NFL INTERNATIONAL SERIES GAME 3 -- BENGALS vs REDSKINS

Sunday 30th October

Cincinnati Bengals vs Washington Redskins
@ Wembley Stadium




The 3rd of this seasons international games will take place at Wembley and follows last weekends match at Twickenham the home of Rugby. Another sell out crowd is expected for these popular matches and kick off will be at 1.30pm, don't forget that the clocks went back an hour this morning. 

Current season record 


Cincinnati Bengals
 - P7 W3 L4
Washington Redskins
 - P7 W4 L3

As we can see neither team is in scintillating form this season and both sides currently sit third in their respective divisions. Looks more like a must win game for the Redskins if they are going to mount a realistic play off surge this season. 

Neither of these teams have played here at Wembley before in the series and Washington have their quarterback Kirk Cousins back in action having missed a couple of games recently with concussion. We will aim to keep a brief summary of each quarter as the game progresses, should be a great conclusion to this series of UK fixtures which will surely grow until we have our own regular season NFL franchise. 

For those of you not coming to Wembley this Sunday afternoon the match will be screened live via the BBC on their Red Button service which is Channel 601 for those with Freeview in the UK. Have a fun day.

1st Quarter;
Cincinnati kick off to get us underway for this early Sunday afternoon match against the Redskins. Washington make the most of their opening drive moving up the field with quarterback Kirk Cousins completing three 3rd down completions and they score the first touchdown with a Rob Kelly 4 yard run. 

The Bengals do fight back immediately though by returning the kick off 65 yards back to the Washington 35 yard line on their opening drive. Seven plays later and they are into the end zone for the equalising touchdown by Giovani Bernard with an 8 yard run. Washington take the ball back to the Bengals 27 yard line with the aid of some penalty calls and that brings an end to the opening quarter with the scores level at 7-7. 

2nd Quarter;
The 2nd period started with Washington going well but took a chance on a 4th and 1 yard and failed to convert it so gave possession back to Cincinnati on their own 18 yard line, they couldn't make that count and were soon having to punt for the first time. 

Washington race back up inside the Bengals red zone including a great 44 yard pass from Cousins to Vernon Davis and have another 4th down inside the 3 yard line but this time elect to take the field goal and go 10-7 ahead. Cincinnati miss their own 51 yard field goal and give Washington another chance to drive before the end of the half, this doesn't last too long as a huge throw up the middle is intercepted by George Iloka at their 15 yard line we now hear the two minute warning with no addition to the score.  

H/T Score;    Bengals 7 -- 10 Redskins

3rd Quarter;
Washington get us back underway for the 2nd half with a small 3 point lead, Andy Dalton takes the Bengals back up the field with an 11 play drive that results in a completed pass to Tyler Eifert for a 15 yard touchdown (the extra point is missed however) so that puts Cincinnati into a 13-10 lead. 

A quick three and out for Washington includes a big sack for Cousins and they have to punt, so the advantage with the Bengals again as they drive to the red zone again and have a chance from the 3 yard line following a penalty, Andy Dalton runs the ball in himself for a touchdown and the extra point is successful this time. Cincinnati lead 20-10 now. If the Redskins were dominating the first half the Bengals have certainly come out all guns blazing in the second. 

Washington come back immediately with a 91 yard drive in just over two minutes ends with a Jordan Reed 23 yard pass from Cousins and powers his way into the end zone for another touchdown, this reduces the Bengals lead to just 3 points. Plenty of action this quarter and the score is 20-17 as the 3rd quarter comes to a close with Cincinnati Bengals on the Washington 34 yard line.

4th Quarter;
Two plays into the final quarter and just as you expect the Bengals to score again the ball is Intercepted by Washington's Will Compton and the Redskins are back on the attack again and they take full advantage with a 33 yard pass to Jamison Crowder for another touchdown and that gives the lead back to Washington. Can they hold on now? 

And the answer is no, it's end to end action now with a huge play from Andy Dalton throwing a 39 pass reception to A J Green which sees them on the 8 yard line, a couple of running plays later and Jeremy walks into the end zone to see the Bengals lead 27-24 with about six minutes to go.

Final plays of the match as we move into the last two mins, Washington QB Cousins throws a great reception on 3rd and 13 to put themselves into the Bengals 22 yard line. Only need a field goal to send the game to overtime which they make from 40 yards. That missed extra point earlier in the game looks like being crucial now.

