Over The Line

If the prospect of two teams of middling talent spending a total of 25 days (minus lunch and tea intervals) throwing and hitting a ball around in order to determine the winner of a miniscule trophy, which never actually leaves the trophy cabinet anyway, then the Ashes is for you!
Luckily I am one of those people. Unlike Chris Gayle, I believe test cricket is the single greatest sporting spectacle in the world (if you disagree let’s settle the matter in the comments below) and it doesn’t get any bigger than England v Australia - even when the latter are no longer the dominant force they once were. Read More

What better way to start your day than stealing another man’s wife from a neighbouring village and carrying her back to your gaff where she was, by law, now your property to do with as you please?

This was life back in eighteenth century Finland when men were men and women were, err, stolen. Sadly the P.C. brigade have put their foot down and stamped out this once noble practice but here at Paddy Power we’re on a mission to bring it back

Oh yes, we’re now the proud sponsors of the 2009 Paddy Power Wife Carrying Championship. It all takes place on saturday 25th July as part of the Sneem Family Festival at Sneem, Co. Kerry.

This is the second year that Ireland has participated in this increasingly popular and prestigious international event and the winning couple will represent Ireland at the World Championships in 2010.

The wife carrying course is strictly regulated – 253.5 Metres long, 2 dry obstacles and 1 water obstacle. The wife to be carried may be your own, your neighbours, or found further a field. In fact, couples need not be married at all. The wife must however be over 18 years and weigh a minimum of 49 kilos. If she weighs less, she will be handicapped with a loaded rucksack to reach the minimum weight.

The winner is the couple which reaches the finish line in the fastest time. The only equipment that can be worn is a belt by the carrier. The contestants run the race two at a time, so each heat is a contest in itself.
Betting to follow soon.

Over the past couple of years we seem to have lost a fortune on the Tour De France - mainly due to promising to refund bets on all cyclists failing a drugs test and being kicked of the Tour. We thought it would just be a bit of fun, but with whole teams being thrown out of the race in disgrace it turned into a costly joke (but that’s enough about the Paddy Power Marketing Department). Read More

Well done to Richard O’Callaghan whose touching tribute to the King of Pop was unanimously voted the winner of our Michael Jackson competition by our panel of experts.

Richard, we’ll be in contact soon. Well done, you’re a great lad.

Andy Battles Through But Needs To Improve
The Wimbledon organisers were like children with a new toy at Christmas. And they’d remembered to buy the batteries. Dinara Safina claimed the all important pub quiz trivia of claiming the first win under the new roof, but it was what followed that gave Wimbledon the outcome to fully justify their decision to belatedly join the 21st century.

In the past, added Murray and Warwinka might be hauling their weary bones out of bed for the lunchtime conclusion of a forgone conclusion, but the roof gave the audience a spectacle to follow right through to its yawny end. The roof added novelty, but also made every shot sound like a bullet being fired in a spaghetti western. All that was missing was Clint Eastwood growling “step inside my service box and say that.” The shots echoed around the ensconced arena and gave it another layer of drama.

It wasn’t epic. It was marathon, but not epic. There were far too many mistakes and too few flashes of brilliance to be labelled epic. Whilst Murray must be applauded for his stamina and mental strength, it exposed the fact he needs to step up another couple of levels to still have an active interest by Sunday afternoon. His opponent is a steady but limited player. He is solid, but firstly failed to spot when the winners were on and when he finally decided to go for the jugular, ended up limply finding the torso. The world rankings suggested their was a gap in class and Murray was expected to win, yet Wawrinka didn’t do a great deal to bridge this gap. Worryingly, not doing a great deal was enough to take Andy Murray all the way.

