Fog Dude

Best regular weekly pizza for me was the margherita from the kebab shop on Holyhead Road in Upper Bangor. It put Bella's directly opposite and Tŷ Pizza along the same street to shame. Not sure exactly what else they put on it but it always seemed spicier than your bog standard cheese pizza. 

Bangor Uni sent me to Belgium for a semester too, to an area with a lot of people of Italian origin whose grandparents had come to work down the mines, so there was no shortage of pizza places locally. One did a mean cinque formaggi, whilst another had something on the menu they called a Canadienne that turned out to be crème fraîche on the base instead of tomato purée, with sliced potatoes as a topping. Surprisingly divine. *chef's kiss* 

The results were up in the opening post on Sunday, and the latest table was figured out shortly afterwards. We lost one match to Covid as Mainz complained of an outbreak of cases in their squad at fairly short notice. Despite that, the average score was slightly higher than last week, albeit still very much on the low side of things. 

It was a tale of two Dads at Stinky finished with the worst performance of the round to leave him back closer to the bottom two, who swap places but remain virtually inseparable. Similar story at the other end where two points separate the top three. Shy Dad is the new leader as the only participant into double figures, with MVP RULZ still in contention as the sole other player with more than one exact score this time out. Tilde's still sandwiched in between them, though it does occur to me that he might've preferred the Brentford D2D to fall a week later (despite him betting on a draw again). 

The 'wildcard' fixture did at least net him, Briefcase and Vegeta a bonus point each. It was match #1, Villa v Saints, for which not many people picked the right result, let alone how one-sided it'll be. At least it wasn't another 9-0 reverse for the south coast team. Elsewhere, wins for Chelsea, Newcastle Utd, Man City and Celtic generally proved fruitful, whereas a home defeat for Wolves turned out to be tougher to foresee. The aforementioned relegation clash at Carrow Road and a score draw at Tannadice lent themselves to more of a mixed bag of guesses.

Luckily for the German authorities, the Dortmund game can be rearranged sharpish because Rangers did them a favour by knocking them out of Europe. Speaking of which, it's about time that Glasgow side featured in a D2D, so they will do as part of a new set of 10 at the top of the thread very soon... 

Premier League

Aston Villa 1-2 Southampton
Burnley 0-3 Chelsea
Newcastle United 3-0 Brighton & Hove Albion
Norwich City 1-0 Brentford
Wolves 2-1 Crystal Palace
Manchester City 3-1 Manchester United 

Scottish Premiership
Dundee United 1-1 Hearts
Livingston 0-2 Celtic 

German Bundesliga
Nuremberg 2-0 Hamburg 

Mainz 2-2 Borussia Dortmund

The final scores went into the original post on Sunday night, and the table was recalculated soon after that. No change in the gap at the top, but MVP RULZ played himself right back into contention with a great performance. Vegeta also had a decent round, with nobody else into double figures and Stinky the only other participant to get an exact scoreline. Briefcase falls away from the main title challengers and ultimo is back in joint last place after both picked late. 

TildeGuy's gamble on a draw didn't pay off, although two people did agree with him and as mentioned, a further two players were too tardy to be able to make a valid bet. In fairness it probably wasn't a great time to have to pretend to back Brentford in the second half of the season, but that's how it usually works with second-choice teams. Tilde did salvage a bonus point from the 'wildcard' fixture though, as just one other person correctly thought that Brighton would suffer another home reverse, this time against Stevie G's Villa™. 

Elsewhere, a VAR-induced stalemate in 120 minutes at Wembley wasn't helpful for most, and nor was the other goalless draw at Old Trafford. A score draw at Selhurst Park and an away win at the Stadio Olimpico also proved tougher to foresee. Narrow victories on the road for Man City and Coventry United (yes, Cov City pulled funding for their women's team) turned out a smidgen easier to guess beforehand, whilst the comfortable margins for the visitors in the remaining two FA Cup ties were wider than anybody expected. 

A fairly straightforward new card will be put in the initial post shortly.

