What A Feeling

What a class weeks racing at Royal Ascot. I was the 'nearly man' all week until Starspangledbanner won easily, unreal speedster. As I said my main three were Samuel Morse - 4th, each way 1-2-3, always a bugger to finish 4th but he was the 4th best in the race, no complaints. Age Of Aquarius - 2nd beaten a neck, behind a hurdler might I add, happy it was an Irish horse though, and again 2nd best horse in the race, no complaints. Thank feck for Star though! For the blog, I had already backed him antepost here, absolutely delighted it was Bluesq, that tenner actually felt better than having €50 with another bookie.

Bluesq.. you can limit me but you still cant stop me winning, whos the daddy! Nearly all my punting was on course, no issues getting on, problems or anything like that, great week for everyone. I did also get €180 on Betfair off the horses, mostly off Star, it was level-ish before him. I did a fair bit of mug punting in fivers and tenners every race you know yourself, impossible not have a bet on a race when youre there, for me anyway.

Havent had the chance to do a Sky English domestic games but got a few bets that have been matched all week, about level-ish again when they all add up. But Ireland played Australia in Dublin on Thursday (I think), Aussies were SP 1.02 (1.02 FFS!), I dont care what two teams are playing, I'm laying an SP of 1.02, a grand for €20 red in limit overs cricket, is there any reason not to like! I think England were even worse at 1.01 to beat Holland the time they got turned over too, and didnt Ireland beat Pakistan at 1.01 a few years ago. Whatever about getting matched during the game, but it should never be SP in a sport like cricket (not including tests). Anyway, I had Cricinfo open on my phone and at one stage Ireland only needed RRR of 3.6 with 6 or 7 wickets left (cant remember exactly), really poor not winning from that position, most teams would bring that home, but sure anyway at least they gave me the chance to green out.

We actually have an OK-ish bowling lineup and are excellent at fielding, only have three solid batsmen though and the rest arent good enough. I'd say if we still had Morgan and Joyce in the middle order, we'd nearly be as good, if not better, than the likes of Bangladesh, Windies and Pakistan. Dont blame them for wanting to make a career for themselves though. Were still underrated IMO, the last time I did this we were against England, SP was 1.06, I laid that too, went awe-green, then it rained and got zilch, so I'm happy it was a result this time even though we lost.

I've tried doing the handicaps on the GAA today, not much money in the market though at 9.5pts and 16.5pts, cant blame people either, Kilkenny are the best team in the country and Cork SP was 1.02 against Limerick (lowest for GAA this year?). No action there for anyone really.

Havent looked forward to the golf tonight this much for a long time, say what you like about Tiger, but hes the man everyone wants to see. Tiger in contention in a major is just unreal viewing, only flew back at half four this morning but watched a bit of Johnson, he seems a complete luckbox, how the ball stayed where it was on 14 I dont know, and he keeps missing fairways but landing it safe, he landed it on the 10th teebox off the 18th teebox FFS, then made a birdie. The reason I stopped betting/trading on golf was because of these exact situations, Johnson no major wins, only two wins of any note on the tour - one was rained off last day so he had no pressure and the other one he fell over the line with a round of +2, he will have bottle issues IMO, but the bugger is he can play shite and still win. He has the two shot cushion and when youre laying him you need two things not just one, him to play poorly and the others to play well. He could easily play absolutely pap and still win by a shot. I put €50 on Tiger at 20s while in London by blind faith, totally cant have Johnson odds on and Tiger at 5ish is too big, I'll let my mug bet run. I say 'mug bet' because all my golf bets are mug bets so dont mind what I think..

Anyway, a good week, hopefully next week is fairly solid too. Last week I made some shocking plays but got out of it on Sunday, a kick in the balls though and I've looked after myself more this week. Maybe lost around €80ish in Ascot that could have been avoided but apart from that I've been OK in discipline terms and not taking too many chances. Back to being shrewd.. (that'll be the day!)

By the way, if anyone missed the Tiger 'life' programme on CH4 this week, you can watch it here, was very interesting to see how he was brought up, IMO he was brought up to be exactly like he is now to an absolute tee, including all the shagging etc, the only thing he did wrong, IMO, was get married. Thats all. Picture how many women the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo go through but you dont here anything about it because hes not married he can do what he likes, who cares sure. Amazing too what corporate America is like, they knew he was cheating in 2006 but the papers didnt run the story, he made 300Million between 2006 and when the story broke. Also goes to show though, theres no point ever getting bothered about what the press write, they write what they choose to, cant believe it all word for word. As always my opinion on any sportsman is, they can do what they like off the field it doesnt bother me in the slightest, only bothers me what they do on it that matters, also of the opinion that its very important not to hold grudges and hatred towards sportsmen because it gets in the way of your punting.

Speaking of which, Wayne Rooney, I dont see what he did wrong? Fans voice opinion. Rooney voices opinion. Its OK for the fans to do it but not Rooney? If they have such an issue with "spending money following them" and "paying their wages with jerseys" well then thats easily fixed. Dont bother going or supporting the team. I'm a United fan, but cringe every time I see the green and gold scarfs at Old Trafford. Think about it, youre "protesting" to the owners, yet you go to the game, pay for your ticket, pay for food, pay for the jersey, which is all going into the owners pockets, but dont worry youve got your scarf youre protesting! Brilliant idea lads.. PS. Norwich City scarf sellers were in clover this season.

Same with any team and sportsman as the England situation, support the team properly or just feck off and dont bother moaning when things go pear shaped. Booing a team to make them play better, who came up with that idea. Put yourself in another pair of shoes, if you go into work every morning and the bloke at the desk beside you turns and says right in your face "youre a cunt" at 9-05 every morning, would you like him? Odds on you wouldnt. But yet the fans still want the players to "play for them" after abusing them, human nature is to not care about them anymore, its no wonder players are so detached. Put yourself in another situation, your son finishes last in the school race, do you boo him? Do you tell him you wished you never rode his mother to have him? Your other half fails her driving test and comes home upset, do you boo her? "Oh thats different," its not different, the point is you dont boo your own..

The whole world revolves around the idea that, "its one rule for my situation, but another rule for everyone elses situation." Treat people how you expect to be treated yourself - no one does that with sportsmen.