31jul13 worst losing nap ever

Seems like 4 of us (KJ, Me, MnS, & JL) may now be able to claim this honour (for a horse that actually completed) after Kazbow finished last in the opener just 144L behind the leader and 99L behind the 2nd last!  Congratulations to Jed Parramore was on course today and had 5 winners, naturally not one of them was his nap still we would all settle for that!

Busy day 42 bets and 7 winners, top spot claimed today by Pat Quinn Jnr at 7-1 still a way off making the leader board, Kevin Dighton ended a long losing run by fluking a 9-2 winner!  Dave Kingsbury returned to the leader board after his 5-1 winner in the last, others were Martin Long 3-1 to go just 5p off the lead, Vince Paige 7-2, Mark Sharman 11-4 & Jon Curtis evens.

Excitement in the plate as Martin Long took over at the top as Justin missed, Vince Paige did actually manage to nap on of his many winners at Galway (4 in total for a 95-1 4 timer that he failed to back!) and Dave Kingsbury's 10 point winner prevented the top 3 getting away completely.

30jul13 fab five again

Well that's if Vince qualifies! Very nice best of the day for Robert Baker 14-1 to move to 9th, the last cash spot, Dave Barker 11-2 to go 8th, Vince Paige & Rob Brown both 9-4, and finally Ian Carpenter evens.

The top two sat out in the plate so that allowed Vince to capitalize with a nice 10 point winner to close the gap a bit even if he did have to revert to some donkey at Galway when we have Glorious Goodwood to play with!

29jul13 glorious nearly

7 winners today and the stand out was the 10-1 winner for Terry Matthews that moved him from 25th to 9th and in the cash - nice one.  Other winners were Martin Long & Justin Sercombe the same 9-10 winner,  Jake Fifield consolidating with a 4-6 winner, Dave Kingsbury & Craig Connelly doing the same with their 2-5 winner, finally Pat Quinn Snr 9-2.

With both leaders scoring 5 points and Vince Paige missing out the gap is now growing but plenty of 10 pointers this week at both Galway and Goodwood.

Actually we should perhaps get this rigged up to end one year to coincide with the Galway festival has to really be our must go once list especially after the success of the inaugural Irish tour at Punchestown

28jul13 fab five

Some nice winners among the five that saw success today.  Best was 10-1 for Martin Sharman which zoomed him up to 5th place, closely followed by Jay Lewis with an 8-1 winner, Jake Fifield 4-1 saw him return to the leader board and Martin Long closed to with 3p of 2nd place after a 13-8 winner, finally a 7-2 winner for Dave Kingsbury.

Martin Long's winner brought up his century in the plate and Jay Lewis scrapped onto the foot of the leader board although he has had loads more bets than everyone else

27jul13 what a day

Early update and just one winner on an astounding day and that is Mark Nutting 20-1 to go first from 11th.  Not much more to say other than Cirrus clearly isn't the top rated horse in the world any longer!!

In the plate none of the top 6 scored a point!

Let's take a look at the King George

In a nutshell fairly easy and despite putting up Trading Leather last time out to win the Irish Derby I am going to have to forsake him here and go with Cirrus Des Aigles.  I don't normally like French raiders, not on some sort of anti French stance, but because I just have the feeling that their greats never seem to travel all that well, but Cirrus is the exception here, just 2 lengths behind Frankel in last year's Qipco Champion Stakes and I was there when she won that race the year before.  For me that is pretty much enough said on that basis why isn't she 2-5f?  Can only be his last race is putting people off and I think we have to write that off as a 'needed the run' he was on the way back from an injury and in going that was bound to find out any weakness on the fitness side we can rule all those out today - lump on!

26jul13 100-1 unlucky

Mark Nutting nearly shook things up selecting a 100-1 runner that finished just 1 length off in 3rd in the opener at Ascot (OK he would have been restricted to just 33-1).  Other than that early excitement not much else just 3 winners the best of which was Joanne Hutson 5-1 closely followed by Craig Connelly 9-2 to zoom him up to 4th with, of course, Justin Sercombe slotting in a 5 point winner at 4-11 to bring up his century in the plate.

CORRECTION: Dave Barker also had a 15-8 winner that I missed!

25jul13 standard day

7 winners today from 35 bets and some reasonable winners.  Joint best of the day was 9-2 for both Adam Slater (that brought up a treble for him) and Julian Ciampioli that took him 6th. Other winners were Martin Sharman 11-4 to sneak him on to the foot of the leader board Matty Harrison '9-4 to take him 9th, Jimmy McGarrity 11-4, Ian Carpenter 11-4, Chris Pascoe 7-2.

