2017 SBru PL WINTER Cup - Winner : TRAMPIE

[Mick MacPaddywack]

HI All

Welcome to the 4th Year of the FISO SuperBru Winter Cup!!

Previous winners were:

2013 : Spencer4	2014 : Hammerddh here	2015 : Metal Warlord here

To the uninitiated, this competition runs for 8 weeks (usually) as a League (although this year it will only run as a league for 6 weeks) with the Top 8 going forward into the knockout stages over the following 3 weeks (QF, SF & Final). First round starts 15th October after the break ...

It would help me if everybody in our SuperBru FISO League accepts the invitation that I send out to you promptly. To participate, you need to do nothing (after accepting the invite) except continue to pick your weekly predictions ... I will take care of the rest. Any banter is always welcome either here in FISO or in the SuperBru Banter.

Best of luck, to y'all!!

[Mick MacPaddywack]

week 1 of the Winter Cup kicked off last weekend with the following results:



This is reflected in SuperBru now also (I had to ask them to make a few adjustments in case any of you noticed that data included week 7).

I may not get to update this each week but SuperBru's records should tie in with ours.
Once we have completed the qualifying 6 weeks of Head to Head I will track the remaining Quarter Final, Semi Final, Final legs here.

[trampie]

Did I get an invite Mick

[murf]

Always good to start with a big away win. Makes the inevitable follow up home defeat that little bit easier to take.

[Mick MacPaddywack]

Did I get an invite Mick

Oh dear. I think everybody got an invite and I posted anywhere I could think of. You would be more than welcome. I've been kinda busy, so I haven't been checking to see who is in / not in. I note that TheBigLewandowski has not predicted for three games in a row, so you'd be welcome to join / replace him. After 3 weeks, 8th place is held by just 6 points (2 wins). A man of your capability could make that difference up. I've just sent you another invite. I've also just dropped TBL. Make up the numbers & see how you fare ...

[Mick MacPaddywack]

week 2 of the Winter Cup saw Mick MacP gifted with a TheBigLewandowski fixture with a second consecutive non appearance from that team. Not good. gaillimh also didn't show unfortunately, but shafty chipped in despite missing week 1.



As is usual in the first couple of weeks, lots of movement up & down the league ... expect more next week ...

Riding high this week is The only way is Up after handing no less a competitor than murf his first beating of the season ...

[Mick MacPaddywack]

week 3 has murf bouncing back with a fixture against TheBigLewandowski. I've been away or I would have responded sooner to Trampie & been in touch with TBL. Sorry about that. Gives three of us an unfair advantage over others who have not yet played TBL. I'm dropping TBL from the Cup for Three Strikes and you're Out. A new rule just implemented for miscreants and busy people. Bad luck mate. TBL will be welcome back in the Spring Cup though, if he wishes to participate.



murf and Stokie Bloke are the big winners this week due to no show. With two no shows, In previous years I would have manipulated the fixtures to have murf play Stokie Bloke (and adjusted the tables accordingly) but this year unfortunately I just don't have the time. I will raise this as an issue with SuperBru and see if they can come up with a solution. Their solution last year was to introduce Average Joe, but he doesn't seem to put up much of a fight.

For the Winter Cup it will have to stand as is.

[Mick MacPaddywack]

week 4 Half of the top 8 from last week have taken a beating this week.



Spencer4 handed out a beating to his mate murf who dropped to 8th in the table as a consequence. MickMacP, The only way is Up and Moist von Lip each dropped 4 slots and out of the qualifying zone. Spencer4, Tenpinterry and Surprised currently are the replacements ...




We have two more qualifying weeks remaining before we head into the Quarter Finals (top 8) ... Good luck all !!

[Mick MacPaddywack]

As a reminder to myself ... once we reach the knockout stages, we will be switching from the SuperBru "Head to Head" scores to the more accurate / easily understood "League" scores.

The "Head to Head" scores make it easier for me to maintain the first half of the Winter and Spring Cups but I prefer the combination of "Win Points" and "Margin Points" (but excluding "Bonus points") as a fairer scoring mechanism for the knockout stages.

Just in case anyone is wondering ...

[Mick MacPaddywack]

week 5 was the penultimate week of the League portion of this Cup, with the following results:



Spencer4 handed out a beating to MIckMacP this week, mutter mutter, who dropped a further 6 places or 10 places in two weeks. St John's Ambulance have been called to his aid. Surprised cemented his position in the Top 8, Sport Billy returned to his last week's rank, and The only way is Up, Highgreenowl and Boddington displaced dewalsh, murf and Tenpinterry ... such is the crazy helter skelter nature of this Competition



Next weekend is the last qualifying week remaining before we head into the Quarter Finals (top 8) ... squeaky bum time

[Mick MacPaddywack]

week 6 was the final week of the League portion of this Cup, and had some surprise results with some upsets and joy ...



The greatest upsets were for Surprised, highgreenowl and Sport Billy who dropped out of contention whilst murf, TheoVodkat and fozzman squeezed in on the back of their last minute wins. Most fortunate of all was Boddington who somehow remained in the Top 8, despite drawing his last match, purely on goal difference over 5 others also on 9 points ... bad luck the rest of ye ...

[Mick MacPaddywack]

Quarter Final Draw is as follows:



The scores in the Knockout Stages will be a combination of the Win points + Margin points for each match.
Whilst this may result in fractional scores hopefully it will be more likely to result in a conclusive result, where each match is decided on the day with no need for replays.
In the unlikely event of a draw, the tie break will be using a countback from the last prediction to the first.

