Fulhamish Fantasy Football 2013/14

The Zdeněk Grygera Bowl

After a heavy scoring week for most of us, I am happy to confirm the rules and initial draw for our final knock-out competition: The Zdeněk Grygera Bowl. There seems to be some correlation between me posting the cup rules and having meetings with HMRC. Not too happy about that!

History

The original idea behind this competition was to celebrate the long awaited reunion of the Captain and his scrabble set. Two random letters are set each week, which lead to extra points for those players whose name starts with those letters.

The Shield was sponsored by Alphabetti Spaghetti in previous seasons. It was last won by Super Brian McBride (SBM Legion), who also won the Steve Sidwell Shield earlier this season.

Schedule

Rounds will take place over the remaining game weeks (weeks 32, 34, 35, 37 & 38).

Given that there are 23 league members eligible for this competition there will be 9 byes, with the remaining 14 teams playing in the first round. Those teams that received byes in the Steve Sidwell Shield will not be eligible for a bye in this competition.

Competition rules

This competition is a straight knockout cup. The first 14 teams play the first round, with the seven winners joining the byes in the second round.

For each round, two letters are drawn from the Scrabble Bag of fate. Any players whose names (surname or first forename) begin with one of those letters will score double in the cup. Players with 3 names (we're looking at you, John Arne Riise) ignore their middle names. Names will be taken from the listings on the Fantasy league website to avoid controversy and dispute. Players with a "van" surnames also have specific rules: Robin van Persie, for example, will count as R and V, but not P, as the 'van' is part of his surname not just a second forename (unlike the 'Arne' in JAR's names, who will score on J and R respectively).

Players with the same initial twice (we're looking at you, Damien Duff) will score triple points if their letter comes up, to make up for having less opportunity to feature than duel-lettered players. In the unlikely event of a player having both letters, their score triples rather than quadrupling. If you choose to name a player who is doubling or tripling in the cup as captain, then their captain's doubling still applies to their amended cup score.

In the event of drawn games, the tie breaker will be decided by (in order): the team who scored the most goals in the game week, the team who scored the most assists, the team who scored the most clean sheets (defenders and goalkeepers only, not midfielders), the team who conceded the fewest goals (defenders and goalkeepers only). If still tied, a coin toss will decide.

Draw

So here's the draw, which sadly has not been checked by the Captain's eldest son as in prior years.

Byes:
Brad'sBelters, Nic's team, By The River, Life of Pies, Enter the Frei, Fred's boys, Moves Like Dejagah, Legen-waitforit-dary, Billion$Babies

First Round Draw:
Tony King v Louise's Legends
SBM Legion v West London Whites
Potters Bar v Rodallega Bomb
Stella Turtles v Tootif
Riverside Rovers v FFC_Madness
It's A Taarabt! v FantasyFootieClub
Ciall Nonnolly's XI v Riley Stoke United

This weeks letters are C & R

So good luck everyone and COYW!

 

Sounds like you had a good wind-down from dealing with HMRC!

And thanks for the bye (Fortunately no Captain's son nor other replacement due diligence)!

 

Not a single player in my depleted squad has a first or last name beginning with C or R. I'm scouring the transfer list and trying to snap up the modern day equivalent of Cristiano Ronaldo (for under £5m). Any CR transfer tips for tomorrow would be greatly appreciated!

 

Cauley Woodrow, perhaps?

 

Not sure about CR but there are a few very cheap CCs. Carlton Cole, Ciaran Clark, Calum Chambers, Carlos Cuellar.

 

What a great idea . Have to say though it throws up all sorts of complications, is it better to have a treble pointer that may not play ? Strangely, there are not very many players whose name begins with an r, and can I pick a player playing against us as captain ? So many decisions !!!!

Once again that is for all the hard work put in organising these.

 

I can't really take credit for the rules - it was mostly the Captain. I'm just an administrator processing data.

