Only 10 weeks until the new Premier League season begins!

Who will be manager of Chelsea, Fulham or Villa? Can QPR, Norwich and Swansea cope with the big boys , and will Alan Shearer actually say anything remotely interesting on Match of the Day? You don't have to worry about predicting these, but if you would like to play Prem predictions next season, please drop me a line at: ciro@castaldo1.com and I'll send you more details. The cost is £20 for the entire season

How the game is played

It's simple. Each week, you will be asked to predict the results of the 10 Premiership matches being played over the following weekend (or sometimes in midweek). There is a deadline (usually Midday on Saturday) by which you need to fill in your sheet. Some players return their scores immediately after receiving them, whilst others prefer to wait for team news and form guides.

Once all the games have been played, I work out your pts and David (The Blogmaster) updates all of the tables here. Check the link to the right to see how you score pts in this game!

There are 38 weeks in a season, and the person with the highest score for each week wins a prize (currently £50). Every player is entered into the Overall league table, and the biggest prize (currently £500) is awarded to the champion at the end of the season (currently Lee Honeywood).

Each mini-league winner (there were 40 last season - again, check out the links) also receives a prize and there is also a cup competition (which I run as a bonus) whereby players get drawn to play against a random opponent in a head to head contest, and can go all the way to the final/ Last year, a 12 year old Nathan Jeffrey beat TV's Declan Donnelly in the final!

Enjoy the cricket! Ciro

WEEK 38 - Come and join us

What more can be said about the most amazing Survival Sunday ever - At times, Stephen Hawking would have struggled to work out the permutations. It was no surprise, albeit a shame, to see Blackpool go, whilst Birmingham fans will still be wondering how this has happened (join the club!). Actually it's was simple - there was no 6ft 8inch centre forward to call upon. As for Wolves, let's just say that they were the ones that got away. Ironically, a much smaller incident passed many of us by that might be very significant. Zoltan Gera's rash tackle in the Arsenal game earnt Fulham their first red card of the season, and in doing so may have denied them a fair play place in the Europa League. That privilege may now go to Blackpool! So a club that has been relegated could qualify for Europe? This is even barmier than a certain Prem footballer still hiding behind a super injunction despite the entire football world knowing who he is! If he had just admitted it, it would have all blown over weeks ago.and who cares anyway!

Back to the predictions, and we had a tough final week. And for one of the biggest victims it spelt disaster. Marie Stone was one pt off the lead, and with leader Lee only scoring 11 pts, just needed an average week to become our first female winner. What a time to score -52! She slipped to 6th and lost out on a couple of hundred quid..sorry Marie! But the table never lies, and though Lee must have feared the worst, he has deserved his title - Good work Lee! Julie Wright ran him close and took 2nd after a 100+ score, with Stuart Folwell remaining in 3rd. The full Top 10 can be seen below, as usual, as well as a list of all the 40 minileague winners - and a list of all the weekly winners...well done to you all!

With John Disley winning the final £50 on offer, this is the first time we have had 38 different weekly winners. This re-iterates what a tough and unpredictable season this had been, Despite the fact more points were available than ever (a spot on draw was worth 50 pts rather than 40 pts), Lee's winning score was more than 500 pts lower than that of Jason Nicholas last season..and is the lowest since 2004/05.

Anyway, THANKS again to all of you for playing. I hope you enjoyed it. Until next season I hope! Ciro

ps - A Massive thankyou to David Rakison for his time and effort making this blog look so good, as well as all the others who have helped make the game and their minileagues enjoyable this season - Gary Dinsey, Nick Rose, Vanessa Hill, Max Rushden, Leon Pidgeon, Darren Styles, David Doolan, Scott Freeman - and anyone else who has helped!

I hope you have a great (football-less) summer! Atb, Ciro

THIS WEEKS £50 WINNER. Well done to:

John Disley - 206 pts - who predicted the following:

Bonus	Home Team				Away Team	Bonus	Points
	Aston Villa	1	v	3	Liverpool		-9
	Bolton	1	v	2	Man City		27
	Everton	1	v	1	Chelsea		-3
	Fulham	1	v	1	Arsenal		24
	Man Utd	2	v	1	Blackpool		11
1	Newcastle	2	v	0	West Brom		-12
	Stoke	0	v	1	Wigan		50
	Tottenham	2	v	1	Birmingham		40
	West Ham	0	v	1	Sunderland		24
	Wolves	0	v	1	Blackburn		18

TOP 20 SCORERS

1	JOHN DISLEY	206
2	ROBIN SELLARS	178
3	STEVE NAPLETON	178
4	ELLIOT BRAND	177
5	CHRIS FRANKLIN	173
6	PETER BRANCH	172
7	JASON BROWN	166
8	JAMIE WREN	163
9	COLIN JEFFREY	153
10	ROLAND SIMMONS	153
11	JOEL SILVERMAN	150
12	MICK DELANEY	149
13	ED DE BURGH	149
14	LYN FARIELLO	147
15	STEFAN HODGSON	140
16	HAILEY ACKRILL	136
17	MATT BUTTON	136
18	IVAN GHOUSE	134
19	ANDY SHIER	133
20	MATT PEDDLE	132

