Came to watch the rugby, got here late. Probably 90 mins. Seemed pretty insistent on McLaren to be fair.

Seems his old man is not exactly favour of the month local. Shunned at the golf club etc. Tough life.

May be of interest to Fred. I am drinking with the son of a member of the Wolves board. Apparently there is 9 man shortlist for the job. They will be going with a Director of football/first team coach arrangement. Director of football will be Steve Thelwell (sp?). When pressed on who he expected to be manager he said Steve McLaren. Apparently Steve Davies (Crewe) and Phil Parkinson are next best.

I asked about Jackett and he didn't seem to think he was in the running.

They both start tomorrow

There is an interesting tournament matchbet in the Wella Fargo Championship golf this week on SpreadEx. The bet pits Hunter Mahan against Lucas Glover with both men 10/11 and the tie 14s.

Glover is coming off a seasons best tie for 4th at the Zurich Open and goes to Quail Hollow boasting a previous win at the track (2011), a 2nd (2009), a 4th (2006) and a 10th (2004). He has missed just two cuts in 9 previous tries at the course.

Mahan, on the other hand, has missed two of his past three cuts with the one make seeing him not survive the round three cut at the Heritage to finish 91st. He has broken par just once in his last 8 rounds. His best finish at Quail Hollow is a tie for 12th in 2008 and he has failed to play the weekend on 4 of his 9 appearances.

The only mitigating factor I see against Glover here is the fact his wife is due to have a child on May 16th and he has intimated he would have no hesitations in walking off the course if she went into labour early. Seems like a stretch to eliminate a plus ev bet on that basis though.

I recommend £55 for Fred at 10/11 with SpreadEx fixed odds.

Billy Horschel has the game to be a top 10 in the world golfer. Whether or not he gets there will be down to his ability to deal with the mental side of the game. The guy has incredible talent.

The thing with the form argument suggested by sharky is that it is far too simplistic and doesn't take into account the different attributes needed on different courses. For example Kapalua and Waialae are chalk and cheese yet they follow each other on the schedule. Whilst I'd back a guy like Watson or Dustin Johnson on the first track, I wouldn't touch them on the second even if they had won the week before. Sure it's a reasonable way to gauge the shape of someone's current game but it could also be an easy way of backing a player at a much shorter price than they should be on a course they are not suited to. As with any bet we need to make a much broader assessment than how someone has performed in their past couple of tournaments.


Oh a different subject, we have had an Owais Shah sighting! Sadly he only got in with 4 balls remaining with his team needing just 5 to win, managing to run himself out after scoring 1 from his only ball. Still, at least we are off the mark 

[Wow. Just wow. I have seen a lot of cricket in my time but what I have seen over the last week takes the cake. My advice for next year is do not bet on the IPL]

Wow. Just wow.

I have seen a lot of cricket in my time but what I have seen over the last week takes the cake. My advice for next year is do not bet on the IPL. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but it just seems like all of the recent games have been bent. Maybe its variance but there are batsmen playing shots that would be ridiculed in playgrounds, bowlers bowling no balls and wides at ridiculous times and run outs that arent even close. Neither of today's teams are likely to make the semis so realistically the pressue was minimal and yet Pune still lost 6 wickets in two overs. they were very nearly a 1.01 job! That was ridiculous.

I tend to agree with you. It is all a bit American Wrestling-ish.

Apologies for the lack of updates - extremely hectic work schedule for the last two weeks and every time I did nip on Tal or yourself had already covered our bases!

If anyone wants to see (imo) the most blatant example of the above, have a look at the following clip featuring one Rahul Dravid - veteran of 164 tests and 344 ODIs. The clip is pretty poor quality but shows two consecutive balls from a game against Chennai last week when they were chasing 26 off 2.3 overs.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L7qlApvP4cI

Wow. Just wow.

I have seen a lot of cricket in my time but what I have seen over the last week takes the cake. My advice for next year is do not bet on the IPL. I'm not a conspiracy theorist but it just seems like all of the recent games have been bent. Maybe its variance but there are batsmen playing shots that would be ridiculed in playgrounds, bowlers bowling no balls and wides at ridiculous times and run outs that arent even close. Neither of today's teams are likely to make the semis so realistically the pressue was minimal and yet Pune still lost 6 wickets in two overs. they were very nearly a 1.01 job! That was ridiculous.

Sorry folks, I had a pretty hectic weekend so wasn't able to get IPL updates up. I'll start again today though. Maybe even get some pictures posted up tomorrow.

IPL day 14 update:

So, over the weekend and yesterday Pune played twice, winning against Chennai and losing to Mumbai in a match where we had to have a winner. Pune have now played 5 games and have recorded two wins but are looking a lot more competitive and could yet give us a small sweat. Without looking to put the mockers on, Mumbai look the class of the IPL. They lost their first game and have comfortably won out since. We should get full value for our 11/2 there.

On the top Englishman bet, we appear to be struggling as Rajasthan are just not picking Shah for some reason. I'm not sure why he's not getting a game as all pre-tournament literature suggested he was an important part of their middle order but we aren't getting much luck. On the other hand, Eoin Morgan has benefitted from McCullum's injury and has started all 5 games scoring 132 runs at the time of writing. Shah will need to get games, and to score right from the off or we could be left needing snookers.

Today sees Morgan's Knight Riders play Mahmood's Kings XI and they are currently 73/2 chasing 158. Morgan is 23* and Mahmood got a golden duck. The afternoon game sees Delhi against Bangalore. If Bangalore bat first I'd like to see a matchbet between Gayle and the entire Delhi team. Delhi definitely look to be the weakest spot in the IPL this season.

Haha, great story, brilliantly told.

I do love cricket sledging. The Flintoff/Tino Best exchange is a classic.

Doesn't usually seem so obvious!

I have no idea what the Indian authorities do. We know what happens in the UK though after the spot fixing scandal.

Doubt anyone is watching but the IPL game between Chennai and Bangalore just ended in the most ridiculous fashion. Chennai needed two to win off the last ball - bowler bowls in short and wide, batsman edges it to third man, they run, fielder catches it. Bangalore win? No. The bowler has overstepped and bowled a no-ball so they get one for the no ball and one for the single and somehow pull out the win! Chennai win.

Biggest farce in the history of professional golf. Joke ruling.

How would he know where c is though? Or was he an absolute mile from the line? Is it possible he assumed the ball hit the pin and rebounded straight back towards him?

I didnt actually watch it, but was the rules man with that 3-ball not questioned during the drop?

He wasn't asked and that has to factor into it. If you are even in doubt, just ask the official. It's Tiger's admission in the post round interview which really shows that he knew he was dropping away from the original spot.

The longer it goes before a decision is announced, the more likely he is to be ok I think. I firmly believe they are in there trying to work a way around this now.

I bet there's a rules chief now going, 'why did we penalise the kid?!'.

I just asked a PGA Tour player via the medium of Twitter if he'd expect to be 'd in the same spot. His one word reply 'yep'. I guess we are about to see if Tiger is bigger than golf.