Gamball:
Blackburn - Burnley

Others:
Bournemouth - Everton
Spurs - Newcastle
Palace - Chelsea
Brighton - Arsenal
Swansea - WBA
Norwich - Coventry
Preston - Oxford
Sheff W - Millwall
Watford - Sheff Utd

Group A

A.A.A. 19
Themaclad 15
Twerton 11
Minizin 9
Zinman 9
Amelia 3

Last week before Xmas sees a decent score in total. AAA dominates with his best season score of 19 points, that his season best for the second week in a row!! He got 2 CSs including the Bonus and backed that up with a CR on the Gamball. Themaclad continues with his consistency ending on 15 points, he recorded his 4th maximum on the Gamball and added a CR on the Bonus, didn't do much else but when you get those two balls right you don't need to!! Twerton was the only other player in double figures with 11 points. He missed on the Gamball but did pick up points o the Bonus.

Minizin and Zinman were tied on 9 points. Minizin missed the Gamball but did get a CR on the Bonus, Zinman got a CR on the Gamball and one CS but missed on his Bonus. Amelia had a bit of a mare, missed on her main balls but at least benefitted from QPR's late winner for a CS.

170 Themaclad
146 Minzin
140 Twerton
137 Zinman
127 A.A.A.
115 Amelia

Only one change this week with AAA moving off the bottom and dumping Amelia ack down there. Themaclad extends his lead at the top to 24 points over Minizin who is now just 6 points ahead of Twerton with Zinman a further 3 behind. AAA's good form sees him close on the pack above, he will need to keep that form if he wants to catch them. Amelia is now 12 points adrift at the bottom.

A few stats:

Total Points from Balls
1. Themaclad - 60
2. Minizin - 42
3. AAA - 29
4. Amelia - 11
5. Zinman - 9
6. Twerton - 8

Correct Scores
1. Themaclad - 20
2. Zinman - 18
3. Twerton - 17
4. Minizin - 14
5. AAA - 13
6. Amelia -12

I have highlighted these two groups of stats as these are the areas where big points can be scored - Ball play and Correct Scores - and if you lead both categories like Themaclad does then you can see why he leads the table as well. For those chasing, if you want to catch him then get your numbers up here!!!

Group B

Lady Jane 19
Derby 12
Stairs 9
SCO 8
BaggieOne 7
BBB 6
Snooty 5

After a quiet few weeks, the week 16 table has a familiar look to it as Lady Jane returns to form to produce yet another table topping performance, and by some distance. She was the only player to score on the gamball and she also maxed out on the bonus. The bonus was one of her 2 correct scores - the only player to get more than 1 this week so she will head into the Christmas break on a high and with a formidable overall lead. Derby had seen his grip on 2nd place loosen over the last few weeks but he put in the only other double figure performance to sit comfotably in 2nd place, matching Lady Jane's 5 correct predictions but with only 1 correct score and also missing out on the scoreball.

Average scores for the rest. BBB and Snooty were the only players to miss out on the bonus and that was the main difference between the bottom 5. BBB missed out on all his balls which has been something of an issue for him as we'll see below.

181 Lady Jane
149 Derby
146 Stairs
133 SCO
131 Snooty
115 BBB
101 BaggieOne

Lady Jane extends her lead to 32 points while Derby takes back 2nd place on his own. SCO and Snooty swap places and at the foot of the table BaggieOne reaches the 3 figure mark.

I'll copy SCO's choice of stats this week.
Ball points:
Lady Jane 63
Derby 39
Stairs 32
Snooty 27
SCO 21
BaggieOne 5
BBB 0.

As I said above, BBB is really having problems with his balls!

Correct Scores:
Lady Jane 20
Stairs 19
Derby 17
Snooty 17
SCO 15
BBB 13
BaggieOne 12

It's little wonder Lady Jane's on top!

Merry Christmas everybody.

As I watch the Darts I find myself becoming increasingly confused. It is a simple game. I've even played in a league for two or three years but as I watched the game on TV, brilliant as these modern players are with their slimline darts and nine-dart finishes, I can't help noticing that whilst the game tries to tune in on the "modern world" it simultaneously anchors itself in a downmarket version of the early 1970s. Any minute I'm expecting Charlie Williams to appear me old flower, kick an opponent, and laugh uproariously.

So first in homage to today the evening has to be introduced on TV by a woman or women, but naturally, as it is working-class old darts she has to have smoky touch of the production line to both her voice and cut of the jib. Then after some unenlightening exposition of the relative abilities of the players (which is mostly about to be proved wide of the mark) the players themselves are to be introduced to the crowd. There are lots of shots of the crowd, who for some reason all have to appear in some embarrassing forms of fancy dress - definitely sexist, they largely manage to avoid racism unless some alien race is taking offence at the green face paint - and who are never far from a drink and are permanently prepared to join tunelessly in any raucous sing-song.