F/T Score;    Bengals 27 -- 27 Redskins 

The overtime period saw plenty of possession but the only real attempt at a win was a 34 yard field goal from Washington that missed wide left. Not a great day from the kickers, with extra point conversion missed as well as field goals that should normally be successful. 

A tied game doesn't really help either side but good game nonetheless for the Wembley crowd. 

2016/2017 LEAGUE ONE SEASON -- AFC WIMBLEDON V BRADFORD KO 3PM

This weekend high flying AFC Wimbledon host Bradford City in League One at Kingsmeadow and will be seeking to continue their unbeaten run which stretches to eight matches.

Bradford City currently residing in 3rd place in League One after 15 matches played, 26 points so far and no real surprise if they were to put together a lasting push for promotion. Their last league fixture was against promotion rivals Sheffield United where they had to settle for a point each after serving up a six-goal thriller at Valley Parade. We've had a few games with them back in our League Two days and I feel we perform better against the times at the top of the table instead of struggling against those lower down. This will be a real test at home in front of a capacity gate, they've already sold out so bring it on.

Wombles are in 6th place, flying a lot higher than I had expected for our first season in league one, but not going over the top, anything above the bottom four would be a wonderful season. But lets enjoy the run while we can, and maybe even look ahead to next weekends FA Cup game against Bury, a cup run would be most welcome.

We shall update on Saturday before kick off with the confirmed starting XI for both sides and any further news as it comes available. 

Line Ups (confirmed);

  AFC WIMBLEDON 
  Odds -- 15/8 (William Hill) 

 Shea (Gk),  Fuller (c),  Meades,  Robinson,  Bulman,  Barcham,  Nightingale,  Francomb,  Reeves,  Taylor,  Elliott  

Subs – McDonnell (Gk),  Whelpdale,  Beere,  Fitzpatrick,  Barnett,  Egan,  Owens

BRADFORD CITY
Odds -- 6/4 (William Hill) 

Doyle (Gk),  Darby,  Vincelot,  Knight-Percival,  Kilgallon,  Hiwula-Mayifuila,  Dieng,  Law,  Cullen,  Hanson,  B Clarke

Subs –  Sattelmaier (Gk),  N Clarke,  Marshall,  McNulty,  Vuckic,  McCardle,  Morais


H/T Score – 1 - 1.

First Half Comment;
The match gets underway and plenty of anticipation amongst the home fans in this full house at Kingsmeadow. But that doesn't last too long as with only 3 mins gone Jordy Hiwula-Mayifuila scores for Bradford City, a low right footed shot from the centre of the area.

Plenty of chances for both sides followed in the opening 15 mins and delighted that on 18 mins a free kick is floated into the box and leads to the Dons equaliser, Tom Elliott smashing home for AFC Wimbledon with a left footed shot to the top left corner. Anyone's game and if it carries on like this we should be looking at plenty more goals. 

F/T Score – 2 - 3.

Match Summary;
Gutted, we played so well against one of the better / stronger teams on this league and failed to capitalise on taking the lead with a Lyle Taylor penalty. Conceded a second half penalty ourselves and then a winner to Bradford, there will be other days for us and we're still over achieving in my opinion for the squad we have and under Neal Ardley we are still improving. Well done to Bradford, deserved it on overall balance.

My Man of the Match – James Shea (several top saves including throwing himself at the feet of Bradford forwards, otherwise this might have been over much earlier).

Referee -- Our Referee for this weekends game will be Graham Horwood, 40, from Luton. Appointed as a football league referee in 2011 was then kicked out after a mistake-ridden year, only to be reinstated in 2014.

Seems to pick up injuries and only managed to take charge of 12 games last season, so don't be surprised if he goes down again on Saturday. (Went off at half-time during our game with Plymouth in 2014, and went off again during the Northampton v Bristol Rovers game this month).

Attendance – 4,826.

Next match:
Saturday 5th November vs Bury (AWAY)
FA Cup Round One -- KO 3pm

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2016 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #32 26th OCTOBER

Last meeting for October which has been very good to us this season and having already wiped out the majority of our losses for the year (bar a fraction) and have plenty of faith looking ahead to our 32nd meeting of the season. Although it has been an up and down season to go through 10 months and not be too far off level is satisfying even though you would obviously be seeking profits, the fact that these results are to SP I think it's clear we would be well ahead to advanced prices. So we crack on with our regular Wednesday nights at Kempton all the way through until the years end. 

