Weekly Articles "Road to Riches" by Rich 'Tighty' Prew
The Road to Riches Weekend of 17th-18th August
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Bath, Doncaster, Newbury, Newmarket and Ripon and over the jumps at Market Rasen and Perth.
- Football, the start of the Premier League season including Chelsea v Manchester City.
- Cricket, The Eliminator and Final of the Hundred and the start of the England-Sri Lanka Test series next week.
- Rugby Union, the Rugby Championship continues, New Zealand v Argentina and Australia v South Africa
- Golf, the BMW Championship on the USPGA and the Danish Championship on the DP World Tour.
- Tennis, ATP Winston-Salem Open in North Carolina
York Ebor Festival 21st-24th August
Get all of Neil’s write ups & bets for the 4 day festival for £125 here.
NFL 2024
Our NFL package is great value at just £99 for the season. New season starts on Sept 5th. Join us here
Free Tip
Rugby Championship New Zealand v Argentina 8.05am Saturday Auckland
In one of the shock results of the rugby year Argentina opened their Rugby Championship with a 38-30 win over the All-Blacks in Wellington last weekend, the most points New Zealand have ever conceded in a Test match in New Zealand.
All Blacks’ winless run in Wellington continues and they have now won there only once in the past seven Tests and are winless in that city in their last five encounters.
Last weekend Argentina outscored their hosts by four tries to three with a team containing few players from the top European teams and despite their talent in areas such as the back row, centres and wings with weaknesses at prop and scrumhalf. The Wellington win secured their third victory in four years against the All Blacks all coming outside of Argentina.
For the All Blacks now that new coach Scott Robertson’s perfect start is no more the defeat has very much put the pressure on ahead of the second clash at Eden Park this weekend.
For Argentina a match in Auckland is a completely different prospect. In Auckland the All Blacks are unbeaten for Forty-eight test matches, with two draws sprinkled in amongst 46 victories since France defeated Sean Fitzpatrick’s side on in July 1994.
That said the All Blacks have both cyclical and structural issues to contend with. It’s a new four-year World Cup cycle with a new coach and recent senior player retirements. The result can be seen for example in the second row where New Zealand currently select Sam Darry and Tupou Vaa’I, a completely different prospect from Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick, plus a comparatively weak bench full of inexperienced players at international level.
Structurally many players have been lost to the financial rewards on offer in Japan and France and player pathways such as the U20s and sevens teams aren’t currently delivering high quality young replacements, who are having to learn on the job, for these players.
That said I expect New Zealand to bounce back and win the game. What I can’t get behind is a spread of New Zealand -14 a week after losing to the same opponent by eight points.
11 points Argentina +14 points versus New Zealand at 10/11 generally
Hundreds and Thousands
The 3-0 victory over the West Indies in July was the start of an 18 month lead up to an away Ashes series in the winter of 2025.
Mark Wood’s match-winning spell in the third test on a slow flat pitch promised much with England moving towards creating an attack that can thrive the world over and not just in typical English conditions.
For almost the first time in Wood’s Test career, this summer he has played alongside another man capable of reaching 90mph regularly: Gus Atkinson. With 22 wickets in three matches Atkinson had a superb start to his Test career.
He also enjoyed the extra bounce when presented with the new ball after James Anderson’s retirement. Should Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue return to full fitness and John Turner advance to the Test set-up England might conceivably take to Australia five quick bowlers who can reach 90mph. Such pace is the best way to run through lower orders.
Alongside Wood and Atkinson, England’s third specialist quick against West Indies was a different type of bowler. Chris Woakes is a veteran master of swing, seam and accuracy. After a slow start to the series 11 wickets at 21 vindicated England’s decision to retain him while discarding Anderson. Matthew Potts, in the squad but not used in the series, shares similar traits to Woakes with the ball.
There was more good news for this new look bowling attack in the spin bowling department. The flight, drift, turn and bounce that Shoaib Bashir demonstrated at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston illustrated why England have made him their first choice.
All of England’s bowlers were helped by Ben Stokes’s return to bowling fitness. Stokes was able to fulfil the workload expected of a fifth bowler for the first time in two years following knee problems. This means that Atkinson and Wood can be protected from long spells and that Bashir does not have to be used in the most pace-friendly conditions. Now of course another challenge awaits with Stokes injured for the rest of the summer.
On the most recent Ashes tours in 2017 and 2021 England fielded four right-arm seamers bowling around 80mph. Anderson, Stuart Broad and Woakes played in both series supported by Craig Overton in 2017 and Ollie Robinson four years later. Both attacks were same-y and below optimal for hard fast pitches.
