Is your season effectively over already? Want some remote interest in something to look forward to?

I’m looking for 7 volunteers to trial a new game I am planning on running next season.

It’s basically based on The Sun Dream Team game.

How it works (if it proves a goer):
Everybody submits their team prior to the start of the season.
Each week you will play another manager.
It will be your points against his points.
Winner (manager with the most points) gets 3 points and the loser none (draw = 1 point)
Points scored will count as your goal difference (both for and against).
Only the weekend scores will count.
For the purposes of this competition, Saturday to Monday will count as the weekend.
This is so we are playing on a level footing and everybody should have a chance of having all their team available (subject to injury and selection).
Fixtures will be decided prior to the season starting.
Fixtures will be arranged to avoid cup weekends etc
Should any games get cancelled, then that’s the luck of the draw.

Trial Run
For the purposes of the trial run, I need 7 volunteers and myself.
Basically we get drawn into fixtures playing over the remaining weekends of this season (starting 17th March).
Due to the time constraints, we’ll only be able to play each other once.
With 8 of us, we’ll need 7 weekends…. so I suggest avoiding the Easter weekend to avoid the confusion caused by rearranged games etc.

Any question let me know..... it will help me come up with some sensible rules and guidlines.

For the purposes of the trial run, I reckon you send me a screen shot of your team (this way it stops us all picking the ideal team). For next season, as it'll be before any points have been scored, any (valid) team will do i.e. it wont have to be officially entered.

Anyone fancy it? If you’re interested let me know by PM.

As there is a limited amount of time, I'm having to limit it to 8 teams.
If there is enough interest though we could have two leagues of 8 perhaps.

Any comments are welcomed.

I will have a go at the trial run

Good man, cheers Karrde.

Is it called Super 8's ? I'm interested, and do you need any help with a spreadsheet ?

I think I might just have the thing I need

I'll pencil you in.

Will PM you. Not too sure how to get a screen shot though

both themissus and I will give it a go if you still need numbers. sounds like a great idea...

e-mail: thisisdavidbell at hotmail.com

Open IE and browse to your team. Then press together Alt+PrintScrn.

Open MS Paint and goto Edit / Paste, you will now have an image of your screenshot in Paint. Save it, then email.

Just sent PM, not sure if any room left though?

Sorry for the delay in replying..... that work stuff is a pain in the arse isnt it!!!

Anyway I now have my 7 guinea pigs and all their teams.

Managers
Zimmerman
andi_jones
Justboy
Dr Bell
Mrs Bell
Miles
CBB
Karrde

Fixtures
Week 1 - w/e 17/03
Week 2 - w/e 31/03
Week 3 - w/e 14/04
Week 4 - w/e 21/04
Week 5 - w/e 28/04
Week 6 - w/e 05/05
Week 7 - Sun 13/05

for the purposes of this game, the weekend is Sat-Mon (if this only incorporates one fixture for a team) i.e. the fa cup replays dont count.

In the the interests of fairness/impartiality I have devised a draw system and asked andi_jones to do the draw (to decide the fixtures). As soon as he has mailed me back I will post the fixtures.

Good Luck.

If my powers of prediction are correct, I'm playing CBB, Week 1.

Best of Luck to you all.

Fixtures

Week 1
17-Mar
andi_jones v CBB
Miles v Justboy
Dr Bell v Zimmerman
Mrs Bell v Karrde

Week 2
31-Mar
andi_jones v Miles
CBB v Justboy
Dr Bell v Karrde
Zimmerman v Mrs Bell

Week 3
14-Apr
andi_jones v Justboy
CBB v Karrde
Miles v Zimmerman
Dr Bell v Mrs Bell

Week 4
21-Apr
andi_jones v Karrde
CBB v Mrs Bell
Miles v Dr Bell
Justboy v Zimmerman

Week 5
28-Apr
andi_jones v Dr Bell
CBB v Miles
Justboy v Mrs Bell
Zimmerman v Karrde

Week 6
05-May
andi_jones v Zimmerman
CBB v Dr Bell
Miles v Mrs Bell
Justboy v Karrde

Week 7
13-May
andi_jones v Mrs Bell
CBB v Zimmerman
Miles v Karrde
Justboy v Dr Bell

Zimmerman
Howard
Vidic
Terry
Finnan
Assou-Ekotto
Nolan
Gerrard
Sidwell
Henry
Drogba
Carew

andi_jones
Friedel
Khizanishvili
Eboue
S Taylor
Finnan
Gerrard
Milner
Jenas
Lampard
Henry
Drogba

Karrde
P Robinson
M Dawson
Carvalho
Khizanishvili
Dunne
Scholes
Gerrard
MGP
Martins
Henry
Drogba

