After the highs and lows of the first Test in Cardiff, Chris Davies has taken an early lead in the Sky Bet Ashes Media challenge.
Sky Bet, one of the SJA’s lead sponsors, is providing 30 of the Association’s members each with £50 in free bets on each of the Ashes Tests. At the end of the series, all of the entrants in the challenge will get to keep their winnings, while Sky Bet will match the winner’s balance with a donation to the charity of their choice.
Davies is currently leading the way with a balance of £92.92, after he also had the biggest single return with a £30 bet on the draw at 11/8, also aided by a small bet on the Australian captain Ricky Ponting to be their leading first innings run scorer. PA Sport’s golf correspondent, Mark Garrod, has headed off to the Open this week just £12.92 behind Davies in second place, while cricket writer Adam Hathaway is third with £77.85.
Notable in the pack, in seventh place, is former Test cricketer and the Telegraph‘s correspondent Derek Pringle.
There were a number of patriotic punters who put all their faith in England, and the in-play markets proved popular throughout the Test. Hathaway was rewarded by backing Ricky Ponting to score 150 runs or more at 11/8 and a number of other people took advantage of the run in next over market. In the top batsman markets, both Ricky Ponting and Kevin Pietersen proved very popular and reward their followers at 10/3 and 5/2.
The second Test gets underway this Thursday and Sky Bet is offering 3/1 for England to beat Australia at Lord’s, with Australia 7/4 and the draw the 11/10 favourite.
With England having not beaten Australia at the home of cricket since 1934 and the Lords pitch not renowned for spin, we can expect some changes from the first Test. Sky Bet is offering a number of special bets including, 4/7 for the Durham bowler Graham Onions, who took 10 wickets on debut against West Indies earlier this year, to start the second Test with his team mate Steve Harmison, who took 5-60 against Yorkshire at the weekend, 2/1 to start the second Test.
James Anderson’s 26 in England’s first innings and 21 not out in their second innings saw the Lancashire man extend his record of the most innings without a duck to 50. It is 11/4 he’s out for a duck during the second Test and 8/11 his string of ducks comes to an end during the current series.
Sky Bet will be uploading the next £50 into accounts by 5pm on Tuesday July 14. Please note: any of the original £50 that was not staked by the close of the first Test will not be available to be used.
For Sky Bet’s latest Ashes markets visit www.skybet.com
Sky Bet Ashes Media Challenge – Leaderboard After The First Test
1. Chris Davies (£92.92)
2. Mark Garrod (£80.00)
3. Adam Hathaway (£77.85)
4. Nick Hoult (£65.00)
5. Richard Rae (£58.33)
6. Paul Trow (£52.17)
7. Derek Pringle (£51.39)
8. Ian Cole (£50.00)
9. Glyn Thomas (£39.17)
10. Steven Downes (£28.89)
11. Lawrence Booth (£20.70)
12. Oliver Brett (£19.94)
13. Ian Lamont (£11.00)
14. Sam Sheringham (£9.17)
15. Simon Briggs (£3.48)
â–¡ Sky Bet are the SJA’s newest partners, the sponsorship being announced in October 2008.
Together with the SJA’s other lead sponsor, UK Sport, both partners support our two prestigious annual awards events, including the Sky Bet sports betting writer of the year at the SJA’s British Sports Journalism Awards.
The 61st annual SJA British Sports Awards will be staged at The Brewery, in London, on December 9 2009.
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