[bomberbrown1968]

   

So we entered the final week with potentially 3 players chasing the title, with certainly a great final week race for the top 2. Being the sad bastard that I am rather than paying much attention to Wednesday’s loss to QPR, I was basically running a live scoring table, as the goals went in, so the scores in the prediction league changed!! I can tell you the lead in this weeks results changed hands multiple times let alone what effect that had on the final league table!!!! So lets get to this week’s results:

After leading the league for so long, two torrid weeks for Zinman saw his lead not only disappear but he dropped off top spot, so this week he had to get things right, and he certainly did that!!! Zinman finished with a personal season high 22 points!!! After not playing the Gamball for most of the season even he recognized that if you want to go big, you had better play it (more on this later!!!), and it paid off for him with a CR and 4 precious points. He also picked up a CR on the Bonus and ended up scoring points on 8 of the 10 games. A fine way to end the season, but will it be enough??

In second place this week is SCO. A solid week rounding off a solid season for SCO. CR on the Gamball and Bonus and like Zinman scored points on 8 games. Third place goes to Worldclass on 19 points courtesy of being the only PL player with a correct score on the Gamball. A solid week for him as he tries to find some form for the all important playoffs coming up.

Joint 4th is Sanjay and Amelia on 17 points, Sanjay scoring on 7 of this weeks games and Amelia actually getting the most CS this week with 3!!! Her partner in crime, and I am afraid in relegation, Lord Snooty is 6th in his and Amelia’s final week in the PL for at least one season. Respectable finish from both, if only they could have shown this form more often!!

Joint 7th is the PL leader Beefy and Derby. Not much to say about Derby but this week summed up his season, no CS but 5 CR, so close and yet so mid table!!!! What can we say about Beefy?? He went into this week as the PL leader, a position he gained for the first time last week. He rightly sent his scores to me, as did Zinman so we could make sure there were no shenanigans and while 14 points is a decent return, it comes in a high scoring week for most. Beefy decided not to play his Gamball, using a tactic that has been succcessful for Zinman most of the season, but in Beefy’s case it ended up costing him two potentially crucial points!!!! Also worth pointing out that the 86th minute Norwich winner at Villa Park cost him 4 points as well, taking him from a CS to nothing!!! So did his cautiousness do enough to keep him top or has his lack of bottle on the Gamball cost him dearly (something he accused Zinman of all season!!  Whistle ). We will have to wait for Bombers final table to know for sure!!

In 9th place this week is Matt on 10 points, had he not missed a few weeks mid season he might have pushed the top two but it wasn’t to be. In 10th and last place this week was the only other player who maybe could have taken the title, BBB, but in reality he had a complete mare!!! He ended with no correct scores and missed on both the Gamball and Bonus, will that see him lose his top 3 spot as well??

So we now await Bombers final table but before he posts it I would like to say thank you to everyone on here for welcoming an outsider into your midst and even allowing me to score this great PL every week. I hope my scoring duties and write ups have provided some smiles and enjoyment for some of you each week!! I have enjoyed being on the committee and if so invited I will continue to stay involved next season!! Thank you to all of you!!

Cheers
SCO

   

And they said the Liverpool -Man.City was the most exciting title chase in years, they obviously haven’t seen the battle that’s been going on in our prediction league.

Zinman was 7points back going into the last 10 games and needing to do something different to claw his way back, so he played the Gamball for only the 9th time this season and scored points on it for the 7th time which helped him to a seasons best score for the week and ultimately win the title by just a solitary point. The forsaken 2 points that Beefy missed out on by not playing the Gamball was the difference between champion and runner up and could so easily have gone either way. Congratulations to our champion but also to our runner up for serving up such a thrilling end to the season.

BBB wasn’t able to keep up with the pace of the top 2 and faltered a further 20 points back in 3rd after holding every chance going into the final week and in the end would have been grateful to have held on to his position as SCO came with a storming last week to cut the advantage down to just 7 points as he cemented his top 4 finish.

Derby managed to win the battle to finish in the top half of the table and passed the triple hundred in the process of finishing 5th while Sanjay climbed a place and also reached the 300 mark to finish 6th, pipping Matt to that place with the final weeks set of scores.

Worldclass had a very good week and will go into his play-off next week in good heart as he looks to preserve his Premiership status for next season.

Amelia and Snooty’s fate was sealed a few weeks back now, but both returned decent scores in their last fling with the Premiership, but at least they’ll be able to keep each other company as they play Championship predicting next season.

Bomber


   

Going into the final week of the Championship, it appeared that all of the major positions were settled and it would have taken an incredible set of events - think Beefy going on a diet or Zinman going teetotal - for anything to change. Well, guess what? Beefy's still eating and Zin is currently sitting in Californian wine country making the most of the local produce.

So I suspect that this week's results won't make much difference in the final table with just 8 points separating top from bottom. It was an unusually good week for bonuses but not so ggod for the scoreball (and obviously the dreaded gamball). Top place goes to Twerton with 16 points from just 4 correct predictions but helped by a full set of balls - only 1 correct score but that just happened to be the gamball. Just a point behind is Bomber, no correct score predictions but a week's high of 6 correct results, including the gamball - though as he admitted to playing this by mistake, shouldn't he forfeit the extra points? Joker had one of his better weeks (not difficult really) to take 3rd spot and was only a correct gamball away from top spot. With this form could Joker be a good bet for promotion next year? (By good bet, I mean with odds of about 100/1).

Just 2 points separate the rest. 4eva and Champion elect Themaclad make double figures, Themac being one of only 2 players to miss out on the bonus, not that he'll be too bothered. Baggieone sits just a point further back with Quantum and Stairs bringing up the rear, though with a respectable 8 points.

So another regular season over - thanks to everyone for taking part and have a great summer. Now on to the play-offs!

Zin

   

The top 2 in the Championship has been settled for a fair few weeks now and all that remained was to find out who would finish as our champion, and after spending the entire season at the top, it was Themaclad who capped off an impressive season winning the title by an 11 point margin in the end from AAA back in 2nd, whether he takes his place in the Premiership next season remains to be seen.

Bomber gave himself one last chance to get to the promised land by securing the play-off spot as the challenge to it failed to materialise in the last week as 4eva wasn’t able to overturn the deficit and instead had to settle for 4th, but still a top half finish after 35 weeks of predicting.

Both Twerton and Stairs passed the 300 points for the season mark, though did swap places in the final week in 5th and 6th, all important when the prize money is calculated for the final league placings.

BaggieOne rounded off the season in 7th, 30 odd points further back but comfortably ahead of our wooden spoonist, Joker, who after missing the equivalent of 7 weeks gave himself a mountain to climb.
Bomber


A massive thank you to everyone who’s taken part and for all the kind words during the season. An even bigger thanks to Zin, Beef and SCO for making this such a success this season, I think we’ll all welcome the extra time we’ll now have every Sunday evening