Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

[Neil Graham]

Week 14 Report

It's now 1-1, an exact reversal of the score line on Saturday. BBC Radio Five Live.

For a fourth successive week there is no change in the top five.

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 60 792
2 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 72 786
2 Barca Loner James Friar 56 786
4 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 55 766
5 Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 59 754

However the pack is closing, Thomas Rendle briefly joined the elite on Saturday only for Paul Spiller to regain his fifth spot after Sunday's results.
Four teams are now within 10 points of the fifth spot and another two less than 20 points adrift. Next week could be the first change in five gameweeks.

Onos Kofi-Ofuafor top scored with 94 points and made a massive leap of over 500,000 places whilst Sam Herring is busy cementing his place at the foot of the League assisted by his low score of the week of 20 points. A midfield of Yaya Toure, Mahrez, Ayew, Hazard and Montero scoring a paltry 10 points. I left Barclay on the bench for a second week - you would have thought I might have learned from Week 13!

Team name of the week (hint for Christmas) My Little Bony

[Neil Graham]

Week 15 Report

Football is a simple game: 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans win.” - Gary Lineker. An explanation to LvG why Manchester United are in the Europa League.

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 69 861
2 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 69 855
3 Barca Loner James Friar 68 854
4 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 75 837
5= El Saalys FC Mike Swanwick 62 810
5= Slumdog Mignolet Andrew Garside 67 810

As predicted last week, the first change in the top five. Paul Spiller's drop is dramatic- 5th last week to 14th this week. Mike Swanwick and Andrew Garside are the two new names and their next target is Robert Ashworth's Rash Rangers - the top three still have a healthy gap though to these new pursuers.

Top scorers for the week were Hendrik Hoffman and Richard Weaving both with 80 points - welcome to Page One Richard! Rob Ensor is back on low score form with a minimal 20 points. The bottom team now trails the top by 399 points. I made a note not to refer to my fine selection decisions but after leaving Barkley on the bench for two weeks during which he scored 32 points, I decided to play him this week and make Mahrez a substitute. Result - Barkley 2 points; Mahrez 18!

Meanwhile Garry Monk's wife in 2013 stated on Twitter 'I hate living in Swansea. I'd do anything for Garry to get a move.'.. So the person with the sack in Swansea isn't Santa!

Finally a team name of the week "Tea and Busquets". Champions League draw on the way

[Neil Graham]

Week 16 report

“In the last year, 46 of the 92 managers have lost their jobs – that’s over half.” David Pleat
Taxi for Mr Mourinho?? Maths GCSE for Mr Pleat??

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 65 926
2 Barca Loner James Friar 63 917
3 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 58 913
4 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 61 898
5 Slumdog Mignolet Andrew Garside 64 874

The top four maintain their lead; Andrew Garside now in sole fifth place. Ihor Lewyk who began the season in the top five is now 52nd on Page Two.
Top scorer of the week is Nigel Wright (80 pts) who once was in the depths of Page Two; Rob Ensor (26 pts) maintains his position as low scorer and sits firmly at the base of the Premier Chess table. The high scores are largely to do with the Vardy/Mahrez combination (57% and 63% respectively) - the most popular duo since Morecambe & Wise.

Whilst there is a limit on team names no such on Team Captain's names Muhammad Syazani Mohamad Jaffar is another one I'll be avoiding for the Swiss Pairing Card.

[Mick Norris]

Week 16 report

“In the last year, 46 of the 92 managers have lost their jobs – that’s over half.” David Pleat

Well 92 clubs maybe, but not 92 managers, Leeds have had 3 in the last year

[Rob Ensor]

Taking Chelsea's lead I've rung the changes for the Xmas period; we'll see if they have the desired effect!

[Neil Graham]

Week 17 report

Half-time in Week 18 and I suddenly remember I'd not written a report for last week!

So very briefly - a bumper week with a number of teams scoring over ninety points. After six consecutive weeks at the top, Jono Graham is (at last) knocked down to second place - both he and new leader James Friar top the 1000 pts mark. Mike Swanwick replaces Andrew Garside in the top five.

Here are the leading positions :-

1 Barca Loner James Friar 92 1,009
2 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 80 1,006
3 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 82 995
4 El Saalys FC Mike Swanwick 93 963
5 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 63 961

[Neil Graham]

Fantasy Cup Round One

49 of the 67 Premier Chess teams qualified for one of the 2,097,152 places in the Fantasy League Cup. In Round One 27 of those teams progressed to Round Two - luckiest was League leader Mark Leonard who drew 67-67 with Spartonz and progressed on tiebreak (goals scored).

The pick off of the team names knocked out by our members were Spicy PeBehrami and On Zidanes Floor.

[Neil Graham]

Week 18 Report

"Who will win the League? It's a toss of a coin between three of them." Matt Le Tissier

As we progress to the 2nd half of the season - who will win the League? Probably the only certainty is that it won't be Aston Villa. Those team managers who looked to Giroud, Cech, Vardy, Lukaku and Mahrez to score their points took a heavy battering this week. On the other hand those with Harry Kane or Kevin de Bruyne made a killing; Vincent Kompany came on and eight minutes later limped off. Top scorer was Dave Ledger whose team, complete with Kane, de Bruyne and Fonte scored a magnificent 95 points, bottom of the pile was Neil Milson's paltry 20 points.

