Monte's Multiple / Jaymes Monte / 03 February 2009 /

Regular readers of Monte's Multiple will know how this part of the article goes, for those who aren't it reads as follows - I bemoan the lack of luck, tell you that one of the selections has let us down and then that the other two selections have been winners. So here we go; India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets to get us off to the worst possible start last week, this was followed by a comfortable win for Man City over Newcastle and Ronnie Baxter beating Tony Eccles to give us our sure-fire double.

God loves a tryer apparently, so we'll keep plugging away and hopefully the luck will change soon.

Bet One: Darts - Premier League
For the next 14 weeks Thursday nights are the new Friday nights as Premier League darts returns to our screens.

The pick of the first week's match-ups is undoubtedly the repeat of the World Championship finals, Taylor against Barneveld where The Power can be backed at a very favourable [1.45] given his current form. However the biggest value price of the night comes in the clash between the aptly named Matador and The Bull, with Jelle Klaasen priced up at [2.1] to overcome Terry Jenkins.

Klaasen was hugely impressive in this year's World Championships, so much so that his performance in that very tournament was enough to earn him his wild card for the Premier League. He was unstoppable in his run to the quarter-Finals dropping just one set along the way.

Jenkins on the other hand is suffering a poor run of form having exited at the first round stage in the last two televised tournaments. He lost three sets to one against Dennis Smith in the first round of the World Championships and six legs to two against Wayne Jones in the Players Championship last weekend.

Their head-to-head record reads Klaasen three, Jenkins two, but the Dutchman has won the last three meetings which suggests he now has the measure of his opponent. Klaasen's electrifying pace will be ideally suited to the Premier League and my selection is for The Matador to tame The Bull.
Selection: Back Jelle Klaasen (to beat Terry Jenkins) @ [2.1]

Bet Two: Cricket - W. Indies v England - 1st Test
England's players return to the field for their first Test series since the infamous Kevin Pietersen/Peter Moores saga. Andrew Strauss has now been installed as captain and the players have vowed to rally behind him.

It appears that the only decision left to be made regarding the batting line-up is in selecting either Ian Bell or Owais Shah, with Bell the more likely of the two to get the nod. Pietersen, Strauss and Shah have all knocked centuries in the warm-up matches and Bell, Cook and Collingwood all recorded half centuries.

The England selectors will have spent the last few days sweating on the fitness of Andrew Flintoff and pondering over the merits of Steve Harmison. However, news coming out of the England camp on Monday suggests that Flintoff will be fit and ready for the first test. Harmison will be hinting to the selectors to remember his career best 7 for 12 which he took in England's 10 wicket victory in their last visit to Sabina Park. Ryan Sidebottom's return to the squad has been a timely boost, and he is likely to go straight into the side.

The West Indies come into this test match on the back of a drawn test series against New Zealand. Their main threat will come from Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, but aside from these two England shouldn't have too many problems.

England left the Caribbean in 2004 as 3-0 victors in preparation for the upcoming 2005 Ashes and can make their first steps to recording a similar score-line by winning this week at a very generous [2.3].
Selection: Back England (to beat W.Indies) @ [2.3]

Bet Three: Football - English FA Cup
The FA Cup invariably throws up a fairytale fixture and never more so than when pairing local rivals Derby County and Nottingham Forest. Just days before the draw Billy Davies took up the hot seat at the City Ground and Nigel Clough became manager of the Rams a matter of days later.

Nigel was once a Forest player and of course is the son of Forest's most successful manager Brian. Davies made his name in management at Derby County taking them to the Premiership in his first season in charge. Now both men find themselves in opposite dugouts embarking on careers they hope will emulate the legacy of their counterpart.

The first game ended honours even with Robert Earnshaw cancelling out Rob Hulse's first half goal to tie the game 1-1 and force a replay. The game followed an incident in Derby city centre which saw two sheep's heads being thrown at pub windows, police were said to be "investigating whether or not the incident was related to Derby County's nickname: the Rams". Now I'm no Sherlock Holmes, but I'm guessing that it was connected, unless there's a new sheep throwing fad that I am not aware of.

Forest have lost just one game since Davies' appointment on January 1st and have a 100% home record in that same period. Derby have won just one league game in the period since Clough's appointment and have lost their only away league game. My final selection is to follow Forest and hope they can extend their impeccable 2009 home record.

Selection: Back Nottm Forest (to beat Derby) @ [2.2].

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