The season has seen us ebb and flow, currently we are a only a little behind and showing a loss of -2.84 points. All being equal we can find some more winners and now continue through into the turn of the year.

As always our focus will be on the handicap contests for each meeting but will occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1pt level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds but for the purpose of the results we record to SP.

We will keep up with our occasional lay opportunity of short priced favourites, we were back with another successful lay last week [we've only had two failures all season, both of which were odds on favs] which isn't bad when most are short prices as a result we now have a success rate of 15 from 17. Results for this will be kept separately too and hopefully we can remain at +88% for the rest of the year.

This week there's another eight race card on offer, we have six handicap contests now with the division of the final race and tonight's action commencing at 17:45 with a 1m 2f handicap.

Here is a link to this evening's race card;
EVENING RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as Standard to Slow and the current weather forecast is for a cloudy evening with a max temperature of about 14C when the meetings begins and remain cloudy but dry during the evening. The weather is predictable for Autumn now and it's time to get the jumpers out.

Here are our selections for this evening's handicaps;

17:45 -- 1m 2f Handicap.
Our opening event on this busy card is a 1m 2f contest with a field of 14 runners, and old friend is in the line up the reliable ESTIBDAAD [2nd 12/1] who has the champion apprentice Joe Gordon on top and that has to be a plus. 

Richard Hannon runs FAST AND HOT [WON 9/2] and this 3yo has been running consistently too and should be thereabouts stepping up in trip, will back the pair against the field. [Winner and runner up what a great start to the evening, forecast paid a nice £53.80 too]. 

18:15 -- 1m 4f Handicap.
The next race isn't much better and we'll just try a small wager on HALLING'S WISH [WON 7/1] a regular over jumps and on the flat is at least in some form and won't need to be improving to take this. 

19:45 -- 7f Handicap.
Two from the big yards line up here, probably not their best inmates but even so on the AW they could be the best option, so we'll aim to dutch OWASEYF [4th 4/1] and VOLITION [WON 4/1].

20:15 -- 1m 4f Handicap (3yo).
Better class and fewer runners now, just the 8 declared, the top weight ROCK STEADY [Non Runner] has been running well but finding one too good for a while now, looks too short for us and we'll LAY that one. 

FASHION PARADE [2nd 6/1] can take advantage if the fav fails to deliver once again.

20:45 -- 1m Handicap (Div One).
The mile handicap has been divided into two races tonight, each having 10 runners and the opening division has a 'star' in ZLATAN [2nd 5/2F] who should be up to taking this despite top weight.

21:15 -- 1m Handicap (Div Two).
SHIFTING STAR [4th 8/1] is no spring chicken at 11yo but if Zlatan takes the previous race could be a good omen for this ones chances here. 

Otherwise I'd give RED COSSACK [2nd 10/1] another go here.

Staked -- 9 points
Returns -- 18.5 points after 3 wins in our first 3 races.

Results will appear here during Wednesday evening as we aim to turn our loss of -2.84 points into profit for the year to date. A good nights work, profit for 9.5 points to SP and wipes out the loss leaving us ahead to level stakes +6.66

Lays -- 15/17. (Rock Steady a NR in the 8:15 tonight) 

Our next Wednesday evening meeting at this course will be on 2nd November, it's back to a regular weekly fixture till the end of the year so see you next week.

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2016 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #31 19th OCTOBER

We are enjoying a wonderful time in October already wiping out our losses for the year (bar a fraction) and have plenty of faith looking ahead to our 31st meeting of the season. Although it has been an up and down season to go through 10 months and not be too far off level is satisfying even though you would obviously be seeking profits, the fact that these results are to SP I think it's clear we would be well ahead to advanced prices. So we crack on with our regular Wednesday nights at Kempton all the way through until the years end. 

The season has seen us ebb and flow, currently we are a only a little behind and showing a loss of -0.34 points. All being equal we can find some more winners and now continue through into the turn of the year.

As always our focus will be on the handicap contests for each meeting but will occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1pt level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds but for the purpose of the results we record to SP.

We will keep up with our occasional lay opportunity of short priced favourites, we were back with another successful lay last week [we've only had two failures all season, both of which were odds on favs] which isn't bad when most are short prices as a result we now have a success rate of 15 from 17. Results for this will be kept separately too and hopefully we can remain at +88% for the rest of the year.

This week there's another eight race card on offer, we have four handicap contests now with the division of the 7f handicap at 19:50, tonight's action commencing at 17:50 with a 1m handicap.

