Currie Cup Final Brought Me Out Of Retirement!

I 'retired' from serious punting at the end of April. Since then my activities have been restricted to 'fiddling about' with UK racing for fun.

As is my custom I priced up what I would have offered on the Currie Cup Final before the betting was released. I would have offered 8-10 Sharks 11-10 WP with a handicap of 1,5.

I was somewhat taken aback when the betting opened 5-10 Sharks 15-10 WP. What was I missing? I then checked the Interbet Exchange and discovered offers of 16-10 WP. I couldn't help myself and took all of the 16-10 on offer. So suddenly I had a R20k involvement.

On Friday evening I happened to revisit the site & discovered offers of 17-10 WP. Whoops - so there went another R10k. (Bear in mind that WP had won two Currie Cup finals in Durban in the last 20 years).

Given that the Sharks side also had no less than 3 WP castoffs in the side I was genuinely intrigued as to why they were such short favourites.

In the first half I had serious cause to doubt my assessment as WP produced a number of classic blunders which have often characterised their efforts in playoff & final games. The only bright side was the dominance they appeared to be exerting in the set scrums; which by now I was hoping would bear fruit in the later phases of the match.

Happily (luckily?) for me they hit a golden patch in the last 5 minutes of the first half & first 20 of the second to establish what turned out to be an unassailable lead. My only disappointment was their decision to revert to a conservative game play once they had established a two score or more lead. Had they continued with an attacking, ball in hand approach I felt they could have stretched their margin; particularly when they were faced with only 14 opponents.

Nonetheless - it was a real pleasure to collect a R49k profit. Just like the old days!

very very well done
very happy for you

but

very unhappy that we lost
actually am in depression

I feel your pain. Been there, done that. Many times.

Young generation wrote: very very well done
very happy for you

but

very unhappy that we lost
actually am in depression

Well done Garrick. Are you going back into retirement now :lol:

Lionel wrote: Well done Garrick. Are you going back into retirement now :lol:

Yes - but I will keep a beady eye open for those rare occasions when the market gets it seriously wrong.

BTW - The last B-I-G punt I had prior to this one was when the Chiefs played the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein earlier this year. On that occasion the Cheetahs raced into a 20+ point lead. This lunatic then punted the Chiefs @ 5/2 in running when their opening call had been about 1/6. Enjoyed that one when they got up!