Week 29: Congratulations to Spurs! Hard cheese Chelsea!

Only 9 games were played but still some very good scores. Nigel Johnston wins with 240 pts, though it's his choice of bonus team (and a very good one it was) that deprives Dave Heeley, the only other player to make over 200, of this week's £50. Just to show how tight the fight for the title is becoming leader Laura and 2nd place Matt post identical scores. The players right behind them don't really take full advantage, though Andy Leck and Neil Kearney move into 6th and 7th and much closer contention. 11 Weeks left now, so if anyone in the top 30 or so wants to win some money, it may be time to take a few more risks.

I must take this opportunity to say well done to Spurs for winning the Carling Cup. It's already sitting proudly in their Trophy cabinet. It's not the original though, as that always stays under lock and key at Disneyland.

Bonus Team: Middlesbrough, 9 mins v Liverpool. Tuncay's goal made them a shock bonus team but 6 people still managed to pick up the 52 pts available. I think they deserve a mention so well done to: Peter Russian, Nigel Johnston, Neil Brand, Simon Rogers, Sam Hodges and Steve Russell. Most popular choice was actually West Ham, 61 people had them to score first - What League have you lot been watching this season!?

Predictions Cup - Round 3: All of the results are once again in the link on the right of this page. 64 of you have made it into Round 4, and you can also see who you'll be playing there. Well done to you guys and hard luck to the losers. There were two more draws in this round. Michael Curbishley bt Emma Trainis as he had 2 spot on results to her 1 - whilst Rob Crutchley beat Asgar Saboo on the same principle - hard luck guys! Tie of the round has to be Peter Barrett's 168-167 win over Chris Waterman! Championship Leader Laura Holmes has made it through and is still in line to make history and do the double. Then again, our previous 2 winners, Matt Flower (defending champ) and Gary Martin are both still in there and seeking to become the first person to win the cup twice (seeing as this is only it's 3rd year, that would be quite impressive!)

ATB, Ciro

Week 26: Was that the week that was?

Not much change at the top of the leaderboard this week, which is more than we can say about the Premiership - Was this the week Arsenal made the decisive move? Personally, I think the F.A should scrap the title and have a winner take all mini-tournament between the top 3 in Beijing or Tokyo - surely the hardcore English football fans out there are what really matter? In return, we can have a Sumo/Ping Pong double bill at Wembley (preferably using Giovanni Trapattoni's treacherous testicles as balls)

Anyway, now that's off my chest, I'm pleased to say that Jon Murphy wins this week's £50. Not least because it was Jon who donated those Pro-Evolution Soccer games before Xmas! It proves that good karma isn't just reserved for Earl Hickey! Jon got all three of the away wins spot on this week, including the 2-1 win for Man City (so did 2 others). Hard luck to Gidon Katz though. He was the only other player to score 200+ and was edged out by just a pt!

Bonus Team: Arsenal, 4 mins v Blackburn. 32 of you picked up the extra 20 pts as Arsenal scored quickest for the 2nd week running - can they make it a three in-a-row? Mind you, it was close, with Newcastle's goal at Villa only 40 seconds slower. A big majority of you (152) predictably went for Spurs to score first at Derby (zzzzzz)

Week 27??: In case you haven't yet realised, there are FA Cup matches this weekend (Looking forward to Man Utd v Arsenal!), which means you get a week off from predicting! Week 27 will be with you by next Monday

And Finally...I can't believe I'm doing this on a football blog! But it seems a a few of you guys are also into a website called www.stickcricket.com. Looks like fun (& something for the summer!) so if you fancy joining their online league for free, email Stephen.Jeffery@kmc.co.uk for details.

Atb, Ciro

Week 25: Gooners cheering Spurs - whatever next?

I was this close (makes small gap between thumb and index finger) to sticking down all 1-1 draws this week, as it did look a really tough of fixtures to call. That strategy would have yielded 157 pts (after four 1-1 draws and a 0-0), but it still would have fallen quite a way short of Channel 5 Publicity Legend, Nick Dear, who wins this week's £50 with a great score of 194. Up front, there is barely any change as they go conservative, though Nick Romero is the only person in the Top 20 to post a 100+ score, and moves upto 6th

Bonus team: Arsenal, 9 mins v Manchester City. 15 players picked up 28 bonus pts each. A pretty low number by recent standards, but not surprising with City unbeaten at home before this. Surprising however to see that former Spurs skipper, Gary Mabbutt, was one of the 15! Liverpool were the most popular choice this week, with 59 of you going for them v Sunderland.

Predictions Cup Round 2: For the half of us left in, it was another Cup Week and the full results, and draw for Round 3, can be found in the link on the right hand side of the blog. Tie of the round? Probably Roger Jenns' 98-95 win over Jayraj Jatania though there was an interesting game between Paul Blacker and Gordon Dickson. The former forgot to send his scores and got a 0, and Gordon's scored minus 1! Hard luck also to anyone who scored 100+ and lost and to Craig Gogay and Simon Hargreaves, who both drew their games, but lost on Countback. I got stuffed, so well done to Dave and the other 127 of you who progress. Prediction Cup glory is still a possibility!

And Finally...I asked myself (work is slack!) how would the Big 4 be faring if they were in their own minileague? Based on all the head-to-heads last season and those in the first half of this one, this is how that table would look:

THE BIG 4
	PL	W	D	L	GD	PTS
Arsenal	9	4	4	1	3	16
Man Utd	9	4	3	2	3	15
Liverpool	9	2	2	5	-1	8
Chelsea	9	1	5	3	-3	8

Now, let's see what happens if you add a random team to this league, say for example West Ham, and do the same:

THE BIG 5!
	PL	W	D	L	GD	PTS
West Ham	12	6	0	6	-4	18
Arsenal	12	5	2	5	4	17
Chelsea	12	4	5	3	2	17
Man Utd	12	4	3	5	0	15
Liverpool	12	4	2	6	-2	14

The table never lies! :)