The players "choose" to wear poorly designed loose-fitting shirts to enable the throwing arm to flow free. The loose-fit also conveniently serves to hide the general state of physical unfitness of the predominantly male players who are guided through the cheering crowd of admiring fans to their favourite music by a couple of tattooed bouncers. Occasionally a player will stop to sign an autograph or deliver a kiss. On stage under-or-over-dressed go-go girls recruited from Life on Mars jive, pop and pompom to whatever music the player has favoured. (I can't help wishing some enterprising player wiould appear all in black, to the Funeral March.) Though the girly girls have to dance frenetically, scantily dressed, the middle-aged male announcer John McDonald is nicely attired in sober suit and expensive shirt. He appears to have forgotten the far-more appropriate budgie smugglers and spray-on tan. (A strictly-ballroom quiff might be a good idea ....) He delivers the same intro, every tournament, changing only the venue, which is always a wonderful city.

Anyway John and the go-go-goers finally get off, him marching in a manly fashion, them bouncing and pompoming as if about to cross the ocean to American football .... and the game begins. In general whether the players have danced onto the stage like nitwits or sombrely marched on to shake hands their play is excellent, their worst moments being at least equal to my own best-ever efforts on the oche. Unfortunately this year the commentary sadly lacks the only interesting and amusing pundit Wayne Mardle (following his wife's recent death), and his double-act with wise straight man John Part, which leaves a gaping hole. It is filled by self-obsessed men over-concerned with their own reputation quoting statistics to prove their encyclopaedic knowledge rather than their access to a computer, reminiscing about past great moments in games their viewers have long-forgotten and which seem designed to devalue the opinions of any female commentators who have been recruited to inspire the women's game.

Somewhat bizarrely into this very manly atmosphere of a loud and inebriated male audience overdosing on testosterone, sprinkled only with the odd bingo-winged gran and slightly tipsy mum smiling beatifically, an assault on equality is bravely being made. Darts is one of the few sports in which men and women can compete on "equal" terms. To this end one woman and a trans-gender person appeared in the first round. Though both were competitive they did both lose. But hey if equality is the aim, what are the gog-go girls about? And if Darts is a sport as Luke Littler appearing in SPOTY suggests, why is about half the crowd not even watching the game, why is it dressed for a Stag-do in Hull, why is everyone shouting singing and yelling throughpout the game as players attempt almost miraculous accuracy under pressure? Why are sponsors bunging a huge wad of cash to a random member of the audience if any player hits a nine-darter, is this sport fancy-dress bingo? And at what point does it become unacceptable to boo a disliked player to put him off when going for a double?

Or is the truth that Wimbledon needs to take a cue from Darts and progress from a few tennis balls glued to a sunhat and the odd amusing shout of Come on Tim, and perhaps Test Cricket too might take that next dangerous step beyond Bazball and a gang of giggling old Harrovians all dressing-up as Nawabs of Pataudi?

THE MATCH

THURSDAY 26TH DECEMBER KO 3PM

v

LAST MATCH



We made it back to back wins as we saw off Stoke despite playing over half the game with 10 men. In windy conditions it wasn't the best football game although we managed a couple of chances, but the main action came when Bernard was sent off for two yellow cards in the space of 10 mins just before halftime. Onto the 2nd half and we struck early as Bannan fed Valery who crossed for Windass to force home from close range. Beadle saved from Cannon and Bannan was fortunate not to give a penalty for handball. We then went 2 up when Charles got to the by-line and crossed for Pato to score from close range. Stoke were then awarded a penalty but Beadle made a fine save and wew saw out the rest of the game.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Our Boxing Day fixture sees us on the road again, I think it is seven years since our last home Boxing Day fixture, as we travel to Middlesborough. Boro are having a good season and currently lie in 6th place, though there current form is a bit mixed, 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in there last 6. They should be there or thereabouts when it comes to the playoffs. They are managed by Michael Carrick who took over just over 2 years ago and took them to the playoffs only to lose to Coventry. There leading scorer is Latte Lath, who has 9 goals and Conway who is just behind with 8.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 49
BORO 49
DRAWS 19

CURRENT FORM

OWLS  W W L D W W                                                                     

BORO  D W L D W L                           

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

ANTHONY BACKHOUSE
Jonathan Hunt and Matthew McGrath
Fourth Official: Aaron Bannister

THE TEAM

Beadle
Palmer Bernard Iorfa Johnson
Bannan Charles
Ugbo Ingelsson Lowe
Smith

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

2-1 Smith

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

26

ATTENDANCE

N/A

BML LEAGUE

Washington 12
Maddix 11
SCO 10
Imre 10
Wereham 7

BMPL

Stateside 11
Southey 10
Owlkev 9
Pei 4

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

Newcastle v Aston Villa
Sheffield Utd v Burnley
Bolton v Barnsley
Walsall v Doncaster
Oldham v York City

DHHHD

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE




KATE BECKINSALE TRIBUTE PIC

We have never beaten a side managed by Gary

Oxford United have appointed Gary Rowett as their new head coach.

The former Millwall and Birmingham City boss takes over the struggling Championship side following the departure of Des Buckingham at the weekend.