England’s selection this summer has been designed to ensure that never again do they take such a “vanilla” attack Down Under. The five-man attack unleashed on West Indies is the template that England will hope to follow in Australia.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 10th-11th August
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Ayr, Haydock, Lingfield, Newmarket and Redcar.
- Olympics, the 2024 games conclude in Paris
- Football, the Community Shield, Manchester City v Manchester United
- Cricket, The Hundred continues.
- Rugby Union, the start of the Rugby Championship
- Golf, the FedEx St Jude Championship on the USPGA and the Czech Championship on the DP World Tour.
- Tennis, ATP Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati
Free Tip
The Rugby Championship Australia v South Africa, 05:45am Saturday, Brisbane
The first game of the 2024 Rugby Championship, the Southern Hemisphere tournament won by New Zealand with three wins out of three. South Africa haven’t won the Rugby Championship since 2019 and have finished as runners-up to the All Blacks for the past two seasons. Of course South Africa peak for World Cups and last Autumn had three successive one point wins in the knockout stages of the World Cup to retain the title they won in 2019 in Japan, including a 12-11 win over New Zealand in the final.
It being the first year of a new four-year World Cup cycle many teams are in rebuilding phases including in this competition New Zealand and Australia. South Africa meanwhile have the least disruption in coaching staff and player turnover of the four competing teams. In terms of coaching Rassie Erasmus has taken over the reins as head coach once again following the departure of Jacques Nienaber and leads South Africa into the Rugby Championship for just the third time.
Where South Africa are looking to adapt is in embracing a new style of play which focuses more on fast, expansive attack. This year so far South Africa drew a home series with Ireland 1-1 winning the first test 27-20 and losing the second 24-25.
Australia turned to New Zealander and former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt after the Eddie Jones debacle at the World Cup. Since then they’ve won three games at home beating Wales 25-16 and 36-28 followed by Georgia 40-29.
Outright odds for the rugby championship show the task Australia have here:
South Africa 4/6
New Zealand 11/8
Argentina 20/1
Australia 28/1
To start with Australia play the Springboks in back-to-back Tests in Brisbane and Perth. As the next step in their rebuilding phase.
For the first test Soth Africa are 1/3 outright and -9 on the handicap going to Brisbane where Australia have won 12 out of 13 Tests against South Africa since 1993 and every game since 2013.
It’s s not an impossibility that Australia could finish bottom with no wins this Championship and are probably putting all their eggs into two wins over Argentina. Australia have also got some major injury concerns, namely in the pack where Langi Gleeson, Fraser McReight and Rob Leota are ruled out.
In time with Schmidt’s regimented style of play he will make Australia competitive but its going to be a huge ask to be so this weekend against such a settled South Africa side, especially up-front where South Africa have a dominant scrum with the tight five of Ox Nche, Mbonambi, Malherbe, Etzebeth and Snyman.
11 points South Africa -9 points at 10/11 generally
Rally around the Caribbean
From England’s point of view a 3-0 win over the West Indies to kick off their rather low profile Test Summer is a decent start for an 18 month run up to the away Ashes series next winter. Newcomers like Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith have impressed, James Anderson has passed the baton on and a three-test series against Sri Lanka waits in September. However watching the West Indies series it’s impossible not to feel a tinge of sadness at the decline of a West Indies team with an outstanding heritage in previous generations.
A relatively lowly populated region, about seven million people live in the cricket-playing places of the Caribbean; that's far fewer than the population of Mumbai for example, has produced some of the most wonderful cricketers we've ever seen but it would be disingenuous and wrong to pretend this is just a cyclical problem.
The West Indies haven't won an away series against anyone other than Zimbabwe or Bangladesh this century and have only reached 400 only five times in their 43 most recent Tests.
The success of the T20 format and proliferation of competitions globally has hit West Indies cricket hard. From a relatively shallow player pool many of the better cricketers are now T20 players only because of the financial rewards on offer compared to those offered by the West Indies cricket board for longer form cricket. Nicolas Pooran for example has only played six first class games in his whole career. Players like Pollard, Russell and Hetmeyer have been a fleeting presence in the Test side. From a wider perspective there is little in the way of Academy programmes in West Indies cricket and particularly in the bowling ranks many young athletes are lost to the NBA before their even play cricket for the island teams.
