Yep, it’s nearly here.  Just a few short days away and then we can really sit back, relax and enjoy it all.  We can pour a wee dram, a sweet sherry, or a real ale – whatever your choice of cheeky snifter may be – and sit down with our feet up in our favourite armchair in front of the fire.  Maybe a mince pie, or a newly opened tin of Quality Street to graze on.

We can forget the chaos of shopping and the difficulties of wrapping presents.  We will have forgotten the frustration that last task brings when no matter how carefully we concentrate and the excruciating effort we put in, we still can’t cut the paper straight and the gifts we give look like they’ve been wrapped by an overly enthusiastic three year old let loose with Sellotape for the first time.

And no matter how old we may now be, how mature and how we now appreciate the joy on our children’s or grandchildren’s faces at this magical time of the year, we can’t help but feel that little tingle of excitement ourselves.  Go on, be honest with yourself – Christmas brings out the child in us too.

Why does it?  Why do we feel such glorious, childlike anticipation?

I’ll tell you why, shall I?  Because Christmas Day was yesterday, the overexcited kids who were a bloody nightmare all day have finally worn themselves out, the bloomin’ in-laws you have nothing in common with have buggered off home, and the King George is about to start on the telly!  THIS, is the true meaning of Christmas…racing from Kempton.  And fingers crossed, there could be a good match on the box later too…

Happy Christmas!

Portfolio figures for Monday 10th to Sunday 16th December

‘Main’: ROI 1.69%, ROC 0.28%.

‘Starter’ (Football Lay Profits, The Accountant, The Value Bettor, Northern Monkey): ROI 6.04%, ROC 1.57%.

‘Broxchange’ (Football Lay Profits, The Accountant, Golf Insider, Football Investor Combo): ROI 10.8%, ROC 2.94%.

Individual Service Performance

The Accountant: Staked 31pts, +5.351pts, ROI 17.26%.

Racing Service 1: Staked 6pts, -2.137pts, ROI -35.62%.

Football Service 1: Staked 9pts, -5.074pts, ROI 56.38%.

Football Lay Profits: Staked 27.6pts, +2.6pts, ROI 9.42%.

Golf Insider: Staked 9.2pts, +71.35pts, ROI 775.54%.

MVS (Lite): Staked 7pts, +4.75pts, ROI 67.85%.

Northern Monkey: Staked 6.65pts, +4.578pts, ROI 68.84%.

Football Service 2: Staked 7pts, -3.5pts, ROI -50%.

Racing Service 2: Staked 6.5pts, -6.5pts, ROI -100%.

Racing Service 3: Staked 10.75pts, -0.65pts, ROI -6.04%.

On a serious note, please do have a lovely and relaxing Festive break.  I’m away down in Devon for the week now and so the next post will be the first week of January.  Have a good one!

I hate to think how many blog posts I’ve written over the years around the subject of losing runs, or bad weeks, or acutely horrible days.  And usually, a part of such a post is the stated reminder to remember that particularly good months, weeks and days do happen too, and that the ups and downs are all part of the game.

The thing is though, it is so easy to dwell on the bad days and almost forget the good ones.  And so, when a day like last Saturday strikes, it’s perhaps a good thing to write about it, just to show to readers who are constantly being reminded to exercise patience in their betting exploits that the red letter days really do happen too.  Occasionally, just every so often, the planets align.

First, a little context.  Saturday’s betting saw eight services in the portfolio offer up bets.  All eight turned a profit.  The ROC generated from the full portfolio on this one day, was 5.63%!

Here’s how it went…

Football Service 2 went for a couple of doubles that came in without a moment’s sweat, whilst Football Lay Profits advised five lays, all of which were successful.  Wrapping up the footie action, Football Service 1 – which has really struggled this season – hopefully took the first step on the road to prolonged recovery by picking two winners from three.  One of the winners was at odds greater than 4.0.

And so on to the racing.  MVS (Lite) replicated Football Service 2’s record of two winning bets from three at 2/1 and 9/4.  Racing Service 1 struck with an 8/1 winner, and Racing Service 3 struck with two from two at odds of 8/1 and 7/2.

