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Sports Betting: The master and the prodigy

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David Croft has been in nostalgic mood this week, looking back at the early careers of some of sport's most successful competitors. He points to the influence of former champions converting raw talent into results: though in some cases, it has backfired on the senior party!

I was chatting to Sir Jackie Stewart at the start of this week about Rubens Barichello. We'd both been invited along to help the Brazilian driver celebrate his 256th Grand Prix, the race that equals the record for the most Grand Prix by any Formula 1 driver. Jackie is well qualified to talk about the Brazilian, having given him race seats with Paul Stewart racing and then Stewart Grand Prix when the three time former champion owned an F1 team. In fact, as Rubens will tell you, Jackie was a huge influence in his early years in the sport, giving him some valuable advice and acting as his mentor and coach, something Jackie believes all drivers need but rarely admit to, let alone actually have one.

For Rubens, having Sir Jackie looking out for him was a huge help. The benefits even stretched to a new Rolex watch after he won a bet with the Scotsman that, should he qualify in the top 6 in the team's first season, he could replace his battered old watch with a shiny new timepiece. Rubens was seen to throw the obsolete watch out of the cockpit before he even returned to the garage after qualifying that day in Monaco, his grin broader than ever before.

I recall that when he first came to the UK, my man to follow at this year's world snooker championship was Ding Junhui. Not only did he have the mentoring skills of Peter Ebdon to help him, but the world champion's mother in law let him stay with her for a couple of months as well. Wellingborough may be a far cry from Shanghai, but a friendly face is always welcome wherever you are. The chance to practice with the current world champion wasn't to be sniffed at either. Alas, we're still waiting to see if Ding can offer a similar opportunity to another rising star in the future as 2008 wasn't, after all, his year.

When Phil Taylor started out in Darts he was mentored by Eric Bristow. The legend even splashed out £10,000 to get Phil started and help him with his travel costs for the first couple of years. Well done to the Crafty Cockney on that one. Without his help, who knows whether Phil would have gone on to become one of the games greats, dominating the sport throughout the 90's and early part of this century. How ironic it was, though, that Phil faced his advisor in his first Embassy Final. Would he repay the older man by letting him add another world title to his collection? Would he hell, Phil thrashed Eric 6 sets to 1 and left him wishing he'd kept his wallet closed a few years prior.

Nice to see that Phil turned mentor himself a few years later, helping Adrian Lewis at the start of his career and practicing with him to improve the young mans game. Adrian could perhaps do with asking for the Power's help once again. Twice now he's lost to Phil in this years Premier League Darts which means that it's win or bust for him on Thursday night in the final round robin fixture. In fact, the best thing that his old mentor could do for him is to beat Peter Manley, a result that give Adrian a place in the semi finals should he win or draw against Wayne Mardle.

Manley has already beaten Phil Taylor in the competition this year; the 8-3 victory in Coventry was probably the shock of the Premier League so far. But Taylor has upped his game significantly since then and I don't expect a repeat in Newcastle. Betfair punters agree hence Manley's high price of [12.5] with Taylor [1.16]. You're better off with a correct score here; my tip is Taylor to win 8 legs to 4, priced at [6.0] with Betfair.

Meanwhile with just 1 win in 5 matches Adrian has it all to do, his form in the league recently hasn't been good and has come at just the wrong time. Given that Mardle can still make the last four as well, I'm tempted to go with an upset here and take Hawaii 501 to win in Newcastle at a price of [2.78]. It could be tight and the [6.4] for a Mardle victory by 8 legs to 6 looks attractive. To deny Lewis a chance to meet his mentor in the last four and show him that he has learnt a trick or two.