Here is a link to this evening's race card;
EVENING RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as Standard to Slow and the current weather forecast is for a cloudy evening with a max temperature of about 13C when the meetings begins and remain cloudy but dry during the evening. The weather is predictable for Autumn now and it's time to get the jumpers out.

Here are our selections for this evening's handicaps;

17:50 -- 1m Handicap.
Our opening event could be another opportunity for the improving MULTITASK [7th 7/2] to win again having won his last four races. However prior to that sequence was a long way back when last running at Kempton so some caution should be used. 

The opposition doesn't look up to much though, maybe the three year old DREAM OF SUMMER [WON 9/2] can take advantage of the weight allowance and his riders claim.

19:50 -- 7f Handicap (Div One).
This race has been divided tonight so the opening contest has 13 declared and the two that we should focus on at the only two with previous course winning form, they are PRESUMIDO [6th 20/1] and GOLDEN WEDDING [2nd 9/2]. 

The latter surely a decent place bet proposition on recent form and both have also gone well over a mile so a drop back to 7f shouldn't be an issue.


20:20 -- 7f Handicap (Div Two).
The second division is equally open, 12 declared, all but 4 are 3yo's. RIPOLL [9th 11/2] won here a couple of weeks ago and was going like a train at the end so could well strike again. 

Jamie Spencer is on board JORDAN SPORT [8th 6/1] and this lightly raced gelding could be interesting if he handles the AW surface having raced on Good and Soft tracks this season.


21:20 -- 1m 3f Handicap.
The finale for tonight and it features the evergreen MEGALALA [11th 16/1] who at 15 years young is having his 141st race. Still holding some level of form and clearly no back number can go well, maybe not win but we'll see how he goes. 

The one with a clear form chance is the twice runner up JUST FRED [4th 5/1] who is giving an opportunity to finally get his head in front.


Staked -- 8 points
Returns -- 5.5 points

Results will appear here during Wednesday evening as we aim to turn our loss of -0.34 points into profit for the year to date. Small loss tonight, down -2.5 points so now -2.84 to carry over to next week.

Lays -- 15/17. (None tonight) 

Our next Wednesday evening meeting at this course will be on 26th October, it's back to a regular weekly fixture till the end of the year so see you next week.

PONTEFRACT HORSE RACING SYSTEM -- 2016 TURF SEASON -- PART SIXTEEN (FINALE)

PONTEFRACT SEASON 2016
Monday 17th October
16th Meeting of this season ... the final one. 

This will be our 16th and final meeting of the season on Monday afternoon for our system that focuses on Pontefract racecourse, West Yorkshire and we've another fixture to enjoy getting underway about 2.00pm.

Currently showing a loss of -49.81 points to level stakes at SP. Beginning to look like we have the season that breaks the rule and fails (rather spectacularly) to break into profit. There are still some meetings to go and it's possible to turn things around but haven't seen this level of deficit since I started.

As always we count ALL results for this meeting returned to a level stake at SP, and will also show any forecast results too in the daily results but these do not count for the profit / loss figures.

The forecast going is currently reported as 'Soft' the weather for Monday afternoon is for a partly cloudy day with a fair chance of showers so take a brolly. The max temp is going to be about 15C and you can't complain about that in October, it's surely time for the jumpers to come out. 

Here are our selections for the 8 races on Monday afternoon, remember it's a very simple selection process of stalls 1 and 2 in every race;

2:10 1m 4yds Nursery (2yo).
(1) -- SILVER LINK  [2nd 100/30].
(2) -- GOOD TIME AHEAD  [9th 66/1].

2:40 6f Maiden (2yo).

(1) -- SUSSEX GIRL  [8th 25/1].
(2) -- BENJAMIN THOMAS  [2nd 8/11F].

3:10 1m 2f 6yds Handicap (Div One).

(1) -- EMPRESS ALI  [WON 5/1].
(2) -- GIANTSTEPSAHEAD  [3rd 9/2].

3:40 1m 4yds Listed Stakes (2yo).

(1) -- D'BAI  [WON 9/4F].
(2) -- EURO NIGHTMARE  [6th 11/1].

4:10 1m 4f 8yds Maiden.

(1) -- TIMEKEEPING  [WON 15/8F].
(2) -- MACKIRI  [5th 50/1].

4:40 2m 1f 216yds Phil Bull Trophy Stayers Championship.

(1) -- FUN MAC  [3rd 4/1].
(2) -- FOXCUB  [6th 22/1].