Northern Monkey set up a double with a 10/1 winner on the Friday, the second leg running on Saturday, which duly obliged at 11/8.  It would be churlish to bemoan another double that wasn’t landed that would have given up 20+ points additional profit!

And finally, Racing Service 2 decided to knock in a 20/1 winner.

It’s very true.  Days like these don’t happen very often, but when they do, it’s worth just giving yourself a little pat on the back for retaining faith when things look dark and you feel like you’re backing nothing but loser after loser.  Patience does pay – Saturday is proof enough of that.

I’ll give you the month to date figures next time.  For now, here are the numbers for Saturday…

Racing Service 1: Staked 3pts, +4.875pts.

Football Service 1: Staked 3pts, +3.408pts.

Football Lay Profits: Staked 23pts, +4.9pts.

MVS (Lite): Staked 3pts, +3.25pts.

Northern Monkey: Staked 3.25pts, +5.124pts.

Football Service 2: Staked 3.5pts, +1.27pts.

Racing Service 2: Staked 3.25pts, +7.25pts.

Racing Service 3: Staked 2.5pts, +13.25pts.

ROI 114.91%, ROC 5.63%.

A month that produced some steady, if unspectacular profit.  In the context of what had been a really nasty October, I’m happy to take steady.  In fact, I’d take steady all the time if it meant twelve steady months out of twelve each year.  Wouldn’t that be nice?  Just nice, steady progress – no big ups and no big downs.

Anyway, back in the real gambling world…

Top banana this month was undoubtedly Racing Service 1, which in one magical weekend brought in a shed-load of points by picking 20/1 winners and the like.  I must say I’d like to see some consistency now.  I’ve always felt since beginning to follow this service that it’s not been contributing in quite the way I had expected and hoped for, but there have been flashes of brilliance – the Cheltenham Festival springs to mind – where we have seen what it is capable of.

In Silver medal position is Racing Service 2 which in it’s first month of the new National Hunt season has got off to a flyer, continuing the fine form shown through last season.  It’s not half good to have him back. 🙂

And last on the podium is MVS (Lite) who recovered from a poor month last time to start to put things right.  I guess with this service it’s a bit easier to exercise patience because it’s been churning out the profit for so long and over a large sample of bets.  It’s earnt the right to patience when things aren’t going so well.

Honourable mentions too to Football Lay Profits, Golf Insider, and Football Service 2.

As for the scoundrels of the month, the Football Service 1 system has not got the 2018/19 season off to a good start at all, and we really could do with results taking a turn for the better.  Racing Service 3 has had a month to forget too.

As for the ‘Starter’ portfolio, December will see slightly raised stakes for Football Lay Profits and Racing Service 2, and marginally higher stakes for The Accountant.  We’re on our way!

‘Main’ portfolio: ROI 5.34%, ROC 4.03%.

‘Starter’ portfolio: ROI 4.13%, ROC 4.39%.

‘Broxchange’ portfolio: ROI 0.89%, 0.9%.

The Accountant: Staked 125pts, +1.107pts, ROI 0.88%, ROC 1.93%.

Racing Service 1: Staked 33pts, +17.346pts, ROI 52.56%, ROC 17.34%.

Football Service 1: Staked 21pts, -6.17pts, ROI -29.38%, ROC -12.34%.

Football Lay Profits: Staked 115.2pts, +10pts, ROI 8.68%, ROC 5%.

Golf Insider: Staked 42.4pts, +66.332pts, ROI 156.44%, ROC 8.29%.

MVS (Lite): Staked 57pts, +7.975pts, ROI 13.99%, ROC 8.97%.

Northern Monkey: Staked 32.772pts, -2.964pts, ROI -9.04%, ROC -3.71%.

Football Service 2: Staked 35pts, +3.02pts, ROI 8.62%, ROC 3.78%.

Racing Service 2: Staked 29pts, +8pts, ROI 27.58%, ROC 14%.

Racing Service 3: Staked 96.5pts, -21.937pts, ROI -22.73%, ROC -10.96%.