Arrival Liverpool Black
Dairy of Spread Bettor - Week 14
Thursday 20th August
Happy Birthday! Well, it would have been a hell of a lot happier if Jonny Murtagh hadn’t stuck to the inside rail for so long in the Ebor on Changingoftheguard yesterday. He waited, waited and waited for the gap to open until eventually switching off the rail and mounting his charge down the centre of the track. His ‘charge’ ended in a painful neck defeat and surely a slight Changingofthetactics and I’d have been in the money.
Anyway, the final Ashes decider got underway at the Oval and Andrew Strauss won a good toss and elected to bat first on what was supposed to be a decent surface. I sold my usual £5 of Cook runs at 43 and didn’t have to wait long for my first spread betting birthday present of the day. He was caught Ponting, bowled Siddle for just 10 runs and I was £165 richer before lunch. Sadly, there was no Bopara to sell coming in at ‘3’, so I just had to sit and watch for a while. It’s good to sit and watch from time to time – like a hawk sitting up in a tree waiting to strike.
There seemed to still be a few demons in the pitch so decided to strike again and sell Strauss as soon as he hit 40. He hit that target relatively easily, so I decided that I’d take another look again at 60 and strike then. Unfortunately, I’d taken a lesson on timing from Jonny Murtagh and I arrived on the scene too late. I can confirm that life certainly doesn’t begin at 40, 50 or 60… for me (or should I say Strauss) it ended irritatingly on 55. If only I’d sold at 92! If, If, If… If my granny had had balls, she’d have been my grandfather!
The racing at York was tough and I was annoyed with myself for not selling Sariska on the index in the Yorkshire Oaks. Sporting Index had been running adverts all week telling potential clients to ‘grow some’ and it was time to take note. I wasn’t going to make money sitting on the bench (only Michael Owen can do that!).
Friday 21st August
When you make a terrible mistake, it’s important to recognise it straight away and do your best to rectify the situation! I bought Australia runs at 400 for £5 and when Broad removed Watson and Ponting in quick succession with the scoreboard still 15 shy of a ton, it was time to hit the ‘abandon ship’ button! I managed to take a £235 loss just seconds before Hussey was removed for a duck just 4 runs later. When Clarke, North, Katich and Haddin all joined him back in the pavilion with the scoreboard showing a pitiful 111, I realised that I had somehow managed to steer the good ship Esdaile around that iceberg with only minor damage.
The Aussies were eventually dismissed for just 160 and I suddenly remembered my ‘Losing Your Bottle’ position and an extra 40 points… happy days. To wrap up a good day, I sold Cook again at 36 for another £5 and was delighted to see him fall for 1 run less than his first innings total. Missed out on selling Bell and Collingwood but my £135 Cook winnings, together with my ‘Losing Your Bottle’ gains had wiped out the damage caused by my Aussie first innings trade.
Saturday 22nd August
Having bought Sunderland on the 25/10 index against Blackburn for £15 at 16.5, I wasn’t too thrilled to see Givet (whoever he is?) give the visitors a 21st minute lead. However, Kenwyn Jones popped up twice before the full time whistle to give Sunderland all three points. He drives a brand new top of the range black Bentley sports car with a personalised number plate by the way… I saw him in the car park after the Chelsea game four days earlier. I questioned why he was paid so much that night, but he answered those questions emphatically this afternoon and netted me a £127.50 profit.
I’m less keen on Rooney (twice), Berbatov, Owen and Nani though! I decided to sell total goals at 2.8 in the United v Wigan game for £100 a goal and couldn’t envisage a loss with the sides still goalless in the 55th minute. The next 35 minutes yielded five goals and a £220 loss. Thank God for Newcastle. Their 2-0 away win at Palace won me back £160 to make it a profitable day on the football (only just!).
I backed two horses at Sandown who were both thoroughly disappointing! Firstly, Buzzword was all the rage in the Solario Stakes and looked the likely winner at the two furlong pole. Frankie looked to be going better that the eventual winner Shakespearian at that point, but Mark Johnston horses are not easily passed. A potential £170 win soon became a £30 loss in a matter of strides. Then, my old friend (now enemy) Lang Shining showed that he had successfully completed his transition from horse to dog by whimpering out of contention in the handicap and losing me £100 along the way.
