A night at Wimbledon dogs

(Courtesy of Flickr)

Mike Doyle, a punter with forty years experience under his belt, punches the air as he wins his sixth race on the trot.

Mr T. Davison’s Talksport Miss put in a tremendous effort when coming from a seemingly hopeless position to win the fifth race on Tuesday night’s bags meeting at Wimbledon.

Despite his slow start, Talksport Miss recovered brilliantly and Mr Doyle reflected that this is key to a successful finish, “Sometimes it’ll get out awkwardly and get eased out but it is how it breaks – that makes all the difference.”

The following race went with form. Having finished in the top two in his past five races, Droopys Wren was a red-hot 8-13 to win and had the inside draw in his favour.

Youngster Ashley Sea failed to make his nice turn of early pace count and slumped back to a disappointing finish.

Race of the day

Still the punters were not downhearted but rather getting warmed up for what proved to be the race of the day. Bardy Boy, the favourite at 2-1, managed to nick a big enough lead to hold on, but Mr Gage’s Aldworth Blaze came away cleanly and forced a photo finish. By the sounds of the groans of the crowd, it seemed many had tried their luck on this 22-1 outsider.

It’s this sense that anything can happen which creates a real buzz to the place. As Tote Manager, Sue Walter, commented, “Flukes do happen, a rank outsider might come in and that’s what makes it exciting.”

The demise of Walthamstow Stadium has clearly boosted the popularity of Wimbledon dog meetings, having now only Romford to compete against in London.

The introduction of the Super Six Pack deal, which includes drink, food and most cleverly by the marketing team, a £5 return voucher, more young people were amongst the regulars.

Comfortable win sees Arsenal on course for silverware

Arsenal cruised into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup against Championship side Burnley thanks to goals from Carlos Vela, Eduardo, their captain of the day, and Emmanuel Eboue.



Burnley started brightly looking to capitalise on the match of the inexperienced Kieran Gibbs with the trickery of Chris Eagles. The forwards Martin Paterson and Robbie Blake harried the Arsenal rearguard, whilst the central midfield pairing of Chris McCann and Joey Gudjonsson sought to provide extra bite going forward.

Only the young Gibbs managed to subdue Eagles, as Arsenal soon started to dominate proceedings.

The intelligent Andrey Arshavin gained possession near the touchline. In quick succession, he controlled it before encouraging Vela to skip past his man and run through on goal.

Here Vela atoned for his miss at Turf Moor earlier in this season’s Carling Cup, with a sublime chip to dupe goalkeeper Brian Jensen.

Arsenal on song

Both goalkeepers were largely untroubled until Arsenal added a second. Alexandre Song’s cross-field chip found Eduardo on the far post, whose sublime volley left Jensen hapless.

Burnley’s first effort at goal came on fifty three minutes when Martin Paterson’s curling shot narrowly strayed past goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski’s left-hand post.

Burnley manager Owen Coyle added reinforcements to his attack. Only little materialised and it was Arsenal who stepped up a gear and put the tie to bed.

Song capped a fine display with his second assist that saw Eboue latch onto his back heel. Renowned for being wasteful, Eboue finished with aplomb, striking the ball hard and low into the bottom right-hand corner.

Finally Burnley started to play more adventurously. Their best chance of the game fell to their captain Steven Caldwell whose header evaded everyone but the crossbar.

Arsenal were also wasteful in front of goal. Robin van Persie and Eduardo were both guilty of failing to add to the home side’s tally. Long-term absentee Theo Walcott should have scored on his return when free one-on-one, only his tame effort was well saved by the ‘keeper.

Afterwards, Arsene Wenger was bullish about his sides chances of winning silverware this season: “Is it possible to win two trophies? Yes because we are in there. After that it is important to give everything we can to make it happen.”