chrisobee

70/2 Patel 10* has been dropped THREE times

57/2 Griffiths has 2/5 off 5 overs. Bowling excellently by all accounts.

Notts 34/2. Both wickets to Griffiths in his 1st 2 overs. Pothas has a calf strain and Bates is due to arrive around mid day.

Match report : http://ht.ly/4xOTz

A draw it was, Hants finished on 345/5. Adams 105, Dawson 70, Myburgh 42, McKenzie 43, Vince 14 Pothas 14* Ervine 22* . Very good effort 2nd time around.

Am I too late, I did start this thread

Lol, well Dubawi Gold won too but 10/11 was a silly price, Burj Alzain 3rd @ 9/1.

Yes, stick with boxing sounds good ! Swerving Aintree altogether Dubawi Gold at Lingfield in the 3.00 might well win but is short enough at around 6/4, at a best priced 10/1 Burj Alzain looks the ew shout. At Thirsk in the 1.35 Pelmanism is a nice horse but now at around 7/2 I would say that is short enough.

Fair to say you are therefore in the right place

It is/was and I am duly sitting back and watching.

I'd be interested to hear from someone who was actually there today but every indication is that the pitch is easy paced and very good for batting. Briggs taking 4/127 off 28 overs was actually a damned good effort.

Unfortunately Could It Be Magic 2nd @9/2. At least I went win/place on TE so no harm done and my 6th winning day in a row, I might just sit back and watch on Saturday !

Thanks though as indicated very few of my selections were that confident ! I did fancy Saint Are to run a good race, winning was somewhat of a surprise

Do you really think I would select anything I knew you had selected Thankfully you didn't post Saint Are otherwise doubtless I would have just blindly followed you on that one as well Chris

Just after lunch and Stokes out for 0 caught by Cork off Jones. 121-3.

2.00 Sire De Grugy @ 9/2/ Topolski @ 5/1 : Sire De Grugy bypassed Cheltenham and though this looks a very open race he looks very progressive. Topolski also merits serious consideration. Best of the rest could be A Media Luz who will appreciate the sharper track but needs to settle better though at 7/8-1 may be worth a small ew punt. 2.30 Wayward Prince @ 11/4/ Quito De La Rouge @ 4/1: With a current best book of 102% there should be value here. It seems to lie with the top 2 in the betting. I would definitely prefer Quito De Rouge if there was more cut in the ground, the faster ground might just favour Wayward Prince with the obvious benefit of having McCoy on board. 3.05 Alberta’s Run @ 7/2 /Kalahari King @9/2 Phew, I would not risk even a free bet on this race ! Master Minded, Alberta’s Run, Somersby, Kalahari King all have solid claims and not that much to chose between them in the betting. However, Alberta’s Run tends to come good at this time of year and was impressive winning at Cheltenham and won this race last year. I’d love to see Master Minded win but I fear his best days may be behind him, one time when I would be happy to be proved wrong. With that in mind I feel Kalahari King might be the main danger. 3.40 Frankie Figg ew @14/1 / Scotsirish ew @20/1/ Forizy Origny ew @33/1 : Even though my strongest bet of the day is that Frankie will be on Frankie Figg he looks overpriced at around 12/1. Unseated his rider last time out but arrives here fresh and if his jumping holds up looks a good ew bet at the very least. Both Mon Parrain and Dev are too short for me so at a decent price am also going to opt for Forizy Origny @ around 33/1. He jumps well and no logical reason I can see why he is 33/1 whilst Mon Parrain, another French import is around 5/1. Scotchirish is another not to be dismissed lightly, 20/1 looks a fair price. 4.15 Sparky May ew @ 11/2 / Indian Daudaie ew @ 20/1/ Saint Are ew @ 66/1: Ok, this race is not funny ! An old friend in Sparky May is amongst the favoured runners but in truth I think any one of the runners could win this. However, Sparky May looks the form choice to me and I would be disappointed if she doesn’t go close. Indian Daudaie will need to find something to get involved but still makes some appeal @ 20/1.I simply cannot ignore Saint Are ( SJ are currently 80/1) so that gives me 3 though I might need 6-8 to even find a placed horse ! Court in Motion should appreciate conditions. 4.50 Ringaroses ew @9/1 / Swingkeel ew @ 12/1 Ringaroses was the winner of this race last year on similar ground with the same weight, has won seven of his twenty races and with trainer Jonjo O'Neill having saddled four of the last nine winners of this event, Tony McCoy's mount must be on the shortlist. Swingkeel is very unexposed and though making his handicap debut could well be a very smart horse. That said another very trappy race. 5.25 Tante Sissi @9/2 / Keyaza ew@ 14/1 As with the finale yesterday this looks hopeless and having somehow dug out Russian War yesterday it is hard to imagine I can be so lucky again ! One of the few hints is that 4 year olds tend to do well in this race which gives a very short list of 2 and on that basis I’m opting for those 2 with Tante Sissi the likely favourite. Keyaza is fitted with cheekpieces today but is being backed so those are my final 2 speculative selections. Ok, time to copy and paste on to the forum and hope, in fact pray, Frankie and Sir Cato don’t jinx me again . Good luck all, I think we might need it but come what may at 5.30 pm I bet the sun will still be shining ! Chris PS One selection at Wolverhampton 8.15 Could It Be Magic @5/1

Briggs again, 99/2 ! A four through point brings up the 50 for Stoneman but then Briggs gets his revenge - bowled for 51. Doesn't appear to be worn out !

Yep, Briggs gets Di Venuto for 42, caught by Ervine.

Hants might prove otherwise but it's said to be a very good wicket, the dry weather is due to last so hopefully conditions will not change by the time we bat sometime tomorrow !

I doubt this will work by jinxing them but Durham cruising along at 33/0.

Durham : MJ Di Venuto, MD Stoneman, GJ Muchall, BA Stokes, DM Benkenstein, ID Blackwell, P Mustard*†, SG Borthwick, LE Plunkett, CD Thorp, SJ Harmison

Durham have won the toss and will bat. As Benny Howell rather indicated last night on Twitter ( !!) Liam Dawson plays for Hants : Adams, Dawson, Myburgh, McKenzie, Vince, Pothas, Ervine, Cork, Jones, Briggs, de Wet Looks a pretty good team with good depth in the batting and plenty of bowling options. Durham team to follow.

These being the 2 key words !

Re Carberry from Simon Vincent : hantscricket Hampshire Cricket @ @cobee33 don't know for sure ( how long MC will be out) . Trying not to put a date on it. Hopefully not too long though! Cracking batsman and a lovely guy.

Quite probably, fortunately no one jinxed Kumbeshwar and more importantly Russian War in the finale ! It was bizarre as I had my selections ready to post but wanted to add a few pieces of info. When I started posting I soon realised I was duplicating several of yours Frankie and also Cato. By the time I had finished Cato had gone for Sports Line and Royal Charm as well lol I'm not sure who should apologise to who in truth but since I'm quite happy I shall not bother !! Good luck today all, I will draft my post and then just copy it straight on here and hope I swerve most of the other picks, I did avoid noticing what has been selected already which helps Chris