BONUS TEAM

Newcastle, 16 mins v WBA

# Pts won: 36

# Players correct: 36

Most Popular Choice: WBA - 60

THE OVERALL TOP 10

PREV	POS	NAME	WEEK 38	BONUS	TOTAL
1	1	LEE HONEYWOOD	11	0	3413
5	2	JULIE WRIGHT	111	0	3403
3	3	STUART FOLWELL	54	0	3388
6	4	KEVIN ELLIS	86	0	3373
4	5	PAUL WORSLEY	69	36	3366
2	6	MARIE STONE	-52	0	3349
7	7	DECLAN SHORTISS	60	0	3332
13	8	GARETH ROSSITER	90	0	3291
8	9	GARY MARTIN DUFAUR	18	0	3290
11	10	SIMON TAYLOR	50	0	3288

ALL THE MINILEAGUE WINNERS

MINILEAGUES	WINNER	PTS
A PLACE IN THE SUN	JANE WHITMAN	3068
ASCOT	KEVIN RAMSKIR	3125
BANKERS	STUART COX	2882
BBC	MICK LOWES	2972
BMW	PAUL OSMOND	2899
BODGERS	GARETH ROSSITER	3291
BOGS	STEVE CALVELEY	2953
BT	JEFF RICHARDSON	2881
CAL SYSTEMS	ROB GARRATT	3105
CHAPPLE DAVIES	DECLAN SHORTISS	3332
CURRY CUP	JASON NICHOLAS	3237
DANCING BEARS	NICK MOOREHOUSE	3181
DANIEL GALVIN	JOEL SILVERMAN	3083
DEVONSHIRES	FRED ROSE	3286
DOWN THE LINE	MARC TRAINIS	2656
FAT, BALD & UGLY	LEE RICHE	3149
FSG CHAMPS	BARRIE NEWTON	2442
FSG PREM	MATT PEARSON	3010
FUJITSU	GUY DANIELS	2977
GEORDIES & FIREFIGHTERS	PETER BEARDSLEY	3036
GREENO	MARIE STONE	3349
HMV	SHANE MANSFIELD	3190
LINKS PLUS	MATT FOOTE	3046
MAX'S CREAM	VISHAL DHALL	2882
MEDIA	CHRIS UNDERHILL	2920
MUSICIANS	STEVE CLAYTON	2976
NATIONWIDE	SCOTT FREEMAN	3170
ORDINARY GENTLEMEN	KEVIN HANRAHAN	2829
POLY	STUART FOLWELL	3388
PR & MARKETING	KEVIN ELLIS	3373
READING.GOV	CRIS BUTLER	3093
SCOTTISH	GRAEME BEATTIE	2867
SEYMOUR	MATT WINSOR	2948
SIDE POT	LEE HONEYWOOD	3413
SIMPLE SOCCER STATS	BARRY ALDRIDGE	3018
SMITHS NEWS	BEN SHEPHARD	2968
SOCCER 6	PAUL WORSLEY	3366
STREAM	TIM DANIELLS	3041
TIGERS	JULIE WRIGHT	3403
TOTTENDEEN	CATRIONA GREEN	3012

ALL THE WEEKLY WINNERS WINNERS

	WEEKLY WINNER	PTS
WEEK 1	JONNY WILKES	255
WEEK 2	DAVID RAKISON	165
WEEK 3	CHARLES GODSALL	244
WEEK 4	KEITH TAYLOR	275
WEEK 5	KELLY LONG	270
WEEK 6	MATT BUCKBY	155
WEEK 7	ANDY FOLWELL	256
WEEK 8	FRED ROSE	234
WEEK 9	NICK BARBER	296
WEEK 10	GREG COWLAND	239
WEEK 11	JASON THOMAS	247
WEEK 12	SAB SHAH	185
WEEK 13	JUDE JEFFREY	157
WEEK 14	KEITH GABRIEL	199
WEEK 15	AINSLEY HARRIOT	186
WEEK 16	IAN CALLAGHAN	246
WEEK 17	ED DE BURGH	196
WEEK 18	JAMES NEWBURY	97
WEEK 19	NEIL SLOAN	232
WEEK 20	IAN GREENWOOD	200
WEEK 21	ANDREW SCRIVENER	261
WEEK 22	COLIN JEFFREY	153
WEEK 23	ROB GARRATT	305
WEEK 24	SCOTT LIVINGSTONE	286
WEEK 25	ALUN WOODWARD	264
WEEK 26	THERESA & SARAH	126
WEEK 27	BRIAN YORK	257
WEEK 28	JON CROSSICK	226
WEEK 29	JAMES DUNNE	200
WEEK 30	WAYNE BUTCHER	206
WEEK 31	MITCHELL WOOLF	134
WEEK 32	HARRY WALMSLEY	222
WEEK 33	BEN PEARSON	231
WEEK 34	ANDREW SAVAGE	286
WEEK 35	NICK MOOREHOUSE	240
WEEK 36	STEVE COOMBS	215
WEEK 37	SAM KNOWLES	147
WEEK 38	JOHN DISLEY	206