There is a lot of talk about the distribution of wealth in international cricket recent times. This doesn't necessarily just mean ICC funds, which come from running global events. It could also mean a share of bilateral revenues which are, at present, kept by the host nation. If the visiting team (in this case West Indies) was given, say, 15% of the broadcast rights of a series though, they might be able to fund some changes such as investment in youth and facilities.
West Indies need to play more first-class cricket, more than the maximum of seven games they play a year at present, and they need to play it on better wickets. They need more A tours (their last one to England was in 2018) and they need to ensure their best players are not lost to the Test format. The alternative is over time yet more series where England, India and Australia play each other, where the West Indies, Sri Lanka and others play yet less Test cricket and potentially end up lost to the format.
Whether, when faced with the powerful vastest interests of the “have’s” the ICC begins to adopt policies for the benefit of the “have not’s”, remains a big unanswered question upon which few are optimistic.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 3rd-4th August
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Doncaster, Newmarket, Goodwood, Hamilton, Thirsk and Windsor.
- Olympics, the 2024 games continue in Paris
- Cricket, The Hundred continues.
- Golf, the Wyndham Championship on the USPGA.
- Tennis, ATP National Bank Open in Montreal
Free Tip
The Hundred: London Spirit v Oval Invincibles 2.30pm Sunday Lords
As we hit the second weekend of the Hundred, it has to be said that the standard especially of the batting, remains ropey. It is hoped that the return of some players to the competition at the end of the England Test series and the MLC in North America might lead to improved team performances.
At the time of writing in the ten games played first innings scores have ranged from 89 to 145 with the exception of one innings of 185. Three of the lower totals, including one of 113, have been defended too.
With a proliferation of low scores, we’ve seen a trend within the innings where many top orders have struggled against the swinging new white ball. The result of this is that in 10 of the 20 innings to date the individual top scorer has batted in a position from 6 to 9 including Donovan Ferreira a 10-1 winner for us in this column last weekend for the Oval Invincibles.
Despite the presence in the team of players like Dan Lawrence and now Ollie Pope plus the experienced West Indian franchise players Shimron Hetmyer and Andre Russell London Spirit had a disappointing start to the competition losing their opening tow games scoring just 138 and 127 before winning their first game at home to the Welsh Fire on Thursday, chasing just 96 to win.
Reigning champions the Oval Invincibles won their first two games chasing 89 and defending 113. These are atypical game types for white ball cricket but a measure of how much the ball has been swinging so far. They then lost to the Northern Superchargers at home on Friday failing to chase 145.
Their major strength is a bowling attack that has swing ability to spare in Spencer Johnson, Sam Curran and Saqib Mahmood backed up by one of the best white ball spinners in leggie Adam Zampa
Outright odds for the game are Invincible 8/11Spirit 11/10 and faced with opposing that Invincibles bowling attack and the trends towards top order struggles in the tournament I wanted to highlight the opportunity in another middle order player, this time Liam Dawson of the London Spirit.
Batting 8 Dawson top scored in the first two games scoring 45* and 36 before being out early in the very low scoring third game. He’s a value play at a big price (28/1) to top score here for low stakes
Meanwhile Donovan Ferriera batting 6 for the Invincibles has top scored twice already this season and is still available at 9/1. He remains a value play
6 points Liam Dawson top London Spirit Batsman at 28/1 Bet365
6 points Donovan Ferreira top Oval Invincibles batsman at 9/1 Bet365
(more firms prices will be live in the run up to Sunday)
Tactical trends
With a few weeks to go until the start of the new Premier League season, a look back at the tactical trends that characterised last season.
More goals were scored in the last Premier League season than any other. A total of 1,246 goals averaged out at 3.28 goals per game, comfortably clear of 2022-23’s 2.85. The majority of Premier League teams now try to play proactive, front-footed football with associated risks.
Changes to the game have also encouraged more goals, notably last season’s directive to add substantial periods of stoppage time. Interestingly, ball-in-play time is one area where Manchester City have a small edge on their rivals, most likely as a result of their measured, possession-based style. City’s average ball-in-play time was 4 minutes and 36 seconds longer than Arsenal’s and 5 minutes and 26 seconds longer than Liverpool’s. Across 38 games, that is a lot of ‘extra’ time to put to good use.
More stoppage time has led to more late goals, as defences start to tire and lose concentration. Last season saw 112 goals scored after the 90th minute, with 2021-22 the previous high at 85. There have been 27 winning goals scored in this period, a new Premier League record. This season saw more comeback victories than any campaign in Premier League history with 63, another reflection of more goals and more stoppage time.