Oxford chairman Grant Ferguson said: "Following a thorough and diligent recruitment process, I am delighted that Gary Rowett has agreed to join us as head coach.

"It was immediately clear from the discussions we had with him that Gary perfectly matched the vision and long-term objectives that we have for the club.

"Every decision taken is with the best interests of Oxford United in mind and we are confident that Gary will be instrumental in fulfilling our ambitions this season and beyond.

"We look forward to working alongside and supporting Gary to help us achieve our goals."

The U's sit a point and two places above the relegation zone and are without a win in their past six matches.

Buckingham led Oxford to the second tier via the League One play-offs last spring, however they find themselves in a fight for league survival approaching Christmas, with just four points picked up across their past eight matches.

Oxford travel to Leeds on Saturday (15:00 GMT) where Rowett will watch from the stands, in the first of their four games over the festive period.

Rowett has managed a range of sides across the Championship and League One, with his most recent job a return for the second time to Birmingham City on an interim basis in March following Tony Mowbray's illness.

However, his seven-week stint in charge ended with the Blues relegated to League One this summer, despite winning three and drawing two of their eight games.

The 50-year-old began his managerial career at Burton Albion in 2012 before moving to St Andrew's for the first time.

He oversaw more than 100 games at the Blues before being sacked just over two years later and then took over at Derby County, guiding the club to the Championship play-offs in 2018.

An eight-month stint at Stoke City followed, before Rowett became Millwall manager, where he stayed in the dugout for four years until October last year.

In Rowett's 19-year playing career as a right-back he made 444 appearances across the English Football League (EFL) before he retired in 2007.

He started at Cambridge and went on to play for Everton, Blackpool, Derby, Birmingham, Leicester, Charlton Athletic and Burton.


He has hundreds of games behind him in the second tier and he joins a club that has, in the last quarter of a century, been in just 20 matches at that level.

If the owners, executives, and most of the players don't have Championship know-how, he does.

Over all his games as a boss his teams have a points-per-game record of at least 1.3. Replicate his worst performance at any Championship club and he'll get Oxford to safety - and that is what he has been recruited for.

What Gary Rowett isn't, is Des Buckingham. And that is not his fault.

United have faced a backlash more brutal than they anticipated when they fired Buckingham, the local lad made good, the man who delivered promotion and a fairytale story.

At least with this appointment they haven't had their head turned by a star name or someone with no more experience of the level than Buckingham had.

I am not sure they would have been forgiven for that.

Many will see this as Oxford recruiting a firefighter. They think it is for the long-term - which in the Championship isn't usually that long.

Either way, rightly or wrongly, the fairytale is over, this now is about hard reality.

Five months of grinding out the results to ensure what Buckingham achieved in the warmth of last May isn't wasted when we get to the spring of 2025.

To one and all

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 20:

1. themaclad = 376 pts
   
2. St Charles Owl = 364 pts
   
3. jjamez = 347 pts
   
4. Baggiebob(BBB) = 341 pts
   
5. Lord Snooty = 320 pts
   
6. SHEP_HTAFC = 302 pts
   

Thursday 26th December:
Town v Stockport
Town scorers:
Stockport scorers:

Leyton Orient v Crawley Town (13:00)
Birmingham City v Burton Albion
Bolton Wanderers v Barnsley
Charlton Athletic v Cambridge United
Exeter City v Bristol Rovers


Sunday 29th December:
Town v Burton Albion
Town scorers:
Burton scorers:

Rotherham United v Stockport County (12:30)
Bolton Wanderers v Lincoln City
Peterborough United v Barnsley
Reading v Mansfield Town
Shrewsbury Town v Northampton Town
Stevenage v Bristol Rovers
Wrexham v Wigan Athletic

Bonus matches:
Championship:
Thursday:
Derby County v West Bromwich Albion (17:30)

Sunday:
Preston North End v Sheffield Wednesday (12:30)

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

1. neonfoxinthebox = 376 pts
   
2. theo_luddite = 372 pts
   
3. Devongone = 332 pts
   
4. ritchiebaby = 313 pts
   
5. Amelia Chaffinch = 300 pts
   
6. WakeyTerrier = 268 pts
   

Thursday 26th December:
Town v Stockport
Town scorers:
Stockport scorers:


Birmingham City v Burton Albion
Peterborough United v Mansfield Town
Reading v Northampton Town
Rotherham United v Wigan Athletic
Shrewsbury Town v Lincoln City
Stevenage v Wycombe Wanderers
Wrexham v Blackpool

Sunday 29th December:
Town v Burton Albion
Town scorers:
Burton scorers:

Charlton Athletic v Wycombe Wanderers (12:30)
Rotherham United v Stockport County (12:30)
Birmingham City v Blackpool
Exeter City v Crawley Town
Leyton Orient v Cambridge United

Bonus matches:
Thursday:
Scottish Premiership:
Hearts v Hibernian (12:30)

Sunday:
League Two:
Bradford City v Chesterfield

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