This will be the first time junior teams have the chance to compete in the Mixed Doubles discipline at World Championship level, following the success of Mixed Doubles at the Youth Olympic Games in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. The event is being held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from Tuesday 6 May until Sunday 11 May.

The event has 29 teams competing: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechia, Denmark, England, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong China, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Latvia, Nigeria, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine and United States.

Scotland have been drawn in Group B and are represented by Robyn Munro and Orrin Carson. They are the current World University Games Mixed Doubles Champions and Orrin is also skip of the 2025 World Junior Championship rink. Robyn also has a World Gold, winning the World Juniors in 2023. Their first game is against Austria tomorrow at 9pm.

England's duo is Chloe McNaughton and Matthew Waring, who are going to play in Group C. Their first game is against Switzerland at 5pm tomorrow, with their second one against Turkiye at 1am on Wednesday. Matthew is a regular international and Chloe (now living and curling in Scotland) is another top English curler.

Bristol Rovers have sacked head coach Inigo Calderon following the team's relegation from League One.

Burton's draw with Wigan on Tuesday confirmed Rovers' return to League Two following three seasons in the third tier.

His final game in charge was a 4-1 defeat by Blackpool on Saturday, a ninth loss in 10 matches to end the campaign.

First-team coach Miguel Llera has also left The Memorial Stadium.

Calderon was appointed on Boxing Day but Rovers only won six of his 26 games in charge and they finished 22nd in the table.

The former Brighton & Hove Albion defender was appointed on a two-and-a-half-year deal, with the club 19th in the table and three points above the drop zone, but he failed to steer them to safety.

The Bristol Rovers job was Calderon's first in a first-team managerial role, with the 43-year-old previously being manager of Brighton's under-18s team.

In early March, back-to-back wins against Huddersfield and Bolton saw Rovers move nine points clear of the relegation zone, but a torrid run of eight defeats in nine games followed to drop them into the bottom four.


However, the issues that Taylor's team struggled with at the start of the campaign persisted under Calderon, particularly scoring goals and away form.

Rovers' tally of 44 goals scored is the fourth-lowest in the division - with 25 scored during Calderon's tenure - and the manager's plight was not helped by the loss of strikers Chris Martin and Promise Omochere to season-ending injuries in early March.

The club also sit bottom of the table for away results, having won only three times on the road. Under Calderon there was only one away win in 12 league matches, with just four goals scored.

Calderon had consistently been honest in his assessment of the side and last month said the team were playing like "a League Two side".

"It's been difficult. We knew it was my first chance in senior management and the fact I am not getting success has been frustrating for me," Calderon said following their defeat by Reading.

"But at the same time I sleep well in terms of I think I am trying to do everything possible - you cannot imagine the hours I try to put in to make this team stay in this division. It still hasn't been enough so maybe I have to do better, 100% I have to do better."


Inigo Calderon's short tenure as Rovers' head coach has been a difficult one for him. He was so excited to get the chance of his first senior job in football management he spent Christmas away from his family in Spain to prepare.

And while there were definitely some games where he - and the team - showed some real promise (back-to-back wins over Huddersfield and Bolton in a run of five home wins in seven games) their awful finish to the season sealed his fate.

He certainly made mistakes during that time, with some of his substitutions leaving fans scratching their heads. But potentially the biggest issues he's faced weren't of his making.

Rovers' owner, Hussain AlSaeed, told us this season's playing budget is the largest in the club's history, and while plenty of the players recruited in the summer are undoubtedly talented, the blend of a lot of youngsters and a handful of very senior players wasn't right.

Then in January, with all his senior strikers having had significant injury issues, they didn't sign an experienced player as cover.

And with just five goals scored in their past 10 games, that decision probably cost Calderon his job and Rovers their place in League One.

Meanwhile, Rovers have confirmed that nine players will be leaving the club when their contracts expire this summer, including captain Scott Sinclair.

The former Swansea and Celtic forward, 36, scored 13 goals in 113 appearances in two-and-a-half seasons with the Pirates.

