.

Everton's Phil Jagielka, who had been expected to play at centre-back, missed training with an ankle injury.

Manchester City's Joe Hart is coach Fabio Capello's first-choice goalkeeper, but injuries to his deputies may lead to a repeat of the friendly win against Hungary on 11 August when Watford's Under-21 keeper Scott Loach and Blackburn's fourth-choice stopper Frankie Fielding were drafted in.

Goalkeeping options for Capello are fairly limited, with Paul Robinson having retired from the international stage, former first choice Rob Green awaiting a hip operation and Chris Kirkland dropped by his club Wigan after conceding 10 goals in the club's first two league matches.

England's squad is much changed from the disappointment of their World Cup campaign in South Africa earlier in the summer.

David James and Ledley King have been discarded by the England boss, while Liverpool stalwart Jamie Carragher has announced his international retirement.

Spurs winger Aaron Lennon has not featured in either squad since the World Cup, but the latest omission is thought to be because of concerns over an ankle injury.

In addition, Chelsea duo John Terry and Frank Lampard have been ruled out because of injury, Terry sidelined by a hamstring problem and Lampard missing the match to have a hernia operation.

Should Jagielka be ruled out of contention against Bulgaria, Bolton's Gary Cahill could be in line for a senior debut, with Spurs defender Michael Dawson another candidate, having made his first appearance as a substitute in the 2-1 friendly win over Hungary earlier in August.

One man left out of the World Cup squad who is now firmly back in favour is Arsenal's Theo Walcott, who is expected to start on Friday.

"I had a nice break through the summer and everything has gone well, so I just have to keep my feet on the ground," the 21-year-old said.

"It's one of those things," he added of his World Cup exclusion. "I didn't point the finger at anyone, I didn't blame anyone, it's disappointing, but I'm not going to blame myself, I just want to make sure it doesn't happen again by working hard on the training pitch."

Looking ahead to Friday night's match he said: "No game is easy at international level, we had a good result against Hungary and we managed to play well for the whole game.

"Sometimes the goals don't go in because people come to Wembley, a fantastic fortress, and they put people behind the ball so it can be very difficult to break them down.

Bulgaria, now without Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov who has retired from international football, have managed three draws and two defeats in five matches on English soil.

England also travel to Switzerland for another qualifier on Tuesday and also face Montenegro and Wales in qualifying Group G, ahead of the 2012 finals in Poland and Ukraine.

Onto the tennis and some pretty weird and wonderful results with a lot of form players getting beaten or struggling. A lot of talk about Gulbis and Berdych being the new breed but both getting beaten fairly easily along with Baggy. Then Fish who really has been playing well getting into all sorts of trouble with Hajek. This game was perfect for me as starting at 1.04 Fish was simply to low against a top 100 player. Again the recent form was taken into too much context, it isnt as overnight he had become Roger Federer.

As the draw gets more organised I will have a few wagers but I really cant see past Murray. Maybe someone less expected like Davydenko or Roddick might be the way to go.

Today was a loser as the horse lays which were looking good got a hit and all five bets I had didnt place. So starting off the month with a £ 250 total loss.