With so much training ground focus on high pressing and build-up play from the back, teams are potentially less comfortable when they either choose or are forced to defend their penalty box. Fewer teams in the league are built to soak up pressure.
Managers are also learning to leverage their five substitutes. Four teams benefitted from more than 20 goal involvements from substitutes: Liverpool, Newcastle, Aston Villa and Arsenal.
As well as Arsenal, who conceded just 29 goals and kept 18 clean sheets, Everton were also very difficult to break down, finishing the season with the fourth-best defence in the league.
Tottenham’s trajectory under Postecoglou promises to be one of the most intriguing themes of next season, but Tottenham have struggled defending set pieces.
Arsenal’s title challenge was propelled by their efficiency in this department, scoring 22 goals from non-penalty set-pieces and conceding just seven, a set-piece goal difference of +15. City scored 17 non-penalty set-piece goals and conceded a mere three. By contrast, Spurs finished with a non-penalty set-piece goal difference of -5. That’s a 20-goal handicap conceded to their north London rivals.
Specialist set-piece coaches are already commonplace in the Premier League, and are bound to grow more popular after Arsenal’s success under Nicolas Jover. Villa’s set-piece coach Austin MacPhee is also a familiar face on Premier League touchlines, though Villa finished the season with a negative non-penalty set-piece goal difference. Postecoglou has so far resisted appointing a set-piece specialist, a decision which will be questioned should Spurs continue to ship goals next season.
Approximately 76 to 78% of penalties are scored but last season finished with a penalty conversion rate of 90%per cent. This season produced the fourth-most penalties with 112.No player did more to boost this statistic than Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, scoring nine penalties from nine. Palmer’s goals won Chelsea 15 points, a total matched only by Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke. Bukayo Saka scored six penalties from six, Erling Haaland scored seven penalties from eight while Mohamed Salah scored five out of seven. Perhaps last season’s penalty record was pure variance and we should expect a reversion to the mean.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.
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The Road to Riches Weekend of 27th-28th July
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Chester, Lingfield, Newcastle, Salisbury and York.
- Olympics, the 2024 games begin in Paris
- Cricket, The Hundred competition continuesns
- Formula One, the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa
- Golf, the TPC Twin Cities Championship.
- Tennis, the ATP Olympics at Roland Garros
Qatar Goodwood Festival
Our next racing package the Qatar Goodwood festival from Tuesday 30th July-Saturday 3rd August. Get all of Neil Channing’s write ups and bets here
Free Tip
The Hundred: Welsh Fire v Oval Invincibles 2.30pm Sunday in Cardiff
This is the first weekend of the 2024 competition, the fourth season of the much maligned/format of the future (depending on your viewpoint) established by the ECB.
A reminder that the Hundred is made up of 8 regional teams, three of which progress from the group stage to the knockouts at the end of the month. A core of players from each team have remained with each side since inception, and each contains at least one centrally contracted England player. Each march through an NFL/IPL style draft process squads are built out from those newly available at different salary price points, with each team operating within a salary cap to promote parity.
As the global franchise competition calendar is ever more crowded this year the Hundred clashes with T20 competitions in the USA and Canada, and because the Hundred can’t match the financial rewards on offer from those leagues, this year’s Hundred is definitely short of star-power.
At this early stage of the Hundred England players are still involved in the West Indies test series too and therefore unavailable.
The defending champions are the Oval Invincibles, notionally based are Surrey/Kent players. They opened the 2024 competition on Tuesday at home to Birmingham, and on a spicy swinging bouncy pitch chased 90 to win for the loss of only two wickets.
The game showcased a real strength of the side, the bowling attack has all bases covered and now with a pace threesome of Spencer Johnson (a really good tall left arm quick), Saqib Mahmood back from injury and Sam Curran they are going to be a handful. On flatter pitches, they can call on one of the best white ball spinners in leggie Adam Zampa.
In the batting line-up there's no Heinrich Klaasen this season. Instead fellow South African Donovan Ferreira will play the role of the middle-order hitter. One weakness is a longer tail than ideal if the top order fails to fire.
The hosts here the Welsh Fire opened their campaign on Thursday at Manchester and won clinically restricting the Originals to the third lowest Hundred score ever batting first.
Of their first choice three overseas, Haris Rauf is currently absent at the MLC, and Matt Henry missed the first game leaving Glenn Phillips in the side.