Midfielders Grant Ward, Luke McCormick, Romaine Sawyers and Jerry Lawrence are all departing.

Defender Jack Hunt, forward Jevani Brown and goalkeeper Matt Hall are also being released, while striker Martin, whose contract is also expiring, will continue his rehabilitation from a knee injury with the club.

A one-year contract extension has been trigged in centre-back James Wilson's deal.

Here's the thread for us to debate rumours and chat for the pre season, comings and goings
I think it's safe to say unless a miracle happens and some rich muller or yank doesn't buy us then all we are going hear from Chansiri is defeaning silence! staff and players leaving the club and not a plan insight for the pre season let alone the actual season itself
It didn't bare thinking about a few weeks ago but we are now here and knee deep in the brown stuff
Enjoy ...
https://www.transfermarkt.com/sheffield-...erein/1035
https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2025/may/15/owls-confirm-/

Somehow we've managed to sneak into the playoffs. Beat Accrington 1-0 at the Wham stadium which we never seem to win at, it's either a draw or a loss there and Carlisle managed to hold Salford to a 2-2 draw at Brunton Park.

So we've got to play Walsall in the playoffs, a team who I would have thought would have got automatic promotion minimum seeing as they were 12 pts clear at the top of the league at one stage through out the season. Their final game of the season was a 1-0 win away at Crewe.

We drew 2-2 at home to Walsall this season and lost 3-1 away. The last time we ever beat Walsall was August 2016 where we won 2-0 at home.

Our record against them is W31 D29 L36

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 St Charles Owl and SHEP_HTAFC. 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 a random game chosen from the list in the 2nd leg. 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 Shep.


Final Division One table for 2025:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 302 pts
   
2. neonfoxinthebox = 301 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 295 pts
   
4. jjamez = 283 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 278 pts
   
6. themaclad = 254 pts
   

1. ritchiebaby = 307 pts
   
2. SHEP_HTAFC = 300 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 294 pts
   
4. Devongone = 268 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 206 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 193 pts
   

Thursday 8th May:
Championship Play Offs 1st leg:
Bristol City v Sheffield United (20:00)

Friday 9th May:
Coventry City v Sunderland (20:00)

Saturday 10th May:
League One Play Offs 1st leg:
Leyton Orient v Stockport County (12:30)

Sunday:
Wycombe Wanderers v Charlton Athletic (18:30)

Saturday:
League Two Play Offs 1st leg:
Notts County v AFC Wimbledon (20:00)

Sunday:
Chesterfield v Walsall (15:30)

Monday 12th May:
Championship Play Offs 2nd leg:
Sheffield United v Bristol City (20:00)

Tuesday 13th May:
Sunderland v Coventry City (20:00)

Wednesday 14th May:
League One Play Offs 2nd leg:
Stockport County v Leyton Orient (20:00)

Thursday 15th May:
Charlton Athletic v Wycombe Wanderers (20:00)

Friday 16th May:
League Two Play Offs 2nd leg:
AFC Wimbledon v Notts County (20:00)

Saturday17th May:
Walsall v Chesterfield (12:30)


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

Hibs welcome United to Easter Road tomorrow in another vital match in the race for 3rd place. A narrow defeat at Aberdeen last weekend shouldn't affect Hibs too much but the failure in turning opportunities into goals must be more concerning.

I'm sure that will be rectified this weekend and every goal scored and every point secured from now on will be hard-earned in a dog-eat-dog last few weeks.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 3RD MAY KO 12:30PM

v

LAST MATCH



Our final home game of the season saw us pick up a point as not taking chances and poor defending (a familiar tale of the season) came back to haunt us again. We got off to a good start and took an early lead when Pato forced one in off the underside of the bar. It didn't take long for Pompey to level, Blair firing past Charles from 10 yards. We went in level at the break. Onto the 2nd half and although we continued to press forward we only really had half chances, our best chance coming from Musaba which the goalie tipped around the post. It kind of felt like an end of season game.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Our final game of the season see's us travel down to Watford. Watford will finish mid table like ourselves and I would think they will be disappointed not to have been challenging for the playoff spots and with the owners being trigger happy when it comes to managers, Cleverley's job must be in doubt. Cleverley has been in charge for just over a year now, which is quite an achievement for a modern Watford manager, with a 35% win rate. There leading scorer is Bayo with 10 goal so far.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 16
WATF 25
DRAW 11

