Archive | July 29, 2012
lizzie_tn

Betting news: Armitstead, Adlington and Hamilton

by on July 29, 2012 in Darts, F1, Motor Racing, Olympics

SILVER LINING: Armitstead bags Britain’s first medal of London 2012. Picture: Reuters

#eveningfeed

Evening update from the Paddy Power Blog on all the latest betting moves in sport

Olympics

Great news! Team GB won a medal! Lizzie Armitstead won silver in the women’s road race to give Britain their first medal at the games. The rain lashed down but Lizzie persisted and had every chance of winning going into the final straight. In the end though Holland’s Marianne Vos was strong enough to hold of the Brit.

Rebecca Adlington made it through to the final of the 400 metres freestyle by the skin of her teeth. Adlington dominated her race but then had to watch to see if her time of 4:05:75 was good enough to see her qualify. Luckily it was as she sneaked into tonight’s final in eighth place.

Elsewhere Andy Murray managed to exorcise some of his Wimbledon demons by beating Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets 6-3 6-3 on SW19.

Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton managed to hold off the challenge of Kimi Raikkonen to lead the Hungarian Grand Prix from start to finish. The McLaren driver started on pole and nobody could catch him as he recorded his 19th career win. Raikkonen was second with Romain Grosjean in third making it a double podium for Lotus.

Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel was fourth in front of the current leader Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard’s lead at the top of the championship is now 40 points over Mark Webber who had a disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix finishing eighth.

Racing

The Galway Festival gets under way tomorrow with the opening race of the meeting at 4.00pm.

The biggest race of the day is the Carlton Hotel Galway City handicap at 5.35pm. 23 runners will take on the two-mile trip fighting for the €42,000 prize including last year’s winner Fosters Cross. Nina Carberry has every chance on Buy Back Bob but Caim Hill looks like the best value after scoring twice on the flat and over fences recently.

Darts

Tonight sees James Wade take on Phil Taylor in the final of the World Matchplay. These two have met in the final of this competition on three occasions in 2006, 2008 and 2011 with Taylor winning every time. The Power is aiming for his fifth successive Matchplay and his 13th overall.

The machine won this tournament back in 2007 and brings out his best darts in the Winter Gardens. He’ll need an excellent performance in Blackpool tonight to bring a halt to Taylor’s dominance.

Brendan Rodgers, new Liverpool manager at Anfield

Can Rodgers bring the glory days back to Anfield?

by on July 29, 2012 in Football, Latest football news

RODGERS REVOLUTION: Are the glory days coming back to Merseyside?

By Josh Powell

Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he’s been preparing for success at the highest level for the last 15 years by producing a massive dossier documenting how he plans to achieve it. Now the 39-year-old has joined Liverpool, can he go on and deliver trophies to one of the biggest clubs in the world?

The Irishman probably blew John W Henry’s mind when he whipped out his 180 page plan and began to explain how Liverpool can reach the summit of the English game again. But since arriving at Anfield Rodgers has said all the right things and continues to excite fans with his ambition for the club.

‘It’s a document on the culture, philosophy and game plan going forward’, Rodgers told the Mirror. ‘It’s a model, a short cut to how I work, the kind of players I want tactically and the personality traits of players.’

‘The vision is simple – to win the most trophies we can. That’s the bigger picture. The second is to play attractive, attacking football, and the third is to bring through as many of the young players as we possibly can.’

It is certainly an exciting time to be a Liverpool fan but are they getting caught up in the hype and expecting too much?

Rodgers was head-hunted by Jose Mourinho as a young manager and the Special one obviously saw how talented he was. He plays a game concentrated on quick attacking football that’s focused on keeping possession and he likes to implement a fluid 4-3-3 formation. Rodgers got Swansea to play this so well last season there where even comparisons to Barcelona!

Liverpool are 25/1 to win the League this year and it will be a tough task with Manchester City aiming to retain their crown, Chelsea throwing money at players in an attempt to take the title and of course United, Arsenal and Spurs will be there or there-abouts.