League Cup Final
Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool (@ Wembley)

Premier League
Brentford w/TildeGuy 1-0 Newcastle United 
Brighton & Hove Albion 1-1 Aston Villa
Crystal Palace 0-1 Burnley
Manchester United 2-0 Watford
Everton 2-2 Manchester City 

Women's FA Cup Fifth Round
Liverpool 0-3 Arsenal 
Manchester United 1-2 Manchester City 
West Bromwich Albion 2-0 Coventry United 

Serie A
Lazio 0-0 Napoli

The results went up in the opening post on Sunday, and the table was updated shortly afterwards. In a round with middling scoring, TildeGuy's advantage over Shy Dad is cut by one point to just four as MVP RULZ and Briefcase's challenges begin to fall away slightly. At the other end I'm back in last place (deservedly so, after misreading my own D2D spreadsheet tab for 6 months) because Stinky Dad had an outstanding performance: top scorer by four, the sole participant into double figures and the only player to get more than one exact score right. Vegeta also overtakes ultimo again by a single point.

No bonuses this time out, partly due to the sudden need to cancel the planned D2D turn, but also because the randomly selected 'wildcard' fixture turned out to be a dud. Match #2, Villa v Watford, produced a rare away win as Roy Hodgson's Hornets completed a double over The Villains that began when Dean Smith and Xisco Muñoz were in charge of the respective teams. The closest guesses were mine with a 1-0 but for the hosts, and Rory who thought it'd end in a draw. 

Elsewhere, victories for Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Barcelona – the usual suspects, basically – all proved fruitful. Reverses for Brighton, Everton and Man City and a score draw at the Cornellà, on the other hand, were harder to foresee. 

A new set of 10 will go live at the top of the thread very soon. This time it's not a drill and we really will start knocking off a few more D2Ds before the next international break! 

You may or may not have noticed that there was a D2D listed for about 14 hours on Wednesday, that would've been ineligible according to the rules I set out myself. Can you tell I'm overdue for an eye test?

I've let the two people affected by it know via DMs and they've assured me it's fine. We've managed to sort out an alternative that will feature later in the season instead.

Premier League

Arsenal 3-1 Brentford
Aston Villa 1-0 Watford
Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 Burnley
Crystal Palace 1-2 Chelsea
Liverpool 3-0 Norwich City
Southampton 1-1 Everton
Manchester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur 
Leeds United 2-2 Manchester United 

La Liga
Espanyol 0-1 Sevilla 
Valencia 0-0 Barcelona

The final scores went into the initial post on Sunday night, and the table was recalculated soon after that which led to some significant movement. The gap at the summit's the same as before, but Shy Dad has definitely consolidated second spot, with Briefcase also into double figures and arguably playing himself into outside contention for the title as worst performer Rory inevitably fades away. At the other end, top scorer ultimo leaps off of last place and into the relative nosebleed territory of sixth, leaving Stinky Dad – who was comfortably inside the top 4 a couple of months ago – now two points adrift for the first time this season following an alarming dip in form. 

So why so much change then? Well, once again a card dominated by the Scottish Cup delivered the goods in terms of high scoring, and unlike the last few rounds, there were no shocks. We'll have to include as many of the quarter-finals as possible next month, which are all Premiership-only affairs after the favourites finally got their act together over the weekend. The randomly selected 'wildcard' fixture, however, came from France rather than Scotland. Nobody got the exact score from match #9, Lens' five-goal thriller home victory over Bordeaux, but 3 players did at least claim a bonus point each for getting the right result.

Elsewhere, away wins for Man City and Liverpool were also generally good for one-pointers, with the former proving too wide a margin and the latter too narrow. Progress on the road for Dundee United, Rangers and Hibs also turned out to be eminently foreseeable, as did successes for Lyon and Marseille. Hearts being taken to penalties caught everyone out although they did eventually go through, whilst Aberdeen's reverse at Fir Park led to more of a mixed bag of guesses. 

Time to tick off another D2D next [or not because it's taken me 6 months to notice I messed up, but I think I got away with it before anyone else realised]. That'll appear in the original post sharpish. 

Premier League
Norwich City 1-3 Manchester City 
Burnley 0-1 Liverpool 

Scottish Cup Round 5
Hearts 3-0 Livingston
Motherwell 2-1 Aberdeen
Partick Thistle 1-2 Dundee United
Annan Athletic 0-2 Rangers 
Arbroath 0-2 Hibernian 

Ligue 1
Lyon 1-1 Nice 
Lens 2-2 Bordeaux 
Metz 3-1 Marseille

The results were up in the opening post on Sunday evening, and the latest table was figured out straight afterwards. In another low-scoring round, the only movement saw Vegeta move ahead of worst performer Stinky Dad. Joint top scorer Shy Dad moves to within 5 points of TildeGuy at the summit, whilst at the other end ultimo has reduced the gap to just 3.