Sunday 23rd August
Sat back and watched England pull off a memorable win against Australia at the Oval. No need for a bet, just one of those occasions I’ll remember for a very long time – a cracking series over (probably not as good as 2005, but not far behind).
The World Athletics Championships also came to an end without me having a single bet on the event. I didn’t sell Bolt’s 100 metres winning time, nor did I buy Caster Semenya cheaply on the Women’s 800 metres index. Apparently, she was furious at having to take a gender test. She said at the press conference afterwards, “After my success on the track, this is a real kick in the bollocks”……..
Monday 24th August
With the Ashes over and only the un-callable Liverpool v Villa game on, it was time to work out my long term profit and loss figure for the series. My one disastrous position was my £3 buy of Mitchell Johnson’s series performance at 650. A final make-up of 505 meant a £435 loss. However, my two separate £5 sells of the lowest all out team score at 155 and 170 respectively had yielded a £605 profit. My £5 sell of Cook runs at 355 meant another £665 profit (final make-up 222), while my £5 buy of ‘Losing Your Bottle’ at 43 added another £475 to the coffers. So, all told, my long term positions had returned an overall profit of £1310.
Tuesday 25th August
Began the process of giving all my Ashes profits back by getting sucked into a gamble in a Novices’ Handicap Chase at Sedgefield. The beast in question was called Prospectorous and had nothing apparently going for it other than the fact it was trained in Ireland. The 16/1 lasted less time than an average Alastair Cook innings and I was pleased to eventually get some of the 10/1 still available. The gamble continued right the way through to the off and Dennis O’Regan’s mount was eventually sent off 9/4 favourite. The five year-old managed to beat seven of the other eight runners, but sadly found Sarah’s Gift too good. Annoying!
Wednesday 26th August
Arsenal play Celtic in the second league of the Champions League qualifier and I decide to go against popular opinion and don’t expect a goal fest. I sold goals for £100 at 2.9 and sat back with fingers crossed…
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Women in the Martial Arts - Anita Wilson
Women In The Martial Arts
by Anita Wilson
1st Lady Assistant to Sensei Henry Ellis
Ellis Schools of Traditional Aikido
Anita Wilson was graded to Shodan by Jiro Nakazono Sensie the second son of the legendary Budo master who had graded her teacher Henry Ellis in 1963.
I was born in West London in 1963, my father was very involved in the martial arts and a dan grade in Karate he was also a dealer in ancient Japanese arms and armour, although my father has an antiques shop in London's Bond Street, my home was more like a samurai warriors dressing room, with original suits of Japanese armour complete with very frighting face masks that would frighten the life out of my friends when ever they came to visit, there were also very many valuable swords yari and naginata spears.
The Masters
My father would travel around the world searching for the best quality weapons, what intrigued me the most as a child was all these strange visitors that would come to my home, the famous Otani family were regular visitors with Sensei Matsuro Otani 7th dan Judo the UK National Coach, Kenshiro Abbe Sensei, Tomio Otani Sensei the UK National Coach for Kendo, his visitors were like the who's who of martial arts, as recently as two weeks ago I was pleased to meet with Sensei Kazuo Chiba 8th dan when he came to see my father.
Introduction to Aikido
As a child I did a little Karate with my father but nothing serious until 1992 when I went to the local Aikido dojo in Bracknell, Berkshire, UK. All those years with my father and his Japanese weapons must have had a latent but profound effect on me, as I watched Sensei Ellis teaching his Positive Style of Traditional Aikido I knew there and then that this was the martial art for me.
The Hard Training Begins
When I started Aikido I made a point of training with the men and they treated me as one of them. With regular practice I progressed. I had now developed the hard training bug and started courses in physical training and amateur weight lifting, after a few years of hard work I became a fully qualified fitness instructor-personal trainer and amateur weight lifting coach, the high light of all this effort was when Sensei Ellis promoted me to assistant coach of the Ellis Schools of Traditional Aikido (ESTA) two years later he promoted me to first lady assistant to himself, there had never ever been a lady assistant in all the long history of the ESTA, Sensei put me on a three month trial and 8 year on I am still here.
