Premier League Fantasy Football 2016-17

[Neil Graham]

Week 27

The top places are taking a distinctively retro look - in comes Paul Spiller with the week's top score of 92 and with Gareth Yeo hovering in 6th place are we back to 2015-16 where Paul, Mark and Gareth were frontrunners? Meanwhile Andrew Harley overtakes George Georgiou to the number one spot. Low score of the week was Bob Taylor's 22 points - more about that later.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 68 1522
2 George's Best George Georgiou 55 1516
3 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 92 1501
4 Spocktators Mark Leonard 54 1495
5 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 37 1485

Bad decision of the week An ideal time to play your triple captain card - especially if you selected Zlatan Ibrahimovic whose -1 was tripled to -3! Lucky his retrospective red card wasn't included. Bob Taylor achieved this though several teams had the Swede as captain and scored -2 - he won't be around for a couple of weeks!

[Neil Graham]

Week 28

F.A.Cup week - so only four matches. This enabled some juggling around by managers to find enough players to score points - or possibly ignoring the Cup and hoping that a week with minimal points could be made up later! Our top teams of course made sure they weren't affected and they maintained their positions. Top scorer of the weeks was Lawrence Cooper (63 points) - however twelve teams were in single figures with Nick London on a paltry two points.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 54 1568
2 Spocktators Mark Leonard 60 1551
3 George's Best George Georgiou 31 1543
4 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 46 1539
5 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 53 1538

Odd decision of the week With only four matches how could a team score 115 points?? Well a team called Hazard XI did just that but a glance at this mind blowing total showed that the manager transferred out 14 players (so a minus 52 for that) and then played his "Bench Boost" wild card. With Niasse (Hull), King (Bournemouth) and Lukaku as captain an incredible total but achieved at a huge cost!

[LawrenceCooper]

Week 28

F.A.Cup week - so only four matches. This enabled some juggling around by managers to find enough players to score points - or possibly ignoring the Cup and hoping that a week with minimal points could be made up later! Our top teams of course made sure they weren't affected and they maintained their positions. Top scorer of the weeks was Lawrence Cooper (63 points) - however twelve teams were in single figures with Nick London on a paltry two points.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 54 1568
2 Spocktators Mark Leonard 60 1551
3 George's Best George Georgiou 31 1543
4 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 46 1539
5 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 53 1538

Odd decision of the week With only four matches how could a team score 115 points?? Well a team called Hazard XI did just that but a glance at this mind blowing total showed that the manager transferred out 14 players (so a minus 52 for that) and then played his "Bench Boost" wild card. With Niasse (Hull), King (Bournemouth) and Lukaku as captain an incredible total but achieved at a huge cost!

115-52= 63

[Neil Graham]

Week 29

Absolutely no change for the top five teams with Andrew Harley in pole position with the week's top score. Low score of the week from Rhys Cumming with 22 points. Also on 22 points but going rather than cumming was Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka - all the bottom six teams have now replaced their manager mid-season with the exception of Sunderland. Can David Moyes work a miracle??

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 89 1657
2 Spocktators Mark Leonard 82 1633
3 George's Best George Georgiou 85 1628
4 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 74 1609
5 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 68 1606

Top Team Big news from the overall ratings is that Hebknut captained by Knut Hebæk, the League Leader since week 14 has been finally knocked off by Fahad's XI captained by Uwais Ahmed. The new leader also has a number of wild cards yet to play so maybe could move even further ahead - overall points total is 1877 - so over 200 points ahead of our leading team.

[Neil Graham]

Third Quarter Report Weeks 21-29

We lost several front runners from the first two quarters notably Sam Herring & Richard Dineley. Whilst George Georgiou headed the League for six weeks Mark Leonard is now the closest to new leader Andrew Harley. Here are the points for the third quarter with number of weeks (out of nine possible) in brackets - just eight teams featured in the top five scorers this quarter.

