Monte's Multiple / Jaymes Monte / 11 January 2010 /

Jaymes Monte picks another trio of midweek bets coming from Wembley, St. Andrews and Bangladesh......

Bet 1: Snooker - The Masters

Barry Hearn has already made his mark on snooker by introducing some flashy walk on music and bringing a little bit of razzmatazz to proceedings. The celebrities in the crowd for Jimmy White's first round defeat brought a little more recognition to the sport and his inclusion led to the type of feature length articles in the newspapers that have been absent for many years.

On the table there have been few classic encounters so far and Hearn will be hoping for at least one or two as the tournament progresses. The most eagerly anticipated of all would be a John Higgins v Ronnie O'Sullivan final and Higgins begins his attempt to hold up his side of the bargain against Mark Allen in the first round.

The World Champion is unsurprisingly the favourite here and I think there is good value in backing him at around the [1.45] mark. His only defeat against Allen came back in 2005 at the Northern Ireland trophy and in their latest encounter at the 2009 Grand Prix, Higgins duly dispatched the youngster with a comfortable 5-1 win.

Selection: Back Higgins to beat Allen @ [1.45]

Bet 2: Football - The FA Cup

Whether the FA cup still has a place in the modern game is often a matter of conjecture, but anybody with doubts about just how much it means need only have glanced over to events at Old Trafford last weekend. Not just the elation shown by Leeds' players and fans but also the disappointment and disgust shown by Manchester United fans and Alex Ferguson respectively.

That sort of reaction would not have been apparent had the same outcome occurred in the Carling Cup and it proved that this tournament is still the one they all want to win. Nottingham Forest are showing a similar renaissance to Leeds this season and a return to past glories are slowly becoming more than just a pipe dream.

A 3-1 away win against West Brom on Friday moved them up to second in the Championship and now they travel to Birmingham for an FA Cup replay. They might not have needed the replay had Robert Earnshaw converted a second half penalty in the original tie.

Both are riding the crest of a wave which will crash head on at St. Andrews, inevitably one of them will get that losing feeling for the first time in months but I feel that it may come after extra time or even a penalty shootout and this game could once again end in a draw.

Selection: Lay Birmingham to beat Nottm Forest @ [2.0]

Bet 3: Cricket - Tri-Nations Series

It's no surprise that this tri-nations tournament has ended with a final that doesn't involve the host nation. At no stage throughout any game did Bangladesh threaten India or Sri Lanka and thus it will culminate in a final which is in essence also the decider of yet another three match series between the teams.

One victory each in the group stages of this tournament would arguably give us little to choose between the sides, but the nature of victories sheds more light onto proceedings. Sri Lanka won the first of the two games quite comfortably but with just 12 balls remaining whilst the second of the two matches was won emphatically by India with over 100 balls to spare.

I alluded to the fact that Sri Lanka were lacking experience in last week's multiple bet and that point still stands here. At [1.7] India are once again a stand out bet for me.

Selection: Back India to beat Sri Lanka @ [1.7]

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