CURRENT FORM

OWLS  D W L L D L                                                                   

WATF L L L L W L

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

ANDY DAVIES
Graham Kane and Rob Smith
Fourth Official: Sam Allison

THE TEAM

Charles
Iorfa Ihiekwe Otegbayo Hatsuse
Bannan Charles
Gasama Windass Ingelsson
Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-1 Smith

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Imre 31
SCO 25
Maddix 23
Washington 20
Wereham 16

BMPL

Stateside 20
Owlkev 15
Southey 12
Pei 10

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Leicester v Southampton
Derby v Stoke
Wycombe v Stockport
Crewe v Walsall
Gateshead v Southend

HHHAA

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

Huddersfield Town v Leyton Orient
Sky Bet League One
Saturday May 3rd - 15:00 ko
at Leeds Road

]

Huddersfield Town welcome Leyton Orient for a Play Offs party at the Kevin Nagle Arena on Saturday afternoon. They just need three points to achieve their ambition of making it to the end of season lottery. And our spineless idiots are in no mood to be party poopers. Even though this has now been announced as the final Town game for the General, Jonathan Hogg.

So in advance of Saturday's game, I'd like to say congratulations to the O's for that and offer my sincere apologies to Reading FC and all their supporters who after a traumatic few years, will have to settle for another season in League One.

Talking of Hoggy. Kevin Nagle has said that he hasn't been offered a new contract. How many more have been told the same? How many will have even less of a reason to bother with trying to look as if they care?

Tickets: Meh! Who cares? They don't. Why should we?

In our very first Footbal League season, 1910/11, Orient was our 9th league game. They were Clapton Orient then and the game was played at Clapton Stadium, also known as Millfields Road and we lost 2-0. We won the return fixture 2-0 with Irishman, James Macauley and Scotsman James Richardson scoring our goals.

We stayed together in Division Two until Town got promoted in 1919/20. That was of course, the roller coaster season that nearly saw us go bust, nearly got taken over by Leeds United, but ended with an FA Cup Final and a first promotion for the club. The season started with Orient coming north to Leeds Road, the first league game after the Great War. Our war hero Jack Cock, scored the first goal. He would become our first ever England international in the next few weeks, while the second goalscorer in our 2-1 win, Jim Baker, went on to join Leeds, becoming their club captain.

After a midweek trip for a defeat in Bury, our brave lads went down to Clapton on the Saturday and completed a league double over the O's. It was a 1-0 win and Sammy Taylor scored the first of what became and still is a club record of 41 goals in a season.

So we never met again until we were relegated in the 50s. They had become Leyton Orient by now and we had six seasons together before they went and had their one and only season in the top flight of English football. We had another two seasons together in the 2nd Division before they went down again.

We had just one season together during our decline in the 70s. That was 72/73 in Div 2 and we got relegated.

They were still in Division Two as we started to climb back up, but our next meeting came in the FA Cup in 81/82. We drew at Leeds Road but then lost the replay down at Brisbane Road.

They were relegated at the end of that season though and so we met in the league for just one season, which saw us promoted at the end of it. The home game was a thumping 6-0 win with goals from Colin Russell, Mark Lillis, Daryl Pugh, David Sutton and a couple from Brian Stanton. Lillis and Stanton were on target again in April, as well as Phil Wilson as the Terriers won 3-1 to go top of the 3rd Division table.

We got relegated again at the back end of the 80s and so had another six seasons together in Div 3, the last of which, we went up again. In that 94/95 season, we did the double over them. Paul Reid and Andy Booth on target in the 2-1 home win and Iain Dunn and a Ronnie Jepson penalty secured a 2-0 away win.

