Antepost

Big Brother - Big Boy, More Like

In case you have been on another planet, I can reliably inform you that Big Brother is back on the box. Just what did glossy magazines do before this mindless tat was on our screens? That reminds me, as is now tradition, the Racing Post is carrying daily updates on both the show and market moves. That's all well and good, but try to get much more than a brass farthing on someone, and it is knock-back time.

So, as a small punter with just two brass dinars to make a farthing, there is plenty to consider. Just look at the list of previous winners: Craig Philips, Brian Dowling, Kate Lawler, Cameron Stout, Nadia Almada, Antony Hutton, Pete Bennett, and Brian Belo.

If you were counting, you noticed that all but two are men and, in actual fact, one of those girls, Nadia Almada, originally came with a full set of tackle. So, siding with a man, preferably gay -- transsexual is even better -- with some kind of disability or simple lack of inelegance, is clearly the sure-fire key to outright success in this preposterous game show.

Paula, She's No Dog, But She is in Form

One thing all greyhound racing experts can tell you is the importance of season dates. At the period 16 weeks after entering its menstrual cycle, a dog's current form is left behind and it improves out of all recognition. This is due to testosterone levels rising dramatically and the steroid effect that they have resulting in enhanced performance.

It may strike you as strange that I use the example of greyhound racing, but I'm a former greyhound trainer, meaning that I can categorically tell you through firsthand experience that this dramatic-improvement theory works double following the birth of pups.

With human subjects, I can find only two examples of athletes having a baby and returning to competitive action better than before. Kerryn McCann is the first. She's an Australian endurance runner who landed both the 2002 and 2006 Commonwealth Games marathon gold medal. Before that there was former world champion Liz McColgan, whose résumé boasts the London, Tokyo, and New York marathons and two Commonwealth golds, with a number of those results coming immediately after giving birth to her daughter, Eilish.

It's plain to see that women athletes, notably endurance runners, thrive after child birth, and therein, Paula Radcliffe, with 10 world records to underline her class, will take some stopping in the Olympic women's marathon.

Disregard her Athens 2004 Olympic debacle -- Radcliffe suffered a leg injury just two weeks prior to the event and had to use a high dose of anti-inflammatory drugs, hindering food absorption and resulting in a lack of energy and carbohydrates in her system before the start of the race -- as 2008 is her year, and a punting price looks assured.

Tennis -- It's Ace

It's a funny thing, punting; we all strive for inside information, a whisper, a tip, an edge, or even something crooked. It's great when such word reaches you, and you have a right good touch in the process, but aren't we all quick enough to condemn others, brand them as cheats, when we are on the butt end?

For these reasons, it strikes me that if you don't have an insider's edge and/or a sense of humor, tennis is about as palatable as garlic bread is to a vampire.

The game that really made me puke was Nikolay Davydenko versus Martin Vassallo Arguello in the Polish Open last year. The Russian, Davydenko, was 1/8 with fixed-odds bookmakers (and as short as 1.11 on Betfair) to beat Vassallo Arguello in the second-round match, but started the match as an even-money outsider on the exchange.

Despite Davydenko easily winning the first set 6-2, his price lengthened on Betfair, and when Vassallo Arguello took the second set 6-3, Davydenko drifted to 7/1. Early in the deciding set, Davydenko traded at around 14/1 on Betfair before retiring, citing a foot injury as he trailed 2-1. Of course, there was nothing untoward!

These shenanigans are not restricted to the smaller tournaments; even Wimbledon has come under the microscope, most notably a first-round match between Richard Bloomfield and Carlos Berlocq. The latter was laid to lose despite boasting a ranking 170 places higher than Bloomfield, and did so handsomely -- 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 -- amid frenetic betting on the exchanges.

Despite all of this, little happens to the players under scrutiny, though, admittedly, a token three Italian players were recently banned by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) over betting matters (for extremely small sums), supposedly because of a lack of evidence.

But the aforementioned Nikolay Davydenko is a superstar in my book -- likewise Betfair, which refuses to stage markets in any game involving the Russian -- as the squeaky-clean world's number four has already been involved in another contentious match. In the latest episode, when Davydenko was crushed 6-2, 6-2 at the hands of Marcos Baghdatis in the third round of the Paris Masters, Davydenko was urged, "Try your best," by French umpire Cedric Mourier following a string of double faults. He made a total of 10 during the match and made 36 unforced errors.

Unsurprisingly, 45 matches in the last five years have been identified as featuring "betting patterns that give a strong indication that those account holders are in receipt of inside information, which has facilitated successful betting coups" by a recently published review.

The matches are all set to come under further scrutiny by the panel jointly commissioned by the International Tennis Federation, the ATP, the Women's Tennis Association Tour, and the four Grand Slam tournaments to investigate corruption in tennis.

ATP President Etienne de Villiers is on the record as saying, "There is no excuse for that match-fixing. You are undermining the integrity of the sport, you are destroying a level playing field. As far as we are concerned in tennis, if they are involved in match-fixing, they will be thrown out."

Hopefully, the game will soon be cleaned up, but before then, don't touch opening rounds as a betting medium!