Punters Cheering Bellamy Celebration All The Way To The Bank

Bookies William Hill are still counting the cost of their decision to offer 100/1 that Craig Bellamy would score a goal against Barcelona and celebrate with a golf swing.

William Hill's spokesman Rupert Adams said: "The Bellamy special was backed down from 100/1 to 33/1 as punters lumped on him to celebrate scoring a goal with a golf swing and it looks like the special could cost us as much as £50,000. Our thinking behind the 100/1 was that Bellamy would want to draw a line under his recent behaviour and would not want to bring further attention to his bar room antics - but we should have know that Bellamy is the king of the unexpected."

William Hill's spokesman added: "You win some and you lose some and although most of the bets were from Liverpool and Newcastle, we don't think this was a betting coup - just a number of very lucky punters."

The bookies now offer odds of 10/11 that Bellamy scores on Saturday against Sheff United, 100/1 Bellamy to score a hole in one - scoring a goal from the kick off.