Only one bonus awarded this week as the randomly selected 'wildcard' fixture was match #3, Posh v QPR, which nobody got exactly right – but Rory at least went for the correct result.

Elsewhere: victories for Everton, Huddersfield, Luton, Spurs, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern generally proved fruitful, with the all-Yorkshire tie especially good for three-pointers. Home reverses for Wolves and Dortmund produced two duds... though I at least went for a draw in the latter game. The equally unexpected and crazy scoreline at The City Ground also caught most people out.

Right, that'll do for this week. A new set of 10 will go live in the first post shortly.

FA Cup Fourth Round 
Everton 2-1 Brentford 
Huddersfield Town 3-0 Barnsley
Peterborough United 1-2 QPR
Wolves 2-0 Norwich City
Cambridge United 1-0 Luton Town 
Spurs 3-1 Brighton & Hove Albion 
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Leicester City 

German Bundesliga
Stuttgart 2-2 Eintracht Frankfurt 
Bayern Munich 1-1 RB Leipzig 
Borussia Dortmund 0-0 Bayer Leverkusen

The final scores went into the original post on Monday morning, because that's when the "Sunday" qualifiers from across the pond actually finished. Then the new table was recalculated. In a low-scoring round, it was a disaster for MVP RULZ as he crashed out of the FPL Cup (meaning it's almost certain nobody will do The Double this season) and slipped to third place, which looked unthinkable not so long ago. 

And yet it was TildeGuy who had the worst performance this time out, still the leader but now just 8 points ahead of new nearest challenger Shy Dad. There was no other movement but ultimo does at least close the gap at the foot of the standings to 6 points while keeping himself just about alive in the FPL Cup. He drew with Briefcase and the two tiebreakers kind of cancel each other out. Last campaign we had no draws at all so this never came up. Luckily we have 3 and a half months of the season left and only 5 more D2Ds to fit in around the Easter double-header, so there's breathing room in the schedule for them to have a replay during the next international break where the winner can meet Rory in the final in its usual May slot.

We lost a game because the Deportivo match was called off due to, according to sources in Spain, a Covid outbreak "among the Cantabrian outfit's squad" (that's Santander, if you're not up to speed with your Spanish regional capitals). That's their only chance to be featured this term gone by the wayside now, but with any luck they'll be back in the top two divisions soon, or at least go on a Cup run within the next couple of years. 

So which 'wildcard' fixture ended up as a dud which meant no bonus points awarded this week? Not Costa Rica holding Mexico (thanks to Stinky) or Tunisia falling to the Burkinabe (which Shy Dad got right) but rather match #8, the Cup tie in the south of France that went to penalties. Understandably people are reluctant to bet on a draw in those circumstances, especially as Marseille were heavy home favourites anyway. 

From the other outcomes, only progress for Cameroon proved fruitful in terms of exact scores. Away wins for Reading Ladies, Everton Women and Monaco were generally good for one-pointers, but home successes for Canada and Panama turned out a little tougher to foresee. A full card of domestic club clashes will be up in the initial post very soon. 

Men's World Cup Qatar 2022 – CONCACAF octagonal qualifying group

Canada 3-1 United States
Mexico 1-0 Costa Rica 
Panama 1-1 Jamaica 

2022 AFCON quarters
Cameroon 3-0 The Gambia 
Burkina Faso 0-2 Tunisia 

Women's FA Cup Fourth Round
Brighton & Hove Albion 2-1 Reading 
Huddersfield Town 1-3 Everton 

French Cup Round of 16
Olympique de Marseille 0-1 Montpellier
Lens 1-2 Monaco 

It's still the Segunda B to me, dammit!
Deportivo da Coruña 2-0 Racing Santander

Yeah, I wouldn't have minded seeing some Spice bobs on the telly back in my school days either. 

Midlands Central? Sounds more like an ITV network franchise than a constituency, to be honest.