Fire were much improved last season after two poor opening seasons. A play-off spot came after a squad revamp and a “moneyball” approach to squad construction based off data analysis. If Jonny Bairstow rediscovers his mojo the front five with the bat is very good (a young English middle order of Abell, Clarke and Kohler-Cadmore is talented). Mason Crane and Roelof van der Merwe complement each other in the spin department and the whole side is packed with nuggety domestic performers. Of those David Willey is still an all-rounder who can wins games with bat or ball.
Outright odds for the game are the Invincibles 4/6 Fire 6/5, so home underdogs. Not that there should be much home advantage at any Hundred ground.
It’s worth remembering that this is even more high variance a format than T20. With a hundred balls to go at, a bad start on a fresh pitch or in poor weather can make it very difficult to recover. We’ve seen that in the first three games of the 2024 tournament already where every side batting first has struggled mightily and it has to be said the standard has been very poor.
It’s tempting to suggest, given that the new white ball swings prodigiously and threatens the scoring potential of the top orders on the evidence of the three games so far, a value bet in the top batsman market for either side. So far top scores from teams batting first this year have been 25 batting 1, 45 batting 8 and 26 batting 9!
Candidates might be Luke Wells at 10-1 and David Willey at 14-1 for the Fire batting 6 and 7 and Donovan Ferreira and Tom Lammonby both at 10-1 batting 6 and 7. Take your pick, I am going to try Willey and Ferreira for small stakes alongside backing the Welsh Fire at odds against.
15 points Welsh Fire to beat the Oval Invincibles at 6/5
6 points David Willey Top Welsh Fire batsman at 14/1
6 points Donovan Ferreira Top Oval Invincibles batsman at 10/1
All prices Bet365 with more firms to follow
The Hundred
When the ECB first proposed a new T20 competition to the 18 first class counties in 2016, the main objective was simple: Making money. The IPL currently earns about ten times as much from TV rights than India Internationals and the same thing was the aim in England. This would finance English cricket and the cash-strapped counties (who were compelled to vote for the project) for generations to come.
The ECB missed out on the chance to trademark and license the T20 format when they introduced it at the professional level in 2003 so a new format had to be created.
In the years that followed expenses more than tripled from the original projections, which in turn reduced the potential profits considerably. Even with all of these add-ons, the ECB declared that The Hundred made an annual profit in each of its three years so far. These figures have been widely questioned though. They don’t factor in the tens of millions of pounds spent in the years before 2020 which led to The Hundred taking its current form.
Now the ECB will sell stakes in the eight Hundred teams later this year and says the competition “will play a vital role in the future of our sport”. An agreement between the ECB and the 18 first-class counties has been reached over the distribution of funds from the sales, set to be worth hundreds of millions. The eight hosts of the teams will be given a 51% stake, which they can sell or keep, with the remaining 49% in each team sold by the ECB.
Money raised from selling the 49% stakes in each team will be distributed between the 18 first-class counties, the MCC and the recreational game. The eight hosts that receive a 51% stake can either keep all of it, part of it, or sell it all. They will indicate their decision to the ECB, with the sale of those stakes also being handled centrally.
The eight are Lord’s (MCC/London Spirit), The Oval (Surrey/Oval Invincibles), Southampton (Hampshire/Southern Brave), Cardiff (Glamorgan/Welsh Fire), Trent Bridge (Nottinghamshire/Trent Rockets), Edgbaston (Warwickshire/Birmingham Phoenix), Old Trafford (Lancashire/Manchester Originals) and Headingley (Yorkshire/Northern Superchargers).
One thing which must be acknowledged is that even considering the sale of teams or the competition as a whole means that Plan A has failed. The Hundred was supposed to be very profitable from Year 1, with the ability to grow from there to near-IPL revenue.
In terms of potential investors, an Indian billionaire might look at the possibility of extending the IPL (and its international window) to four months and consider that a £20m investment in London Spirit is worth it if it makes it more likely they can make more profit with their main team.
In the months to come we will see what a stake in each Hundred franchise is worth and who the new partners are and speculate what they will bring to the party. Noises are that potential investors are unhappy at being asked to take a minority stake with no control over the cricket operations, and generally questioning of valuations as a result. We’ll see shortly.
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.
The Road to Riches Weekend of 20th-21st July
Coming up this weekend
- Horse Racing, On the flat at Ascot, Chester, Hamilton, Newmarket, Salisbury and York.