And yes, I now see the emergence of the 'Coleman question'!

 

Great work, Surlyc, and thanks for the bye - it looks like there's one cup competition where I won't be going out in the first round!

Any chance of an early heads up about the letters for the second round, so those who are in it can plan transfers a couple of weeks in advance? Perhaps giving the letters when you publish the previous rounds' results? Just a thought.

 

Yes, I realised when writing the rules up that I should be giving people more notice with the letters. As such I will be posting letters on Mondays, regardless of when results are posted. I have a tendency to delay until I have every result, but there is no link between letters (which take 10 seconds to arrange) and the previous weeks results (which take a little time) so no harm in splitting the post.

 

Results will be confirmed tomorrow and although there is a gameweek between now and the next round, the letters for the next round will be M & A.

 

Is the club up-for-sale?

 

The Zdeněk Grygera Bowl - round one

Before we start, I have a public service announcement to make:

RULES CLARIFICATION

For the avoidance of doubt, for players with Spanish names (I'm looking at you, Adrian San Miguel Del Costa) only the first surname will count. So for instance, Adrian will count as A & S, as San Miguel is his first surname. He will not earn any points on M, D or C.

Anyways, on to the results:

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Special mention for Rooney who captained Ciall Nonnolly's XI to a ton and to young Calum Chambers who scored a triple. The star of the round was undoubtedly Jay Rodriguez, who won the game for Tootif and affected several games.

Well done to those teams who went through and commiserations to those whose season may now be over.

The draw for round two:

Billion$Babies v Legen-waitforit-dary
FFC_Madness v Nic's team
Enter the Frei v It's A Taarabt!
West London Whites v Tony King
Fred's boys v Moves Like Dejagah
By The River v Brad'sBelters
Ciall Nonnolly's XI v Life of Pies
Rodallega Bomb v Tootif

This will take place in gameweek 34, which is next week (rather than this week). The letters were announced on Monday as M & A.

 

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Congratulations Rodallega Bomb. Not so bad to go out to a goodun.

Sparky Bellend


PS Highest score of the season Bidders?

 

Yes, by quite a way. I admit to not having looked at my team for months until the other week, looks like the transfers payed off!

 

The Zdeněk Grygera Bowl - round two

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Mariappa, Skrtel and Azpilicueta were the stars this week. Special mention to Ciall Nonnolly's XI (fulhamireland), for whom 8 players scored extra points. Can't help but think that team was a little loaded for this game! Many teams (mine included) fell for the attraction of two Yaya Toure games, only to be scuppered by his injury.

Well done to those teams who went through and commiserations to those whose season may now be over.

The draw for round three:

Moves Like Dejagah v Life of Pies
Brad'sBelters v Enter the Frei
Tootif v Billion$Babies
FFC_Madness v Tony King (reinstated after administrative error)

This was intended to take place this week, however I am aware I did not declare the letters promptly. As such, round three (the quarter finals) will take place in gameweek 36, which is next week. Apologies for any confusion (midweek games confused me a little!). The letters for this week are B & D.

EDIT: It turns out that I made an error when porting the fixtures across when preparing the results and therefore compounded the error by putting the wrong teams through to the next round. Many apologies to fulhamireland who was therefore knocked out in the worst way.

 

Good idea to postpone for a week Surlyc. However, I'm not sure about the results above - the original draw had me down to be playing Ciall Nonnelly's XI rather than Tony King. I'm not sure who Tony King is, but as he would have gone through against his original opponent (West London Whites), I'm not sure it's entirely fair on him. Over to you to sort this one out!

 

Hmm... not sure what happened there. I'll sort this tomorrow, as I seem to have mad a mistake.

 

Tony King can take my place in the next round. That's how it would have played based on the original draw. It's only fair.

 

Graciously done, FulhamIreland. I'm sorry my nitpicking puts you out.

 

Will post results and updates tomorrow, but for now the letters for this week are G & S.