Boothy scored a few against Orient in his Town days. He scored in a 3-0 home win when we met up again after our relegation to the 4th tier in 2003. He scored again in a 1-1 draw down at theirs later in the season, but having already sent off Pawel Abbott, dickhead referee Trevor Parkes, gave Boothy a second yellow card and off he had to go. Dickhead!

It's not all bad memories for the club legend and ambassador though. In 2009, Boothy played his 457th and final game for Huddersfield Town, away at Leyton Orient. He only went and scored as well, his 150th goal for the club. We couldn't hold on to the lead though and the match ended as a 1-1 draw.

Once Boothy had retired, another goalscorer started tormenting the O's. Jordan Rhodes scored 7 goals in 6 games against them, including a hat trick at Brisbane Road in the promotion season of 2011/12.

That was the last time we played each other until this season. At the end of November, we won 2-0 down there with Michal Helik and Callum Marshall scoring to push Orient into the bottom 4, with us firmly entrenched in the top 6.

How easily a season can turn around! Next season, they may be in the Championship!

1. Liam Chuffed
   
2. Mr Cat Arkwright
   
3. Not Tomsk
   
4. Hulls Calm Alarm
   
5. Ah Chill Mike
   
6. Adolf Diapered
   
7. John Grot in Town
   
8. Been a Hiker
   
9. Ruth Poverty
   
10. Unbroken Rose
    

Swansea City have appointed Alan Sheehan as their head coach on a three-year deal following his successful spell as caretaker boss.

Sheehan impressed after taking charge in February following the departure of Luke Williams, leading Swansea clear of relegation danger in some style.

The 38-year-old Irishman has now been handed the chance to make a long-term impression having been given a first permanent managerial role.

"It's a privilege to be at this football club and now I have the honour of officially being the head coach," Sheehan told the club's official website.

"It's somewhat surreal. There's been a really good feeling around the place and I spoke over the last couple of months about building something.

"I've been in talks with the ownership for a good while now and I haven't really changed what I've been saying about moving forward. Now is a really good time to move forward."

Swansea were looking nervously towards the bottom three when Williams left the club on the back of a run of seven defeats in nine Championship matches.

But the Welsh club are now guaranteed to finish in the top half of the table having taken 23 points from Sheehan's 12 games at the helm.

The former Luton Town and Southampton coach was initially put in charge for five matches before he agreed in March to remain at the helm for the remainder of the season.

Director of football Richard Montague said: "We've been very impressed with Alan since he's taken over as caretaker head coach for a second time.

"It was important that we carried out a thorough and detailed process for appointing our new head coach.

"We had to get this decision right, and we are very happy with the work that's been done and confident that we've picked the best head coach to take our club to the next level."

Sheehan has always been interested in taking the role on a long-term basis, though he repeatedly stressed that his ideas must align with the club's view on the way forward.

Former left-back Sheehan joined Swansea as an assistant head coach in the summer of 2023, linking up with then sporting director Paul Watson, who he knew from their time together at Luton.

Having initially been part of Michael Duff's backroom staff, Sheehan first took over as caretaker boss in December 2023, when he helped Swansea claim 11 points from seven matches before the arrival of Williams in January last year.

Sheehan returned to the backroom team before stepping up to the top job for a second time when Williams said his farewells.

At the time, Swansea were eight points clear of the bottom three in 17th, but they have since delivered a remarkable upturn in form to climb to 11th in the table.

After defeat at Millwall last weekend ended Swansea's very faint play-off chances, they finish the season with a home game against Oxford United on Saturday (12:30 BST).

Tom Gorringe, Swansea's CEO, added: "Alan has shown strong leadership and tactical acumen during his time as caretaker head coach.

"Collectively, we believe he is the right person to take Swansea City forward and build on the progress that we've made towards the end of this season.

"We're excited and optimistic about what we can achieve together."

Confirmation of Sheehan's backroom staff will be made in due course.

Group A

Twerton 18
Themaclad 15
Zinman 15
Minizin 15
Amelia 5
A.A.A. 4

This weeks results mirror the season as a whole, tight at the top followed by a gap to the stragglers. All the balls produced positive points in total with nobody missing out on all of them and a few spot on predictions thrown into the mix.

