Well, after all the doubts and hype, the Beijing Winter Olympics finally start on 2nd February 2022. Just ignore the official date of 4th February for the Opening Ceremony with the Mixed Doubles Curling and the Luge Practice Sessions starting 2 days earlier.

There are a couple of websites giving excellent information, the succinct BBC Day-by-day Guide - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/60111409 - and the Official Winter Olympics site which is more like War And Peace than Mills and Boon https://olympics.com/en/beijing-2022/ . Having said that the official website gives you full details of all the events and all the athletes, as well as a whole load of guff about "Together For A Shared Future", legacy, purity and the like.

Team GB is represented by the following 50 athletes plus 2 nominated reserves:-
Alpine skiing
Billy Major, Dave Ryding, Charlie Guest, Alex Tilley
Bobsleigh
Brad Hall, Nick Gleeson, Greg Cackett, Taylor Lawrence, Ben Simons (reserve), Mica McNeill, Montell Douglas, Adele Nicoll (reserve)
Cross country skiing
James Clugnet, Andrew Musgrave, Andrew Young
Curling
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Ross Whyte, Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff, Mili Smith
Figure skating
Natasha McKay, Lilah Fear, Lewis Gibson
Freestyle skiing
Lloyd Wallace, Leonie Gerken-Schofield, Makayla Gerken-Schofield, Will Feneley, Ollie Davies, Gus Kenworthy, Zoe Atkin, James Woods, Izzy Atkin, Kirsty Muir, Katie Summerhayes
Luge
Rupert Staudinger
Speed skating
Kathryn Thomson, Farrell Treacy, Niall Treacy, Cornelius Kersten, Ellia Smeding
Skeleton
Laura Deas, Brogan Crowley, Matt Weston, Marcus Wyatt
Snowboarding
Huw Nightingale, Charlotte Bankes, Katie Ormerod

Eve Muirhead, Gus Kenworthy, Izzy Atkins and Laura Deas have all won Olympic medals already, so a few more wouldn't go amiss. I've bravely (stupidly) predicted GB would win 9 medals at these Games and I've a good feeling about doing it, as we're on the up in Winter Sports.

There is blanket coverage of the events from 12 midnight Wednesday/Thursday lasting all morning on the Eurosport channels. The BBC will ravenously devour a scrap or two thrown away by the media giants. Ppplease sir, I want some more? MORE!!! (in a Brian Blessed voice). You know the rest.

Anyway, there will be more to come from me over the weekend, so bate your breath and gast your flabbers for further revelations. 

Barnet 0-4 Stockport
Boreham Wood 2-0 King's Lynn
Bromley 1-2 Notts County
Dag & Red 2-1 Halifax
Dover 0-2 Southend
Grimsby 2-0 Wealdstone
Solihull Moors 3-0 Altrincham
Weymouth 1-1 Aldershot
Woking 2-3 Yeovil
Wrexham 0-1 Maidenhead United
Eastleigh 2-3 Chesterfield


League Table After Matchday 32

St Charles = 356
Lord Snoots = 354
Devon = 352
Amelia = 346
Dancing = 314
Spireitematt = 312

I watched the tv highlights of the Lions v Rangers at Ibronx and one notable thing about their resolute performance v Rangers (IMO Huns lucky to get that victory with that only goal by that irritatingly "saluting" prat, Arfield!) was how stuffy they were in protecting their goalie, Strijek, who had a good performance "between the sticks". So Hibs play this stuffy Livy side with a clearly visible striking problem that is not welcome in matches like this upcoming one. None of our preferred strikers is anywhere near prolific. Nisbet could've scored in the initial mins of the match v M'well when sent through the home defence, but not direct enough or committed to get into their pen box and score, his first touch rotten btw!! Doidge is similar whereby he could've won the game in the last quarter from a position where he needed to show a bit of quality to loft the ball, from the right corner of their pen box, over a stranded M'well goalie to score an acclaimed winner - couldn't do it!! Mueller is a good hard-working young player, but he is clearly not a prolific goal scorer either - seen enough to confirm that fact already!
All I can say is I hope somebody "steps up to the plate" and scores the winning goal - prob one goal in it, which is sad to say considering where Hibs are and it is Livy who are our opponents

GGTTH

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 29TH JANUARY KO 3:00 PM

v

LAST MATCH



Although we didn't play too bad, the jekyll & hide nature of this team reared it's ugly head again. We started brightly and took the lead when Bannan finished from the edge of the area after a good move. We led until injury time when just for a change we conceded from a cross. Onto the 2nd and we restored our lead when Windass finished well. They equalized a few minutes later when the ball fell luckily for there striker to score. And inevitably we conceded from a set piece as our ex player Sam Winnall headed in the winner. Paterson had a chance to grab us a point but put his effort inches wide.