1. George's Best George Georgiou 40 (9)
2. Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 39 (9)
3. Spocktators Mark Leonard 17(8)
4, Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 14(7)
5. Crimson Demons Richard Dineley 9 (5)
6. IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 7 (3)
7. Show me da Mané Sam Herring 7 (3)
8. Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 2(1)

[Neil Graham]

Week 30

It was a week of low scores with the usual suspects either not scoring or keeping clean sheets. Consequently there was no change at the top with only the 6th place team Gareth Yeo's suicide squad with 69 points making any progress. With eight weeks to go the top six are clear of the 7th placed team. Low scorer of the week was Rob Ensor but his 21 points merely emphasised that there was little to choose between top and bottom. Now onto Week 31 - a midweek match week sandwiched into the fixture list.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 44 1701
2 Spocktators Mark Leonard 39 1672
3 George's Best George Georgiou 39 1667
4 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 49 1658
5 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 37 1643

Do nothing spot A bit of praise for the team "I heard Jesse scored" languishing in 3,382, 147th spot. Their manager clearly abandoned the team weeks ago and as doubt his regular scores in the 3,000,000s show. Last week in 1st position with 103 points (Benteke, Simpson, Evans, Coutinho etc) there was even the luxury of only fielding ten men! Someone tell the manager Payet has left the building - or maybe not.

[Neil Graham]

Week 31

Paul Spiller turns the table uʍopǝpᴉsdn as he takes up the challenge to depose Andrew Harley. Good Times captained by John Garnett lived up to their name by top scoring with 76 points whilst Richard Dineley's slump continues - amongst the leaders just five weeks ago he was low scorer this week with 22 points. A measly 128 points over the last five weeks has seen Richard fall more quickly that Robert Snodgrass in the penalty area - over 500,000 places since week 26.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 42 1743
2 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 65 1719
3 Spocktators Mark Leonard 44 1716
4 George's Best George Georgiou 46 1713
5 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 53 1696

Bit too late spot Top scorer of the week was Amir Mohamed with 118 points (Bench Boost played). Unfortunately his team has entered 30 weeks too late as Week 31 was his first week in the League. Incredibly even at this stage 000s of new clubs are still applying for Fantasy Football League status including the aptly named "It's too late". Finally a memo to a Mr N.Biswas - just one team please!

[Neil Graham]

Week 32

He's on his way - just off caption and a mere three points beyond Mark Leonard is Gareth Yeo with his Suicide Squad - but the top five teams still have plenty of extra chips at their disposal. Top scorer of the week was Adrian Matthews and had he used his triple captain on Lukaku rather than Aguero he would just about have reached three figures. Matt Lunn's Bojan Horseman gallop off with the week's low score of 35.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 68 1811
2 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 68 1787
3 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 88 1784
4 George's Best George Georgiou 70 1783
5 Spocktators Mark Leonard 64 1780

Meanwhile..... The top four overall teams have now exceeded 2000 points - with means that Andrew Harley, although in 18,292th place, trails the overall leader by some 200 plus points. Some people obviously know more than we do Thibaud Verlinden (Stoke), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Crystal Palace) and Jake Hesketh (Southampton) have all been transferred in this week by some managers - the three players have to date played no minutes whatsoever in the Premier League.

[Neil Graham]

Week 33

He's making his challenge! 2016 Winner Gareth Yeo is on the leaderboard knocking off the 2016 runner-up Mark Leonard into 6th spot. However there is still catching up to do - with Andrew Harley maintaining his top position. High scorer was Rhys Cummings on 68 - will he make it onto Page 1? Rhys was in second position on Week 5 - he's now in Position 52. Meanwhile low score of the week from Marcus Joseph on 23.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 60 1871
2 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 60 1847
3 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 56 1840
4 Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 62 1839
5 George's Best George Georgiou 53 1836

Who to transfer in?? The top scorers in Fantasy League predominantly feature clubs in the top seven positions. There are no players from Stoke ,West Brom or Southampton in the top thirty scores. As for Hull - no players at all in the top 120 scores.

