IN THE MEADOW WE CAN BUILD A SNOWMAN, AND PRETEND THAT HE IS ALAN PARSONS
Seasons Bleatings to everyone! Amazingly, this weekend’s fixtures all fell on Saturday, so I’m writing this on Christmas Eve Eve, and would therefore like to take the seasonal opportunity to wish my WSFFL colleagues and friends a heartfelt “Feliz Navi-Nada”, a Mexican version of the traditional Christmas greeting. Why Mexican? Why not?!
For once, the demands of WSFFL on us all over the Yuletide period are not so great, apart from the PCMT Finalists, Ady and Beef. The Paul Cartmell Memorial Trophy Final between Aardvark Abacus and Trusted By Millions takes place over the Boxing Day Premiership fixtures. However, we’re back to normal next Saturday, 30th December, and then have New Year’s Day off! Then it’s FA Cup First Round day on the weekend of 6th January, and then we’re head-first into the Championship run-in! Gosh, where did the season go?
THERE’S AN UP SIDE, THERE HAS TO BE AN UP SIDE
Talking of the FA Cup, the First Round draw was made by Rachel earlier today, and came out of the bag in the following order;
22 Legged Groove Machine v You Know Your Boston Rock FC
Mega Buck Bandits v Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Prettier Than You v The Dead Parrots
York’s Returning Glory v Eleven Imaginary Boys
Claymore Athletic FC v Real Muppets
Final Fantasy XI v Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
San Dimas High School v Trusted By Millions
Thommo’s Titans v Aardvark Abacus
This is a bit more like it – a really exciting draw, this, with big clashes aplenty, much better than the anodyne PCMT First Round draw earlier this season. Boston Rock vs. the Groove Machine, both teams in the title shakedown at the moment; Final Fantasy vs. Fred West, both teams with some serious firepower; and the tie of the round for me, San Dimas vs. Trusted, two traditional powerhouses locking horns. There’s also some potential for traditional Cup upsets, with struggling Parrots and Thommos taking on the top two, Prettier Than You and Aardvark. Should make for an exciting weekend on 6 January!
RAIN FALLS LIKE ELVIS TEARS
Well, it was a bit foggy, actually, but this afternoon the goals just kept raining in. Perhaps it was something to do with 8 games being played at the traditional 3 p.m. Saturday start time (for the younger managers amongst you, all games started at that time, once upon a time), but today’s “Sky Soccer Saturday” was compulsive viewing. Every time you turned away, you seemed to miss a Premiership goal being scored!
So how did this affect the WSFFL games? Well, Prettier Than You top the table at halfway house and on Christmas Day, following a 2-2 draw with Thommo’s Titans. Goals from Bellamy and Meite cancelled out Van Persie’s double for the Titans to keep Rach top. However their lead is cut to just one point, as Ady’s Aardvark Abacus claimed all 3 points in their 3-1 win over sister in law Ceri’s Final Fantasy XI. Scholes, Alonso and Campbell were on target for the Abacus, who seem poised to make a serious championship run down the home straight.
There are two new names at the head of the chasing pack; Nil Satis Nisi Optimum leap to third following a crunching 4-1 win over fellow contenders Boston Rock FC. Goals from Dyer, McFadden, Silva and Flamini put “The Sky Heroes” to the sword, keeping up Paul’s recent revival and Boston Rock’s dismal run (one point from 12 for the Champions. D’oh!). Fred West go up to 4th – an Arjen Robben goal was the icing on the cake in their 3-1 win over bottom club York’s Returning Glory. Boston Rock slip to 5th, one point behind, following their defeat, and the 22 Legged Groove Machine drop to 6th after only drawing 1-1 with the Dead Parrots.
At the bottom, York’s defeat keeps them two points adrift of the Titans, following Pete’s point at the leaders. The Parrots and the Imaginary Boys are 5 points further clear after this weekend’s results.
Elsewhere, Real Muppets and Trusted By Millions are on the move into the top half of the table following impressive wins over Claymore and San Dimas respectively. Ronaldo scored twice for the Muppets in their 3-0 win over a Claymore outfit badly missing Thierry Henry, whilst Carragher got the winner for Trusted in an FA Cup 1st Round dress rehearsal. Finally, Eleven Imaginary Boys’ recent unbeaten run came to a halt against Mega Buck Bandits; Prov’s forward Nicolas Anelka’s double was matched by Dave’s Emile Heskey’s brace, and Finnan and Hunt were the difference makers for the Bandits in their 4-2 win. See? Raining goals, like I said!
As for POTW? Well, once again I’m deciding to court controversy by handing it to a side who only drew, but I deemed 15th placed Thommo’s Titans point at leaders Prettier Than You to be the most worthy of this week’s POTW half a million. Well done Pete!
TRANSFER NEWS
None. I guess everyone’s keeping their powder dry for the January transfer window…
THE FF£500,000 QUIZ – CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
This year’s Chrimbo special Quiz consists of quotes from 2006, regarding our beautiful game. I just need to know who said them. Easy, eh?