In 1994 I received my coaching certificate from the British Aikido Board (BAB) which is the governing body for Aikido in the UK. Once I became assistant to Sensei Ellis I became involved in assisting in teaching both men and women and also helping with the children's classes.
The First Seminar
Sensei Ellis asked if I would like to take part in a very large and important seminar in Liverpool in the North of England, Sensei Ellis is not one of those teachers who has a pet uke follow him around to fly all over the mat at a touch or a glance, he prefers to try to involve all the students who attend his seminars if possible, knowing this I felt very privileged but nervous when Sensei told me there would be about 700 students from various martial arts, I think the phrase "Being thrown in at the deep end" is applicable here.
On arrival at the venue I was amazed to see so many students from so many countries, UK-France-Germany-Italy-India-Austria are just some that I can recall. Sensei Ellis was asked to take the first class of approximately 50 dan grades from various martial arts. Sensei had me demonstrate 100 press-ups on the backs of my wrists with fingers pointing both inwards and outwards. When I had finished and was in the raised position Sensei sat on my back (he did not warn me of this) and carried on with his lecture. Sensei suggested that those who wanted to should try this exercise. It was amazing to see all these black belts struggling. Later I had a little crowd around me wanting to inspect my wrists, I explained that this exercise is standard for both seniors and juniors in our schools.
I was now feeling a little more confident when Sensei pointed out that there were six young dan grades who had arrived late and were respectfully waiting for permission to come onto the mat. Sensei asked me to show them what we had been teaching so far, they were all wearing black gi's and when I approached and invited them on the mat, they scowled as if to say "hey, we have not traveled all the way from London to be taught by a women" as I showed the first technique "nikkyo" a wrist locking action, the first guy tried to resist me, I applied the technique as shown to me so many times by Sensei and almost put him through the mat. I thought he would be upset with me, but as he got up he asked "How did you do that?". He then wanted me to do the technique on all the others, now I had their attention and they were a great bunch of guy's. I really enjoyed teaching them. At the end of the seminar, as we were leaving the hall to head for the car park, these six guy's were waiting in a line and bowed to me simultaneously with a smile and said to Sensei Ellis " You have a strong lady assistant there ,sensei" Sensei replied " That is why she is my assistant". That was my first seminar and one that I will never forget.
I have been involved in many other seminars with my Sensei and they were always good, but I was never so overawed as I was at my first one, or so I thought. Then Sensei Ellis asked if I would like to visit New Mexico in the USA for a seminar. The seminar was to be held in Alamogordo NM, where Sensei's USA representative in the US lives and works at the Space Museum. Sensei visits New Mexico every year and we have another Ellis dan grade in Texas, Al Montemar. I had always wanted to visit the US and jumped at the opportunity. We made the trip into a vacation for friends and family. We taught members of the USAF and German Air Force at Holloman AFB, which included a guided tour of the base and various fighter aircraft, including the Stealth bomber. Sensei Rogers is an instructor who teaches students from the USAF, Highway Patrol, police and some members of the United States Marshals.
While in the US, I also visited the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. I intend to move to Phoenix to live within the next two to three years. Sensei Ellis has a book on aikido coming out next spring in the US titled "Positive Aikido" which I am pleased to be featured in, Sensei Rogers is a journalist by profession and has worked on this book for the past two years and it will be published in the US. There are several publishers interested in the book so we are all very excited about this latest project. I hope to be visiting the US again next year and I hope to be there for the launching of the book.
For the martial artists out there I would like to add one more comment about the proposed book. Where as most Aikido books spend a great deal of time harmonizing with the planets and the universe, there will be none of that in this book, Sensei always tells students to come out of the clouds and get back on the tatami because "This is where it all happens" and he also often says " leave the dancing to Fred Astair" (who is Fred Astair?).
Anita Wilson
Assistant to Sensei Ellis
Posted by Henry Ellis Co-author of Positive Aikido.
http://www.EllisAikido.org
About the Author
Anita Wilson is a highly qualified fitness instructor and a long time student of Hensry Ellis Sensei, she is the first women to be graded in the 50 years of the Ellis Schools of Traditional Aikido.
