Slack Jawed Babbling

Nuca, our Romanian mongrel with a hair-trigger nose that detects grilled sausages at 200 paces, is sniffing Spring in the air. She’s been careering around the garden with unhinged, mad-March enthusiasm and tucking in to new shoots of grass like they are gourmet treats. I smell the changing mood too; and I’m sharing something of her wild passion. Not sure it’s the weather though… Cheltenham is nearly here. Festival preview nights are all the rage up and down the land right now. They have become an established part of the build-up: well-oiled panel pundits spouting dubiously informed views and rumours in front of eager, equally lubricated punters, before moving on to the next venue on the next night. Entertainment is the name of the game rather than cast-iron info. The skill is in winnowing the odd grain of valuable wheat from the wind-blown chaff. The Barley Mow festival pack had its own preview evening on Monday. Our level of inebriation would rival your regular ‘professional...

Despite hilariously sensationalist reporting of thundersnow forecasts this week, it is the jump racing world that has seen significantly more turbulence. The Jockey Club’s announcement on Tuesday of plans to hive off Kempton Park for a housing development heralded a hailstorm of reaction.   The proposals seemed to come from nowhere, which is quite a novelty in this super-sensitive age of spin and counter-spin.   The move would see racing cease at the track by 2021 and estimated revenue of £100m from the sale of the vast site re-invested into facilities and prize money at other tracks. That package would be boosted by further £400m secured from its other investments. An all-weather track would be built at Newmarket and the King George moved to an upgraded Sandown. Opinion amongst commentators and the racing community has been wide ranging. The most numerous and dominant voices have been pouring opprobrium and invective on the Jockey Club for sacrificing a Grade 1 racec...

What I say: Time to join the discounters... My betting and sports yarns, Mug Punting and Smug Punting have both been lobbed into the New Year sales bear pit. Go on - treat yourself to a good read to sustain you through the back-to-work blues.  What they say:  Mug Punting:  "For anyone with a sporting interest in having a few bets and enjoying a beer, this is a good excuse to lose yourself in someone else's story. Five stars from me." "This is a laugh-out-loud funny book that is much about men's relationships with each other as it is about horse racing."   Smug Punting:  "Another excellent set of tales. Well written too - would appeal to horse-racing fans and others alike." Where to buy: Both books are available through Amazon at £2.61 each for an electronic kindle download (free for unlimited subscribers) and £6.91 each for a proper physical paperback. Better value than the Cheltenham Festival ante-post markets!  

I'm delighted to announce the follow up to Mug Punting: Short tales about long odds is published today. Picking up the dysfunctional threads of the original Mug Punting opus, this second collection of real-life racing and sporting yarns meanders haphazardly through ten more years of furiously celebrated small time gambling adventures.  Since that first volume, the this blog has become quite well established as an outlet for racing, sport and betting rambles, together with a ridiculous array of general escapist nonsense, bellyaching and disturbing trend towards telltale middle-aged grumpiness. Time marches on … The blog has implausibly gathered a loyal troupe of curious visitors, to whom I am massively grateful. Many of those posts provide the source for the stories here, and have been expanded and edited into new tales that are set against the backdrop of a decade of horse racing and other iconic sporting moments. Smug Punting: More short tales about long odds (what el...

Mrs A has been away for one of her long weekends (more like short weeks) to see her sister Sue in the Tenerife. This coincided with The Derby meeting. Taking a beady form line from Mrs A ’ s previous weekends ’ away, I priced myself up at unbackably short odds for many hours of uninterrupted racing, football, cricket and other televised sports viewing. However, Epsom ’ s notorious camber has caught out many a heavily backed favourite. Even those with track experience can find trouble not of their own making. Incidents happen on Tattenham Corner and up the home straight that make domino-toppling world records look like Sunday parlour games.   The interference started early. Daughter No 1 had been in lockdown for weeks, preparing for AS exams which she finished on the Thursday. She asked if she could have some friends over on Friday night. A gathering in which she and her pressurised teenage friends could shake out their academic stresses. This had two related impli...

Just a quick post to indulge in some shameless self promotion. Mug Punting kindle version is available for a week only at the bargain price of only £1.99. After a mauling in the Royal Ascot markets, this could be the best value bet of the week! Click here  or the image on the right.  Mug Punting 2 is on the way. Just cranking out those last few painful recollections. Aiming for an Autumn launch. More soon. Davoski

I’d never been to Twickenham before. The largest stadium in the World devoted solely to Rugby Union. Not even to see Lady Gaga or Rihanna. So when Bryn, via Steve, offered up a ticket for England v Australia in the Autumn Internationals, I jumped at the chance. Another iconic sporting venue ticked off the list. (I have lists of lists, just in case you are wondering. Alphabetically and chronologically organised.) The game and indeed the stadium did not disappoint. Bryn and I had a sweeping view from the Upper East tier that enabled a perspective on the shape of the match, the gaps and overlaps and territorial advances that you can’t get off the telly. Identifying the individual protagonists was a little more tricky, however. As was interpreting the many refereeing decisions. The big screen helped out here a few times, but there were some random infringements that even the video boys struggled to nail. Up with the Gods This was mostly good, open action though. The Wallabies...

A fistful of facts and truths I learned this weekend: 1. Under the right circumstances, the amount of sport I can soak up from my settee is only limited by the hours in the day.   The circumstances do have to be right, however. The lovely Mrs A is away this weekend, visiting her lovely sister in Tenerife. That’s one contributory factor: an invitingly clear diary. It’s hot in the Canaries apparently. It is wet, dank, dark and gloopy here. That’s another explainer: why go out? I was clear on Friday and so could devote myself, guilt-free, to the three-day feast of televised action from Cheltenham’s Open meeting. Punchestown was a more than decent side dish. The raft of footie European quarter-finals were timely snacks littered through the weekend. Autumn rugby internationals the thick icing on a cartwheel of Victoria sponge the cake. ATP tennis action a mere amuse-bouche amongst the main ingredients. Topless darts on Eurosport at 1am on Saturday night was probably a weffur theen...

Summertime rolls, as Jane’s Addiction sharply observed back in 1988. I don’t think they were talking about picnic provisions. The season always seems to kick on with haste, leaving moments, events and experiences struggling for attention in its dusty trail. Already the glittering World Cup in Brazil seems like a distant memory as the papers revert to transfer gossip and manager mind-game-mongering. In football terms, the tournament will be remembered as a success. We enjoyed more goals scored than in any of the previous Finals; witnessed some electrifying skill (Van Persie’s arched back header will live long in the memory); confirmed a new generation of talent (Rodriguez looks sublime) and marvelled at vibrant, emotional, spine tingling support from the home nation. And the best team won. RVP makes his mark Brazil’s problems won’t go away because of this success. The controversial investment in this World Cup and 2016’s Olympic Games at the perceived expense of local job...