1. “I walked into Sainsbury's with my girlfriend and people were coming up to me and saying: “Well done”. All I could think was; “Well done for what?””
2. “For £120,000 a week, they should be able to take f***ing penalties.”
3. “Football’s a difficult business, and aren’t all the players prima donnas?”
4. “Everton, his manager and he [Andy Johnson] deserve my apologies.”
5. “He's had three offside decisions; two right, two wrong.”
Answers to me by close of play Saturday 30 December 2006. There’s £100,000 up for grabs for each quote, so it’s worth having a go, even if you only know the one!
Sheffield United and Prettier Than You midfielder Phil Jagielka was voted the best player in the Football League by “FourFourTwo”. And not by the guild of defensive midfielders, as Peej rather unkindly commented at the auction! He’s scored more goals this Prem season than my so-say attacking midfielder Tomas Rosicky, who I shelled out £17 million for at the auction, anyway…
Anyway, enough of my bitter bile for now. I received 4 correct replies, from Peej, Rachel, Clive and Ceri. Now I normally give until close of play Saturday for guesses, but I didn’t want to delay publication of this newsletter just for that, and I figured anyone who was going to have a guess would have done so when they sent their teams in! So anyway, Final Fantasy XI was the name out of the hat, so Ceri wins the £100,000 cash. Well done Ceri!
I got a wrong ‘un from Dave, who went for Bobby Convey, reasoning that was why I was so keen to sign him at the auction (truth to tell, don’t really know why I signed him...). Also from Beef, who plumped for his own man Steve Sidwell, who actually came 2nd in the “FourFourTwo” poll, having won it the previous year! Close gents, but no cigar.
SHORTS
· Whoops Dept.; in my haste to get the last newsletter out, I missed off the one clean sheet cancelled off in the Trusted-Aardvark game. The result remained 3-2 to Aardvark, but one clean was cancelled off each team.
WSFFL RESULTS;
Week 15, W/E 23 December 2006
Claymore Athletic FC 0-3 Real Muppets
(2) Ronaldo 2
Abdoulaye Faye 40,157
The Dead Parrots 1-1 22 Legged Groove Machine
Murphy Niemi 32,013
Eleven Imaginary Boys 2-4 Mega Buck Bandits
Anelka 2 Finnan
Heskey 2
Hunt 24,053
Final Fantasy XI 1-3 Aardvark Abacus
Andrew Johnson (1) Campbell
Scholes
Alonso 42,807
Prettier Than You 2-2 Thommo’s Titans
Bellamy (2) Van Persie 2
Meite 52,079
Trusted By Millions 2-1 San Dimas High School
Ben Haim (1) Yakubu
Carragher 42,551
York’s Returning Glory 1-3 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Hulse Vidic
Volz
Robben 22,452
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 1-4 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Lampard (2) Gilberto Silva
Dyer
McFadden
Flamini 59,913
Performance of the Week: Thommo’s Titans
THE 2006/07 WSFFL LEAGUE TABLE
| ||||||||||
As at Saturday 23 December 2006
| ||||||||||
Team
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
Diff
|
Pts
| ||
1
|
Prettier Than You
|
15
|
9
|
3
|
3
|
28
|
18
|
10
|
30
| |
2
|
Aardvark Abacus
|
15
|
9
|
2
|
4
|
38
|
22
|
16
|
29
| |
3
|
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
|
15
|
8
|
2
|
5
|
35
|
26
|
9
|
26
| |
4
|
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
|
15
|
8
|
2
|
5
|
28
|
25
|
3
|
26
| |
5
|
You Know Your Boston Rock FC
|
15
|
7
|
4
|
4
|
32
|
25
|
7
|
25
| |
6
|
22 Legged Groove Machine
|
15
|
7
|
4
|
4
|
22
|
18
|
4
|
25
| |
7
|
Real Muppets
|
15
|
6
|
5
|
4
|
28
|
24
|
4
|
23
| |
8
|
Trusted By Millions
|
15
|
6
|
4
|
5
|
25
|
22
|
3
|
22
| |
9
|
San Dimas High School
|
15
|
6
|
3
|
6
|
24
|
29
|
-5
|
21
| |
10
|
Mega Buck Bandits
|
15
|
6
|
2
|
7
|
23
|
26
|
-3
|
20
| |
11
|
Final Fantasy XI
|
15
|
5
|
4
|
6
|
21
|
20
|
1
|
19
| |
12
|
Claymore Athletic FC
|
15
|
5
|
2
|
8
|
31
|
32
|
-1
|
17
| |
13
|
Eleven Imaginary Boys
|
15
|
4
|
4
|
7
|
18
|
25
|
-7
|
16
| |
14
|
The Dead Parrots
|
15
|
4
|
4
|
7
|
20
|
30
|
-10
|
16
| |
15
|
Thommo's Titans
|
15
|
2
|
5
|
8
|
17
|
28
|
-11
|
11
| |
16
|
York's Returning Glory
|
15
|
3
|
0
|
12
|
16
|
36
|
-20
|
9
| |
TOTAL
|
240
|
95
|
50
|
95
|
406
|
406
|
0
|
335
| ||
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