Well that's that then! The six months' challenge to win £25K is now over and I came up just over £10K short making a profit of +£14,812 following a good final week largely thanks to Europe landing my big bet to win the Ryder Cup. Still, far better than a kick in the knackers. It's been an interesting experience and experiment and I've certainly learned plenty along the way, it's now a question of learning from the mistakes and moving forward. I do hope you enjoyed my weekly betting diaries over the last six months and should you wish to continue to follow some of my betting exploits and general sports-related thoughts, you can follow me on www.twitter.com/sportspunter01. Good luck for the upcoming Jumps Season.

Monday & Tuesday, September 27th & 28th

The X-Factor

No bets of the first two days of the week as was keeping my powder dry for a big week at the Ryder Cup though I did have £100 on Matt Cardle to win The X-Factor at 7/2.

Just one week to go where the Ryder Cup and Arc Weekend will play a big part (I have given my thoughts on both towards the end of this copy and have had my biggest bet over the last six months on a win for Europe), I currently stand at +£12,890 having made £423 over the last fortnight where I wasn't punting every day (took most of the week starting Sept 13th off to recharge the batteries hence why this week's copy has been spread out over a fortnight.

Monday, September 13th

Tennis

With the US Open Mens' Final spilling over to the Monday due to rain my £150 bet on Nadal beating Djokovic 3-0 or 3-1 at Evens had to wait 24 hours but it was worth it with the Spaniard taking out the Serb in four sets so a nice start to the week.

Any faint hopes I had of having a big final three weeks in my bid to win £25K realised in six months all but vanished when I made a loss of £1071 in Week 24 (taking my profit back down to +£12,452). In fact, I was staring a £2,000 loss in the face for the week but for a good Sunday so it could have been a heck of a lot worse. Terrible staking cost me dearly having backed 16/1 and 23/1 winners at Donny but still lost on horseracing on the week which is pretty unforgivable having had pennies on them compared to far bigger bets on losers. Therefore, I am taking a week off punting to recharge the batteries for the final two weeks so my next copy will be posted on Sept 27th covering my betting diary from the previous seven days which also means I can make the final week of this six months' challenge a biggie featuring the Ryder Cup and Arc Weekend, two events in which I will be heavily involved.

I'm going through a good little run at present and a profit of £1873 last week, mainly on horseracing, brought my returns up to a profit of +£13,523 after 23 weeks in this challenge to win £25K in six months. With just three weeks to go I am going to fall short of my target, I know that, but should you wish you can follow a number of my bets/exploits in advance by following me on twitter.com/sportspunter01. As for Week 24 starting today, with the weather forecast being for rain, rain and more rain, I have decided to fly out to Spain to watch the St Leger Meeting and the second week of the US Open tennis.

Monday, August 30th

Horseracing

Thank goodness I was just messing around to small stakes as I couldn't find a winner in the five races I played in at Warwick, Epsom and Ripon losing £222 in total, with just around half of that loss coming by laying Piece Of Mind for a place at Warwick feeling that she could struggle in a seven-horse race to finish in the first two stepping up to 7f being by Mind Games whose progeny usually don't get more than 6f.

I mentioned last week that Week 22 would be quieter than usual due to the lack of top class sport and racing but perhaps that was a good thing as I made just over a grand mainly thanks to Matt Kuchar winning the golf over in America which took my profit over the last 22 weeks to +£11,650. I highlighted on my Twitter page that I liked his chances before the event and you can follow my daily musings including fancies on http://twitter.com/sportspunter01 and I do like Rat Boy's (sorry Murray's) chances I have to say.

Monday, August 23rd

Football

Manchester City vs Liverpool was the big game of the day, a fixture which I felt would be tight and just fancied the draw over a narrow win for the home team but rather than take 9/4 about a deadlock, instead I went for Man City-Draw at 16/1 and Liverpool-Draw at 18/1 to £50 each rather than banging a ton on at 9/4 regardless of the half-time score.

A £438 profit on the week (mainly down to football bets) took my cumulative profit over the last 21 weeks to £10,646 which is clearly some way short of where I need to be in my attempt to win £25K in six months. To be frank we are short of top-class sport to bet on this coming week so it is likely to be a quieter one on the betting front though I do have a sneaky feeling Steve Stricker can go well in the first of the Fed-Ex Cup events starting on Thursday as he plays these events well as probably felt the pressure of playing in his home state in the USPGA and was in form before that last tournament.

Monday, August 16th

Horseracing

With four days of the York Ebor Meeting on the horizon I knew it was going to be a busy week on the racing front so, rather than looking at the usual mundane Monday fare, I got stuck into the looking at the big meeting of the week instead so no bets struck.