Smart money is still on Raikkonen for F1 crown

Lewis Hamilton's brilliant win at Silverstone – his first British GP victory – sees him tied at the top with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen on 48 points with Robert Kubica only two points adrift.

The layers have wasted no time in cutting Hamilton from 7-2 to 7-4 with nine races to go.

Raikkonen has eased from evens to 11-8, while Massa, who led the standings prior to Silverstone, showed he can not cope with wet weather and pirouetted all the way to 13th and last place.

Massa has taken a walk in the market out to 4-1 while Kubica is a generous each-way bet at 22-1 as he would have taken the lead in the title race if he had finished no worse that sixth.

The Iceman Raikkonen still remains the call to retain his crown as his luck is bound to improve after failing in Monaco and Canada and losing out in France when an exhaust problem cost him dear.

Raikkonen cost Boylesports plenty in their concessionary bets.

The Dundalk firm returned £50,000 in losing bets on the race winner after the Finn failed to finish on the podium.

What Price the Don of banking?

Sinn Fein Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy this week announced the appointment of two non-executive directors to the board of Northern Ireland Water (the tap tax company to you and me).

"I am delighted to welcome two locally based business people on to the Board of NIW," Conor declared.

One of the appointees announced by the Minister was Don Price, former head honcho at the Northern Bank.

He was, you may remember, Northern chief executive at the time of great Belfast bank robbery in December 2004.

The two new directors will each be paid £18,000 per year on the basis of two days attendance per month.

And an additional "per diem allowance" may be payable subject to an overall maximum of £21,000 per annum.

Establishing a Sinn Fein socialist paradise is clearly coming at a cost.

Let them have cake and eat it

We are starting to worry that Sinn Fein are overdoing the irony by-pass treatments.

Last week, we were informed by the Executive Information Service no less that Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness had visited a former Army base in Omagh.

That's almost too easy to make a joke about.

Then we find evidence that the entire republican movement may have had by-pass procedures.

An irony-free Sinn Fein Press release arrived declaring that its youth wing had "mobilised activists from across Ireland" for Monday's "protest against US Imperialism at Belfast City Hall".

It continued: "Over 100 Republican activists including Sinn Fein MLAs and councillors marched with banners and posters from the party's Sevastobal Street Office to join the joint protest at Belfast City Hall."

The slogan of the rally was "Bush Not Welcome".

So remind us again of the name of the curly haired chap who personally welcomed Bush to Stormont Castle and got a pat on the back from George W for his troubles?

We think his first name might be Martin. But does anyone know what party he belongs to?