Welcome to the Rounded Keeper 2021/22!
The Rounded Keeper is famed the world over for just three things - Gretchen, its lenient dress-code and the insatiable appetite of the locals for cheaply made and dangerously out of date liquor. This, however, is a special year, and a new celebrity has risen to join the pantheon of TRK legends.
It's a fame that many want, but few attain (and even fewer can keep down), and this season it is the dubious honour of Danzku, winner of the Rounded Keeper League and new bearer of the honorary title of Landlord of The Rounded Keeper 2021/22. Gretchen's younger sister Ingrid has flown in specially to nervously present our new hero with their crown, which bestows no special powers, but does entitle the holder to first go on the fruity and 50% of all bar-snacks (between 3 and 5am, on any Tuesday, in February 2020).
I for one welcome our new fantasy overlord and look forward to a spirited title defence in this year's competition (which will once again be open and free to enter for all regulars visitors to TRK).
Entry for this season's league is now open.
There will also be a Rounded Keeper Cup in the second half of the season.
And most exciting, with details to follow, is the tease of weekly stats and updates from one of our favourite side game administrators. All will be revealed once the season gets under way.
You can find the sign up details and league rules in this sign-up thread.
Away from the blazing glory of league success and back to the mundane life of a mostly law-abiding publican, it's been a strange year for our landlord who has had to manage a conflict between his love of Eurovision and The Euros, and also his admiration of all things Italy.
The Bruno Tonioli autographs were the first casualties, torn down after the UK's narrow 524 point defeat to Italy in Rotterdam's Eurovision extravaganza, but it was the penalty shootout loss in Euro 2020 which hurt the most and tipped our publican into madness, burning his Beppe di Marco poster and hurling the pub's entire stock of Cornettos into the river. The environment agency are sure to be interested in the latter, so the landlord has purchased a new guard dog to deter the investigators. Aptly named 'Gareth', he's great with kids and never attacks but he does look adorable in a waistcoat.
So pull up a chair, order your drink and let's toast to another season of FPL's trials, tribulations and (very occasional) triumphs!