In the plate only Vince made progress with his 5 point 2nd

24jul13 Bye Bye JAG

Martin Long's non runner took him back top of the main leader board as those around him all posted losers but just by 34p from Richard Pascoe.  Today only 3 winners from 32 bets Annette Berg & Justin Sercombe both with the same 4-6 winners and a very meagre best of the day at 7-4 for Adam Slater.  So apart from Justin moving up a place to 4th the order on both leader boards was pretty much unaltered.

11 days to go before the mid term break starts on 5th August that will be 41 days through the comp and so on average you should have only used 27 bets up - just FYI

23jul13 plate hots up

Joint leaders now in the plate with Justin Sercombe top on number of winners.  The main comp saw 5 winners from 35 bets they were best of the day Terry Mathews 4-1, Annette Berg 4-9, Craig Connelly, Dave Barker & Justin Sercombe all on the same 5-6 winner.

Two players now dormy and having forced losers they are Gareth Chapman & Mark Dighton, I have removed Alan Daniels as clearly he is not taking part this far in.

22jul13 hot and tough

3 winners only today, Craig Connelly & Matty Harrison both 2-1, and Mark Nutting best of the day 7-2 to return to the leader board, that's all folks!

Justin Sercombe, Vince Paige & I all picked the same donkey in Ireland, who could only finish 4th and Martin Long scored 2 so no changes at the top of the plate.

a view from the boundary

Swan to Harris just before we won

21jul13 great day at Lords!

Saturday update, obviously a difficult day only 3 winners from 35 bets they were me another 5-4 winner! Best of the day 9-2 for Gary Dighton and Adam Slater got off the mark with a 9-4 winner

Sunday, wow what a difference 11 winners from just 28 bets won't do them all as the excel is on its way but stand out by far was Steve Walton's 16-1 winner to zoom him up to 7th and Richard Pascoe's 11-4 winner to go top after Martin Long failed to score on both days.  Mark Sharman got off the mark Craig Connelly 6-4 winner this got him onto the leader board after after 5 winners in the last 7 days.

In the plate two 4th places for Justin Sercombe let Martin Long into top spot even though he only scraped a few points for placed horses.

No update 20jul13

I'm at Lords Saturday & Sunday and I'm not taking my laptop so no update until Sunday evening sorry

19jul13 Tiger poised in T2

6 winners today of most significance was another winner for Richard Pascoe who moves 2nd after his 5-6 winner the 6 in the last 8 days, nice play.  Of the other 5 the best was Paul Marks 4-1, Jo Hutson and Steve Walton the betrothed couple  both had winners 2-1 ans 4-6 respectively and finally Ian Carpenter 4-6.

In the plate Justine forged clear!

18jul13 nice move by the leader

Martin Long slots in a nice 3-1 winner to go £3.04 clear of Kevin Dighton who sat out, Justin Sercombe lost a place despite hitting another winner as Michael Brook moved past him with a  5-1 winner that was joint best of the day with Vince Paige.  The other 4 winners were Terry Mathews & Dave Kingsbury both 13-8, me 5-4 again, Paul Creed 7-2.

Vince Paige's 10 point winner in some poxy race in Ireland betrays his statement that he is not interested in the plate as the top 3 begin to pull away leaving the rest of us to scrap for the final £50 for 4th.

If iI had to have a bet in the Open it would have to be Tiger but as Vince said today wait for a leader to drop a shot and their price can move significantly - Betfair that is of course, Tiger went out to 12-1 after dropping a shot at the first!

17jul13 Leaders both lose

Top 2 lose and so allow Richard Pascoe to close right up just 92p behind the leader in 3rd and he has had 8 more bets which convention says really means he is ahead.  6 winners today from just 26 bets the best of the day was just a 4-1 winner for Terry Mathews his first winner so he remains in the bottom half, Scott Bennett brought up a double with a 5-4 winner to stay 4th, 11-4 winners for both Gareth Chapman back after a long break, and Richard Pascoe with Craig connelly and Justin Sercombe both grabbing an 8-11 winner.

The 5 points gained by Justin was enough to take him top in the plate by a point after Martin Long's selection failed to finish.

