It wouldn't be too much of an overstatement to say that The Mole's festive period was purely based around consuming tin after tin of Cadbury's Roses, drinking Cava and watching the darts at Ally Pally. That's how I roll and Mrs Mole must've felt like she spent Christmas alone. I was engrossed in the most addictive sport ever to occupy my tiny television. Another certain someone who enjoyed the tungsten tussle was this punter who bought the unseeded Simon "The Wizard" Whitlock on our Outright Index at 7 for £300. The "Caravan Kid" - as I heard him called - faced a tough draw in his debut at the raucous venue but dispatched in-form Terry Jenkins in the third round before producing a darting masterclass to dump out 3rd seed James "The Machine" Wade. In what was one of the highest quality matches ever seen, Whitlock averaged just under 106 with the darts. The Aussie then powered through another epic against "Barney", coming back from 4-2 down to win and nearly cause me to choke on a Brazilian Darkness! The final was always going the way of "The Power" but with runners up spot worth 40 points on the index, the punter 'checked out' on a £9,900 profit.

The terrible weather conditions this week have forced most British sport to be cancelled which means punters have had to look overseas for betting opportunities. One such opportunity arose on Wednesday when Serie A put on a full fixture list to help us forget our snowy troubles. But this 'gesture' by the Italians didn't work out so well for one punter who sold Shirt Numbers in the Milan v Genoa game at 78 for £35. Milan haven't set the world alight with goals in their domestic league this season so the client had to be hopeful of taking a few pounds from us. That was until the 25th minute when Genoa's number 14 shocked the San Siro by opening the scoring for the visitors. Normal service was resumed a few minutes later when Ronaldinho scored from the spot, having missed one 15 mins earlier. Now you might expect a great player like that to have a great shirt number like 10, but no, the Brazilian wears 80 on his back - clown! But worse was to follow as Milan went goal crazy scoring four in half an hour courtesy of some BIG numbers. Goals from shirts 11, 33 and a brace from 22 meant that the client was half way to Carnage City. And to top it off Genoa went down the other end and added a consolation through number 19. 201 was the final make-up, a £4,305 loss. Oh yeah, Beckham played pretty well in the game as well.

Football Liverpool's sorry season continued after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Championship strugglers Reading in the FA Cup. The Royals often outplayed a Reds side containing both Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. Will Liverpool be lifting any silverware this season? The saviour of a replay and United's exit means they're up five points on our FA Cup Outright Index to 39-42.

For all his flair as a player Mancini has seemingly taught his City side to defend. Three wins out of three for the new boss after a comfortable 1-0 cup win at the Riverside. And with Scunthorpe to come in the 4th round, he'll feel the Citizens can end their 33-year trophy drought and are up nine points on our FA Cup Outright Index to 37-40.

NFL Dallas turned in a stellar performance in the NFC East championship decider as they outplayed Philadelphia on their way to a 24-0 victory at Cowboys Stadium. The hosts dismantled a very capable Eagles outfit and now Wade Phillips's side have the 2nd meanest defence going into the Playoffs. The Cowboys are up three on our Super Bowl Outright Index to 36-39.


Sporting video fun

Curling just got exciting with the American equivalent of Sid Waddell and his pal! While I just didn't realise how good Chris Waddle actually was.