horse racing countdown timer & Excel

[ninelifecat]

hi
I'm fairly proficient at Excel but this one has me stumped:
Cell D2 has the countdown timer for the current race written into it by Betting Assistant
For example: 0:01:49 = 1 minute 49 seconds til race start.

I want to stop my Excel betting worksheet from placing any bets til 20 seconds before the off. How can I do this, because I can't read the time into a string or anything else useful with either an XL formula or VBA.

I know the cell D2 is formatted as h:mm:ss, I want to turn it into something I can manipulate with =left and =right funtions for example
How have other people sorted this out?

Any tips?
cheers for the help.

[GaryRussell]

I use the following formula to calculate the seconds until the off from cell D2. It's a bit long winded, but does the job. It shows a minus figure after the scheduled off.

=IF(LEFT(D2)<>"-",(HOUR(D2)*3600)+(MINUTE(D2)*60)+SECOND(D2),-((HOUR(SUBSTITUTE(D2,"-",""))*3600)+(MINUTE(SUBSTITUTE(D2,"-",""))*60)+SECOND(SUBSTITUTE(D2,"-",""))))

[ninelifecat]

awesome, thanks! thats exactly what I was after!