Premier League

Stairs 14pts 1CS 5CR 0GB 3BB 1SB
Zinman 14pts 1CS 4CR 10GB -3BB 1SB
Minizin 13pts 2CS 6CR 0GB -3BB 0SB
Snooty 13pts 0CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 1SB
Blue Baggie 12pts 2CS 5CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Derby 11pts 1CS 5CR -3GB 3BB 1SB
Sanjay 11pts 1CS 2CR 5GB 6BB 0SB
SCO 9pts 1CS 3CR 5GB -3BB 1SB


And so we reach the World Cup break with a good scoring week, the second best of the season so far. Not a lot separating the complete table but, though we all seemed to record similar total points, we all did so in very different ways.

Stairs and Zinman share top spot with 14 points. Stairs avoidance of the gamball cost him this week as it was one of his 5 correct results though he did score on the other 2 balls. Zinman became the 4th premiership player to get a maximum on his gamball (and for once I'm glad that I overcame my hesitancy to play it) but struggled for points otherwise. Just a point back are Minizin and Snooty. Like Stairs, Mini scored on a week's high of 6 games but missed out on the bonus and gave up 3 points by not gambling. Snooty only scored on 4 games but was helped by a full set of positive balls. Blue had his best week of the season so far despite getting his gamball wrong - we shouldn't be surprised as he's got the gamball game wrong every week so far!

Derby and Sanjay sit 6th and 7th though both reached double figures. Sanjay only scored on 2 games but they just happened to be the gamball and a spot-on bonus - good ball playing can certainly help! SCO is the only player not getting into double figures though in such a close week it shouldn't do much harm in the overall table.

Derby 119
Minizin 111
Snooty 110
Zinman 107
Stairs 92
Sanjay 91
SCO 85
Blue Baggie 55

As you'd expect, not a lot of change in the table with just Stairs and Sanjay swopping places. Minizin, Snooty and Zinman all climbed above the 100 point mark.

Time for a few weeks off where I can concentrate on being paid to drink wine rather than staring at spreadsheets!

Zin


Championship

BaggieOne 20pts 2CS 4CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
Dingle 18pts 1CS 5CR 5GB 3BB 0SB
Twerton 17pts 1CS 4CR 5GB 6BB 0SB
BBB 12pts 1CS 4CR 5GB -3BB 0SB
Amelia 9pts 1CS 2CR 5GB -3BB 1SB
AAA 9pts 0CS 4CR NPGB 3BB 0SB
Lady Jane 8pts 1CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 0SB
Themaclad 4pts 0CS 3CR -3GB 3BB 0SB

So the Championship decided to sign off for the WC break with a season high total score of 97 points, ironically exactly the same total that the PL got this week!! BaggieOne sits top of the pile this week with 20 points, his highest score of the season. He scored on 6 games including 2 CSs, the Gamball and the Bonus - that's how you get a good score!! Dingle continues to be Mr Consistent and scored 18 points, same sort of scoring as B1 but only got 1 CS. Twerton set his best score of the season as well with 17 points and remarkably for him he got a CR on the Gamball and a spot on Bonus for the first time!! BBB rounds out the player sin double figures with 12 points including a CR on the Gamball.

Amelai and AAA matched each other with 9 points, with Amelia getting points on the Gamball but AAA missing out on 3 extra points by not playing it. Lady Jane is 7th with 8 points and Themaclad is bottom again with just 4 points.

162 Dingle
139 BaggieOne
117 Lady Jane
106 BBB
95 Themaclad
93 AAA
78 Amelia
70 Twerton

No positional changes in the table this week, Dingle still hold a healthy lead and BBB is the 4th player to reach the century mark. Themaclad is slipping week by week and is now just 2 points ahead of AAA with Amelia and Twerton still adrift.

Have a good break everyone, see you on t'other side of the World Cup!!

Cheers
SCO

Luton Town have named ex-Watford boss Rob Edwards as their new manager on a "minimum three-and-a-half year" deal.

The 39-year-old replaces Nathan Jones, who left the Championship club last week after being appointed by Premier League side Southampton.

Edwards was appointed by Watford in May and sacked on 26 September after only 11 games in charge, winning three.

"From the outside, looking in at Luton Town, you see such a well-run football club," he told the club website.

"You can see it's a club that puts its people and supporters first. I feel a lot of positivity around the place, and I'm really thankful to be given the chance to be part of it.

