11th Feb - 17th Feb

By Bill Esdaile on 17 February 2010 at 09:56

My £150 sell of goals at 2.5 in the previous night’s Arsenal v Liverpool game yielded a £225 profit as there was only one goal in the game. I immediately re-invested my winnings on Harry Tricker and Fairyland in the totesport Hurdle ahead of the weekend. The former is bidding to land a hat-trick of wins in the race for the stable and the latter, even though he is the ‘second string’, hails from the all-conquering Nicky Henderson yard. I cannot wait… when Saturday comes and all that…


Friday 12th February
Lady Bling Bling Day. If the 14th February is ‘St Valentine’s Day’, then the 12th February will be known, from this day forward, as ‘Lady Bling Bling Day’. Now, Lady Bling Bling may have only won a moderate 2 miles and 5 furlongs handicap hurdle at Kempton, but she did so at a whopping 20/1. She stayed on really bravely when all about her seemed to be travelling so much better and landed the spoils. I was given the tip by an extremely shrewd friend called Ian (he has now climbed up several places in my ‘friend chart’) and I honestly cannot remember the last time I backed a 20/1 winner!

Sadly, the day won’t be remembered going forward as ‘Polyfast Day’ or even ‘Captain Chris Day’ and the two beasts in question were both quite expensive buys on the index in the later races at Kempton. However, it was still a winning day and as all punters know, they don’t come along that often!


Saturday 13th February
Spent the entire 'am bit' of the day driving up to Morecambe to watch their epic League Two match with Darlington. The reason... It was Wally Pyrah's 97th Birthday treat organised by his son Andy and eight of us were having lunch in the sponsors lounge.

The match programme not only had a eulogy to Pyrah (written by him too!), but a flash on the front saying only nine more games left! I thought it was a countdown of their time left in the football league, but later found out that's how long until they move grounds.

Well, it was freezing cold - the chicken at lunch that is, and the only options were to have a few drinks and bet like a madman! We managed to persuade the others in the room that it would be a good idea to turn over to Channel Four and watch the racing. I backed Bensalem at 4/1 to turn over Diamond Harry... sadly he nearly turned himself over five from home and never recovered. I didn't play in the handicap hurdle or the Denman race, but added to my ante-post bets on the totesport Hurdle by buying £10 of Harry Tricker at 14.

The commercial director at the club fancied Mamlook and knew I was on Harry Tricker. He turned to me just after it fell and said, 'I think it’s time for you to shut up'. I was so annoyed I didn't know what to say... I wanted to say, 'I think it’s time for you to buy a suit that fits', but left it. Anyway, I was thrilled Mamlook got beat anyway.

It was an expensive five minutes and we eventually sat down to watch the game ten minutes in. My £200 buy of Morecambe supremacy at 1.1 got off to the perfect start with the hosts taking an early lead. Their second goal came early in the second half, but they never scored a third. Luckily, Darlington never scored a first, so I nicked a few quid back.


Sunday 14th February
I woke up on Valentine's Day morning at around 3am in one of the world's nastiest hotels - which shall remain nameless (not for legal reasons, more to do with the fact that I cannot remember). Not only was I sharing my nasty room, it was also freezing and the radiator didn't work. I got fully dressed and slept the remainder of the night in my clothes. The best bit about the hotel was the fact that the room didn't have a loo or even a sink, let alone a shower!

I woke up a few hours later and went to have a nice warm shower to find that the bathroom was 'occupied'. I stood and waited and eventually a heavily tattooed Darlington fan with a towel wrapped around his waist appeared. 'You may want to leave it 5 minutes', he warned. I left it altogether!

I'd questioned Wally on the quality of the hotel before we travelled and he had assured me it would be 'fine'. I later found out his room had a bathroom... 'I'm alright Jack' had a good night’s sleep too!

Anyway, met up with the family at lunchtime and got stuck into the Italy v England game. I sold £15 of points at 42, so was thrilled that the Italians played so well. My £10 buy of Danny Care’s try minutes at 13 was a lot less rewarding, but I still made money overall.


Monday 15th February
Playing 7-a-side football again was a mistake; going for a 50/50 ball with a monster of a man was an even bigger mistake. Neither the ball nor his foot or leg moved an inch. I felt the muscles in my leg go and I am now hobbling around and stink of Deep Heat. I'm not actually sure that Deep Heat does anything other than cause fresh pain which distracts you from the original problem area. It is basically like pouring petrol on your leg and lighting a match - the muscle suddenly feels alright because the rest of you is on fire!

To add to the pain, I sold goals in-running at 3 for £150 during the Bristol Rovers v Charlton match. I had already penciled in a £150 profit deep into stoppage time with the teams locked at 1-1 when Racon popped up to score a winner in the 97th minute! I'm sure that Sporting Index say that all markets are 90 minutes only?!

Tuesday 16th February
Not a good day! I was convinced that there would be no goals in the AC Milan v Man Utd and decided to sell £150 of goals at 2.2 before kick-off. Well, the game was tight right up to the point when Milan scored their second, but still trailed United. I lost £420 on the bet and counted myself a bit lucky that Milan never grabbed the equaliser.

To cap a great night, I didn't wash my hands properly after applying Deep Heat before bed. I went to spend a penny and touched something you never want to touch with Deep Heat. Imagine holding a lighter underneath your 'you know what' and you are somewhere near to replicating the experience.


Wednesday 17th February
If you did your bollocks the previous night selling total goals in a Champions League game, what's the best thing to do? You got it, do it all again...

I have sold £150 of goals at 2.15 (the price rather than the time at which the bet was placed) in the Porto v Arsenal game. I’m not sure where the goals are going to come from and have also had a fixed-odds bet on 'No Goalscorer' at 15/2.

I’m not sure I'm even going to watch and may just tune into 'Holby' with my wife instead... thanks to Deep Heat, I literally don't have the balls anymore!

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