Not long to go now - the Winter Olympics starts on 4th February and ends on 22nd February. I'll be posting intermittently throughout, totally depending on family and curling commitments. For lots of useless information try https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026. During the Games the BBC Sport website https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports is usually pretty good.

The full list of Team GB members for the Winter Olympics are

Curling
Bruce Mouat (men’s team and mixed team).
Grant Hardie (men’s team).
Hammy McMillan Jr (men’s team).
Bobby Lammie (men’s team).
Kyle Waddell (men’s team).
Rebecca Morrison (women’s team).
Sophie Jackson (women’s team).
Sophie Sinclair (women’s team).
Jennifer Dodds (women’s team and mixed team).
Fay Henderson (women’s team).

Skeleton
Matt Weston.
Marcus Wyatt.
Amelia Coltman.
Freya Tarbit.
Tabby Stoecker.

Bobsleigh
Brad Hall (two-man bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh).
Taylor Lawrence (two-man bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh).
Leon Greenwood (four-man bobsleigh).
Greg Cackett (four-man bobsleigh).
Adele Nicoll (monobob and two-woman bobsleigh).
Ashleigh Nelson (two-woman bobsleigh).
Travelling Reserves are Alex Cartagena (four-man bobsleigh) and Kya Placide (two-woman bobsleigh)

Park And Pipe
Zoe Atkin (ski halfpipe).
Gus Kenworthy (ski halfpipe).
Liam Richards (ski halfpipe).
Chris McCormick (ski slopestyle and Big Air).
Kirsty Muir (ski slopestyle and Big Air).
Mia Brookes (snowboard slopestyle and Big Air).
Maisie Hill (snowboard slopestyle and Big Air).
Txema Mazet-Brown (snowboard slopestyle and Big Air).

Alpine Skiing
Billy Major (slalom).
Dave Ryding (slalom). - in his 5th and final Olympics
Laurie Taylor (slalom).

Cross-Country
James Clugnet.
Joe Davies.
Andrew Musgrave.
Anna Pryce.

Snowboard Cross
Charlotte Bankes (individual and team).
Huw Nightingale (individual and team).

Ski Cross
Ollie Davies.

Moguls
Makayla Gerken Schofield.
Mateo Jeannesson.

Figure Skating
Lilah Fear (team event/ice dance).
Lewis Gibson (team event/ice dance).
Phebe Bekker (team event/ice dance).
James Hernandez (team event/ice dance).
Anastasia Vaipan-Law (team event/pairs).
Luke Digby (team event/pairs).
Kristen Spours (team event/women’s singles).
Edward Appleby (team event).

Short Track Speed Skating
Niall Treacy – men’s 500m, 1000m and 1500m.

Speedskating
Ellia Smeding – women’s 1000m and 1500m.

Biathlon
Jacques Jefferies.
Shawna Pendry.

Wee bits and bobs around the world
There are 92 Olympic Committees participating with the unlikeliest being from the United Arab Emirates.
Ex-GB athlete Mica Moore from Welsh Wales is to represent Jamaica in the Monobob (Cool Running strikes again with Jamaica also in the Men's 2-man and 4-man teams in the Bobsleigh).
South African Matt Smith has only been skiing for 2 years and is one of 5 athletes from his home country.
Mariah Carey will perform in the Opening Ceremony (2 days after the first event starts! ) and Snoop Dogg will be an honorary coach for the USA team. Also supporting the USA team will be ICE agents in charge of their security - so expect some protests along the way.

Please feel free (ooh, er, missus) to join in whenever you feel like it. All contributions will be very welcome.

On 7th October 2025, Craig Hemmings, on behalf of the club’s owners, The Hemmings Family, announced that Preston North End (“PNE”) would be actively engaging with international sports organisations, private institutions, and investment funds better geared, both commercially and financially, for maximising the true global potential of PNE. He added that the club will be actively engaging with such organisations or individuals who would be interested in investing in, or owning, a club like PNE.



