A total of 33 teams travel to Dumfries, Scotland for the World Mixed Doubles Qualification Event from Monday 5 to Saturday 10 January, when the top 4 teams will play in the the main event to take place in Geneva, Switzerland in April.

The teams will be split into five groups in which they will play a round robin. At the end of the round robin, the merged group ranking will be established and the 12 top teams from that ranking will advance to the playoffs. The top 4 teams in that ranking get a bye to the second qualification round while teams ranked 5–12 will play in the first qualification round. The winners of these games will advance to the second qualification round while the losers are eliminated. The second qualification round will decide which four teams qualify their Member Associations for the April Championships. Already qualified for April are Italy, Scotland, Australia, Estonia, United States, Canada, Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Finland, Switzerland, Korea, Japan, Germany, Denmark and Czechia.

Qualification Round-Robin Games Draw
Group A: India, Ireland, Kenya, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Netherlands and Slovakia
Group B: Belgium, China, England, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland and Puerto Rico
Group C: Austria, Chinese Taipei, Croatia, Hong Kong China, Jamaica, Thailand and Türkiye
Group D: Spain, France, Guyana, Nigeria, Philippines and Ukraine
Group E: Brazil, Hungary, Latvia, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia

Ireland's Double is Ailsa Barron and Kyle Paradis who play Kenya at 9am on Monday, with England represented by Rachael Hotchkiss and Fraser Clark who play Pakistan at 9am on Monday and then China later the same day at 7.30pm.

Barrow have appointed former Blackburn Rovers and Scotland striker Paul Gallagher as their new head coach.

The 41-year-old has signed an 18-month contract, with the option for a further year, and replaces Andy Whing, who was sacked by the League Two club in early December.

Gallagher was brought in as a member of Barrow's interim coaching team following Whing's dismissal and has taken charge after "impressing" the Bluebirds' hierarchy.

"The recent games against Tranmere and Salford have seen an upturn in performance levels and we believe that, as Paul's influence increases, performances will continue to improve," chief executive Iain Wood told the club website, external.

"We're aware that this appointment is significant for the club in the short and long-term, we believe Paul meets both those needs and we're really pleased to have him join us."

Gallagher, who made more than 500 appearances for clubs including Leicester City and Preston North End, retired from playing in 2021.

He held first-team coaching roles at Preston and Stoke City, where he stepped in as caretaker boss after Alex Neil's dismissal in December 2023.

"Coming in to the club was a real opportunity to get myself back on the grass and coach the players," said the Glasgow-born Gallagher, who won his only international cap in 2004.

"I think I have engaged really well with the players and staff, and becoming a head coach is something I wanted to do and next step on my journey."

John Welsh will join Gallagher as assistant head coach after leaving his position at Preston.

Barrow are currently 19th in the table, seven points clear of relegation.

THE MATCH

SUNDAY 4TH JANUARY KO 12PM

v

LAST MATCH



A new year but the same old problems as we went down at Deepdale. It did take Preston until the 28th minute before they took the lead, Iorfa losing the ball near the touchline and Lewis played the ball into near our box and McCann skipped between two defenders and slotted past Charles. Charles made a fine double save before the returning Ismajic turned in the box and fired high into the net. It was 3-0 when Dobbin fired past Charles after a cross from the right. Cads had our only chance on target but was saved by there keeper. That's now 18 games without a win, our record is 20 games without a win, which will be comfortably beaten this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and we travel to the capital to lose, sorry take on QPR. QPR are sat in the middle of the table in 12th place, just 5 points off the playoff spots and 11 points above the relegation zone. I would be surprised to see them make the playoff and they should have enough about them to avoid a relegation scrap. They are managed Julien Stephan who has been in charge since June of 2025 after managing in France. There leading scorer is Burrell who has 9 goals and 3 assists so far this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 35
QPR 26
DRAW 20

CURRENT FORM

OWLS     L D D L L D                                                           

QPR        L L D W L W

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

SMUEL ALLISON
Andrew Fox and Hristo Karaivanov
Fourth Official: Ruebyn Ricardo

THE TEAM

Charles
Palmer McGhee Iorfa Otegbayo Amass
Thornton Ingelsson Bannan
McNeill Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Cadamarteri

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 16
Imre 15
SCO 10
Washington 9
Maddix 8

BMPL

Stateside 10
Pei 0
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Leeds v Man Utd
Derby v Wrexham
Middlesboro v Southampton
Doncaster v Luton
Cambridge v Grimsby

DADAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

Not quite sure if it’s broken yet but the weekend will fix that.

