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Flutter

Hindsight: Five steps to heaven

Our tipping form has improved slightly, which is a good thing considering the week that’s in it.

AS PER USUAL, last Friday we brought you a five-part accumulator that we thought had a reasonable chance of coming up. (Note: we never promise anything)

As it happened, only two of the bets actually came up for us, but we weren’t a million miles away with some of the others. Here are the bets that you should have had.

1. National pride overrode all other considerations when we went for Ireland to beat Wales in the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

However, if we’d known that Mike Phillips and Matthew Rees were going to use every (illegal) trick in the book to win, we might have thought otherwise. Wales were priced at 5/6 to win.

2. In his gambling advice column earlier today, John Duggan highlighted the good value that is to be found in betting on golfers.

Up until the last couple of holes in yesterday’s WGC-Cadillac Championship, we thought that Matt Kuchar was a shoe-in to finish in the top four. Lo and behold, he finished fifth. Typical.

When we were backing Kuchar on Friday, eventual winner Nick Watney was available at the rather tasty odds of 3/1.

3. Our most disappointing tip this week was Andrei Arshavin who we expected to score against Manchester United in Arsenal’s FA Cup Quarter-Final on Saturday.

The Russian got 72 minutes of game time but no goals. We would have done a lot better if we’d simply gone for one of the more obvious choices, like Wayne Rooney who was available at odds of 13/10 to score at anytime.

4. One sport that we do seem to be able to pick a winner in is gaelic football.

Though the Dubs made us sweat for a little while before winning against Monaghan yesterday afternoon, our 6/4 double on Dublin and Derry came good in the end.

5. As I understand it, the idea behind picking a banker is that it should be as close to a dead-cert as one can find.

Miguel Cotto’s win over Ricardo Mayorga in the early hours of Sunday morning was anything but. We backed Cotto at 2/5 to win by KO or TKO. He just about managed to do so, knocking the Nicaraguan out in the final round.

Stake: €10

Returns: €590.33