[Neil Graham]

Week 34

In a high scoring week the gap is just one point. With 91 points top scorer (jointly with Jonathan Tait) Paul Spiller closes the gap to leader Andrew Harley. With four weeks to go there's likely to be more twists and turns than Sergio Agüero falling over when challenged by Marouane Fellaini - even Joey Barton wouldn't bet on the overall winner here. Low score for a second week was Marcus Joseph.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 64 1935
2 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 91 1934
3 Spocktators Mark Leonard 74 1902
4 Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 61 1896
5 George's Best George Georgiou 59 1895

Overall After three weeks away from overall top spot Knut Hebæk regains control and now has 2162 points - eleven teams are within 50 points so might be in with a shout.

[Neil Graham]

Week 35

Three weeks to go and are we any nearer declaring the 2016-17 Premier Chess Champion? Well probably not - gaps open and gaps close but we can be confident that next week our top teams will be over the 200 points mark. Meanwhile Graham Ives hit the high score of the season with 103 points whilst Rob Ensor low scores - perhaps a reminder that Branislav Ivanovic is not a good choice (unless Zenit St Petersburg are Premier Contenders).

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 61 1996
2 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 35 1969
3 Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 65 1961
4 Spocktators Mark Leonard 53 1955
5 George's Best George Georgiou 46 1941

They know something we don't Dept Amongst players transferred in this week by various captain are Stephen Ireland (Stoke - broken leg), Pau López Sabata (Tottenham keeper - no minutes player) and Aaron Lennon (Everton - for reasons described in the national dailies). Other odd decisions - having Ibrahimovic as your captain.

[Neil Graham]

Week 36

It was a week of high scoring - the top five teams hit the 2000 point mark - could it be that we have narrowed down the League contenders to two teams? Top scorer was David Grobler with 112 points - low point of the week from Dominic Rabbitte - more than adequate proof that ignoring changing your team from Week 2 will result in a 4,458,603th place in Week 36.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 85 2081
2 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 92 2061
3 Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 88 2037
4 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 96 2025
5 Spocktators Mark Leonard 62 2013

It's arrived!! We all know that in Week 37 our top managers will be producing their Bench Boost cards. Unlike last season when the League places were all sorted by this time there is plenty to play for and it's unlikely that the top seven clubs will be playing a team of reserves. So we look forward to some inspired decisions (like appointing Harry Redknapp rather than Bob Bradley).

[Neil Graham]

Week 37

Boy - did those bench boost cards come into play this week! Nineteen of the top twenty sides scored over 100 points - mostly by weighing in with their wild cards. A giant leap for Grant Bucher who was top scorer with 186 points but a small step for Steven Smith who low scored on 23 points.

The positions could have been very different but for the added boost given by Harry Kane who scored four goals in the late, late fixture on Thursday. This may be the decisive factor in determining final positions. Mark Leonard who clearly forgot "wild card week" and Gareth Yeo must be out of the running unless there is a massive turnaround. Otherwise it could be anyone for the title!

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 155 2236
2 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 166 2227
3 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 186 2211
4 Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 152 2185
5 Spocktators Mark Leonard 141 2154

Reserve week After all the fuss of last week it's going to take a skilful manager to guess who might be playing. Man United have already said they will be playing a team of reserves in order to shield their top players for Europa Cup duty. Chelsea made nine changes after they beat West Bromwich to take the title. With the FA Cup looming who will appear this week? It's going to be a real challenge to pick a squad for Week 38.

[Neil Graham]

Week 38

Well the final results are in! Andrew Harley has been in first position since Week 27 with his rivals snapping at his heels - the gap was down to a single point at one stage and as Week 38 opened was a mere nine points. As it was, 88 points was sufficient for Andrew to be crowned Premier Chess Champion for 2016-17 with Grant Bucher's final week score of 91 enabling him to take runner-up spot edging out Paul Spiller.