The results went into the first post on Sunday night, and the table was updated soon afterwards. I've left in details of how the FPL Cup groups ended up back in mid-November because we've got the knockout stages coming up now. For only the second time since then, a full programme of EPL matches was completed successfully – despite intervention from drones and power outages. But we didn't include any of those. That division will return before long if it keeps on behaving itself like that. 

MVP RULZ got his D2D bet wrong as Milan and Juve played out a stalemate at San Siro/the Giuseppe Meazza. Seven from eight other participants correctly disagreed with him to claim their bonus points and leave him a full 11 points behind TildeGuy at the summit. He wasn't, however, the worst performer as that fell to Rory who landed on a normally respectable six points. Vegeta drops a place as the only person to plump for a home win in that match.

Meanwhile, the 'wildcard' fixture turned out to be #9 out of the remaining games, which meant it was the other big continental clash. Three players managed to guess the exact scoreline at the Philips Stadion right to claim a further two bonus points each. In a crazy round, ultimo wasn't among them and is now seven adrift at the bottom in spite of making it into double figures this time out.

The real reason it was such a high-scoring round, though, was the Scottish Cup. Perhaps if we feature that competition as much as possible from now on, it'll make up for all the postponements over the past couple of months? Anyway, the scores at Somerset Park, Spain Park, Rugby Park, The Rock (of Dumbarton, not Gibraltar. Or Dwayne Johnson, for that matter) and Almondvale The Tony Macaroni generally proved fruitful. A seven-goal thriller at Clydebank and an unexpectedly close tie in Clackmannanshire were still good for one-pointers, but the big upset of the weekend caught out everyone except me as the holders exited to a League Two side in some wee village in Fife.

This week's average is unheard of since the days when international rounds were dead straightforward. Speaking of which... there's a partial international break on at the moment, so the next set of 10 will be a 'hybrid' round showcasing five internationals and five club matches. That'll go live at the top of the thread shortly. 

9 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

Christine Oddy was a Coventry MEP, friend of Dave Nellist and always at the heart of community projects. She was always Labours 1st name on the European elections. Then Blair came to power and bumped her down to 7th and put Cashman at 1st. Caused quite the outrage at the time because all her great community work wasn’t considered and she was a left winger sidelined for a centrist celebrity. She stood as an independent but narrowly lost. We lost a good one there. 
 

EDIT - Actually I think she was a West Midlands MEP, not Coventry. 

If I can don my nerd hat for a sec*, before 1999 British MEPs represented single-member seats so there probably was one specifically for the Coventry/Nuneaton/Warwick area, and no lists. From 1999 to 2020 (sniff) it was regional multi-member constituencies, so there were a handful representing the whole of the West Midlands.

*[jk, I wear it all the time]

Almost forgot about this.

5, 15, 16, 20, 24

His first name is pronounced 'teeny' – not that it makes things any less embarrassing for him.

On 1/21/2022 at 8:15 AM, air_raid said:

A guy claiming to be 35 put that he didn’t get the appeal of “old” wrestling, that it just wasn’t as “exciting,” and musing why he should watch Dusty Rhodes do an elbow when he could watch Mick Foley “fall off” the Cell. Sent my train of thought to a bleak place where I wondered if even forums like this might end up populated by a generation that barely hold anything that predates Stone Cold or The Rock in regard, that never go back and watch any Ricky Steamboat, don’t know who made up Strike Force, never experience the fun of watching Virgil get squashed by various monsters, and there’s literally nobody left around that will care about the kind of thing I’m going to post today.

I'm 37 and I don't get this mindset at all. Within the first 5 years of getting into wrestling, I'd sampled WWF stuff from before I was born, devoured all the weekly shows surrounding WrestleMania III, caught up with turn-of-the-decade WCW TV, bought Tagged Classics of 80s and 90s PPVs from SilverVision and watched some old British action on The Wrestling Channel. If someone is only a fan of things like that moment at KotR '98 then they have to ask themselves if they really like wrestling in the first place. 

Uhm, er... looks like tonight's match went to extra time in the Scottish Cup, with penalties a possibility, so scratch what I put in the opening post about replays. I did check the Scottish FA site and BBC Sport's Scottish Cup page beforehand for any announcement about that, honest! Looks like the SFA just copies whatever England does without even publicising it first, which I'm sure is an arrangement Scots are perfectly happy with. 

