I was away in the Midlands for a wedding this past weekend and that meant I was going to be more selective than normal with my bets. Aside from the fact that there were plenty of social activities lined up, the cellphone signal was virtually non-existent and getting a bet on was going to be easier said than done. 

My first big fancy of the week was the Stormers +15.5 points against the Hurricanes. Like many on the Goodforthegame Forum I fancied the Stormers would take control up front and they had a realistic chance of winning the game.  Instead of driving to get signal in order to bet, I decided to do a Parkrun instead and missed the first half of this game and ultimately the bet which arrived comfortably. 

I consoled myself with the fact that my big play was still to come and half an hour before the Bulls kicked off against the Chiefs I drove a couple of kilometers down the road to a garage where I knew I would get signal.  Searching the points market I saw Bulls over 30.5 points quoted. Given I had thought the line would be set around 33 points, I climbed in with a massive bet. 

Racing back to my chalet I watched the first 20 minutes and it was clear that the Bulls were in trouble.  They had reverted to their old kicking game which was being very poorly carried out and was quite frankly ineffective against what to date had been the weakest team of the New Zealand Conference.  What followed was agony as I went off to the wedding and was unable to receive or check scores for the next couple of hours.  When I finally got an update it was to confirm that my bet had missed by some distance and the Bulls were given an absolute hiding. 

I had clearly made the effort to place the wrong bet and although I fancied the Sharks to win by 7 points or more against the Rebels, I decided against going to any great lengths to get that wager on.  I was certainly not surprised when the Sharks arrived on the handicap as it was just one of those weekends for me where every decision made turned out to be a poor one. Hopefully the bride and groom will never utter those words.

Twitter: @BrentGraham

 
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 28th of March 2019.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a  free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register