Crazy low liability trading this evening....

After a fairly dismal start to the evening with a 0-1 win for the masters of the 1-1 otherwise known as Djurgardens the blue touchpaper was lit in what proved to be two electrifying games. I use the word electrifying in a trading sense - I was watching neither.

Someone spotted that the Kaiserslautern  v Union Berlin match was 0-0 at half time, so I decided to enter a second half SG trade, backing 0-2, 1-1, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1 and 2-2. I invested £6 on 1-1 and a whole two quid on each of the other scorelines.

I've traded the lower reaches of German football for some years now, and it's fair to say that Union are one of those teams that in the past have cost me dearly. I don't know about other traders but I seem to have 'bogey' sides dotted around the globe! I keep promising myself, for example, never to trade Liverpool, Sporting Lisbon or PSV ever again and generally look suspiciously at any matches involving several other sides, Valerenga and Godoy Cruz to name two that spring to mind. Oh, and Spurs now I think about it!

Tonight, however, I was able to back 0-2 to Union at 43 at half time - fancied they most certainly were not. I was therefore more than pleasantly surprised that they took, indeed, a 0-2 lead after about 54 minutes. I must admit to being a bit greedy there, and didn't get all my hedging bet matched before Kaiser got one back, but Union went a long way to paying their debt to me. The game went 2-2, 3-2 and finally 3-3 on the stroke of 90 minutes and by trading the scores I'd set at half time, followed by a judicious low liability lay of 3-2 I was able to turn that £16 into a tidy three figure profit. My only regret, and I don't why I didn't, is that I didn''t lay Union at 0-2 - something I nearly always do with a second half two goal lead to the underdogs.

Whilst all that was happening I was aware that Canada were 1-0 against the strongly fancied USA in the ladies Olympic competition. I had opened the market to look at laying that score and was in the process of so doing when the yanks equalised. I then laid the current score of 1-1 and watched with amazement as the game went 2-1, 2-2, 3-2 and finally 3-3 with me laying all those scorelines at ever decreasing odds.

Speaking of the Olympics I've got to say that my initial cynicism about and indifference to the whole event has, I'm glad to say, been completely and utterly turned upside down. I can't believe how good the whole thing has been, and obviously Team GB's success has had a large part to play in this.

I have watched sports I'd normally never watch, and found them interesting. In part I'm sure this is due to the excellent job the BBC have done. When people moan about the salaries of the 'stars' and bureaucrats of the BBC,  and about the licence fee, I think they should spend a few hours watching a big sporting occasion  and thanking their lucky stars that a) there are no awful adverts b) there are generally speaking knowledgeable 'pundits' and c) something very 'British' and proper about the way the whole thing is done. Give me Gary Lineker, Hazel Irvine, Peter Allis et al any day over the best that ITV can throw at it - and I won't even start to compare Sky's blingy coverage.

Rant over. Looking forward to the 18th!