h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Final report from the shed for this season...

A good day for a settler of 500 bets is one where the opposition score first; so, Arsenal get a penalty in the second half, and we thing 'Eey up!'. Problem is that Portsmouth have David James. The score is still 0-0 and I am still looking at an enormous pile of bets.

Shortly afterwards, Portsmouth get a goal. Or perhaps not. Seems that the referee is hell-bent on ensuring Portsmouth do not get into europe and disallows a perfectly good (although confusing-looking) goal.

So, it finishes 0-0. The contingency measures I have in place swing into action. We sort the large slips by number because we are never going to get through them in the time available, so we can find the slips that people come back with, and settle the rest when we get back to the office. I've already got the small bets sorted by correct score, so there is only the 'mix' pile to go through (which is the pile of bets that do not fit any single correct score, due to having multiple bets on them, or first-player-to-score bets). Done and dusted after about ten minutes, we head back to the barn, cash up and go home.

Definitely makes a change from the hammering that we take each time Portsmouth win 2-1.

Anyway, the transfer window is open, and we'll see how well Pompey do next season. Whether we will be trading at the ground or not remains to be seen, as it is up for negotiation.

Until then (or until something else interesting happens), I'm off...