Thanks for your replies and the welcome. I suppose I can see why strategy might not be a 88/8 player's strong point.

Before I read MadMojoMonkey's reply, my reply with regard to whether I had odds to call was going be something along the lines of:

I'm getting 2.8/1 to call (I think? $1.07/$0.38), whereas the chances of me making my straight with 8 outs are 4.75/1 which means that I definitely don't have the odds to call.

...which I think is technically correct? I'm ploughing through The Theory of Poker at the moment and still getting my head around the correct ways to calculate equity, but I think certain things are starting to click.

I admit, I hadn't factored in how a club might help him, but understand why my number of clean outs should drop to 6 because of it. I'm not sure I understand that 8/1 you mentioned, MadMojoMonkey. With 40 cards that wouldn't help me / 6 outs, wouldn't my odds against making the straight be more like 6.6/1? Or have I misunderstood?