Monte's Multiple / Jaymes Monte / 17 December 2008 /

A little bit of history repeating..... One thing that can be taken from this 100 per cent record of five 'two out of threes' is that when the first one goes down you can always pile into the second two selections for a sure-fire double!

Celtic managed to find some European form via a combination of dodgy goalkeeping and an innocuous sending off to knock us at the first hurdle. Following that, Europe won the Mosconi Cup with relative ease and India chased down an epic total to win the first test against England. This week's multiple combines Darts, Cricket and Football as we try to get some extra cash for the Christmas coffers.

Bet One: Darts - Wayne Jones v Robert Thornton

It's come to that time of year when grown men get dressed up, get drunk and dance to rubbish music. No, I am not talking about the staff Christmas party... ladies and Gentlemen, LET'S PLAY DAAARRRTTS!!

Friday sees the opening matches of this year's PDC World Championships and Bob 'The Thorn' Thornton comes up against Wayne 'Woody' Jones. Thornton joined the PDC in May of this year and has since made it to the last 16 of the World Grand Prix and the Grand Slam of Darts and also the semi-finals of the European championships. In that semi-final he posted an average of 102.12 but was unlucky to be up against a Phil Taylor who was in scintillating form even by his standards and beat him with a massive 113.33 average.

Whilst a quick glance at the rankings will show you that Jones is currently few places above Thornton, that would not tell you the full story as Thornton has only been with the organisation since May. In the past few televised tournaments Thornton has been the main player outside of the usual suspects to catch my eye; he has posted impressive averages, hit his doubles well and most importantly - thrived under the pressure of the TV cameras. Conversely Jones has struggled, with the last 32 being as far as he can usually muster in the televised events.
'The Thorn' is my outside fancy for the tournament at a big price and I expect him to get underway with a comfortable win on Friday night.

Selection One: Back Robert Thornton @ [1.4]


Bet Two: Cricket - India v England

England were denied a result in Chennai by the fourth biggest successful run chase ever. A superb partnership from Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh put paid to any remote chance England had after Virender Sehwag's blistering start to chasing down the 387.

The result in Chennai means that England can now only draw the two test series, but there were a number of positives to come out of the first Test which should enable England to go into the second Test with a more optimistic outlook on getting a result. Andrew Straus scored a century in both innings, a performance which would have earned him the man of the match accolade in almost any other Test match. Paul Collingwood gave his England career a timely boost by posting a second innings century, Graeme Swann took two wickets in his first ever over in test cricket and Matt Prior produced two very handy innings from low down the order.

If players like Bell, Pietersen, Harmison and Panesar who were less than absent in Chennai can find a bit of form to take to Mohali then England will be in with more than a fighting chance. England traded at odds-on in the first Test and that was more than realistic of their chances, which shows how well certain players played and how close they came to a famous victory.

Last week, I alluded to the fact that England had had very little preparation leading up to this match, but evidently this is not necessarily a bad thing for some men. The break/disruptions of the previous week meant for some players that they could go in to this game in a similar mindset as the start to a new season, rejuvenated and deficient of the ODI series humiliation.

I think Pietersen and his men have a good chance of getting a win this week, and following their performance in Chennai are grossly underrated for Mohali at huge value odds of [8.2].

Selection Two: Back England @ [8.2]


Bet Three: Football - Olympiacos v Hertha Berlin

One of my major rules of gambling is that you should learn from your mistakes. Last week I picked out a lay of Celtic in what was effectively a dead rubber match, and it was evident that neither team played to form. This week is the final round of the UEFA cup group stage and qualification in all but two of the groups is undetermined.

Group B still has one qualification place remaining and that will go to either the Greek Champions Olympiacos or Germany's Hertha Berlin. The teams are third and fourth respectively in Group B with Olympiacos on three points and Hertha Berlin on two. A draw would be enough for Olympiacos to take the final qualification place of the group, whereas Hertha Berlin must go all out for the win.

Olympiacos have an immaculate home record this season winning eight out of eight in the league scoring 20 and conceding just three including an impressive 5-1 victory over Benfica in their only other UEFA cup group stage home game. Hertha are flying in the Bundesliga and go into the Christmas break sitting third in the table, but conversely have struggled to make an impact in the UEFA Cup. They have drawn games against Benfica and Metalist Kh and lost to Galatasaray in the group stage after struggling their way past St.Patricks in the first round.

There will be a capacity 33,000 at the Karaiskakis Stadium on Thursday and the atmosphere will be hostile to say the least. The longer the game stays level, the more Hertha will have to push for the win and that will inevitably lead to gaps at the back and play into the hands of the Greeks. They won't want to take any risks in playing for a draw and my final selection this week is to back Olympiacos.

Selection Three: Back Olympiacos @ [1.9]

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