It seems an awful long time since the Tenner Bet ended last season's punting with successive winning bets that transformed a major deficit into whopping great profit.

Indeed, the manner in which last week's losses occurred tends me to think that I've done something to annoy someone.

My guess is that Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, passed on a message during one of his prayers to the Almighty, having finally caught up with the column in the aftermath of Super Bowl XXXXVII; him being too busy to read the Scottish newspapers in the run-up to the showpiece in New Orleans a fortnight ago. Well, shame on you, Colin. You're meant to pray for nice things: world peace, an end to famine, a 49ers Super Bowl win. You're not allowed to use your magic to say "I want you to spoil a non-believer's betting column. What do you mean, again? Of course, I want you to spoil it again. He said nasty things about you."

the tenner betJAMES MORGAN