Murray immodestly declared that he earned an ‘A’ for his first week in SW19 but beyond the soundbite nature of such a comment, it suggested he was a little too happy with his game. There is always room for improvement and as happy as he might have been with his trouble-free navigation through the opening week, Murray must aspire to operate at a higher level constantly. The clash with Wawrinka made this apparent and could be the smelling salts he needs to bring him back to reality. Never being one to let a victory get in the way of a good excuse, Murray was quick to cite the roof as the reason why he laboured over a player he is considered far superior to – despite the fact it’s a regular occurrence in the ATP calendar at events less reluctant to maintain outdated traditions. Serving into bright lights in a sweaty arena is nothing new, even if the grass underfoot is a novel sensation.

The uncomfortable truth is – based on last night’s evidence - Murray wasn’t good enough to beat Roger Federer. Putting aside the heroic nature of the performance, it was a C in comparison to the kid who’s top of the class. If the top seeds meet on Sunday, Murray will need to improve dramatically to even make it a contest. Murray is good enough to win Wimbledon but whilst the exceptional talents of Federer and Nadal are on the scene, his chances will be limited. Allied to that are the worries about Murray’s second-week stamina. To date, his tournament wins have been done in shorter Masters events that last little over a week and is was noticeable how shattered he looked towards the end of the match. On the more tactical side of things, he needs to work on his challenges. Towards the end he wasted his on a series of fruitless appeals that must have been a cumulative couple of feet wrong. It nearly cost him when some far more moot calls were made near the finish.

Murray can end the long wait, but he needs to improve rapidly to make the grade.

Wimbledon Betting
Murray v Ferrero Betting

This week, Hector leaves SA for a few hours to fly over the Miami to hang with Eddie O’Sullivan and talk about the best bets for the second test against SA:

With thanks to chasethelions.com.

Hector gives us the low down on the best bets for the first Lions test in Saut Afrika.

oh it’s ties in nicely with our awesome Money Back Special. Y’know, the Tommy Bowe one?

Ok, Yeats was a complete disaster for us, but sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say well done, what an unbelievable horse! Although we may never see the likes of him again, the quality on offer today on Day 4 is not to be sniffed at.

The highlight of the card is the Coronation Stakes that sees the clash of the English, French and Irish 1,000 Guineas winners, not to mention the top rated two year filly from last year in Rainbow View, we have a serious race on our hands! Tactics could play a massive part in this race, which always leans me towards the UK challengers as I’ve seen top many French jockeys grab defeat from the jaws of victory here to last me a lifetime! The Irish Guineas winner Again has shown all her best form on softish ground, and she looks a stayer to me rather than a horse with a burst of acceleration, she may struggle.

Ghanaati won very well at Newmarket but I think she has had her day in the limelight, as many behind her that day had their valid excuses. The one I’m going for is Rainbow View each way. She looked a superstar last year but we always knew she had her quirks, show me a female who doesn’t? She was never traveling at Newmarket and she was badly baulked making her challenge at Epsom, I can see her settling off a frantic gallop to be produced late under Jimmy Fortune to nail them all.

The other highlight on the card is the King Edward VII Stakes, over the Derby Distance. The jolly is sure to be Black Bear Island who was fancied in some quarters for the Epsom Derby after winning the Dante Trial at York. I’m not going to buy into the excuse that he never handled the track there, as he was the first one beaten and they had only gone a couple of furlongs. The Derby was less than two weeks ago so I cannot have him at all! The one for me here is Native Ruler,trained by the master Sir Henry Cecil. With stamina not an issue for him, and the race lacking any real depth in quality, he is sure to go very close at a very backable price

Best of Luck on Day 4

Given the way in which Jenson Button has spent the year tearing up the track, we’ve got two choices when it comes to the hundreds of smart-arse petrol heads canny punters who have backed him to win this year’s drivers Championship. We can either sit on their winnings for the next five months and then end up paying anyway (which is what every other bookie is going to do), or we can do the decent thing, admit defeat, and get the whole thing out of the way.

No prizes for guessing that we’ve gone for the second option. As of today we’ve settled all single bets on either Jenson Button to win the driver’s championship, or Brawn GP to win the constructor’s championship as winners. Read More