An example of this scoring was in the 2015 FA Cup where Fozzman beat Trampie



In this case there was no need for a countback, but if there had been Fozzman would still have won on his prediction of the StokeCity v Liverpool match where he scored 1 point to Trampie's null points

[hayesag]

bye bye sport billy

[hayesag]

welcome BACK to the top 8 surprised

[hayesag]

i mean how do you lose a point for a 4-4 draw

were u on juice at the time of updating this table

[Mick MacPaddywack]

i mean how do you lose a point for a 4-4 draw

were u on juice at the time of updating this table

When updating this table I discovered a few errors in the previous table. But if you think there is an error somewhere that I missed please point it out to me, and I'll double check.
The sooner the better ...
cheers,
Mac

Oh, I may have spotted it ...
If you mean Surprised dropping a point it was because the previous table attributed Surprised with 3 wins 1 draw, instead of 2 wins 2 draws. My mistake.
I corrected this whilst updating this table. But if you can point out something else, please do let me know.

[murf]

Errors?

I got through. That is all that matters, the rest is surely mere detail.....

[Mick MacPaddywack]

Errors?

I got through. That is all that matters, the rest is surely mere detail.....

Yes, rather worryingly, Murf makes it through again ... like chewing gum on the heel of your shoe ... except it wasn't my shoe, as I'm lying discarded in the gutter ...

[hayesag]

spencer v bodd or sport billy?

[hayesag]

dont know about the goal difference but points are spot on

[Mick MacPaddywack]

spencer v bodd or sport billy?

Spencer v Boddington is the confirmed fixture.

When I spotted the error in the table I failed to revise the link to the corrected table screenshot for week 6, but the draw was taken from the corrected table & therefore it is Bodd that plays Spencer4. Link now revised to the corrected table, thanks.

Sorry for the glitches ... good to have a second pair of inquisitive eyes, Haysag, thanks.

I have now triple checked my goal differences particularly for those on 9 points, as they are crucial for the 8th qualifying slot, and can confirm all goal differences are accurate.

[Mick MacPaddywack]

Quarter Final Scores: as it stands at the moment ... with tonight's match - the last 10 minutes & final substitutions coming on ... its still up for grabs in the tighter matches



Metal Warlord and Boddington both stole a handsome lead on their respective opponents with their exact prediction of the Everton v Man U draw ... but it still hangs on tonight's match for all but one match, where murf is snoring loudly, resting on the bench as only half of TheoVodkat's team turned up ...

[Mick MacPaddywack]

Quarter Final Results: contained some surprises, with the King and former winner Spencer4 being toppled by the newbie (to nobody) Boddington who has swapped his 5 iron for a pair of Billy's Boots ... this matchup all hinged on the Everton v ManU draw which Boddington predicted accurately. A good effort by Spencer4 to recoup the loss with a perfect prediction in the final game, but to no avail. Bad luck.



Stokie Bloke on the other hand built up too strong a lead on fozzman in the first four games for fozzman to be able to recover, and although he made fine inroads with his West Brom and Arsenal predictions he came up short.

TheoVodkat on his first time in this comp made it to the Quarter Finals before his first bit of bad luck, running into an in-form murf. murf as we all know has never won this competition in its 3 year history (but has won everything else) and has his gimlet eye set on this prize, and his claws sharpened ... with 8 out of 10 outcomes correctly predicted, there was only likely to be one outcome and with the highest score of the round murf is someone to be avoided in the next round ...

A finally, Metal Warlord clawed back a deficit against The only way is up with the same perfect prediction of the Everton -v- ManU draw to clinch his tie ...

Good matches all round ... bad luck to the losers ...

[Mick MacPaddywack]

The Semi Final Draw is as follows:



Matches are this weekend, 10th Dec. Good luck all!!

[Mick MacPaddywack]

The Semi Final was a cracking affair:

In the first draw, Boddington came out of the blocks, fast, with a perfect prediction of the Arsenal match, but waned thereafter and Stokie Bloke's consistency throughout eventually gave him a good margin of victory.

In the second draw, the Holder, MetalWarlord matched murf blow for blow and by half time was only 1 point behind, but murf's finishing towards the end was too strong and he flourished two perfect predcitions to finish MetalWarlord's commendable defence of the crown off, keeping his hopes of adding the Winter Cup to his trophy cabinet alive.

[Mick MacPaddywack]

The Final fixture is as follows:



Matches are to-morrow, Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th Dec. May the best man win, Good luck to ye both!!

[murf]

Phew. Thought I'd had a poor weekend as I'd rested 1 or 2 for the final!!

[hayesag]

Phew. Thought I'd had a poor weekend as I'd rested 1 or 2 for the final!!

WE ARE ALL EXPECTING YOU TO WIN

no pressure

[Mick MacPaddywack]

Well, the Final kicked off with a very cautious approach being taken by both teams,
and neither of them willing to press their strikers into attack, leaving us with a dull and boring first half :



but with 8 Matches to be played to-morrow, we can expect fireworks!!

[Mick MacPaddywack]

As anticipated, the Final kicked off in the second half with first blood to Murf whose perfect prediction of the West Ham v Burnley match gave him a nice lead of 0.75 pts. Stokie Bloke struck back immediately with his closer 'Boro v Liverpool prediction, cutting the margin to 0.50 pts.

The next two matches were drawn and when Murf predicted the ManCity v Watford result perfectly the game looked done and dusted but, again, Stokie Bloke struck back by perfectly predicting the Spurs result leaving himself 0.5 points behind with only one match remaining ... as tight as a Beavers bum ... and then to prove himself a worthy winner Stokie Bloke nicked it in the last match, by predicting a Stoke draw, correctly.



A cracking match played by two fine competitors, and sadly there could only be one winner .... So commiserations to Murf
and CONGRATULATIONS to Stokie Bloke!!