Rodgers has an attractive style of football and has the quality at Anfield to implement his plan but one of his main challenges early on will be keeping the fans feet firmly on the floor. This 15 year plan won’t answer Liverpool’s problems over night nor will it be able to challenge the big spending of Manchester City or Chelsea. What it will do is develop a style of football at Anfield which is attractive on the eye and will be successful in the future. Young players will be developed and Liverpool will win trophies if they give Rodgers time to build a squad and implement his revolution.

‘We need a one-city, one-club mentality. If we don’t, if we fail, it will be because of not sticking together and nothing else. If we can stay as one, then we have a real chance.’

James Wade 10/10/2010

Taylor v Wade: We called it right!

by on July 29, 2012 in Darts

HOME FROM HOME: Wade loves playing in Blackpool

By Josh Powell

Here at the Paddy Power Blog we aim to entertain and amaze you, and every now and again we even tip something correctly! This is one of those times!

Last week before the World Matchplay got under way in Blackpool we talked up the credentials of James Wade and how he tends to bring his best game to the Winter Gardens. He won the competition in 2007 and is a four-time finalist. Maybe it’s the format, maybe it’s the venue, who knows, but The Machine tends to perform exceptionally at this tournament.

BOOM: Tom Segal is getting worried

Hopefully people who read the preview had a little bit of the 15/2 that was around for a Taylor v Wade final. We also backed The Power to win the tournament outright at 13/8 and there to be a nine darter at 5/4!

Keep your eyes peeled on the blog for some more super-hot tipping. And remember if all else fails we’ll probably make you laugh and put up a picture of a model in lucky pants! Happy days.

GET YOUR TIPS OUT: We nailed the World Matchplay

Taylor is the clear 2/7 favourite for a fifth successive Matchplay title tonight with James Wade at 13/5 with Paddy Power.

Charlie Adam 25/5/2011

Betting news on Team GB, Charlie Adam and The Power

by on July 29, 2012 in Darts, F1, Football, Motor Racing, Olympics

GUTTED: Disappointment for Team GB and Cav in the road race

#morningupdate

Morning update from the Paddy Power Blog on all the latest betting moves in sport

Olympics

No medals for Team GB yesterday and plenty of disappointment for Mark Cavendish in the men’s road race. But today is a new day at the games.

Rebecca Adlington will be looking to defend her 400 metre freestyle title in the pool today and Nicole Cooke leads Britain’s chances in the women’s road race in which she won gold in Beijing.

In sad news it looks as though Paula Radcliffe won’t make the marathon after a foot injury flared up again. The 38-year-old world record holder has been struggling to get fit for London 2012 and is expected to withdraw from the competition this week. Radcliffe has won many lucrative marathons over her career but an Olympic medal has always escaped her.

Football

Andre Villas-Boas has hit out at Charlie Adam after a nasty looking tackle on Gareth Bale left the Welsh winger with an injured ankle. The tackle came in a relatively uninspiring 0-0 draw between Liverpool and Spurs last night. Adam and Bale have history after the former Blackpool midfielder put Bale out for three months in May 2011 with a ruptured ankle. AVB deemed the tackle ‘very, very nasty’.

It looks as though Luka Modric is finally off to Real Madrid. The stories been rumbling on for a few weeks now with Modric managing to offend everybody at Spurs while he waited for Madrid to stump up the cash. According to reports the £36million fee has been met and the 26-year-old looks set for sunny Spain.

Formula 1

It’s the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton is on pole! The Englishman is 62 points behind the Championship leader Fernando Alonso but the track is notoriously difficult to overtake on which will play into the Englishman’s hands.

Lotus driver Sebastian Grosjean will be alongside Hamilton at the front of the grid with Sebastian Vettel in third and Jenson Button fourth. Vettel’s team-mate Mark Webber is all the way down in eleventh to top a difficult day for Red Bull who hold a 53-point advantage in the constructor’s championship.

Hamilton was the only driver to clock a time of less than one-minute-and-21-seconds.

Darts

Tonight sees James Wade take on Phil Taylor in the final of the World Matchplay. These two have met in the final of this competition on three occasions in 2006, 2008 and 2011 with Taylor winning every time. The Power is aiming for his fifth successive Matchplay and his 13th overall.

The machine won this tournament back in 2007 and brings out his best darts in the Winter Gardens. He’ll need an excellent performance in Blackpool tonight to bring a halt to Taylor’s dominance.

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