NEXT MATCH



Next up and the Tractor boys make the visit to Hillsborough. We drew at Portman Road earlier in the season thanks to a BPF error (HE'S BEHIND YOU     ) McCauley Bonne is there scorer with 12 goals and 3 assists. Kieran Mckenna is there manager and has been since last year. Another team looking to get into the playoffs as they lie 8th at the moment a point above us and 5 off the last play off spot, so a win is a must, so put all your money on an away win      

CURRENT FORM  ]

OWLS               -                                             

IPSW                -                                 

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

DARREN BOND
Andrew Dallison and Michael George
Fourth Official : Andrew Kitchen

THE TEAM

Peacock-Farrell
Palmer Hutch Storey
Hunt Dele Bannan Adeniran NML
Windass Gregory

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Windass

BML STANDINGS

SCO 11
Pei 9
Kev 8
Wereham 8
Maddix 5
Wash 4
Imre 4
SS 2

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Bolton Wanderers v Sunderland
Cheltenham Town v Wigan Athletic
Crewe Alexandra v Rotherham United
Doncaster Rovers v Plymouth Argyle
Fleetwood Town v Cambridge United

AAAAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

This was a match in horrible rainy and stormy conditions that were never conducive to playing a decent game of footie. However, Hibs never hit a shot at the M'well goal in the whole game incl the last 10 mins v 10 men. The concern still remains that Hibs don't have any great striking capability, post Boyly. That concern still remains among lotsa observing Hibs fans.

GGTTH

Premier League

Sanjay    25pts 2CS 7CR 10GB 3BB 0SB
SCO        23pts 2CS 6CR 10GB 3BB 0SB
Derby      23pts 2CS 6CR 10GC 3BB 0SB
Minizin    18pts 3CS 7CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Silver      17pts 2CS 5CR 10GB -3BB 0SB
Snooty      7pts 1CS 5CR -3GB 0BB 0SB
BBB          6pts 1CS 2CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
BaggieOne  5pts 1CS 4CR -3GB -3BB 1SB
AAA            0pts - no submission

Some very good scores this week - 4 correct gamball predictions with all 4 collecting maximum points. Scoreballs were rather harder to predict with only 2 points gained, both by this week's worst performers.

Sanjay heads the table continuing his recent run of form pulling him ahead of the relegation battle - that's now 52 points in the last 3 weeks for him. He added to his gamball maximum by getting a week's high of 7 correct results and one other correct score for his best week of the season so far. SCO and Derby share 2nd spot with identical records. Yet another gamball maximum for Derby, his 6th of the season (SCO's not far behind with 5).

Minizin had an impressive week, particularly as he lost out on a rarely played gamball. 3 correct scores from 7 correct predictions arrested his recent minislump (see what I did there) to ease any relegation fears. Silver also had a good week being the 4th player with a maximum gamball though he suffered from a missed bonus.

Quite a gap to the rest, all of whom lost out on the gamball. Snooty at least managed to miss a double loss on his extra bonus as he came in on 7 points, 1 ahead of BBB. He had a poor prediction week, just 2 correct results - the worst performer - but climbed to respectability thanks to his 1 correct score being his bonus. BaggieOne's struggles continue, again losing out on both his gamball and bonus, while AAA was a no show.

Derby 229
Silver 190
SCO 185
BBB 178
Sanjay 172
Minizin 169
BaggieOne 143
Snooty 136
AAA 80

Just a couple of changes in the overall table as Derby continues to stretch ahead -  a lead now of 39 points. With Silver remaining 2nd, SCO jumps ahead of BBB into 3rd place. Sanjay also climbs one place and, from looking in danger of relegation a few weeks ago, is now challenging for a place in Europe (not that any places in Europe exist, blame Covid travel restrictions). Minizin's good week can't prevent him from dropping a place but he has a healthy gap ahead of the struggling BaggieOne and Snooty....and AAA, obviously.

Nerdy stat alert. Derby has now amassed 91 points from his balls, more than double the 2nd best ball score - one can only assume he spent the pre-season practising! AAA and BaggieOne on the other hand have both got negative points from their balls.

Zin

Championship

Themaclad  27pts 3CS 3CR 10GB 6BB 1SB
Amelia        18pts 3CS 3CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
Stairs          16pts 0CS 7CR NPGB 3BB 1SB
Blue Baggie  15pts 2CS 4CR -3GB 6BB 1SB
Salop          14pts 1CS 4CR NPGB 6BB 0SB
Zinman        13pts 1CS 5CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Twerton      12pts 2CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Lady Jane    10pts 1CS 4CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Dingle          8pts 0CS 5CR -3GB 3BB 0SB

Excellent week in the Championship with a seasons high 133 points scored.  Themaclad leads the way with a fabulous 27 points, a new high weekly score for the division.  He was the only player to score a spot on Gamball and backed that up with a spot on Bonus as well.  Amelia is in 2nd with 18 points, that is a season high for her as well.  Like Themaclad she got 6 points on the Bonus but hers was courtesy of an extra BB and she managed CRs on both.  Third is our leader Stairs with 16 points, he scored on more games than anyone else but was unable to convert any of his 7 scoring games in CSs.

