Winner Stays On / Jamie "The Pacman" Pacheco / 30 December 2010 /

Two new contestants fight for the right to stay on this week. Find out why that is and why last week's edition had a little of Rocky II about it.

Last week's edition of Winner stays On was like the final scene in Rocky II. Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed, battered and bruised, muster the strength to deliver one last blow deep into the final round. They connect at exactly the same moment and the energy required to throw that last hook and the brutality of the hit they take combine to send both crashing to the canvas.

Rocky's old trainer Mickey looks on in horror, his loving and long-suffering wife Adrian rises from her seat and the crowd gasps in anticipation. The referee starts the count and eventually the Italian Stallion himself drags himself to his feet just before it's up. He's the only one standing as the '10 count' is delivered and declared the victor before collapsing in a heap once again.

Over the next four sequels he takes on the likes of Ivan Drago, Clubber Lang, Thunderlips and Tommy Gunn. More importantly though, when he defeats Drago in front of the Russian's partisan crowd he gets them to turn on their man and support the Yank. And that may just have been one of the most significant moments in eventually bringing the end to the Cold War. Speaking of which, whoever thought that was a good name for it can't have envisaged the battle we Brits had to fight against snow, sleet, frost and icy winds for the last couple of months. Because if he had, he would have had to call it the 'slightly below average temperature war'.

The reason last week's edition of WSO was like that scene is that both contestants were knocked out. The two English matches were called off (you guessed it, because of the weather) meaning only Brisbane v Gold Coast over in Australia went ahead. Both bets were losers so as per the rules of the WSO, they both bit the dust. Ok so it's not exactly like the final scene in Rocky II but then again the microwaved Christmas dinner I had on Saturday wasn't exactly like the one I'd seen advertised on TV a few hours earlier.

This week's contestants are New Pair Of Balls and GentlemanJD. The latter said the former would 'require a new pair' after he was done with him this week though he admitted that wasn't a very 'Gentlemanly thing to say'. So we've decided to introduce a one-off rule this week and say that if both players are tied on points they'll have a one-round three-minute scrap at Betfair HQ to sort out their differences. As ever, Winner Stays On.

This week's matches

Wigan v Newcastle
Hull v Leicester
Southampton v Exeter

New Pair of Balls' selections:

Wigan v Newcastle- Wigan to win at [2.68]
Hull v Leicester- Hull to score two goals or more at [2.86]
Southampton v Exeter- Southampton to be leading at half-time and winning at full-time at [2.36]

Gentleman JD's selections

Wigan v Newcastle- Over 2.5 goals at [2.14]
Hull v Leicester- Hull to win at [2.84]
Southampton v Exeter- Over 3.5 goals at [2.88]

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