Week 35: Sir Alex launches Care in the Community scheme!

We've had some tight finishes to the end of the Predictions season in the past, but this could be the closest yet. With just 3 weeks to go, Matthew Jenns and Nick Scraggs both post very good scores, and are now tied for first place! The reason Matt still leads is down to our own version of goal difference, namely the number of SPOT ON predictions so far. Matt has 56 to Nick's 50. But surely it won't come down to that? In a very high scoring week generally, Andy Leck has now slipped further behind and he, Laura and Paul are going to have to post a big score in Week 36 to have a chance now. The place money goes down to 7th for all those in the chasing pack, and that is still a lot of you!

About once a season, someone manages to get a clean sweep of correct predictions, and this is that week! Well done to Marc Farey, who wins the week with a great score of 247, consisting of 10 correct predictions. 7 of those (at Blackburn, Arsenal and Wigan) were spot on. You can always see how the winner won by checking the "Weekly Winner" link to the right. So that's £50 to Marc, though ironically the money would have gone to Ant McPartlin (227) if he had gone with his boys and chosen them for the bonus team! (see below)

BONUS TEAM: In that case it could only be Newcastle, in 4 mins v Sunderland. I'm pretty impressed that a whopping 48 of you went for them and each picked up an extra 28 pts each. It won't surprise you to learn that the most popular choice was West Ham, with 68 of you choosing them to score first v Derby (next week it's Derby v Arsenal so we might get a record number!)

PREDICTIONS CUP: Week 35 saw the Quarter Final stage, and each produced a pretty conclusive victory. So well done to Peter, Philip, Dan and Olly, who will meet in the semi finals in week 37.

ROUND 6 - Week 33	PTS	SEMI FINALS - Week 37	PTS	FINAL - Week 38
PETER BARRETT	222	PETER BARRETT
DOM MILLER	75
PHILIP COX	120	PHILIP COX	V
RICHARD OWEN	46
DAN SKIPP	145	DAN SKIPP
STEVE BAILEY	52
ROB CRUTCHLEY	141	OLIVER HOLLAND	V
OLIVER HOLLAND	203

AND FINALLY: Last week I asked if anyone could tell me how the Premiership would look if it was made up of the 20 biggest clubs in the Country based purely on size of the City or town they were from (with only one allowed from each City). Undeterred by the fact that no-one actually tried to answer, here's who would be in it! A couple of these are very surprising!

The Alternative Premiership!

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Bolton Wanderers

Bradford City

Bristol City

Cardiff City

Coventry City

Doncaster

Hull City

Leeds Utd

Leicester City

Liverpool

Manchester Utd

Newcastle Utd

Nottingham Forest

Sheffield Utd

Stockport County

Sunderland

Walsall

Wigan Athletic

Week 34: Four weeks to go and everything to play for

Phil Walsh is this week's £50 winner. He was one of those that benefited from the maximum bonus pts, but what really won it for him (and made him the only player to score over 200) was his excellent prediction that Chelsea and Wigan would draw 1-1 last night! He's an Ipswich fan, and I really hope his boys make the play offs and return to their rightful place in the top flight! Cardiff fan Ryan Lamb would have won otherwise, but I'm sure he'd prefer a win in a few weeks at Wembley anyway!

Up front, We have another new leader. Matthew Jenns takes over and has a mere 5 pt lead over Nick Scraggs as the pressure tells on Andy Leck. These three could be heading for a 3 horse race as they have opened nearly a 100 pt lead over the chasing pack. But Gidon Katz moves into 6th after an excellent week (142), and a couple more scores like that could see him snatch the title with a late run. Only 4 weeks left now!

BONUS TEAM: What were the odds of this happening? Not only did Fulham score the quickest goal of the week (away from Craven Cottage), but it took 25 minutes! No-one could score quicker than that, though the majority of you (81) backed Villa to do it at Derby, and they scored in 26! The maximum 60 pts were available for Fulham and 18 of you took full advantage - Good call

NEXT SEASON: While I'm on the subject on Bonus Pts, for those of you who decide to play again next season, I've decided to scrap them. They seem to cause some of you more trouble than they're worth! But, I'm also going to try and revise the pts scoring system so that really good spot on predictions (such as a 3-2 or a 4-0) are rewarded with more pts than at present. (thanks to Tim Lovejoy for making me realise it's time for a change) Any other suggestions are welcome!

AND FINALLY... A BRAINTEASER: I was wondering (as you do when you've got no work on!), which teams would make up the Premier League if it were to only include the teams from the top 20 cities in England and Wales? This is based on population and would feature only 1 team per city (the one with the biggest average gates). How many can you name? (without resorting to t'internet like I did!)..and do you really give a sh*t? I'll put the answers up next week. Atb, Ciro

Week 33: Crabbers and Arsenal go to the dogs

Well done to weekly winner Jonny Wilkes. He came 2nd last week and clearly wasn't happy with that, so went one better this time with an excellent score of 233. With 5 weeks left of the season, it's closer up front than it has been in ages, with only 132 pts separating the top 6 (see below). Andy Leck posts the lowest score of any of the leaders but hangs onto his lead, whilst Nick Scraggs scores 191 to go 3rd. Rob Parker emulates that score and moves into 7th, but he'll have to continue that form to stand any chance.

By the way, the guy in the photo is player 148, Simon Crabtree, aka Crabbers, who those of you in the North East will know as the legendary football commentator on Metro FM (now at Radio City in Liverpool). I did say I would publish photos of you lot..and this is him on the pull on a stag do. He doesn't actually know about this but I'm sure he's a good sport!