The club does not ordinarily comment on rumour and speculation, but we note the article on Sky News published on Saturday. Unfortunately, without the full facts, there has already been abuse on social media, targeted at both the PNE Board and the owners. The Hemmings family has already committed to invest a further £6 million (in addition to the £7 million already invested this season) over the remaining four months of the season in support of the most expensively assembled squad in our history as we strive for promotion to the Premier League.



Ian Penrose, Chairman, said: “We have commenced discussions with a number of parties from around the world who have expressed an interest in acquiring Preston North End.



“This process is in its early stages and is ongoing, as we continue to receive new approaches. I can confirm that we have had discussions with the US-born Saudi businessman Amr Zedan, who we respect highly. Mr Zedan is one of a number of successful individuals or organisations that have made enquiries about the club. Specific comments on any approach are inappropriate at this stage.



“This is a complex process that requires many financial, legal and regulatory hurdles to be appropriately satisfied. The Board is being advised throughout this process by Rothschild & Co.



“Whilst such a transaction can take months to conclude, and there is no certainty that a successful outcome will be achieved, it is the Board’s intention to conclude these negotiations at the earliest opportunity. It is of utmost importance that any future owner of Preston North End is the right fit for the football club, in order to maximise the club’s potential and the ambitions of our fans, stakeholders and owners.”

Group A

A.A.A. 16
BaggieOne 15
B.B.B. 11
Zimnan 7
Minizin 3
Stairs 0
Twerton 0
BaggieVicar -1

After the shockingly bad scoring last week, we did at least see a small improvement by some players but on the whole this was still a poor week, in fact it was the 4th worst week of the season!! The Gamball produced just 3 points, , the Bonus maxed out on the lowest possible -24 points (ie everyone got it wrong), the Scoreball was 50% wrong, just two matches made double figures and 2 games ended with zero or less.

Four players put in decent scores led by AAA with 16 points, he got 2 CSs plus a CR on the Gamball. BaggieOne had his best score in 13 weeks with 15 points, he actually got one more CS than AAA but missing on the Gamball cost him. BBB finished with 11 points, he scored on one less game than the top 2 but only had one CS. Zinman rounds out the top 4 with 7 points, his 7th top half finish in the past 10 weeks.

The next 4 only scored a total of 2 points between them!! Minizin seems to be on the edge of a slump if he is not careful, just 2 points scored in the past 2 weeks with his 2 lowest scores of the season!! Stairs and Twerton didn't bother the scorer's adding ability ended on zero. Stairs had been on good form, lets see if this is just a blip. Twerton has now scored 4 or less points in 6 of the past 8 weeks!!

BaggieVicar is bottom of the pile for the first time in 9 weeks with -1 points!! But when you only score on a single game your score will be negative!! At least he got one thing right, he didn't play the Gamball and that saved him further misery.

233 Minizin
221 Stairs
214 A.A.A.
200 BaggieVicar
200 BaggieOne
186 B.B.B.
178 Zinman
171 Twerton

A few positional changes this week, which is no surprise with multiple players having similar scores. Minizin is still top for the 12th week in a row and despite his poor form he stretched his lead over Stairs to 12 points. Stairs though might need to start looking over his shoulder as AAAs fine form has seen him leap into 3rd place and he is not just 7 points behind second place!! There is now a bit of a drop to B1 and the Vicar, who both managed to crack the 200 points mark but have lost a bit more ground to AAA. BBB, Zinman and Twerton are still back a bit but Zinman has now moved 7 points ahead of Twerton in last place, with BBB only 6 points above Zinman.

With everyone getting the Bonus Ball wrong I thought it would be a good time to see just how badly the overall scoring is on this ball and the difference it makes to be half decent at playing it. So far Group A has amassed a paltry total of just 15 points on this ball, so from a total possibility of 1056 points available on the Bonus so far this season, Group A sit at 0.01% points gained!! It doesn't get much better when you look at individual performances either - Minizin leads the way with decent 18 points followed by AAA with 12, and Zinman with 9 as the only players in positive territory. Stairs has zero points and then we go way down to the Vicar and Twerton on -6, BaggieOne on -12 and BBB bottom of the pile on -21 points!! That is a 39 point spread across the group which would put BBB second if he had matched Minizin's score!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

SCO 17
Salop 14
Amelia 13
Snooty 11
4eva 10
Derby 9
Themaclad 6
Lady Jane 5

One of Group B's better weeks with a total of 85 points scored, equalling the 3rd best score of the season. 5 players reached double figures and just 1 game, Blackburn v Watford, produced a negative score. The bonus ball delivered 33 more points than last week and, with just 2 matches failing to produce goals for both teams, it was a good week for score balls.