Albion have not lost nine away games on the bounce for fifty years, the 1970’s, until today. Leicester away up next ……

I work with a blues fan, he is not the brightest spark, two years ago he keep saying that they were not in a relegation dogfight, even on the last Saturday he was in denial, they went down.
I am not that daft, we are in a relegation scrap, not a dogfight yet but heading that way, unless we find a solution and fast it will be a dogfight, we do not have the backers to break the bank like blues did to regain a championship place. I am worried, very worried.

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


So we now have a two legged Play Off between Lord Snooty and themaclad. The usual rules apply, but in the case of the match ending in a tie, we will have a tie breaker. That will be to predict the total number of corners in the two Huddersfield Town matches during the two legs. The closest wins. If it's still a tie, the winner will be the one who scored most points over the season, which in that case would be themaclad.



Final Division One table for the 2025/26 season:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 432 pts
   
2. jjamez = 424 pts
   
3. neonfoxinthebox = 359 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 328 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 327 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 171 pts
   

1. theo_luddite = 379 pts
   
2. themaclad = 369 pts
   
3. Devongone = 348 pts
   
4. St Charles Owl = 336 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 287 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 270 pts
   

Sunday 4th January:
Championship:
Bristol City v Preston North End

League One:
Town v Exeter
Town scorers:
Exeter scorers:

Bolton Wanderers v Northampton Town (12:00)
Lincoln City v Peterborough United (12:00)
Blackpool v Bradford City
Cardiff City v Wigan Athletic
Doncaster Rovers v Luton Town
Plymouth Argyle v Burton Albion
Port Vale v Barnsley
Reading v Stockport County
Rotherham United v Mansfield Town
Stevenage v Leyton Orient
Wycombe Wanderers v AFC Wimbledon


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

Tick tock

Ever heard the one about the manager who became his own replacement?

No? Well, that's exactly what Adam Clayton has done at non-league Matlock Town.

The former Middlesbrough and Leeds United midfielder was let go on Saturday - and rehired as manager two days later.

Matlock Town 'owned' the bizarre situation when announcing Clayton's return on Monday, saying it "may well come as a surprise" considering they mutually agreed to part ways on Saturday.

However, the statement announcing his departure and social media posts relating to it from the club have been scrubbed from the internet.

A 3-0 defeat by Ossett United on Friday had cost the former Premier League player his first job in management, despite Matlock sitting third in the Northern Premier League Eastern Division table.

On Saturday it was said that results had "fallen short of the standards expected", despite Matlock losing just two of their past six matches across all competitions.

By Monday, Matlock owner David Hilton explained that Clayton had been released to pursue an opportunity with another club higher up the English football pyramid.

Hilton said the Gladiators had initially "decided to not allow those discussions" to take place until the end of the season, fearing it would "unsettle" the Derbyshire club, only to then release the manager to pursue the chance.

And when Clayton turned down the opportunity of a new start elsewhere, the 36-year-old is said to have "requested he be reinstated" so he could "finish what he had started".

"While the earlier decision was taken with the club's long-term welfare in mind, further reflection and continued dialogue highlighted the importance of stability, continuity, and a shared direction," Hilton said in a statement on the club website., external

Clayton, who started his professional career on the books at Manchester City, was still playing when he was elevated from midfielder to interim manager at Matlock last season.

Despite Matlock going on to be relegated last term, Clayton was given the job on a permanent basis and had the Gladiators within seven points of league leaders Redcar Athletic by the end of what can only be called his 'first spell' in charge.