Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

A section to discuss matters not related to Chess in particular.
Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Tue Aug 04, 2015 12:54 pm

So with the League season starting are you more Eddie Howe or Eddie How? A chance to become Jose Mourinho or see if you can outshine Ben Edgell's best endeavours!

The site to join is http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ -this year's joining code to Premier Chess is 651025-161998. Those who played last year are automatically entered once their team is selected.

Only rule is real manager's names - no pseudonyms.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:16 pm

Week 1 Report

"If you're going to win the Premier League, you're going to have to finish ahead of Chelsea and Manchester City."
Graeme Souness


Hopefully I will be giving an update each week. This will give the leaders plus any other highlights rather than full tables as we are already over 60 teams in the League. I am indebted to David Gilbert for his work in the past and this week to Graham Souness for his incisive contribution!

After one week already some of the usual suspects are on the leaderboard although Jim Friar (1,231.737th last year) is an unexpected No 1. Here are the top places:-

1 the swervers jim friar 64 64
2 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 53 53
3 Good Vibes Richard Beach 51 51
4= bubbles utd david grobler 50 50
4= Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 50 50

Bottom of the pile is Mark Talbot on 18 points - who would have thought a team with Courtois, Rooney, Hazard, Kane and Walcott (to name just five of Mark's team) would have made such a shaky start. Anyone with Yaya Toure as captain would have scored 32 points for him alone!

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:34 pm

Week 2 Report

"Not to win is guttering." Mark Noble

After Mark's helpful comment on to Week 2. Here are the top positions:-

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 75 125
2 YOLO Harry Grieve 70 118
3 the swervers jim friar 53 117
4 Bantams Bouncing ihor lewyk 79 116
5 bubbles utd david grobler 64 114

Three of last week's top five survive with Jono Graham taking the top spot. I hope that this reign is temporary; I can't stand a season of hearing how well he's doing compared with me (down to 49th with half his score). An amazing debut week for Akmal Lathif whose score of 95 points already puts most of the league behind him. Meanwhile low score of the week for Samuel Milson with 26 points - how can a team with Rooney, Ivanovic, Hazard and Sterling do so badly?

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Wed Aug 26, 2015 11:02 pm

Week 3 Report

"The manager could not even talk to us at the interval. He said we were bad." John Terry. Red card for that comment!

And a new feature Team names of the week There are plenty of pundits - with the emphasis on "pun" amongst Fantasy Football teams - in our own league here we have DepaybackClyne, Slumdog Mignolet and inevitably for a chess site Discovered Cech. In future weeks we'll be looking elsewhere for more amusing team names.

In the League Jim Friar swerves back to number one position :-

1 the swervers jim friar 56 173
2 bubbles utd david grobler 56 170
3 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 42 167
4 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 72 167
5 Bantams Bouncing ihor lewyk 50 166

Mark Leonard is the only new entry to the top five and is also the week's top scorer with 75 points. Week's low scorer was Sabrina Chevannes whose miserly 24 points establishes her team at the bottom of the table.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Fri Sep 11, 2015 11:23 pm

Week 4 Report

"The problem is not what we are doing badly, it is because we are not doing things well."
Patrice Evra
. Some words of advice there for LVdG!

Team names of the week "Who ate all Depays" from the Man United site though I rather liked "Grampus8myHamster".

We are rather late after the international break; can Rooney recreate his European form for Manchester United?

Nothing too much to report in the top five

1 the swervers jim friar 56 229
2 Bantams Bouncing ihor lewyk 56 222
3 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 49 216
4 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 45 212
5 Barca Loner James Friar 48 206

except that david grobler is down to sixth having been replaced by James Friar thus making the top five resemble either a chip shop or a monastery.

Bottom of the pile is new entrant Neil Milson; low scorer is Adam Hunt whose substitute Aleksander Mitrovic arrived off the bench to score a miserly -2 points - never mind he's now suspended till the end of the month so can't do any more damage.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Fri Sep 18, 2015 2:16 pm

Week 5 Report

“I think Southampton will finish above teams that are well below them.” - Alan Wright

I've every confidence that my so-called Fantasy Football team will also finish above the teams well below me - but, oh dear, my son is back on top of the League!