SCO is currently in a run of good form and he again heads the table with 17 points. He was the only player to score on all his balls (with a maximum on his bonus) and though others got more correct scores and results, those balls can really make a difference. For the third consecutive week Salop sits in 2nd place scoring on a week's best of 6 games but missing out on the gamball and scoreball. He's still the only player not to top a table but he keeps getting close!

The only player to register 2 correct scores, Amelia takes 3rd place while Snooty and 4eva also reach double figures for the week.

Derby sits a point behind 4eva before a gap to Themaclad and Lady Jane. They were the only players not to register a correct score with Lady Jane having the lowest number of correct results - just 2 but at least one of them was her bonus.

229 4eva
214 SCO
186 Lady Jane
168 Themaclad
168 Snooty
158 Derby
154 Salop
154 Amelia

SCO's good week sees him edge closer to 4eva at the top of the table and open up a healthy gap to Lady Jane in 3rd place. The only changes in the table sees Snooty catch up with Themaclad and Salop equal Amelia's score at the foot of the table.

Some interesting stats to ponder. Derby sits in 6th place but he actually has the second highest number of correct result predictions behing 4eva. Sadly he's yet to reach double figures in correct scores, 6 fewer than anyone else. Themaclad has the 2nd highest number of correct scores, 24 just 1 fewer than 4eva but he has only accumulated a total of 3 points from the 3 balls - 85 fewer than SCO!

Zin


Cup Alert - this weeks scores go towards the first legs of the first round of the Cup competition, check out that thread for the scores on the doors. https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=14160

2 points for correct result
4 points for correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score   (correct score on a joker would give you 8 points)
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Badger gives you 2 points

The prize for winning the league is one rep point.

Cup games: In the event of a draw, it's half the points if you've predicted a draw when it gets to 90 mins and the full points if it's still a draw after extra time. Half the points will be awarded for correctly predicting the winner of the match if it goes to penalties. However, if you do predict a draw and it's a match that won't be going to a replay, you can get a possible extra point by stating which of the two teams you think will eventually win.

Random score generator: I will be using the random score generator again for those who miss predicting, so we shouldn't get some people too far behind that after missing a couple of weeks they lose all interest, because I know it's not easy getting on here every week.
To be fair to everybody, this is going to be like, say if three people in one week miss their predictions, the first one in the table will be given all 0-0, the second one down the line will get 1-0 and the third will get 0-1 and so on, like if there's four missing the 4th will get 1-1, then 5th 2-1, 6th 1-2. and if there are so many missing, might as well pack in.
And if you miss two weeks on the trot, I'll stop until you come back on again. Not doing it for half a season like I did t'other year.  


At the end of the season, the winner of group 2 and the bottom of group 1 will swap places in what is commonly known as "promotion" and "relegation". It's something that most football fans will be familiar with, unless you're a fan of Liverpool or Arsenal or one of those other fashionable clubs.

The second placed player in group 2 will then have a play off with the player who finishes second from the bottom in group 1 to decide whether they will be going up, down or staying where they are.

We're going to have two seasons in one though, just to try and make it a bit more interesting and not so long drawn out. The first season will end on the Boxing Day fixtures, with the play offs being on the dates of the Twixtmas fixtures and the NYD fixtures.

The second season will start the following week, which is usually the FA Cup 3rd round, finishing on the last game of the League One season. Then another period of relegation/promotion play off games, taking in such fixtures as the EFL play offs, FA Cup Final, UEFA finals and such like.

Each group will have it's own set of fixtures. Both groups will have the Town games, with scorers to predict as before. Then it will be a split of League One fixtures and bonus matches, hopefully around ten, eleven or twelve games per Matchday.

The random badger is restricted to three goal scorers in any of the fixtures in your group.