Blue is in 4th with 15 points including a CS Bonus, he will be happy with that after a bit of a slump. Salop is 5th with 14 points, like the others he too got a correct score on the Bonus.  Zinman scored on 6 games but missed on the Gamball in his 13 points.

After Twerton's good form lately he will be disappointed to only get 12 this week, which has him in 7th spot.  He did get 2 CSs and a CR on the Bonus.  Lady Jane continues in her slump, 8th this week with 10 points.  DD brings up the rear with 8 points, the only player to not get double figures.

Amazingly in a season where the Bonus has proved so difficult that collectively the points from it are negative, everyone this week scored positive points on it.  This included 4 players who got spot on scores with it!!

193 - Stairs
190 - Blue Baggie
168 - Salop
165 - Lady Jane
165 - Themaclad
156 - Zinman
150 - Dingle
129 - Amelia
112 - Twerton

Stairs still leads by just 3 points from Blue, Salop jumps over Lady Jane into third, and Themaclad is now joint 4th with her after leapfrogging both Zinman and Dingle.  Amelia closed the gap a bit to Dingle and Twerton dropped a bit further back to Amelia.  Just 18 points separate 3rd to 7th, so still all to play for in the chase of that promotion PO spot.

Cheers
SCO

Suspended or sacked. You could make a Blockbuster of everything going on with our club. Surprised the big stars went for Wrexham instead of us

Gamball:
Luton - Blackburn

Others:
Hull - Swansea
Middlesbrough - Coventry
Millwall - WBA
Preston - Bristol City
Peterborough - Sheffield Utd
Derby - Birmingham
Cardiff - Nottingham Forest
Sheff Wed - Ipswich
Bolton - Sunderland

2 points for a correct result
4 points for a correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score      
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Random Badger gives you 2 points

The random badger is used for any random prediction used once in each matchday sequence. For instance, a scorer at a particular match, the number of red cards in the matches or yellow cards or own goals or owt you want really within reason, I do need to be able to check whether it's correct or not. Please don't put stuff like....."Commentator says...."  
The joker   is played for one match in each sequence and if correct you get double points. So if you've predicted 1-0 and it finishes 2-0, you get 4 pts, but if you've predicted 2-0, that's 8 pts. But if you get it wrong, it's minus 2.
Jokers and badgers are optional. You don't have to play one if you don't want.


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. Similarly with the badger, if your random prediction is affected by this, it'll be half the points.

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.  

NEW FOR THIS SEASON: End of season Play Offs.

The one who finishes top of the league will still be champion, but after the season finishes there will be Play Offs between the top 4, with 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd. This will take in stuff like the EFL Play Offs, FA Cup Final, final day of Prima Donna League, European Finals etc. It will be one matchday for the semis and one for the Final. It will be the individual scores for each matchday against the allotted opponent, with some kind of tie breaker for a drawn match.
So last season's matches would've been Baggiebob(BBB) v theo_luddite and jjamez v St Charles Owl and would've given a bit more to play for towards the back end of the season.
The prize for winning will be enormous. Another rep point.

We now have an Appeals Committee set up, consisting of me, myself and I. All appeals must be made before the next Matchday kicks off.

Friday 28th January:
Town v Stoke
Town scorers:
Stoke scorers:

Saturday 29th January:
Barnsley v AFC Bournemouth
Fulham v Blackpool
Hull City v Swansea City
Luton Town v Blackburn Rovers
Middlesbrough v Coventry City
Millwall v West Bromwich Albion
Preston North End v Bristol City
Queens Park Rangers v Reading
Peterborough United v Sheffield United (17:30)

Sunday 30th January:
Derby County v Birmingham City (13:30)
Cardiff City v Nottingham Forest (16:00)

Tuesday 1st February:
Millwall v Preston North End
Swansea City v Luton Town

Wednesday 2nd February:
Town v Derby
Town scorers:
Derby scorers:

Barnsley v Cardiff City

Table after Matchday 26:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 624 pts
   
2. jjamez = 577 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 569 pts
   
4. theo_luddite = 559 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 556 pts
   
6. neonfoxinthebox = 548 pts
   
7. themaclad = 534 pts
   
8. SHEP_HTAFC = 502 pts
   
9. WakeyTerrier = 470 pts
   
10. ritchiebaby = 459 pts
    
11. Amelia Chaffinch = 429 pts