16jul13 Oooh! just 4p in it

Very tight at the top just 4p separates Martin Long & Kevin Dighton now after Martin could only manage a 2nd today and Kev sat out.  Overall just 4 winners again with joint best of the day at 6-1 from Mark Nutting to go onto the leader board in 9th, the last cash spot, and early leader Scott Bennett who returns to the fray in 4th.  Seems to be a bit of a gap with the top 4 slightly pulling away from the rest but early days.  Other winners were Steve Walton 11-8 and Richard Pascoe in 3rd at evens.

Martin Long just scraped a 2 pointer using up one of his in hand bets

15jul13 slow day

Just 4 winners today Matty Harrison 5-2 and three guys on the same 9-2 winner they were Annette Berg to rule the roost at the Berg house! as she makes her first appearance on the main leader board this comp, Craig Connelly his 3rd winner in 4 days to go 68p up and sit 14th & finally Ian Carpenter his 3rd winner in 5 days to move 16th just 25p down.

None of the first 4 in the plate played today and the others could only scrape 3 points between them.

Alan Daniels got his first loser today having gone dormy yesterday but as he hasn't had a bet at all yet hasn't paid and isn't answering my texts looks like he is out anyone out there can get him started is he OK?  Losing him will reduce the field to 50, but we are aiming to keep first place at £1,000, will confirm prizes on next excel update.
 

14jul13 new leader

Martin Long's small 4-7 winner was enough to take him top especially after Kevin Dighton had a loser, there were 4 other winners Dave Kingsbury & me with 5-4 winners, Jay Lewis 10-11 and making up the fab five was the best of the day 6-1 for Mark Nutting.

In the plate Martin Long also leads looks like a bit of a head to head there with Justin Sercombe

13jul13 nice one Martin

8 winners and the stand out is Martin Long with a very impressive 14-1 winner in the big tough handicap at Ascot, that zoomed him to the top of plate and up to 2nd place just 53p behind Kevin Dighton, the leader.

Lots of other winners Justin Sercombe again that's 9 winners from the last 12 days/bets moves up another place in the main comp to 6th, Chris Pascoe & Richard Pascoe both 9-2 that moved Richard into contention at the top.  Dave Barker evens, Jon Curtis 6-4, Paul Marks 11-8, Steve Tyson were the other 4 winners.

1-0 up by lunch today

12jul13 Go England Go

Nearly enough on the board now another 50 runs tomorrow should nail it for certain.

7 winners today from 36 winners and a couple of very nice ones included best, just, was 15-2 for Ian Carpenter but that despite bringing up a double still leaves him -2.75 and in 25th. Almost as good was Richard Pascoe 7-1 to leap from 11th to 2nd place.  Other winners were Craig Connelly 4-5, Jake Fifield 7-4 to go 3rd, Jay Lewis 7-2, Justin Sercombe evens to move up another spot into 7th, Roger Dore 3-1 to return to the main leader board in 10th place.

Justin Sercombe's 10 point winner took him top in the plate on first place count back and Richard Pascoe's 10 pointer took him to 5th on 3rd place count back!

11jul13 Agar do do do :-)

What a day don't worry we can still win, KP to score 100+ tomorrow!

8 winners today from 32 bets and some nice ones at that, Jake Fifield got off the mark with a 14-1 winner to zoom up to 4th and Matty Harrison 9-1 to move positive and just off the leader board.  4 of us all picked Universal at 3-1 Chris Pascoe, Richard Pascoe, Jimmy McGarrity &  me, Annette Berg 8-13 and Craig Connelly 11-8 were the final 2 winners.

Little action in the plate with Justin Sercombe the only scorer and just 2 points,

10jul13 exciting stuff

Test match not this!  However 5 winners today from 28 bets best of the day was 5-1 for Wayne Morton, 2nd was Gary Dighton 3-1, others were Carl Dean 2-5, Paul Creed 9-4 and Justin Sercombe 1-2.  The only affect these lot had on the leader boards was to lift Justin Sercombe up one place on both the main and plate, another step on his inexorable rise to the top of the plate unless Martin Long can stop him

09jul13 Big Winner

Pat Quinn Jnr springs into action with a very nice 16-1 winner this evening to move 8th.  He was one of 9 winners today others worth a mention 4-1 winner for Steve Walton to get off the mark, 9-2 for Annette Berg to go just -1.17 down and a host of others especially at the top of the plate where all but Kevin picked, rather surprisingly, different 10 point winners over in Ireland, seems like at this early stage we have flushed out the plate boys!