Here's how that will appear at the end of the fixture list. All you have to do is fill in the blanks.......


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Any of those will score two points if correct. No minus points for getting it wrong.

Postponed matches will only count if the match is re-played before the next Matchday is under way. Abandoned matches will be awarded half the points for the score at the time of abandonment, so 1 point if you have the correct result, 2 points if you have the correct score.

Substitute or scorer in one of the Town games:- These will be only be allowed if you change them before the match involved has kicked off.

Prediction League Archive: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=12830

Division One table after Matchday 3:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 65 pts
   
2. neonfoxinthebox = 65 pts
   
3. ritchiebaby = 61 pts
   
4. jjamez = 54 pts
   
5. theo_luddite = 53 pts
   
6. Lord Snooty = 48 pts
   

Saturday 31st January:
League One:
Peterborough v Town
Town scorers:
Pish scorers:

AFC Wimbledon v Bolton Wanderers (12:30)
Northampton Town v Reading (14:00)
Exeter City v Rotherham United
Mansfield Town v Wycombe Wanderers
Wigan Athletic v Lincoln City

Championship:
Portsmouth v West Bromwich Albion

Premier League:
Brighton & Hove Albion v Everton
Leeds United v Arsenal
Liverpool v Newcastle United (20:00)

Sunday 1st February:
Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace (14:00)

Scottish Premiership:
Hibernian v Rangers (14:00)

*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

1. themaclad = 64 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 56 pts
   
3. SHEP_HTAFC = 48 pts
   
4. Devongone = 42 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 34 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 30 pts
   

Saturday 31st January:
League One:
Peterborough v Town
Town scorers:
Pish scorers:

Bradford City v Doncaster Rovers (12:30)
Barnsley v Stevenage
Burton Albion v Cardiff City
Leyton Orient v Port Vale
Luton Town v Blackpool
Stockport County v Plymouth Argyle

Championship:
Sheffield Wednesday v Wrexham (12:30)
Ipswich Town v Preston North End

League Two:
Chesterfield v Walsall

Sunday 1st February:
Premier League:
Manchester United v Fulham (14:00)
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City (16:30)

*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Gamball:
Portsmouth - WBA

Others:
Wolves - Bournemouth
Stoke - Southampton
Blackburn - Hull
Millwall - Sheff Utd
Oxford - Birmingham
QPR - Coventry
Peterborough - Huddersfield
Man Utd - Fulham
Forest - Palace

The dreaded supercomputer has apparently given us a 25% chance of relegation, predicting that we will finish fourth bottom on 52 points. We need to achieve 1.15 points per game to achieve that total.
We could be bottom three by February, Derby away tonight, then Pompey.

In all fairness, there have been worse starts to a job. King Luis II, for instance, hardly had a whale of a time during his twenty-minute-long reign over Portugal, the entirety of which was spent in a gunfight with revolutionaries whilst bleeding from a hole in the cranium; and the less said about Ben Sliney's first day as head of air traffic control operations for the United States of America on Tuesday 11th September 2001, the better. But even so, Eric Ramsey's opening seven days at the Hawthorns have ostensibly consisted of him pondering the achievements of old Coup-Slew Lou and Benny Boom Boom and saying "hold my beer."

After back to back home defeats, the second of which was comfortably our most humiliating at this level in history, it's tempting to say that the only way is up, but of course there's another (and perhaps likelier) option. It doesn't help that tonight we visit Derby, where our last success came in summer 2003. The recruitment of keeper Max O'Leary is the one ray of hope in a dark and dismal week, giving us a potential - and much-needed - improvement between the sticks, but it's still difficult to see how we come away with any kind of result this evening, barring a miracle.

Assuming Ramsey is with us for a while yet, he'll need a little bit of leeway; but it's self-evident that so far, he's taken Mason's team and managed to make them even worse. Having made that catastrophic first impression, his chances to win back any charity or goodwill are limited, and will begin with tonight's showing, if not the outcome.

Just read that if we lose tonight it will match our worst run of away league defeats (11) since 1891, 135 years. This season has been bad but WOW I didn’t realise it was that bad.

Can we win?

Anybody got any hope left?, have you got any spare I can borrow?