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 60 272
2 the swervers jim friar 40 269
3 bubbles utd david grobler 64 267
4 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 49 265
5 Bantams Bouncing ihor lewyk 40 262

So basically very little change from Week 1 - four of the teams in the top five positions then are still there now. Low point of the week from Spartak Wash Common - Paul Cooksey's team - on 19 points. They were amongst the front-runners last year.

Finally team names of the week - we liked Men behaving Chadli & 50 Shades of O'Shea.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Fri Sep 25, 2015 4:17 pm

Week 6 Report

"The Merseyside derby games are unique in the city" - Brendan Rodgers Thought we'd better get a quote in from Brendan before he disappears into the sunset.

Robert Ashworth was the week's high scorer with 77 and this enabled him to move into the top five for the first time this season.

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 56 328
2 the swervers jim friar 54 323
3 Barca Loner James Friar 52 313
4 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 77 312
5 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 42 303

Meanwhile Nigel Wright scored a lowly 17 points (helped by 7 from Mata) to complete a miserable week for his team Heanor Town. Luckily red cards aren't backdated or Nigel's score would have been even less with the retrospective card for Diego Costa.

Judicious use of my transfers enabled me to replace the back-firing Cesar Azpilicueta for top scorer Aleksander Kolarov. The usual result - the Chelsea player keeps a clean sheet for the first time this season and gets a bonus whilst the Manchester City player after five clean sheets in a row concedes against West Ham with a yellow card to boot. Looks like Wild Card time!

Finally some musical Team names of the week - "No Weimann, No Cry" possibly sung by "Fiorentina Turner."

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Fri Oct 02, 2015 10:49 pm

Week 7 Report

It's nice for us to have a fresh face in the camp to bounce things off - Lawrie Sanchez. International week coming up!

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 59 387
2 YOLO Harry Grieve 75 369
3 Barca Loner James Friar 51 364
4 the swervers jim friar 37 360
5 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 47 359

Harry Grieve scores 75 to see his YOLO team back in the top five for the first time since Week 2 although he was beaten by Adam Hunt who top scored with 79 points. In the battle of also-rans Sam Herring scored a paltry 19 points - perhaps time to get rid of Luke Shaw, Sam? I played my wild card with disastrous effect - Callum Wilson injured till maybe the end of the season just one of the things that went wrong.

Team names of the week There is certainly a surfeit of "Lallanas in Pyjamas" and indeed "Wanyamas in Pyjamas" - rather more original is "De Jong Trousers". A little bit of Wensleydale, Gromit?

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Fri Oct 16, 2015 4:54 pm

Week 8 Report

"Ireland will give 99% - everything they’ve got." Mark Lawrenson. Third place play-offs to be announced.

1 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 109 464
2 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 74 461
3 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 109 452
4 Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 99 438
5 YOLO Harry Grieve 67 436

For those with Sergio Aguero (5 goals) in your team it was pay out day - even more so with Aguero as captain! Four players topped the 100 point mark with Robert Ashworth taking over at the top with his haul of 109 - top scorer though was Mark Page with 113. I will gloss over my mediocre and meagre display and turn to low scorer Bob Taylor on 15 points whose five man magnificent midfield of Sigurdsson, Barkley, Morrison, Sterling and Allbrighton scored a sorry eight points assisting by Harry Kane as captain. Nil points doubled was Nil points!

Silly team name of the week Jimmy Floyd Bottlebank - obviously gone for a Burton.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Fri Oct 23, 2015 11:07 pm

Week 9 Report

"Football today, it's like a game of chess. It's all about money." Newcastle United fan on 606 Phone-In


1 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 57 517
2 Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 78 516
3 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 54 506
4 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 44 505
5 the swervers jim friar 67 479

Again remarkably few changes in the top five - the top four teams separated by a mere 12 points. Top Scorer was Nathan Cragg with 81 points; low scorer was Sabrina Chevannes with 23 although Harry Grieve's YOLO with 28 saw him removed from the front runners. My excellent use of the Wild Card has seen me drop 500,000 places in four weeks - next week look for me on Page Two!