08jul13 ok that's enough already

Andy Murray, of course, we don't really need Five Live interviewing his grandmother as they did this morning - how can that be a lead news item when Egypt is descending into civil war?  What next the pet shop owner who sold him his first goldfish!

Just three winners today Justin Sercombe 5-4 to advance onto both leader boards Carl Dean gets off the mark also with the same 5-4 winner and Jed Parramore with probably the worst best of the day at 11-8 at least it took him into 3rd spot

Apart from Justin's winner to move 5th not much else of note in the plate.

07jul13 almost stationary

Firstly have to say well done to Andy Murray - not a fan as any of the regular readers will know but 3-0 win was a good performance and well deserved.

Only two winners today Craig Connelly got off the mark with a nice 9-1 winner to move into the top half and the only other one was Steve Tyson at 13-8 - neither affected the leader board so no movement in the top 10 at all.  

In the plate no-one scored a point in the top 6 so no changes at all.

Val decided not to join us in this summer's comp and has backed out so that leaves 51 - still waiting for Alan Daniels to pay and start, give him a nudge someone - Excel on it's way

06jul13 grovel

Sorry for the delay but been building up to grovelling about how well the Lions did completely the opposite of what I had predicted - I am suitably chastened.  9-4 today for the double Vettel & Djokovic!

Commiserations to Kevin Dighton whose Italian holiday cost him missing Prince of Johannes at 16-1 a long standing favourite of his nonetheless he still managed a 15-8 winner to stretch his lead a little. In total there were 9 winners from 30 bets best of the day was Jay Lewis with an 11-2 winner closely followed by Paul Marks 4-1.  The 6 other winners were Rod Brown, Roger Dore & Gary Pascoe all 13-8,  Jimmy McGarrity, Annette Berg & Chris Pascoe all at 5-2.

Rod Brown sneaked past Justin into 5th place in the plate.

05jul13 Jerzy! Jerzy!

9 winners from 35 today including Kevin Dighton the leader again he now sits £7.75 clear of 2nd - time to catch up now as he went to Italy today on hols! Best of the other winners was Paul Berg at 7-1 to move him close to level after a poor start.

In the plate Vince Paige, Martin Long & Justin Sercombe all picked the same 10 point winner moving Martin 2nd and allowing Justin to make his first appearance on the plate leader board.

04jul13 Oh say! Can you see

7 winners today none of any great shakes but here they are, Vince Paige 6-5, Justin Sercombe & me 5-4, Richard Pascoe 5-2 to return to the leader board, Roger Dore 2-1, Kevin Wood 5-2 & best of the day Dave Kingsbury 4-1. So a little bit of shuffling around but nothing we need worry about.

Vince Paige made it to the top of the plate with his 5 point winner today and he didn't phone me!!

03jul13 biggest day

36 bets and 8 winners today, best of the day was Michael Brook at 5-1 which nudged him up a place or two into 6th place.  Jo Hutson moved positive and just 33p off the leader board with a 4-1 winner Jay Lewis 3-1, Roger Dore 5-2, Rod Brown 1-2, Justin Sercombe crept into 12th and his first appearance this comp on the leader board with a 2-1 winner, Jed Parramore closed in on 4th spot also with a 2-1 winner and finally Matty Harrison brought up a 4 timer with a 4-5 winner.

No real change in the plate so Kevin remained top of the charts both sides of the Atlantic - still looks a bit like a one hit wonder though!!

So re-reading my Lions prediction this last test looks just like I said Australia v Nearly Wales! with the Aussies a shade worse than evens that looks like a value bet

02jul13 much better

10 winners today from just 29 bets the outstanding winners were the leader 2-1 to draw £5.50 clear and take over at the top of the plate.  Best of the day Julian Ciampioli 9-1 to go to + £4.00 and joint 8th, Celeste Beaty 6-1 to move 4th and right in the mix.  Other winners were Jay Lewis 11-4, Justin Sercombe 100-30, Ken Jones 6-4, Matty Harrison brought up his treble with a 6-4 winner, Pat Quinn Jnr 2-1, Rod Brown evens & a 10 pointer for Vince Paige at 2-1.

In the plate Kevin Dighton took over at the top and Vince Paige moved 3rd

01jul13 let's get going

Just 22 bets and 3 winners Kevin Dighton 7-2 to take over clear at the top and just miss leading in both, Paul Berg got off the mark and must be gutted his horse opened at 8-1 and got backed into 3-1, other winner was Matty Harrison who brought up a double with his 7-4 winner