Those who've already picked under a slightly inaccurate pretence can always edit their posts before Saturday afternoon if they wish.

Scottish Cup Round 4

Ayr United 1-2 St Mirren
Banks O'Dee 0-2 Raith Rovers
Clydebank 2-1 Annan Athletic
Dumbarton 1-3 Dundee
Kelty Hearts 1-0 St Johnstone
Kilmarnock 3-1 Dundee United
Livingston 2-0 Ross County
Alloa Athletic 0-3 Celtic 

Serie A
AC Milan w/MVP RULZ 1-1 Juventus 

Eredivisie
PSV Eindhoven 0-1 Ajax Amsterdam

The final scores were put into the initial post on Sunday night, and the table was recalculated straight after that. Eight matches survived, with two EPL games off in the end and a Spanish Cup tie (the Seville derby, unsurprisingly) suspended due to crowd trouble on Saturday evening and then completed behind closed doors the following afternoon. Even taking all that into account, scoring was on the low side this time out. 

Lo and behold, said clash at the Benito Villamarín only went and got selected at random as the 'wildcard' game of the week. Which means only I scored an extra bonus point for it since everybody else thought it'd be an away win, apart from ultimo who thought it'd go all the way to penalties. As for regular bonus points, well Stinky got his D2D bet emphatically wrong and all other participants except Briefcase and ultimo (again) correctly disagreed with him. A disappointing crowd at Haig Avenue saw storied Southport capitulate to higher-division upstarts Solihull. 

Despite the pitiful hauls this round, there was still some significant movement in the standings. The three aforementioned poor performers all slip a place, which means Vegeta and Rory both move up by one spot each. At the top, TildeGuy is now a further point clear at the expense of MVP RULZ. 

From the remaining six matches, just the victories for Wolves and Valencia proved fruitful. Score draws at Villa Park and St James's produced more of a mixed bag of outcomes, whilst the reverse for The Toffees at Carrow Road that put paid to Agent Rafa's time in charge in the Goodison dugout caught almost everybody out – but it wasn't quite a dud. The all-La Liga clash in Palma as Espanyol were dumped out of the Copa was a halfway foreseeable result.

A new card, featuring another D2D that will hopefully be completed successfully, should be up in the original post very soon.

Premier League

Burnley 1-2 Leicester City
Newcastle United 2-1 Watford
Norwich City 0-0 Everton
Wolves 1-1 Southampton
Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United 
Spurs 2-2 Arsenal 

FA Trophy Fourth Round
Southport w/Stinky Dad 0-3 Solihull Moors 

Spanish Cup Round of 16
Real Mallorca 0-1 Espanyol
Real Betis 1-0 Sevilla 
Atlético Baleares 0-2 Valencia

The results went into the opening post on Sunday night, and the table has since been worked out as well. TildeGuy was bang average for a bumper round but still extends his lead by 2 points anyway. The gap at the other end has narrowed back to just a pair of points as well, whilst in the middle worst performer Rory moves down 2 places and joint top scorer Vegeta leaps up by a single spot. Briefcase and myself were also into double figures.

I was going to suspend the 'wildcard' rule for larger rounds but sod it, there have been too many occasions where no bonus points have been awarded, so we're keeping it. The randomly selected fixture out of 15 was #3, Leicester-Watford, which nobody quite got spot on but everybody at least guessed the result correctly apart from ultimo to claim a bonus each.

There were no matches off this time. Feel free to indulge me – or not – while I editorialise on that:

Progress for favoured sides Leicester City, Brentford, Brighton, Everton, Saints, AFC Bournemouth, West Ham and Norwich City all proved fruitful. Wimbledon, Reading, Blackburn and Arsenal all crashing out to underdogs, on the other hand, turned out to be tougher to foresee. An away win for Strasbourg in the Alsace-Lorraine derby plus two further draws in France caught most people out. 

Special mention to Shy Dad for guessing two of those upsets beforehand. To be fair, he's probably the only person among us to have actually seen Kiddie play live in person this season! 

A regular set of 10, including an attempt at a D2D following an extensive festive rest for that gimmick, will go live in the first post shortly...