No.8- Snow stops play, but the punting continues

December is a month devoid of logic - that is all I can conclude from the last 4 weeks. My betting discipline and performance has been dragged through the mud recently with me at the end of the rope towing like a mug. I can’t even remember all the silly little punts from the last month all I do know is that I am most certainly down. Not down and out but down.

December is just so hard, the fiendish month of joy, celebration and goodwill means that you are so chilled out and happy that you don’t mind a naive speculative punt here and there. Tis after all the season of goodwill and bookies need to eat. As football teams cram in fixture after fixture, new players come in, team sheets change, and results contort from what one expected it becomes a very tough old month to work out. Even the Cornerman struggled so I was always going to be doomed.

A problem with going home for Christmas is the insatiable betting appetite of my friends - they do love a punt. From the top floor of our old school you can see Wetherby racecourse, I think this may have subconsciously tricked us all into thinking that we are racing gurus. We are not – or at least I am certainly not. It was pretty doom and gloom on the horses for everybody involved until one mate Luke, turned a near on 50 horse loosing streak into a handsome £1,500 with a lucky 15. Whilst another friend (we shall call him Martin as that is his name) somehow picked an obscure and ignored winner that romped home at 12-1, with the nous, conviction and cunning of a horse racing guru (note he didn’t go to our school).

But I did have a little bit of luck with thanks to ‘Lord Budden’ of William Hill Radio. He seems pretty consistent from what I have found, I am sure betting experts would argue otherwise but I have found him brilliant. Tipping up Wanchai Whisper and Athawab at Kempton on the 30th of December. I translated his posh musings as a forecast and had a cheeky £1 that paid £50. Even if you don’t like his tips and insights his voice is very nice as well. It's like being told how to bet by a king. But I will not make horse racing bets a habit, I think I may have said this several times. But new year new start and all that. Although Cheltenham is coming up and I have already put on an EW Ante Post lucky 15 that again was tipped up on William Hill Radio.

Alaivan – Triumph Hurdle

Diamond Harry - World Hurdle

Forpaddydeplasterer – Champion Chase

Starluck – Champion Hurdle

At over 12,000/1 I am not holding my breath in fact i intend on forgetting i put the bet on. But it provides a cheap interest for a fine competition that will no doubt lure me into more horse racing punting again in March. Ignore me when i do.

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow." Dean Martin said. You happy now Dean. Yes Dean, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire inside is not delightful as living in a flat i face a few health and safety hurdles.

As we are all quite now aware it has been cold and snowy recently which has been causing havoc with life as we know it. There is a great article on London's dramatic reaction to snow on the Daily Mash - you can click on the link here to have a look. Whilst the UK bends over for a good snow seeing to it seems football fixtures across the country have been cancelled as a result. How do we bet now. I fancied Man Uinted at 3.1 to finally put Man City to the test but alas it was not to be.

But thankfully I have the answer. There is no snow in Saudi Arabia at the moment, in fact it is a quite pleasant 25 degrees in parts of Jeddah.

On Monday whilst seeing what betting delights Bet365 had to offer I found a new market in the shape of the Qatar Stars Cup. Bet365 really do love an obscure league, do not be surprised if you see yourself on their one weekend priced up to score anytime in your Sunday league fixture. But yes, I did have too much time on my hands that evening. Using a cracking website uk.soccerway.com I managed to find a good little bet on Al Garrafa SC (away) to beat Al Ahli @1.66. uk.soccerway.com provides easy to use stats, results and data on almost every football team and league in the world, it really is very good have a gander. I found out that in the reverse fixture in early December Al Garrafa SC won 0-4. Al Garrafa are also second in the Qatar stars league and you could back them @1.66 to win with bet365 which I thought seemed like good value. It was, as they romped home 0-5.

This one little win was enough for me to have another look at some obscure middle eastern football bets. I may have a found a cheeky little double for Wednesday afternoon.

I fancy Al Wahda Mecca to win away at Najran @2.10. AWM have won their last two away games, and are 4^th in the league. Whilst Najran are bottom of the table without a win in their last 6. @2.10 this looks like good value.

I will then double this up with Al Nasr Riyad @2.20 to beat Al Quadisiya. AQ have only won once in their last 11 games and that was against bottom of the league Najran. ANR beat top of the league in their last game so 2.20 again looks like a great value away bet.

These games kick off today so be quick if you want to get involved I think 75p could be enough to shift the market, so pile in and fill your boots. Actually don’t pile in, I know nothing about Saudi football but if the stats are right these do look like good little bets.

A bit of snow and this is what it has come to.

But what about that target of £1500 - the line of hope has taken a bit of a battering to be honest. Christmas was a bad out of character betting month, next year i will avoid it and go to Saudi Arabia for my holidays.

From now on, so you can quickly see the state of the weeks punting I will change the colour of the Speculative Punt title to show if it has been a good or bad

week. Green is good, Red is bad. Note that it is currently Red.

But 2010 is a New Year, new start, new mentality, new discipline, new middle eastern footballing leagues and new New Year resolution. There is nothing better than the unquestionable needs of a wanting child to make you make a change. I have therefore made 2010 the year of the marathon – my dedication to this quest has been galvanized by the downloading of a 16 week training scheme that now sits proudly on my wall. I'm utterly determined to complete this so warning now, you may be approached for a kind token of sponsorship in the near future. But for the now just keep your eye on that Saudi Premier league.

Happy New Year and Happy Punting.

I will put my bets for the weekend and updates during the week on Twitter, and in the bets box at the top of the page.