TEAM ROOKWOOD

It's the last round this week - what do you mean 'hooray'? - and the individual title of King of the Gamblers is still very much up for grabs. Who's going to win? Place your bets now.

TEAM ROOKWOOD

Jack's back. And he's got some strong words for anyone that might have failed an exam in the past. And, as art imitates life, is Team Rookwood about to be usurped at the last, a la Arsenal?

TEAM ROOKWOOD (£447.71)

TEAM ROOKWOOD (£474.71)

Just watch the National reel 'em in.

Another week comes and goes and more bets are placed, of which most lose. Familiarity breeds stability so perhaps it's no great shame. In fact, where would us poor bookmakers be if the punters started winning all the time? Most likely out of business.

Last week saw 12 bets fail to win from 12. Which qualifies the statement:'what a bunch of losers'.

Twelve bets. Twelve losers. No wonder resident expert Jack Urquhart is bemused.

After an uncomfortable brush with crabs, Jack's back to oversee our punters once more. And it's business as usual with the soaraway Rookwood team, erm, soaring away.

As Schumacher is undone by Coulthard, so Rookwood comes unstuck by Cunningham's crafty bet on the McLaren-Mercedes man. At this rate YBYL is in danger of following F1's lead and becoming entertaining

Week 25 and still no-one has strung together a series of successful bets. But full marks for perseverance even if everyone secretly wishes they'd gone the same way as Scott Murray before them and got well shot of it.

OK, I'll be straight with you dear readers, I'm not a big fan of mornings. 6am is all very well if approached from the night before but when it forces itself upon my sleeping form with loud insistent beeping noises it's not liable to make it onto my Christmas card list. And alas the wrong kind of 6am has been much in evidence of late as this seemingly endless Cricket World Cup imposes its tyrannical timetable on me. It doesn't help when I rush to get into work at 7am for the toss only to find its raining in Bulawayo and I might as well have stayed in bed.

TEAM ROOKWOOD (£420.83)

So Urquhart's swanning off to the antipodes, leaving me to keep this rabble in order. It's alright for some. Still, the sun is shining, Reading have won five on the trot and even England's cricketers seem to be playing well (though by the time you read this they will doubtless have been humiliated by India). So I'm in a fairly chipper mood; at least I was until I looked at this week's bets and, even more frighteningly, the accompanying comments.