5:10 1m 2f 6yds Handicap (Div Two).
(1) -- AZZIR  [4th 15/2].
(2) -- BAHAMA MOON  [WON 5/2F].

5:40 5f Handicap.
(1) -- BALLESTEROS  [3rd 9/1].
(2) -- COSMIC CHATTER  [WON 12/1].


Staked -- 16 points.
Returns -- 28.625 Points

Balance B/F from the last meeting -49.81 points lost. 

We have a winning meeting to sign off on, not enough to wipe out the loss but does at least bring it down a little. Our overall loss to SP is now -37.185 just a little over 2 points a meeting, which if we were to have used advanced prices instead of SP could have been a lot less.

And that's all folks

We shall return next year despite the defeat this time around. 

See you in 2017.

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2016 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #30 12th OCTOBER

Here we are coasting into October already looking ahead to our 30th meeting of the season. Been a tricky season though it's far from over yet, regular Wednesday nights at Kempton continue till the years end. 

The season has seen us ebb and flow, currently we are a little behind and showing a loss of -13.84 points, which is now only an average loss of 0.47 points per meeting if you look at it over the entire year so far. All being equal we can find some more winners and now continue through into the turn of the year.

As always our focus will be on the handicap contests for each meeting but will occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1pt level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds but for the purpose of the results we record to SP.

We will keep up with our occasional lay opportunity of short priced favourites, we were back with another successful lay last week [we've only had one failure all season] which isn't bad when most are short prices as a result we now have a success rate of 14 from 15. Results for this will be kept separately too and hopefully we can remain at +93% for the rest of the year.

This week there's another seven race card on offer, we have only two handicap contests so will include the opening nursery as well. The action commencing at 17:20 with the nursery event over 5f.

Here is a link to this evening's race card;
EVENING RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as Standard to Slow and the current weather forecast is for a cloudy evening with a max temperature of about 15C when the meetings begins and remain cloudy but dry during the evening. The weather is predictable for Autumn now and it's time to get the jumpers out ready.

Here are our selections for this evening's handicaps;

17:20 -- 5f Nursery (2yo).
Ten go to post for the opening nursery contest, it's almost a 2yo maiden and although plenty have had several runs there's not much winning/place form to boast about. 

MISS MAYSON [2nd 3/1] improved last time out at Wolves and comes into this off a workable mark, likewise AT THE BEACH [WON 7/2] hails from a yard that knows a thing or two about 2yo's and might prefer the AW surface here rather than tracks such as Brighton and Bath.

17:55 -- 5f Handicap.

Another open sprint handicap next, ten declared and the pair I would want to be on against the field are TAHITI ONE [6th 4/1] who has already won three of her races on the AW tracks one off a 7lb higher mark and also the course and distance winner WESTBOURNE GROVE [4th 9/2] who should appreciate the drop back to 5f here tonight.

20:25 -- 7f Fillies Handicap.

A decent looking contest for our final handicap event, plenty in with chances and we'll start with CORONATION DAY [WON 14/1] who has had a little break since last win and can continue on the upgrade here. 

And ARISTOCRATIC [2nd 11/4] who won her maiden here two starts ago but has always been close in most of her racing and Ryan Moore is back on board.

Staked -- 6 points

Returns -- 19.5 points

Results will appear here during Wednesday evening as we aim to make further inroads into our loss of -13.84 points for the year to date. 

Excellent night, couple of winners gives us a profit tonight of 13.5 points which nearly wipes out our loses for the year, now we sit comfortably on -0.34 points loss. 

Lays -- 15/17. 

(Two tonight, 18:55 Shaaqaaf / 19:25 Gheedaa)

With only 3 races tonight found a couple of lays for this evening which come in the maiden events that dominate the card. First Lay is SHAAQAAF [LOST - 3rd 7/4F] in the 18:55 Kempton, a newcomer from John Gosden's stable it's no surprise they are made 2/1F, and Gosden's horses do tend to improve for their debut so instead I fancy the top one AMBROSIA to win, a Frankel Filly who can go well first time out. 

Second Lay bet comes in the 19:25 maiden, another fillies contest where GHEEDAA [WON 8/13F] is forecast 10/11F. Has to improve and Yarmouth is not an easy track so did well to run as close on debut but I quietly fancy the Richard Hannon newcomer QATARI RIYALS [3rd 14/1] instead.

Our next Wednesday evening meeting at this course will be on 19th October, it's back to a regular weekly fixture till the end of the year so see you next week.