Twerton leads the way this week with 18 points, he only scored on 4 games but managed a maximum on both the Gamball and the Bonus. Three players shared second spot with 15 points - Themaclad, Zinman and Minizin. Themaclad and Zinman managed 2 correct scores, a correct result on the Bonus and scored on 5 games, whereas Minizin only scored on 4 games but picked up a spot on Gamball along with a CR on the bonus.

Big 10 point drop down to Ameila with 5 points. She managed to score on half the games but she missed on both the Gamball and Bonus. AAA is a point behind her but managed it on just 3 scoring games including a CR on the Gamball.

341 Themaclad
301 Twerton
297 Zinman
289 Minizin
231 Amelia
223 A.A.A.

These results means we see no changed to the league table. Going into the final week sees Themaclad with a pretty unassailable lead of 40 points but the chasing pack are only separated by 12 points and also hold a lead over the Group B play off chasers. Worth noting that Twerton becomes only the second player in both leagues to pass the 300 point mark. This means the final week will need to be a disaster for them to not make the playoffs at this stage!! Cue the sirens going off for one of them!!!!

Cheers
SCO


Group B

Snooty 16
BBB 16
BaggieOne 15
Derby 15
SCO 6
Lady Jane 4
Stairs 2

The penultimate week of the regular season saw some interesting results. It produced the highest number of correct result predictions - 37 - and also the 2nd time the scoreball column ended blank. With just 2 games seeing both teams score this wasn't a complete surprise. This week also saw 2 players getting 7 correct results, only the 2nd time this has happened and the last time was last week!

The table divides into 2 groups. We have a share at the top with both Snooty and BBB scoring 16 points. Snooty was one of those with 7 correct predictions and he also got 3 spot-on, but 2 of the games he got wrong were his gamball and bonus, preventing him from having a stormer. BBB got one fewer correct results and scores but nailed his bonus to match Snooty's total.
BaggieOne and Derby sit just a point back. BaggieOne was the other player with 7 correct results but he only got one correct score (a recurring issue for him) while Derby scored on both the main balls amonst his 6 correct predictions but failed to get any correct scores.

And then trailing some distance behind we have the rest. SCO's correct bonus kept him ahead of Lady Jane, neither of them scoring a maximum, while Stairs got just 2 correct results and missed on all the balls.

I'll keep the stats for a full report next week.

295 SCO
283 Lady Jane
281 Derby
259 Stairs
248 BBB
238 Snooty
230 BaggieOne

Lady Jane failed to capitalise on SCO's poor week so, while 12 points isn't unsurmountable, he enters the final week with a relatively comfortable lead. The chase for the play-off positions is now looking very interesting (I write this before seeing Group A results). Lady Jane had held an impressive lead for most of the season but with Derby closing the gap to just 2 points, she could now be in danger of missing out on the play-offs. No positional changes this week and it would surely be a miracle if any of the other players could catch the top 3 - maybe it's time for some unexpected predictions (like predicting an Albion win this week!)

Zin


Playoff Update

With only 1 week left to go here are the standings

League Leaders - First week Bye
1. Themaclad - 341
2. St Charles Owl - 295

Playoff Places Race
3. Twerton - 301
4. Zinman - 297
5. Minizin - 289
6. Lady Jane - 283
7. Derby - 281

Not quite done but almost
8. Stairs - 259
9. BBB - 248
10. Lord Snooty - 238

On their Summer Hols
11. Amelia - 231
12. BaggieOne - 230
13. AAA - 223

Themaclad is now mathematically in the playoffs and almost guaranteed the Group A title. SCO is looking good for the Group B title but could still be caught in the final week.

In the Playoffs, Twerton and Zinman both have a healthy lead over 7th place Derby, so they are looking good for 2 of the PO places. Minizin, Lady Jane and Derby are in an 8 point battle for the final two places and SCO is not fully out of reach but does have a 14 point gap over them to lean on!! Stairs, BBB and Lord Snooty are not mathematically out of the race but it would take a monumental week from them to even get close. Everyone else has their flip-flops on and are walking on a sunny beach somewhere!!!