Saturday 26th Ferburary

Got up early and went to The Oak to watch the midday kick off, Swansea v Leeds with my 2 flatmates Shrewdie and Dave and another friend, Yorky. Shrewdie is nicknamed Shrewdie with some degree of irony because he is comfortably the least Shrewd human being on the planet. Most weekeneds he goes 0/4 on his accas, he has never won a golf bet despite having like 4 players every tournament, all his horses fall or are pulled up and as a result he is always struggling for spondoolies. Sometimes I worry about living with him because if it starts to rub off on me I am truly fucked. Yorky is called Yorky because he is in love with York City and when you go out with him in York everybody knows his name. He is Mr York.

Anyway, I'm a huge Leeds fan but I was very pessimistic about this one and weighed in with a £75 DBL on Swansea @ 10/11 & Bristol City @ 19/20, £40 on Swansea to score 3+ goals @ 4.8 and £50 on Dobbie to score anytime @ 12/5. I think Dobbie is a fantastic little finisher (and used to be a fantastic little house elf before he unfortunately met his maker) but was absolutely horrified to see sky sports put him in the midfield 3 in their 4-3-3 formation. After further research I found out that Dobbie now plays in the hole behind the 3 forwards, marvellous.

Dobbie hit the post after 20 minutes. It was a very rare occasion that I was happy I didn't win my bet because it meant my beloved Leeds didn't go behind. It is very strange betting against your own team, its something I often do because the bookies over estimate us because of our name but its strange wanting your bet to lose with all your heart and it just acting as scant consolation in the eventuality that your team fails. In the end we played a shocker and Swansea won 3-0. I won my 3+ bet netting £150ish profit and just needed Bristol City to beat Scunny at home to complete my double. Dobbie didn't even have a shot after hitting the post, seeming to relish his new midfield role spraying passes all over the pitch. That'll teach me.

I got further involved in the 3pm footy placing a £40 acca on Norwich @8/5 at Barnsley, Wolves @10/11 at home to Blackpool, Bristol City again @ 10/11 and Man City on Sunday at home to Fulham @ 8/15. Got home in time to watch the big race of the day, The Racing Post Chase in which I had got involved heavily in with £50 on Mostly Bob @ 12/1, £40 on Bakbenscher @ 10/1, £10 on Free World @ 48/1 and £30 worth of exactas. Mostly Bob fell at the third, Bakbenscher fell at the 12th and Free World plodded along and was eventually pulled up. Not exactly a race to remember, losing £130, not really a sum I can afford to lose on a single race. Luckily the next race at Kempton contained my biggest fancy of the day Sir De Grugy who should love the soft ground. I got involved with £50 @ 3/1. The horse jumped each hurdle like a stag, no danger and won going away. I got some strange looks from the flats opposite when I was jumping up and down in front of my tv (which happens to be near the window) shouting "GO ON DE GRUGY" at the top of my voice.

All my football teams won resulting in a £205 profit on my double and a £463 nest egg coming in tomorrow if Man City can just beat Fulham at home. Surely won't be a problem. To cap the day off with an absolute bang, all 4 of my golfers made it through to the semi finals of the match play securing me £181 profit in any eventuality. Even Levin and Gay had decent rounds in Mayakoba both remaining well in contention, 2 and 3 off the lead respectively. Important day tomorrow.