We've talked super punter Bill Esdaile, former sports trader, into disclosing all the juicy details of his punting. Join him each week as he shares the best and (very) worst of his spread betting exclusively with you – let's just hope his wife doesn't find out!
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When Zidan (only a missing 'e' prevents him from dining at football's top table) put Egypt into a well deserved lead after 23 minutes, all looked rosy in the garden of Esdaile. When I left you last week, I wrote of my determination to get with the visitors and my £150 sell of supremacy at 1.3 and my £6 sell of England's leading minutes at 36 were looking good. In fact, they looked pretty magnificent when Egypt still led in the 55th minute. |
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Sadly, Crouch and then Wright-Phillips spent the next 25 minutes ruining my night. The former equalised in the 56th minute, Wright-Phillips scored with 15 minutes left and Crouch sealed it in the 80th minute. An evening that had started so well and promised huge profits, resulted in a net gain of £21 (that's money and not weight). I made £126 on my sell of leading minutes, but gave back £105 on my supremacy bet.
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I felt sick when I saw the result of the 6.10pm from Meydan. I cannot tell you how many times I have backed Judd Street in sprint handicaps over the last few seasons and the wretched beast popped up again in the hands of a certain K Fallon. The pain was not so much the win, but more the price... you don't have to back many 28/1 winners over the course of a year!
Luckily, the next didn't go to a 28/1 shot, but to the well fancied Imbongi. I had backed Mike De Kock's raider on its last start only days ago when it was beaten by about the distance between the end of this sentence and the full stop that follows it. My £10 buy at 28 on the index yielded a nice £220 profit and healed the Judd Street pain.
Bradford hosted Wigan in the live Super League game and fell behind within minutes to a table topping Warriors side. However, having got with Huddersfield against the Bulls only a few weeks ago, I knew from experience that the home side would not roll over. I sold £20 of Wigan supremacy in-running at 11 and sat in shock as the Warriors scored again and again! They headed in for their half-time oranges with a 20-0 lead...
They say that if you have a strong opinion, you should go in again. Well, I didn't... If truth be told I was closer to hitting the emergency exit button and taking the hit. Well, I decided to switch off and not watch the second half and basically penciled in a £400 or £500 loss whilst watching some awful Michael Winner cooking programme.
When I logged on to the internet later to check the result, I was expecting a headline like... 'Warriors slay the Bulls'. Therefore, when I read the first word of as... 'Rampant', I presumed the worse. However, it read 'Rampant Bulls fight back to stun Warriors'. I was speechless when I saw the 22-20 scoreline. It was an extraordinary feeling, like someone sitting up in their coffin and shouting 'stop' just seconds before their own cremation. A £500 loss became a £260 win and I hadn't even been watching! Easy game...
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Having torn the Warriors to pieces the night before, it seemed right to get with Battlecry in Newbury's feature. I confidently bought £20 at 15 and watched in horror as he cried enough at around halfway. He was eventually pulled-up and when I last checked you don't get points allocated for that on an index. In the space of just a few fences, all my winnings from the night before had vanished.
The good thing was I still had a ‘good thing’ of Alan King’s to come in the Bumper at Doncaster. The bad thing was that the ‘good thing’ turned out to be a ‘bad thing’ and finished 11th of 13. Hurricane Milly spent the entire race back peddling so fast that it was like watching a race on rewind… and paying £260 for the privilege!
If my racing punting was bad, my football bets were awful! I managed to stop Southampton’s winning run by buying £200 of their supremacy over Tranmere at 0.6. They lost 2-1 and that cost me another £320. I also sold £10 of the time of the third Arsenal goal against Burnley at 72. They did score that third goal, but sadly waited until the 90th minute to do so… not a good day.
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Punting confidence completely shot to pieces, I decided to leave the racing alone. I was keen to back Rare Bob in the 4.00pm at Naas, but he was too short – too short for someone who did his brains the day before. He didn’t win anyway!
However, I did muster the courage to buy £150 of Everton supremacy over Hull at 1.7. The game finished 5-1 to the hosts and I managed to win £345 back… the green shoots of recovery.
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Nothing to report, other than a successful match bet on the all-weather. I fancied a horse of Marcus Tregoning’s against the favourite Jawal sold £15 at 1/2. It made up the full 12 lengths the other way and the recovery was suddenly gaining momentum…
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I don’t like Nicklas Bendtner! He cost me money on Saturday when he couldn’t hit a barn door and cost me again less than three days later. I decided to sell £5 of shirts just after half-time (with Arsenal 2-0 up at home to Porto) at 133 with 104 on the scoreboard already. Enter Nasri (number 8) and Eboue (27) to put Arsenal 4-0 up and take shirts to a total of 139 and an affordable £30 loss. With literally seconds to play, Arsenal got a penalty and up strolled Bendtner (with 52 on his back!) to put away his hat-trick and add another £260 to the bill. All shirt sellers out there will be asking themselves why does Bendtner wear number 52 on his back? The answer is simple… 52 is his average number of shots off target before he scores!
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I fancied a tight game last time between AC Milan and United and I got it horribly wrong. Strangely, I must be the only one out there who fancies a low scorer again and I have sold £200 of goals at 2.9… fingers crossed.
With the Cheltenham Festival just days away, I’ll be getting stuck into Somersby in the Arkle, Weapons Amnesty in the RSA Chase and Schindlers Hunt in the Ryanair. If they all win, I’ll be a happy man this time next week. Come to think of it, if they all win, you’ll never hear from me again!
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