"Because of where I've just come from, it has probably added a difficulty to the decision for them, but I'm really pleased that they see past that and deem me as the right person to play a part in the next chapter of this club going forward."

Following a playing career that began at Aston Villa and included spells at Wolves, Blackpool and Barnsley, Edwards retired at the age of 30.

He had two games in charge of Wolves as interim boss in 2016 and a season as AFC Telford boss before becoming head coach of England's under-16 team.

Edwards was appointed by Forest Green Rovers in May 2021 and they went up as League Two champions last term, winning half of their 46 league games and losing only eight, prompting Watford to recruit him following relegation from the Premier League.

The two clubs are just 19 miles apart and their rivalry stretches back to 1921 when they faced each other in a league game for the first time.

'We understand supporters' concerns'
Edwards is only the second person to manage both clubs, and first for 84 years, after Neil McBain.

"We fully understand the concerns some supporters may have with his previous club, but the one action Watford did that impressed us in recent times was their appointment of Rob," Luton chief executive Gary Sweet said.

"From our lengthy conversations with him, he immediately bought into our values as a club, we had deep discussions about our culture, our opportunities, and he fully understands where we have come from to get to this point now.

"We're confident that with such a limited association with them, Rob will very quickly feel much more a member of our tight club here at Kenilworth Road."

Edwards' first match as Luton boss will be away to Middlesbrough on 10 December following the World Cup break.

His first home game comes eight days later against Millwall.

The Hatters are 10th in the table - six places below Watford, having lost 4-0 to them at Vicarage Road on 23 October - after reaching the play-offs under Jones last season.

Sweet said there had been "unprecedented interest" in the job and that Edwards' associated staff were likely to join him in the next few days.

'Short connection with Watford' - analysis
Geoff Doyle, BBC Three Counties Radio sports editor

The narrative is that Edwards becomes only the second person in history to manage both Watford and Luton - but I think the majority of Hatters fans won't be too bothered by that.

Edwards only managed 10 Championship games at Vicarage Road before being sacked and so there isn't that big a connection.

Luton supporters should care more about whether he can achieve at this level with his previous success having come in League Two with Forest Green.

He ticks a lot of boxes. He's well-regarded, is a young ambitious coach and strives for a good team-working ethos.

To his and the club's advantage, he now has three weeks to work with the players and get his principles across before the Championship resumes after the World Cup break.

Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher has signed a new contract to keep him at the club until 2027.

The 38-year-old has been in charge for almost a year after succeeding Ryan Lowe and has agreed a two-year extension to his current deal.

The highly regarded coach has won the last two League One manager of the month awards and has led his side to the top of the third tier.

Under Schumacher's guidance Argyle have won 29 and lost 15 of his 51 games.

"When we moved to appoint Steven a year ago, we saw the potential he possessed and believed he had the ability to flourish within our structure," said Argyle chief executive Andrew Parkinson.

"It was clear to us that Steven had the tactical and coaching acumen to thrive in this environment, and we are delighted to see how he has risen to the challenge of leading the team.

"He often talks about his achievements being the result of the culture across the club, and he is absolutely correct, but he has been a big part of helping us drive forward.

"The club and Steven have the opportunity to grow further together in what is an incredibly exciting time for Argyle. We are delighted to reward him for his efforts and look forward to building on an incredibly positive 12 months."

'I believe in the plan'
Steven Schumacher
Steven Schumacher began his coaching career at Everton's academy
Schumacher led the Pilgrims to the third round of last season's FA Cup where they were narrowly beaten by reigning European champions Chelsea, while they missed out on the League One play-offs on the final day.

The former Bury, Bradford City and Crewe midfielder has been linked with a number of high-profile vacancies this season, but has always stated his commitment to the Home Park club.

"For me, signing this extension says I believe in the plan," he told the club website.

"I'm fully committed to it, and I have been since the day we came down here. I work hard every single day to try to achieve that.

"This contract is another step in the plan. The commitment that club has shown me, and that I have shown to them, shows that I believe in the plan.

"I don't take it for granted. The football club is a huge part of the city. I understand that having been here for a few years now. I know what it means to everybody. The support from the fans has been different class.

"I will continue to work hard for everyone at the club, and the fans, and we can all look forward to some good days in the future."

Analysis
Brent Pilnick, BBC Sport

This will be news that every Plymouth Argyle fan will want to hear.

Since seamlessly taking over at Home Park after Ryan Lowe left for Preston North End last December he has led a side that have played impressive attacking football.

