A Fitting Finale

Since Last Post P/L: £464.30
Monthly P/L: £464.30
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August signals the end of my first year of trading as opposed to punting and at the end of it I'll be able to judge how successful this transition has been so I'm delighted to get off to good start. Cricket has now become my most profitable sport and with the Twenty 20 World Cup in September there's plenty to start getting excited about.
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I'm also aware that the updates to my blog haven't been as frequent recently - please stick with me as there are other things going on in my life at the moment which are taking up alot of my time - I will reveal all in due course :-)
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Hampshire v Nottinghamshire
The Rose Bowl looks a cracking place to play cricket but it's not renowned for huge scores so when David Hussey (81) helped the Outlaws post a respectable 214 I thought there maybe a bit of value in opposing the hosts especially as they'd have to chase under the lights. The exact opposite turned out to be true - Hampshire were never in trouble and they cruised home under the guidance of John Crawley (97 n/o) to leave me with a hole of £70.43 in my account.
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Essex v Worcestershire
After a poor end to July and a morale sapping loss the day before, this was probably not the best time to introduce my boss to the "wonders of trading on Betfair". After taking on my new role in February I've always been honest with him about what I do in my spare time and he's always expressed in an interest in making some extra money (especially as I've explained to him the rewards can be high). As his wife had gone away for a few days and we get on very well I offered him the chance to come around and see for himself how things worked. He plays cricket regularly and with hindsight I think his influence must have helped back up my own thoughts. I was alot more decisive with my trades and by the end of the first innings we decided to take the £104.81 and go to the pub for a celebratory pint. The mixed grill tasted twice as good as normal and it we had a good night.
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Lancashire v Gloucestershire
Twenty 20 finals day is the equivalent of Christmas Day for traders. Three matches in one day with high quality players and plenty of liquidity in the markets - what more can you ask for? Lancashire were very strong 1.56 favourites at the start of the game but it's clear this isn't their favoured format and in the end I felt they were very fortunate to reach a total of 148. Their star players failed to fire and the Gladiators made the chase look easy with Spearman cracking a fantastic 86 off 55 balls. I made a profit of £197.34 on the match and thoughts did start coming into my head - would it be a day for the underdogs?
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Sussex v Kent
As I was keen to watch the England v Wales rugby match at 4pm (what a waste of time this was - Jenkins must go!) I was only going to trade the first innings but this proved to be enough. The Sharks have a great batting line-up but they ended up losing some key men early (Wright & Prior) and never really recovered. The target of 141 for Kent was always likely if they could hold onto their wickets and that's what they did. I made a profit of £142.40 on this one.
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Gloucestershire v Kent
The final. A great climax to a great day ended with Kent pipping Gloucestershire to the post. It all came down to the last few balls even though it looked like the Spitfires were in control for most of their innings. Some great catches from Marshall to dismiss Key and Denly could have swung the game but it was not to be and we now have to wait another year for the fun to start again. This match brought me a profit of £90.18.
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