Depending on who you talk to my cell phone was either lost or stolen this past weekend. One thing that is not debatable is that it cost me more than just the purchase price of a new handset.

On Saturday afternoon I went mountain biking with my son and some friends. It was great to get out in the fresh air and aside from making my name mud by falling off a bridge into a lake I would have to say it was a most enjoyable afternoon.

Even while spinning up some of the steep climbs though my mind was a couple of hours ahead thinking of the Cheetahs v Lions game where the visitors had been chalked up as my best bet at 13/10.

I had left it late but my intention was to get a lumpy bet on the Lions to win outright with Betxchange who had the best price.

After a quick swim I hurried everyone back to the car, not wanting to miss kickoff. I placed my cell phone on the roof of my vehicle while fitting the bike rack and I remember thinking “Now don’t go and leave it there you clown”.

Naturally the next time I thought about where I had left my phone we were halfway home and panic quickly set in. Jason, a mate that I am teaching the finer points of mountain biking to, tried to phone it and confirmed it was ringing so we rushed back to search for it. Making kickoff was no longer an option but I needed that phone to place my bet.

Walking the car park and the first 200m or so of our journey proved fruitless and not surprisingly the ringing sound was soon replaced by my voice mail. Some opportunist had picked it up and was probably long gone by now.

Most people would have been worried about the cost of replacement but at this point all I could think about was that I would not get my bet on. Jason frantically searched for a contact number for the bookmaker through the web on his phone but with the slow connection out in the bush I got it too late to get the bet down.

The Lions naturally went on to win the game and when I purchase my new phone I can add 50% to the price to get the real cost of my moment of carelessness.

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 17th of March 2011.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.

You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za