Miles
Reina
Eboue
Hunt
Vidic
Finnan
Lampard
Ronaldo
Milner
Berbatov
Drogba
Henry

CBB
Robinson
Finnan
Terry
Vidic
G Cahill
Ronaldo
Lampard
Sidwell
Henry
Martins
Agbonlahor

Dr Bell
Schwarzer
Mellberg
Terry
Lescott
Carragher
Bentley
Campo
Essien
Gerrard
Henry
McCarthy

Mrs Bell
Hahnemann
Eboue
Terry
Lescott
Campbell
Gerrard
Ronaldo
Nolan
S Davis
Henry
Drogba

Justboy
Howard
Eboue
Terry
Finnan
Hunt
Jenas
Gerrard
MGP
McCarthy
Henry
Johnson

Going off the form up until now, Andi is the red hot favourite.
With Justboy the rank outsider.

Will this turn out to be the case?

My personal feeling is that it will be:

Miles
Andi
CBB
Dr Bell
Karrde
Justboy
Zimmerman
Mrs Bell (she is a woman after all)

But to be fair, this is effectively Cup football (this is how I run a Champions League and FA Cup comp in the dream league I run for friends). And just like cup football, it throws up some shocks!!!

So Mrs Bell could easily turn over Miles in a one off game!

Good luck everyone.

how did you know this?
were you able to break my password?
damn your excel skills!!!!!

As mentioned in my original post - if anything is unclear, or your unsure of how things work, ask away.

And as this thing is just for fun.... the prize for winning this little trial run..... you get the naming rights for the competition for next season (if it takes off that is).

You sent me the password just before I made the post. I can't break a password that quickly.

I'm suprised you see it that way, I never win anything. But funnily enough I'm quiet used to being the favourite. One of the lads always runs a book on our Mini-League, 8/1 favourite again, this year, but still 48 pts behind the leader

..... so you're not saying you couldnt crack it?

you dont play tic-tac-toe do you?

No & No.

based purely on the scores our teams have scored (not accounting for transfers etc.)

Andi 1511
Karrde 1174
Miles 1159
Mrs Bell 1040
Dr Bell 986
CBB 978
Zimmerman 962
Justboy 903

I will be interested to compare the order we finish in in this mini game, versus the order we would finish in based purely on the number of points in the standard Sun game we each gain from now until the end of the season.

Any thoughts on how much the two will differ?

The biggest difference for me is that teams made up of players who tradionally get their points from the occasional big game (i.e no points, no points, hatrick+mom, no points) will be less successful than ones built of players contributing little and often...

Difficult to predict really.

You would assume that a consistent team should eventually triumph regardless.

i.e. Miles has Reina (regular clean sheets), Lampard, Ronaldo and Drogba - all regular, BIG scorers. On top of potential big points from the likes of Eboue, Vidic, Berbatov.... so you have to assume that he will be pulling in decent points on a regular basis. So by the law of averages he should be picking up more wins than losses.

Whereas me; aside from Drogba, not as many guaranteed big points days. Although potential to have good weeks (Gerrard, Terry, Finnan, Carew, Sidwell etc etc. if they all turn it in on the same day.

To put it in to more perspective (or some perspective), in my dream league I run there are 32 teams.

Champions League semi finalists:-
1st, 5th, 12th and 13th (placed teams in the league).

FA Cup semi finalists:-
9th, 17th, 21st and 22nd (placed teams in the league).

The Chamions league involved playing 6 group games so some of the cream does come to the surface (plus the fact that we only had the top team progressing).

Even the guys in 12th and 13th have done well to get this far though considering the are some 340 behind 1st and 150 behind 2nd place.

Whereas the lottery of the FA Cup..... anything can happen.

i wish i had made transfers officailly to me team now.

oh well you never know AJ might go on a scoring streak to match drogba!

In a real turn up for the books, pre season favourite Andi falls to a defeat in his opening game of the season.

Many pundits' relegation favourite Mrs Bell also upsets the form guide by give FISO Knight Karrde a lesson in dream team management.

Week 1
17-Mar
andi_jones 18 v 44 CBB
Miles 23 v 35 Justboy
Dr Bell 22 v 35 Zimmerman
Mrs Bell 43 v 33 Karrde

get in!!!

Week 2 of our league this weekend

The four winners from Week 1 all face each other and the 4 losers all facing each other.

Fixtures
andi_jones v Miles
CBB v Justboy
Dr Bell v Karrde
Zimmerman v Mrs Bell

Good luck folks (exceot Mrs Bell that is)!

Competition should be called 10 a side footy (this season anyway) uncanny how everyone has Henry

message removed as yours truly cant remember the rules to his own game!