I probably shouldn’t be putting these words to print but one of the things I look forward to on a Thursday night is settling down on the couch to watch Desperate Housewives with Trish.

A couple of weeks back there was an episode where Susan (who had just received a life saving transplant) began to encounter good luck at every turn and at one point she feels guilty and poses the question “Why am I having all of this good luck?” to which her elderly neighbour replied “Why ask, just enjoy it”!

I though back to this scene on Monday morning when I read a post from one of our regular contributors to our betting forum on Goodforthegame. Hanrick Swart had been on a wicked run in past weeks and virtually every bet he has posted on the site turned to profits. He has been playing the spread markets where your returns escalate the more correct you are and he has been spot on when making decisions around whether a match would be low or high scoring and whether he should buy or sell.

Now there is certainly a strong element of skill to spread trading but most punters would agree that the bounce of the ball also plays a role and Hanrick would likely acknowledge that things have been going his way.

As successful as he may have been in separating the bookmakers from their cash there is no doubt that the luck he experienced last week was unsurpassed. His wife entered him the 5FM/Castle Lager “Greatest Springbok Supporter” competition and on Friday she heard the news that she had won the competition and that Hanrick would be off to the World Cup in New Zealand in September.

What a great opportunity for a rugby fan and what an experience for a rugby punter and I hope that come September Hanrick is still riding a betting wave and that the bookies are forced to take cover.

Before he leaves though, I have one request and a piece of advice. Firstly, please be sure to send your punting mates back home weather reports from the grounds 30 minutes before kickoff and if you find yourself betting against the Boks at any stage I suggest you keep that to yourself as I can just imagine the look on the sponsors face as the “Greatest Springbok Supporter” cheers home the All Blacks on the handicap!

This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 26th of May 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