POS	NAME	WEEK	BONUS	TOTAL
1	ANDY LECK	72	0	3664
2	MATTHEW JENNS	92	0	3629
3	NICK SCRAGGS	191	0	3611
4	PAUL BARNARD	108	0	3555
5	LAURA HOLMES	108	0	3542
6	MATT FOOTE	125	0	3532

BONUS TEAM: Chelsea, 6 mins v Man City. For the 3rd time in 4 weeks, its Chelsea! (1 minute quicker than Spurs) and 22 of you picked up the 28 available pts. Newcastle were the most popular choice - 64 of you had them to score first v Reading

PREDICTIONS CUP: Whilst Pompey and Cardiff progress to Wembley, we've reached the quarter final stage. Here are the results of the Last 16 matches that were played in Week 33. Well done to the 8 winners (who now meet in Week 35).. Whilst Oliver Holland's win over Cheryl Huston has ensured the cup will go to the boys again, the tie of the round saw Dom Miller and Championship leader Andy Leck draw with 72 pts each. The only way to separate them was on countback, and it transpired that though both got 5 results correct, Dom got more pts for his than Andy....Couldn't have been closer, but there will be no double this year! Hard Luck to Andy and all the other losers.

ROUND 6 - Week 33	PTS	Q.FINALS - Week 35	PTS
DAVE TAYLOR	49	PETER BARRETT
PETER BARRETT	115
ANDY LECK	72	DOM MILLER *	V
DOM MILLER	72
PHILIP COX	94	PHILIP COX
BARRY ALDRIDGE	51
PHIL MAGOWAN	23	RICHARD OWEN	V
RICHARD OWEN	49
DAVID BEATTIE	57	DAN SKIPP
DAN SKIPP	125
RICHARD KIRSCHKE	62	STEVE BAILEY	V
STEVE BAILEY	135
ROB CRUTCHLEY	73	ROB CRUTCHLEY
DARREN GERSHINSON	42
OLIVER HOLLAND	39	OLIVER HOLLAND	V
CHERYL HUSTON	27

AND FINALLY...... For those of you who never saw the email that was doing the rounds last week, have you ever wondered who are the best paid footballers in the World? Here is a list (allegedly) of the World's Top 20 earners. I'm sure you'll agree, they earn every penny! If I was a player, I'd want the same agent as Iker Casillas - or perhaps Darren "£1 million per goal" Bent. No wonder Berbatov wants a transfer! ATB, Ciro

	Name	Team	Annual	Week
1	Ricardo Kaka	AC Milan	£7,458,750	143,436
2	Ronaldinho	Barcelona	£7,060,950	135,788
3	John Terry	Chelsea	£6,762,600	130,050
3	Frank Lampard	Chelsea	£6,762,600	130,050
5	Fernando Torres	Liverpool	£6,563,700	126,225
6	Andriy Shevchenko	Chelsea	£6,464,250	124,313
6	Michael Ballack	Chelsea	£6,464,250	124,313
8	Cristiano Ronaldo	Man Utd	£6,364,800	122,400
8	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	£6,364,800	122,400
8	Thierry Henry	Barcelona	£6,364,800	122,400
11	Didier Drogba	Chelsea	£6,116,175	117,619
12	Wayne Rooney	Man Utd	£6,066,450	116,663
13	Iker Casillas	Real Madrid	£5,967,000	114,750
14	Michael Owen	Newcastle	£5,569,200	107,000
15	Sol Campbell	Portsmouth	£5,469,750	105,188
16	Raul	Real Madrid	£5,320,575	102,319
16	Ruud Van Nistelrooy	Real Madrid	£5,320,575	102,319
18	Rio Ferdinand	Man Utd	£5,022,225	96,581
19	Darren Bent	Spurs	£4,922,775	94,669
20	Carlos Tevez	Man Utd	£4,873,050	93,713

Week 32: Roy says: Chasing after Referees is not very nice at all!

Despite the Big 4 all winning, no-one managed over 200 pts this week. In fact, the winning score this week was exactly the same as last week's -170. But the big difference for Jeff Richardson, is that he chose the perfect time to hit form (or get lucky?) as he not only wins £50, but the Nitendo Wii console and a copy Pro Evolution Soccer to play on it. All I know about him is that he works for BT, so making money must come naturally to him! :) But he did get 9/10 predictions correct, with only the result of Spurs v Newcastle preventing a clean sweep - so a deserved winner then. Had Newcastle not scored their 4th goal at Spurs, this week's winners would have been Jonny Wilkes and Robbie Williams! Well done Jeff and enjoy the game! Thanks once again to Jon at Konami for providing such a great prize.

Meanwhile, with 6 weeks left of the season, we have another new leader. Andy Leck has been steadily climbing the table for weeks and has now has top spot, and a 55 pts cushion to protect over Matthew Jenns. Paul Barnard also continues to improve and is upto 3rd, but it could be a very costly week for ex leader Laura, who now risks falling out of the money paying positions (top 7) alltogether. Still plenty of pts to fight over, but I'd be surprised if anyone outside of the top 6 wins the title now.

Bonus Team: Chelsea, 6 mins v Middlesbrough. It's the Blues for the 2nd time in 3 weeks, and 20 extra points (the minimum) go to 27 players. Once again, the majority if you (76) went for Derby's opponents - this week being Fulham, who unfortunately seemed condemned to join them in the Championship.

All the Best, Ciro