Seeing Red

A very frustrating Sunday, with the Chelsea v Manchester United game leading the list of frustrations. As you might have guessed, this was an XX Draw (Extended) selection, and while there were too many goals before the sending-offs, at 2-2 the draw looked like a definite possibility for a while, but it was not to be.

The eight XX Draws, with four on Saturday, four on Sunday, were a definite weekend of two halves. Saturday saw 0-0, 3-3, 1-1 and 1-0 while Sunday saw 3-1,  2-1, 1-3 and the 2-3 already mentioned. Overall a small profit on the weekend, but a very frustrating Sunday. It's as if I used up all my luck with the 3-3 Reading v Fulham draw.

Here's how the table looks after the weekend, followed by a quick run down of the weekend's picks. If I have erred anywhere, please correct me:

XX Draws (Bundesliga): Only one selection this weekend, Greuther Furth v Werder Bremen (1-1) and although only 15 selections in total for the season, this category is holding up very well so far.

XX Draws (Extended): Five selections, one lucky winner, a 1-0, but nothing to crow about this weekend.

Drawmaster: As mentioned yesterday, these selections are hot right now. Seven winners from the last nine, and a hat-trick this weekend, for the second time in the last three rounds.

Neil's Selections: A small loss on the weekend, but saved by the Everton v Liverpool draw.

Premier Betting: Still in profit overall, but the losing run extends to four with two more losers. Manchester City did not lead 1-0 or 2-0 at half-time v Swansea City, and there were not more second-half goals at Chelsea than there were first half.

Below the break-even line, the XX Draw (Classic) selections had a 0-0 followed by a 3-1 (Bastia v Bordeaux).

CKL Selections found two overs out of three for a small profit on the weekend, while Football Formbook found two winners from five for a small loss.

Football Elite found two winners from five selections, but basically trod water for the weekend. The final selection of Hannover '96 to beat Borussia Moenchengladbach came close, with the hosts holding a 2-0 at 70 minutes, before losing 2-3.

Premier Edge, previously hitting at 50% had a poor weekend, losing on all four selections, and Little Al was perhaps a little unlucky in missing two long-shot draws by 1-0 - Arsenal v QPR and Manchester City v Swansea City.

Jon (Talkbet) had a profitable weekend to trim his losses, with selections from Carlisle (losing) to Cagliari (winning) and others in-between.

Tony's strategy of laying away favourites seems to have hit the wall, with all five lays winning, scoring 15 goals between them and conceding just one..

The Free Under / Overs had a small loss splitting the weekend's selections, and backing Ian Erskine's Lay The Draw selections continues to be futile. He is certainly finding winners (for him) and is on a 'losing' run of 12.

For the second consecutive week, no selections were received from Griff.

The big winner of the weekend was of course Drawmaster, moving up eight places to fifth, while the big loser was Tony, dropping from 9th to 23rd.

Finally, I managed to do a good job on reducing the Super Premium Charge to be debited on Halloween, getting in a right mess at the end of the New York Giants @ Dallas Cowboys NFL game. One of the most annoying things about the NFL is that an apparently brilliant play ends up being invalidated by a precise interpretation of the rules, and a 'winning' TD was discounted because the Dallas receiver hadn't trimmed his finger nails yesterday morning. It was that close, but I console myself that only half was lost, because half would have gone anyway. According to the Betfair Forum, £34k was matched at 1.01 on Dallas before the call was overturned. None of that was mine, in case you were wondering.

All in all, it was an annoying day, but October should still be the best month of 2012 with more NFL and the NBA opening up this week. I'm also hoping to nail down precisely when the Premium Charge is effective each week, since no one reading this seemed to know.