His stock has risen considerably in that time - last week he became the first manager in more than six years to win back-to-back League One manager of the month titles and his side have not lost a game in the league since mid-August.

Argyle's aim is to become a sustainable Championship club - with this deal they may well have found the man to take them to that level.

Former York boss John Askey has said he was "hurt" by the way he was sacked.

The Minstermen sacked Askey, 58, on Wednesday after just over a year in charge of the National League club.

He had led the club to promotion from National League North through the play-offs last season.

"To have to stand in front of a printer and wait for a letter to be printed off and then be given it to see that I had been sacked... that hurt me more than anything," he told BBC Radio York.

"I'm disappointed with how it's been done.

"They talked about me coming in to talk to them and said it was about my contract. I said if it was about my contract I would need legal help and they said just to come in and pick the letter up. I think I deserve better than that. I think anybody does."

York, who are 12th in the league, are without a win in all competitions since 15 October, but Askey claimed nobody from the board had suggested they were unhappy with the team's progress.

However, the club released a second statement on Wednesday to say the former Macclesfield boss had told them at the start of this month that he wanted to leave.

The Minstermen were taken over in the summer by the York City Supporters' Trust, who immediately sold a 51% stake in the club to investor Glen Henderson.

Askey revealed that an interview Henderson had given to BBC Radio York two weeks ago prompted him to tell the board he felt "undermined" but denied he had said he did not want to stay.

"The reason I said what I said was after the chairman's interview. I felt undermined and that there was no encouragement," Askey said.

"I said that I couldn't work with an owner or chairman who is doing this all the time. That's what I said, I didn't say I wanted to leave.

"It started in pre-season with the chairman going to the players and asking if they were happy with the style of play. He said when we won promotion that he didn't think we were playing good football. It's not what you want to hear as a manager."

York City celebrate
York won promotion back to the National League after five years in May after a play-off win over Boston United
Trust chairman Mike Brown, who now sits on the club's board, said the breakdown in the relationship between Askey and Henderson had left the club with no option but to look for a new manager.

"Their relationship didn't get off to a great start when John was asked what he thought of Glen and said 'not much'," he told BBC Radio York.

"I would say there has been a couple of times when Glen has spoken to players, on one occasion a player approached him. He then referred the player to the manager.

"There were clearly differences of opinion on where the boundaries were for what the involvement was that Glen should have."

He added: "When any business gets into the situation where an employee is unhappy, you are in the position where it is not in anybody's interests to carry on. It was a heart-breaking decision to make and I feel awful about it."

Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been charged by the Football Association with 232 alleged breaches of betting rules.

The alleged breaches took place between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021.

Toney, 26, has scored 10 Premier League goals this season but missed out on a place in the England World Cup squad.

Brentford said in a statement: "The club has been in discussion with Ivan and his legal representatives. Those conversations will continue privately."

The statement continued: "We will make no further comment until the matter has been completed."

Toney has until 24 November to respond to the FA misconduct charges, which involve alleged breaches of FA rule E8, which bans players from betting on games, or sharing privileged information for the purposes of betting.

He faces a lengthy ban if they are proven. England defender Kieran Trippier was banned for 10 weeks by the FA in December 2020 for giving out information for others to bet on his transfer from Tottenham to Atletico Madrid.

In 2017 manager Joey Barton was banned for five months after he admitted placing 1,260 football-related bets over a 10-year period.

Toney said earlier this month, after the allegations were first reported, that he was "assisting the Football Association with their enquiries".

During the time stated in the FA charge, Toney represented four different clubs - Scunthorpe United, Wigan Athletic, Peterborough United and Brentford.

He was on the books at Newcastle United from 2015-2018 but spent the majority of that time out on loan. The Northampton-born player had two spells at Scunthorpe, playing for them in the 2016-17 season and again from January to May 2018, either side of six months on loan at Wigan.

Toney signed for Peterborough in August 2018, before making a £5m move to Brentford in September 2020.

The forward, who began his career at Northampton, has scored 58 goals in 105 appearances for Brentford, including two in a shock 2-1 win at defending Premier League champions Manchester City in the final game before the World Cup break.

Only England captain Harry Kane (12) and City forward Erling Haaland (18) have scored more goals in the Premier League this season.