1 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 67 1,062
2 Barca Loner James Friar 42 1,051
3 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 37 1,043
4 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 62 1,023
5 El Saalys FC Mike Swanwick 46 1,009

A third change in three weeks at the top of the leader board, the pack is definitely closing - seven teams are now over the 1,000 point mark.

In answer to a couple of comments made - the "Colemanballs football quotes aren't necessarily from this season so please don't think that they refer to, for example, the last twelve months. A welcome reply too from Rob Ensor - if you're playing for real you need to be using your wildcards etc - and we hope to see Rob move out of 67th and last position sometime soon.

Finally a selection of Manchester United Team names before Mr van Gaal calls for his taxi :- Mind over Mata; Rooney Tunes; Schwien's Tigers.

[Neil Graham]

Fantasy Cup Round Two

Of the 27 survivors from Round One, 13 make it through Round Two to the Third Round. We've lost 12 and two have to be split on tiebreak - I'll give a full list of any survivors after Round Three. Pick of our Round Two opponents :- Can Ibe Firmino. We also had a team playing Expected Toulouse - but unfortunately they didn't!

[Neil Graham]

Week 19 report

A rather quicker report than normal as we hit the half-way mark.

A remarkable number of teams reached the 70+ mark but only one, Jonathan Tait's Brentford Mods clocked over 80 points. The Krell were an extinct advanced race in the sci-fi film Forbidden Planet. Obviously their powers didn't extend to forecasting football results as Richard Dineley's team of the same name were this week's low scorers with 29 points.

Absolutely no change in the top five teams:

1 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 77 1,139
2 Barca Loner James Friar 75 1,126
3 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 66 1,109
4 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 79 1,102
5 El Saalys FC Mike Swanwick 71 1,080

Remember though we are midway through the season - how many of these teams will figure in the top five at the end of Week 38?

[Neil Graham]

Fantasy Cup Round Three

Eventually 14 Premier Chess teams entered the draw for the third round. To put it bluntly it was a bloodbath - lots of teams went down by the odd point or two and at the end of the day just three remain.

They are - in no particular order - Peregrine Wellies (Barry Redburn), Turner and Huth (Grant Bucher) and Frying High (Joe Friar).

Our opponents didn't even have any amusing names to regale readers with. Can any of our cup heroes progress further?

[Kevin Williamson]

Fantasy Cup Round Three

Eventually 14 Premier Chess teams entered the draw for the third round. To put it bluntly it was a bloodbath - lots of teams went down by the odd point or two and at the end of the day just three remain.

They are - in no particular order - Peregrine Wellies (Barry Redburn), Turner and Huth (Grant Bucher) and Frying High (Joe Friar).

Our opponents didn't even have any amusing names to regale readers with. Can any of our cup heroes progress further?

Thanks for the updates, Neil.

I'm still in too.
You probably didn't look that far down

[Neil Graham]

Fantasy Cup Round Three

Eventually 14 Premier Chess teams entered the draw for the third round. To put it bluntly it was a bloodbath - lots of teams went down by the odd point or two and at the end of the day just three remain.

They are - in no particular order - Peregrine Wellies (Barry Redburn), Turner and Huth (Grant Bucher) and Frying High (Joe Friar).

Our opponents didn't even have any amusing names to regale readers with. Can any of our cup heroes progress further?

Thanks for the updates, Neil.

I'm still in too.
You probably didn't look that far down

Er..... Sorry about that Kevin. Last year I entered all the cup results on an Excel Spreadsheet - this year I simply (supposedly) looked at all the teams.
I put this down to being in the lead on Saturday and then my opponent producing Willian on Sunday to beat me 49-47!

[Neil Graham]

Week 20 Report

"Mistakes will be made, make no mistake" - Garth Crooks . See my Cup Report above!

1 Barca Loner James Friar 44 1,170
2 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 29 1,168
3 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 45 1,154
4 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 24 1,126
5 Cleverley Dunne Son Gareth Yeo 44 1,121

Enter Gareth Yeo for the first time onto the leader board in another low-scoring week. A mediocre 57 points from James Redburn topped the scoring list whilst Harry Grieve's YOLO managed a miserable 16 points. Just 18 weeks to go!

[Neil Graham]

Second Quarter Report

Only 8 teams have been in the top five this quarter (Weeks 11-20). Four of those dominate proceedings and one of these, Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil has been there since Week 1. Teams that were featured in Quarter One fell rapidly out of contention some as far as Page Two. Even some of the frontrunners such as Jim Friar and Paul Spiller are now 100 points off the pace. The main question is - can the top three maintain their superiority for the next quarter.

A reminder of the scoring system. Five points for 1st place down to 1 pt for fifth spot. Number of weeks in Top Five in brackets.

1. (10) Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 43 pts
2. (10) Barca Loner James Friar 38 pts
3. (10) ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 35 pts
4. (10) Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 23 pts
5 (4) El Saalys FC Mike Swanwick 5 pts
6 (4) Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 4 pts
7 (2) Slumdog Mignolet Andrew Garside 2 pts
8 (1) Cleverley Dunne Son Gareth Yeo 1 pt