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Monte's Multiple: This farce has to come to an end

Monte's Multiple RSS / Jaymes Monte / 25 March 2009 /

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Now I am usually the first one to roll my eyes and tut when football managers moan about their lack of luck or when a poker player starts to tell you his bad beat story. But last week's selections had such ridiculous bad luck that I feel it warrants a little moan at least.

Mervyn King was 4-1 up and seemingly cruising to victory, trading at a low of [1.2] before he conspired to lose six legs on the bounce and lose the match, giving Jenkins his first win of the Premier League 2009. Then there was the debacle of the first ODI in Guyana. What more can be said here that hasn't already been said? It can be summed up in one word; farcical.

I've been in touch with Merlin the Magician, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Gandalf and Harry Potter for a little bit of help from the other realm this week. So here goes.....

Bet 1: Football - Norway U21 v England U21

Whenever I learn that an International weekend is coming up in the football calendar it always brings with it a tinge of disappointment. It means that the week leading up to the Saturday there will be a barren spell for our beautiful game every league taking a break as players are called up to the International stage.

The final week in March brings such an occasion, and for four days our sporting TV screens will be filled with tedious pictures of Rio Ferdinand and co. jogging around a training pitch. Whilst the English media spend hours upon hours contemplating who will play in what position and whether David Beckham will get his 109th cap.

Away from the limelight of the first team, the England Under-21 have a friendly against Norway Under-21 as part of their preparation for the Under-21 championships in Sweden this summer. Stuart Pearce has named his strongest possible squad including established Premier League players Gabriel Agbonlahor, Aaron Lennon, Lee Cattermole, Mark Noble, and Micah Richards amongst others. Leading the line will be in-form Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake who now has 24 league goals this season.

The England youngsters should have too much for their Norwegian counterparts who failed to qualify for this summer's championships.

Selection: Back England U-21 to beat Norway U-21 @ [1.8]

Bet 2: Darts - Premier League

After a full round of fixtures we return to the match-ups that kicked off the 2009 Premier League a little older and a little wiser. We have learned a lot in the eight week period; Taylor is not a machine, James Wade is number two in the world for a very good reason (and it isn't his counting ability) and despite his style of play, the Premier League format does not suit Jelle Klaasen .

There are a few bets which stand out to me in the Darts this week. Taylor looks too short at [1.4] especially given the personal problems which he cited in his post match interview last week. And despite King's recent slump in form, [1.6] looks a big price for him to beat Mardle.
However, the match that I am looking to this week involves two players who began their campaign with a draw in week one. Klaasen has still not picked up a victory in the league and it looks to be getting to him - he looks visibly shaken whenever he misses a double and his opponents are picking up on this weakness.

Terry Jenkins will know how he is feeling as he has suffered from 'double trouble' in recent weeks. But something seemed to click during the interval of his match last week, winning five legs in a row after the break and never looking like missing a double. In his post-match interview he commented how well he had been playing in practice and he definitely brought that to the stage last week.

Selection: Back Terry Jenkins to beat Jelle Klaasen @ [1.7]

Bet 3: Cricket - South Africa v Australia T20

South Africa inflicted Australia's first innings defeat for 11 years in winning the third and final test in Cape Town this week. However the Australians will allude to the fact this was a dead rubber game and the series was already tied up long before a ball was bowled in anger.
Similarly to South Africa's tour of Australia earlier in the year the test series will be followed by two Twenty20 internationals. The Aussies will be hoping for a similar outcome as both teams continue preparation for this summer's World Cup after they won both matches on home soil in convincing fashion.

They followed up their T20 success over South Africa with a win over New Zealand in a close fought match, yet the South Africans have only had one other T20 game since January 2008 and that came against Bangladesh.

The Proteas haven't closed the gap on the Aussies in this form of the game as they have in test cricket, and I expect Australia to win this one comfortably.

Selection: Back Australia to beat South Africa @ [2.0]