Tips for Tikay

[maccol]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Seriously?

[hector62]

Morning Mr T.

I think there is a bet to be had in the Test series v NZ starting tomorrow. For top England bat I don't think there is much between Root and Ballance. Root is more fluent and easier on the eye, but Ballance is very nuggety and harder to prise out. Root is favourite in this market but I think that is wrong considering there are only 2 tests, and the weather is far from settled. Ballance may get an extra innings and 4 innings over 3 is a far bigger advantage than 10 over 9.  The tests are at Headingly, the home pitch for both, and Lords where last season Ballance scored a century against India. Personally I would have Ballance and Cook as slight favourites over Root, with Bell some way behind them, and Lyth as an unknown factor.

Suggest £20 Ballance @ 4-1 with Betfred, Victor, Ladbrokes, Hills.

[Chompy]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Seriously?

Incred!

[aaron1867]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Seriously?

What? Do you think Russia are going to get a lot of votes from the LGBT community?

[Skippy]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Seriously?

What? Do you think Russia are going to get a lot of votes from the LGBT community?

Is Eurovision mostly popular with snappy dressers all over Europe, or is that just a UK thing?

[Doobs]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Seriously?

What? Do you think Russia are going to get a lot of votes from the LGBT community?

Gay proportion of population = 5% maybe.  

The proportion of the gay population who are going to watch eurovision isn't going to be that far from the norm?  I know there is sometimes truth in stereotypes, but it isn't like every gay person, male and female, is tuning in.  Even if they are twice as likely, and I am sure that is a stretch, that will only means that 10% of potential voters will be gay.

Of this 10%, how many of them are going to be political enough to protest by not voting for Russia, 5% maybe?  Most people aren't very political and simply don't protest.  And are those young angry protesting types going to sit back with a glass of bellini watching Eurovison?  I don't know.

So you are talking a small propotion of a small proportiion of a small proportion.

It just isn't going to make much of a difference when Russia is going to get a huge amount of political voting from their "friends" and "enemies" either way.

[DMorgan]

lol Aaron, we'd at least run it close every year if that were true. The UK is top of most of the tables on LGBT rights/equality in Europe.

Interestingly a friend of mine from high school who is gay now works for Eurovision, so maybe you're on to something!

He also likes ice hockey and has been a Gillingham season ticket holder for 10 years so I guess you never can tell

[Chompy]

lol Aaron, we'd at least run it close every year if that were true. The UK is top of most of the tables on LGBT rights/equality in Europe.

Interestingly a friend of mine from high school who is gay now works for Eurovision, so maybe you're on to something!

He also likes ice hockey and has been a Gillingham season ticket holder for 10 years so I guess you never can tell

Also, don't forget a lot will also be watching Big Brother on Saturday night, or listening to Barbra Streisand CDs.

[TightEnd]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Russia has participated every year since 2000.

Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe".

Russia has also finished second in the contest three times, with Alsou in 2000, Dima Bilan in 2006 and Buranovskiye Babushki in 2012.

As of 2014, Russia, along with Sweden, holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st Century, with a total of seven.

Politics, particularly former USSR countries voting for their important bigger brother, is far more important than Western Europe worried about gay rights (unfortunately)

[aaron1867]

Every gay bar in the UK are doing something fir Eurovision, it's a big thing in the LGBT community. If you don't think the community is political enough about the situation in Russia, then you don't know much. Proportions of gay bars now send money to support charities along with some bars now not stocking Russian alcohol.

The Russia thing is a big issue in the UK for LGBT community.

[TheDazzler]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Russia has participated every year since 2000.

Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe".

Russia has also finished second in the contest three times, with Alsou in 2000, Dima Bilan in 2006 and Buranovskiye Babushki in 2012.

As of 2014, Russia, along with Sweden, holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st Century, with a total of seven.

Politics, particularly former USSR countries voting for their important bigger brother, is far more important than Western Europe worried about gay rights (unfortunately)

Weren't Russia booed at the Eurovision a couple of years ago due to Putin introducing some anti gay law? I think Aaron has a point, the gay vote is big. I don't know how big it is though.  

[aaron1867]

Sigh, Finland fail to qualify from the semis in the ESC.

how do Russia not get v close to winning it? Very strong song, good performers.  Stole the show tonight

They'll never win it anytime soon, they have very little chance of getting the gay vote, which is a huge proportion of the watching audience

Russia has participated every year since 2000.

Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe".

Russia has also finished second in the contest three times, with Alsou in 2000, Dima Bilan in 2006 and Buranovskiye Babushki in 2012.

As of 2014, Russia, along with Sweden, holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st Century, with a total of seven.

Politics, particularly former USSR countries voting for their important bigger brother, is far more important than Western Europe worried about gay rights (unfortunately)

Your points are pointless and don't refer to mine.

There record is irrelevant, I said it will be a long time until they win again. The whole anti-gay Russia is only recent & will have a huge effect around Europe.

[Chompy]

Russia got booed in the arena last year but this year got the biggest cheers of any act in last night's semi.

Do you understand how the voting system works aaron?

[Doobs]

Every gay bar in the UK are doing something fir Eurovision, it's a big thing in the LGBT community. If you don't think the community is political enough about the situation in Russia, then you don't know much. Proportions of gay bars now send money to support charities along with some bars now not stocking Russian alcohol.

The Russia thing is a big issue in the UK for LGBT community.

Proportion of the European gay population going out on Saturday night specifically to watch Eurovision in UK gay bars that refuse to stock russian alcohol?

[TightEnd]

Daily Report

Profit on Month £1026.05

Outstanding Bets £2624.32

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eCEvN9MELsUxB81rHuWrfoX3zwIMPQQ205Lcjm3kbgU/edit#gid=24

A loss of £50 yesterday, Finland's hard rocking punk song did not make it through the Eurovision semi-final. Tonight, Azerbaijan's Elnur Huseynov attempots to qualify with "Hour Of The Wolf". Hopefully he will appeal to the bars of canal street, upon which eurovision success these days apparently rests

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ongoing positions

nba

the Golden state warriors won game 1 of their conference final against the houston rockets despite a gallant effort by the underdogs

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Steph Curry and James Harden duelled all night. Curry got 34 pts (6 threes), 6 reb & 5 ast in the win and Harden had 28 pts, 11 reb & 9 ast

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mlb

the white sox win streak was ended at 6 as they lost to the indians

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meanwhile the red sox won the first game of a series against the texas rangers, with david "big pappi" ortiz hitting his 6th home run of the year

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cricket

rajasthan play their IPL play off game against bangalore today. the winners play csk who lost to mumbai in the first play off game yesterday



csk were not helped by an lbw decision, given out when it might not have hit a second set of stumps

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in the domestic game a nick compton hundred put middlesex in decednt shape to come out of their game in southampton with at least draw points

weather permitting lancashire will try to force a win at leicester today, 160 ahead with 8 wickets remaining going into day 4. karl brown out for 8 in the second innings

at northampton there hasn't been much play, but peters 67* and newton 24* are unbeaten overnight going into day 3 for the top northamptonshire runs corer season bet