- Olympics, the 2024 games begin in Paris next week
- Cricket, The third test match between England and the West Indies at Edgbaston next week
- Formula One, the Hungarian Grand Prix
- Rugby Union, Summer Internationals
- Golf, the Barracuda Championship in the World Golf Championships.
- Tennis, ATP Opens in Atlanta, Croatia and Kitzbuhel
Qatar Goodwood Festival
Our next racing package the Qatar Goodwood festival from Tuesday 30th July-Saturday 3rd August. Get all of Neil Channing’s write ups and bets here
Free Tip
T20 blast Somerset v Sussex Thursday 18th July 6.30pm
This is the final week of T20 Blast group games, and by Friday night we’ll know the Quarter final line up, with those matches played after the Hundred in early September. Blast scheduling is unusual this year due to the clash with the T20 World Cup with the Group stage matches crammed into six weeks then a seven week wait until the knock-out stages.
Thursday night sees the penultimate matches including this one in the South Group in Taunton.
Hosts Somerset, the defending Blast champions, are third in the South Group with 15 points and need a win from their final two games to guarantee a Quarter Final spot. Visitors Sussex are second on 16 points and already guaranteed a knock-out place. For both teams a top two Group stage finish guarantees a home Quarter-Final.
In the final matches on Friday night Somerset travel to Cardiff to play Glamorgan, Sussex host Middlesex.
Somerset’s team features canny experienced bowlers and a number of exciting young batsmen. Taunton is one of the smaller grounds on the domestic circuit and is typically high scoring, which suits this big hitting batting line up
In the 12 Somerset blast games so far Tom Banton has 404 runs at an average of 50 and a strike rate of 145 including three fifties. 404 runs is sixth in the competition season to date. He is comfortably Somerset’s top scorer ahead of Kohler-Cadmore 282, Abell 250 and Smeed 246
At 25 Banton is an opening batsman and flamboyant strokemaker that has been selected in England T20 squads and is experienced in T20 franchise leagues worldwide including spells playing for KKR, Brisbane Heat, MI Cape Town and the Northern Superchargers in the Hundred. He has 3,300 career runs in the format at a strike rate of 142.
Here he will have to deal with Sussex’s main threat, veteran left arm quick Tymal Mills who with 21 wickets is the joint third top wicket-taker in the competition so far this season .
He’s a solid bet to be Somerset top scorer here.
10 points Tom Banton Somerset Top scorer at 100/30 with Betfair Sportsbook/Paddy Power, 27/10 BetVictor, 13/5 William Hill
Scrums
In an attempt to create a better spectacle and attract new fans World Rugby have introduced law changes focussed on the scrum.
The scrum is underappreciated as the casual fan views it as slowing down the game but at its core scrums lay down a statement of intent in a battle of strength, power and skill, a means to attack and assert dominance.
The latest move from World Rugby to ban the option of a scrum from a free-kick shows that the game’s governing body takes another step towards making the set-piece irrelevant in the modern era.
The idea of the removal of the scrum option is to stop resets and ‘set-piece dead time’ whilst it is also primed to address the ‘lack of space’ on the pitch. However more scrums equals more fatigued players equals more defensive gaps.
The scrum was there initially to restart the game much like a lineout but what makes both set-pieces unique and even more special in rugby is that they are both contestable. In rugby league, the former cannot even be considered a contest, whilst the latter doesn’t even exist in the code. Even in football, throw-ins are seldom contested.
It is obvious that teams will attempt to concede a free kick if they are struggling in the scrums There are no less than nine actions at a scrum that can result in a free-kick for the opposition team, providing nine different avenues for a pack that is being overwhelmed to escape the scrum.
Then there are the laws being trialled and bound to be pushed through to the top of the game if they are deemed successful by whatever metric World Rugby want it to be.
This includes the introduction of the 30-second shot clock for scrum and lineout setting and the protection of the nine at the base of the scrum, ruck and at the maul.
This will inevitably lead to selectors and coaches favouring more athletic front-rowers, with slightly fatter flankers eventually being tasked with getting the basics of scrummaging done as the big front-row forwards get pushed closer to extinction.
Rugby is and wants to continue to be the game for all shapes and sizes but what will happen to players who comfortably tip the scales over 120kgs if the scrum draws close to its execution date?
Betting Emporium results
The detailed results page has been updated on 1st January 2024. They can be found by clicking RESULTS
If you bet £10 per point on every recommended bet since launch you would be winning + £69,601 All bets have an ROI +2.97%
A £4000 bank betting £10 a point on all selections would now be worth £73,601, a 1740% increase.
