September Schedule

27/8/18

It’s a Bank Holiday Monday with no decent racing or football until Manchester United host Spurs tonight so I thought that now would be a good time to update my blog - anything to get me out of working on laying down this new patio….which wasn’t my idea. They rarely are. Can I say that on my 24^th wedding anniversary? Better think of something half decent for next year methinks.

In fact, such is the low quality of sporting action this afternoon there’s every chance that I’ll take a first trip in around six years to see my home team, high-flying Kettering Town, host bottom-of-the-league Bedworth United in the Southern League Central Division. Living the dream. The Poppies are 4-4 this season so, yes, I am very much the glory hunter! Beaten in the play-offs last season, it will be disappointing if Kettering don’t win promotion this season.

Staying with football and my 17-year-old son tasted his first real gambling misery at the weekend. I usually put a £1 accumulator on for him at the weekend and scoffed as he handed me his six selections which came to 388/1. All three of his selections on Sunday won (Fulham, Watford and Chelsea) in addition to victories for Stoke and Leicester on Saturday so his little face sank when he realised that it was just Everton losing two goals in the final 15 minutes that cost him. He’ll get used to it!

I’ve made a steady start with the Premier League Picks column this season. A very slender profit this weekend made it three winning weekends out of three and it’s the Champions League draw this week so I’ll then begin to look at that competition in September.

The main horseracing focus for the website next month is the St Leger Meeting, for which I will cover the final three days (the Day 1 highlight is only a Listed race) and also Irish Champions Weekend which this year falls on the same weekend. The week before I will upload Big Race Trends for around a dozen of the best races for Doncaster and I will take a first proper look at The Breeders’ Cup in Ante-Post Focus on Wednesday. The Horses to Follow column has enjoyed another good year being over 30pts to the good to level stakes and will continue to be updated fortnightly.

In addition to regular football columns, the big sporting event to be covered in September is The Ryder Cup. You’ve got me for those three days as Ciaran will finish his golf previews for 2018 at the end of the Fed-Ex Cup series. The US Open Tennis starts today which Carl Redden will be looking at for us over the next fortnight, Paul Smith will analysing the fourth and fifth matches in England’s Test Series versus India and Andy Richmond will be overseeing the NFL season for us again starting with his outright preview next weekend and Week 1 the following day. Andy will then be recovering from an operation for a couple of weeks (I always said that he was in need of a good wind op) and return to cover Week 4 all the way through to the Superbowl and I wish him all the best over the next few weeks.

After a summer off here, there and everywhere, Mark Ball will be returning in September for his monthly Variety Pack and Mike Henderson will embark on the World Grand Prix Darts at the end of month extending into October. Alan Potts will be continuing with his racecourse reports which I hope have been of interest to members, I plan to do more with the Odds And Sods section which I am going to make as more of a personal page and Adam Hewson will start to get interested again with his Political Betting Blogs with the party season and US Midterm elections on the horizon.

I am off to Spain for a short break during the quiet week that follows Doncaster but will continue to update the website during that time. A little advance notice that my holiday for 2018 will be a week in Las Vegas between October 20-27 where I am taking my daughter for the first time to celebrate her 21^st birthday. That’s a quiet week on the racing and sport front so good timing all round.