That was the weekend that was

On a weekend where it was revealed that the lovely Sienna Miller would appear fully nude in her new film, based on the hippie lifestyle of the Sixties, the England rugby team decided to produce some free love of their own by overturning huge odds to advance to the Rugby World Cup semi-final. But were we celebrating our own summer of love or did we suffer a few bum notes as we have a look at all the sport, how our bets fared and what lies ahead this week in the world of betting

Rugby: Holy sweet Chariots!
England were written off ahead of Saturday's quarter-final with Australia only to produce a display that made all their doubters eat their words. There were no tries from England in Marseilles and Jonny even had an off day with the boot but such was the dominance up front, with Andrew Sheridan producing a man of the match display, Wilkinson could afford to miss a few and the English still won out 12-10. In Saturday's other quarter-final the French revived memories of 1999 to see of red-hot favourites New Zealand and set up a clash against England in Paris, for a place in the final. Sacre bleu!! In the other two quarters, South Africa just saw off the Fijians while Scotland paid for a restrictive gameplan by losing out to Argentina.

Cricket: Swann-song
After an opening defeat in their five-match series against Sri Lanka the outlook looked bleak for Paul Collingwood's side. However two fine bowling diaplys by Graeme Swann and two wins later England are now favourites to take the series and produce a shock series win.

Golf: Doherty multi-tasks
The Dunhill Links Championship is a strange beast as it takes place over three courses and the pros have to put up with playing partners who are plucked from the world of celebrity rather than their own kind. It didn't seem to bother Nick Doherty too much as he managed to keep the dropped shots to a minimum to win the event in glorious sunshine at St Andrews on 18 under par - two shots clear of fellow Englishman Justin Rose.

F1: Hamilton error sets up thriller
The contest for the Drivers' crown goes into the final race after Lewis Hamilton and the McLaren team made an error that forced the Brit to retire from the China GP and let his two main rivls close the gap at the top. The Brazilian GP in two weeks time now sees three possible different outcomes as Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen can both still win the outright title.

Our bets
The good: Richard Aikman made sure it was a great Saturday by landing a fourfold on the football which returned a healthy profit of 10.5 points when Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City and Ipswich all won. Ashley Wishaw bagged an each-way winner at Newmarket after advising backing third-placed Teslin at 12/1 with Blue Square and Paddy Power for the Cambridgeshire. He was also spot on with his rugby advice that South Africa would not cover their handicap after he backed Fiji at +36 on the handicap at 10/11.

The bad: We backed Argentina to see off Scotland by between 16-20 and 21-25 points so their six-point triumph left us 2pts out of pocket. We also advised a low-scoring game and a United win against Wigan, unfortunately the Old Trafford boys found their scoring touch to net four and lose us a point.

The ugly: New Zealand were odds-on favourites to win the World Cup and we felt that not only would they beat France, especially as it was being played in Cardiff, but they would also cover the handicap. They lost by two points and left us feeling all black...

The week ahead
Football: International week again so England face another must-win game against Estonia at Wembley, while Scotland host Ukraine, Wales travel to Cyprus and Rep of Ireland lay the welcome mat down for in-form Germany 

Rugby Union: England have already got further than anyone thought but can they beat the French in France to keep the dream alive of retaining the crown? While South Africa will have their work cut out against fellow beef-cakes Argentina 

Golf: Its over to Wentworth for the HSBC World Match Play and while Tiger is not present there are still big guns in attendance with Ernie Els looking to win an unprecedented seventh title