1 Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 88 2324
2 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 91 2302
3 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 72 2299
4 Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 83 2268
5 Spocktators Mark Leonard 88 2242

More to follow.

[Neil Graham]

Final scores

Here are the final scores for all 63 competing teams:-

1. Harley Hotspurs Andrew Harley 88 2324
2 Olympique Mayonnaise Grant Bucher 91 2302
3 IX uʍopǝpᴉsdn Paul Spiller 72 2299
4 Suicide Squad Gareth Yeo 83 2268
5 Spocktators Mark Leonard 88 2242
6 George's Best George Georgiou 86 2217
7 Conte's Kants Alan Tate 97 2190
8 supa strikas Onos Kofi-Ofuafor 78 2114
9 Remanded in custardy Neil Graham 66 2105
10 AlliFonte in de Roon Richard Beach 95 2103

11 Scored Again James Redburn 83 2092
12 Hammered Again Graham Ives 81 2088
13 BattleGoals Peter Staneland 65 2083
14 Lallanas in Pyjamas Nathan Talbot 79 2070
15 Frying High joe friar 83 2065
16 Check This Richard Pert 40 2046
17 Milsopolis Samuel Milson 67 2044
18 Good Times John Garnett 70 2022
19 Oxspring Big Boys David Grobler 52 2014
20 Peregrinewellies Barry Redburn 80 1989

21 Chilli INDEED!!!! John Reyes 78 1974
22 Wengerboys Lawrence Cooper 76 1973
23 Show me da Mané Sam Herring 58 1973
24 Sporting Ramblas III Simon Brown 78 1963
25 Crimson Demons Richard Dineley 67 1954
26 BoJan Horseman Matthew Lunn 71 1950
27 Brentford Mods Jonathan Tait 62 1948
28 SHOW ME THE MONEY Adrian Matthews 72 1942
29 The Losers Sabrina Chevannes 48 1941
30 Spartak Cox Green Paul Cooksey 32 1933

31 me-myself and I Neil Milson 75 1932
32 Sisu Out Mark Page 81 1927
33 Phoenix Son Paul Colburn 56 1915
34 26 yrs no title. Lol Paul Talbot 67 1912
35 Friars Favourites James Friar 48 1909
36 The Bellerin Wall Mark Talbot 62 1908
37 A * is born Samuel Watts 51 1899
38 Richard's rockets Richard Weaving 50 1887
39 The Unlikely Lads Kevin Williamson 64 1880
40 Goals Peter Roberson 47 1862

41 NEEEERRRRRRRDDDDS!!! Ben Edgell 61 1856
42 Pebworth Linos Daniel Lambourne 54 1829
43 Anfield Attackers Matthew Payne 93 1818
44 Woodbridge Wanderers Adam Hunt 50 1804
45 Rash Rangers Robert Ashworth 62 1803
46 Craggle Rock Nathan Cragg 53 1799
47 The Glorious Trent Mike Swanwick 44 1798
48 Obi-Wan Kenobi Nil Jono Graham 57 1794
49 We wuz robbed Graham Mill-Wilson 58 1791
50 GreasedWeasels Jim Everson 43 1790

51 Holy Beardhair Dave Ledger 52 1766
52 Welsh Wizard XI Alex Bullen 38 1753
53 Zugzwang Thomas Rendle 24 1746
54 Knock em aert Rhys Cumming 35 1720
55 Show me da Mane Andrew Garside 57 1710
56 cheeky one robert taylor 50 1684
57 one legged men Hendrik Hoffmann 39 1671
58 Zaika Akmal Lathif 67 1646
59 Leoni complex Marcus Joseph 71 1613
60 Rabbits that bite Dominic Rabbitte 46 1574

61 Mané to Sané Rob Ensor 36 1562
62 CBA Athletic Steven Smith 31 1470
63 Hull Academicals Nick London 69 1265