Toney received his first England call-up for September's Nations League games against Italy and Germany but did not get on the pitch in either.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 19TH NOVEMBER KO 3:00PM

v

LAST MATCH



Another 3 points but as usual made hard work of it despite having a number of chances. We started brightly enough, Ihiekwe's header cleared off the line. We took the lead when Smith chested off Bannan's ball and Mighten drilled it high into the net. FDB had a chance cleared as we went in 1 up. Onto the second half and we still had chances with Bannan, Windass & FDB going close.  Whalley had Stanley's best chance but Stockdale did well and denied him. We saw out the rest of the game and with other results going our way, cut the gap to Ipswich to one point

THE MATCH



Next up, and in my view a bogey team, Shrewsbury make the trip to Hillsborough. We have only beaten these 3 times in 23 attempts, and several of the games I watch in the early eighties were some of the worst games I have been to. They currently lie in 14th place and haven't won in 5 league games. I could see them hanging around mid table not good enough to trouble the playoffs not bad enough to get relegated. There leading scorer is Jordan Shipley with 4 goals & 2 assists and they are currently managed by Steve Cotterill.

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 3
SHREW 7
DRAWS 13 

CURRENT FORM

OWLS              -                                                                  

SHREW            -                               

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

ANDY WOOLMER
Mark Pottage and Geoffrey Liddle
Fourth Official : James Oldham

THE TEAM

Stockdale
Palmer Ihikwe McGuiness Johnson
Bannan Byers FDB
Windass
Gregory Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

3-1 Smith

ATTENDANCE

23752

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

BML LEAGUE

Stateside 10
Imre 8
Wash 7
Pieowl 5
Owlskev 5
Maddix 4
SCO 4

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Bristol Rovers v Peterborough
Port Vale v Charlton
Bradford v Northampton
Stockport v Leyton Orient
Notts Co v Yeovil

HDAAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

WEREHAM




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

The Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2022 will be staged in Oestersund, Sweden, from Friday 18 to Saturday 26 November. The women’s and men’s A-Division will be staged in the Oestersund Arena, a modern and accessible building, opened in December 2013.

The ten A-Division women’s teams are: Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye. Scotland are the defending champions, and are represented by a new-look team, skipped by Rebecca Morrison. Sweden are the current silver medallists, but with a lineup change this year, Sofia Mabergs will play third while Johanna Heldin will play vice-skip and lead. Germany took European bronze last season, and they are skipped by Daniela Jentsch, who will be playing in her ninth European championship.

Scotland
Rebecca Morrison (Skip), Gina Aitken (Vice-Skip), Sophie Sinclair (2nd), Sophie Jackson (Lead) and Alternate Hailey Duff.

The ten A-Division men’s teams are: Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye. Scotland are again the defending champions (and also Olympic silver medallists), skipped by Bruce Mouat. Sweden are the current European silver medallists (and reigning Olympic champions). They will be skipped by usual vice-skip third player Oskar Eriksson, as regular skip Niklas Edin recovers from his knee surgery. Italy are current European bronze medallists, skipped by Joel Retornaz, who is making his 14th appearance at this event.

Scotland
Bruce Mouat (Skip), Grant Hardie (Vice-Skip), Bobby Lammie (2nd), Hamilton McMillan (Lead) with Alternate Kyle Waddell.

In the A-Division round-robin play commences on Friday evening 18 November and will continue until the morning of Thursday 24 November. In both the men’s and women’s events, the top four teams will progress to the semi-finals, where the teams ranked first on the round-robin table will play the fourth-ranked teams, while the second and third-ranked teams will face each other. Both women’s semi-finals and one of the men’s semi-finals will take place from 12noon onwards on 24 November, while the other men’s semi-final will be on the morning of Friday 25 November.  Both the women’s and men’s bronze medal games will be staged on Friday 25 November with the gold medal finals taking place on Saturday 26 November.

The B Division is being played at the same time at the Oestersund Curling Hall and includes England in the Women's competition and England, Ireland and Wales in the Men's event. More of this to come later in the week.

How do, Hibees.

If you're bored already with this enforced international break, there's some World Cup stuff going on if you fancy having a go. Jjamez has put a quiz on and Devongone has a predictions game.

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11873

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11869

How do, Spireites.

If you're bored already with this enforced international break, there's some World Cup stuff going on if you fancy having a go. Jjamez has put a quiz on and Devongone has a predictions game.

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11873

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11869

How do, Baggies.

If you're bored already with this enforced international break, there's some World Cup stuff going on if you fancy having a go. Jjamez has put a quiz on and Devongone has a predictions game.

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11873

https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=11869