Team names of the week - Absolutely Fabregas - very common but Mutant Ninja Skrtels rather more original.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Mon Oct 26, 2015 6:13 pm

Week 10 Report

“Come Saturday it was all about starting with a blank sheet of football.” Sam Allardyce reveals his tactics for Sunderland.

So goodbye to Tim after the goodbyes to Brendan and Dick earlier this month. Who will be on their way next? Certainly not the five top team managers from the Premier Chess Fantasy League as they shuffle around and remain the same as last week.

1 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 51 568
2 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 47 552
3 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 45 551
4 Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 26 542
5 the swervers jim friar 51 530

Top scorer of the week was Barry Redburn with 83 points - a good week for those who persevered with Harry Kane! Low scorer of the week was David Grobler who has rapidly fallen from the leader board. His 25 point score not helped by the zero points contributed by his two Chelsea players.

Silly team name of the week :- Krul and The Gang. Certainly no "Celebration"* at the moment.

* Other song titles are available.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Mon Oct 26, 2015 11:50 pm

First Quarter Report

Each quarter we will give an update on best showings in Premier Chess. For Weeks 1-10 amazingly only 10 players have figured in the top five places.

The figure is brackets relates to the number of weeks in the top five, points are awarded as follows:- Five for 1st , 4 for second down to 1 point for a fifth place.

1. (10) Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 36 pts
2. (9) the swervers jim friar 30 pts
3. (8) ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 21 pts
4 (5) Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 18 pts
5 (4) bubbles utd david grobler 10 pts
6. (3) YOLO Harry Grieve 9 pts
7= (3) Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 8 pts
7= (4) Bantams Bouncing ihor lewyk 8 pts
9 (3) Barca Loner James Friar 7 pts
10 (1) Good Vibes Richard Beach 3 pts

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:11 pm

Week 11 Report

"The game is balanced in Arsenal's favour." - John Motson. Unless you're playing Bayern Munich?

Little change at the top - out goes Jim Friar - to be replaced by James Friar. The top two swap places.

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 78 626
2 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 45 613
3 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 50 601
4 Barca Loner James Friar 78 597
5 Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 56 594

Week's high scorer was Justin Hadi - whose 89 points moved him up to a magnificent 63rd place out of 67. Low scorer with 20 points was Rob Ensor - maybe time to have a look at your team and use some transfers Rob?

This week not a team name but the name of a manager "Amru Syurahbil Hasanah Tariq Ziyad el Tuerto. Thankfully I don't have to write his name on a Swiss pairing card.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Thu Nov 19, 2015 6:43 pm

Week 12 Report

"Lallana has grabbed a seat on the plane with both feet" Dickie Davies after the latest international week.

No change for the top five teams, just a swift shuffle of places again.

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 40 666
2 Barca Loner James Friar 67 664
3 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 42 655
4 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 44 641
5 Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 46 640

Top scorer of the week was Samuel Milson's Milsopolis with 73 points whilst Rob Ensor's 16 points makes his team sink even more towards place No 67. Alan Tate meanwhile has renamed his team "I give up" - but there's still 26 weeks to go Alan!

Most unoriginal team name of the week Ji Sung Park the bus. Dozens of teams with this name.

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: Premier League Fantasy Football 2015-16

Post by Neil Graham » Thu Nov 26, 2015 10:22 pm

Week 13 Report

I was saying the other day, how often the most vulnerable area for goalies is between their legs... Joe Hart could well have listened to this gem of wisdom from Andy Gray.

More shuffling of deckchairs in the top five who are the same for a third successive week. Who is going to make the push to join them?? :?: :?:

1 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 66 732
2 Barca Loner James Friar 66 730
3 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 60 715
4 ARM and Hammers Mark Leonard 73 714
5 Dann Tchoyi Juanmi Paul Spiller 67 707

On now to report a team that left Ross Barkley (19 points) and Jack Butland (9 points) on the substitutes bench but still topped the league scorers with a magnificent 86 points! I refer, of course, to my own Gen George Custard - so I'd better milk the plaudits as I'm likely to be back amongst the also-rans next time. These include Matt Payne's Anfield Attackers who were low scorers on 30 points and have now dropped over 2,000,000 places since Week 1. Again transfers are called for!

Finally team name of the week Ctrl Alt De Laet

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