WSFFL History - PCMT Final 2000/01

Continuing the countdown to this season's final (only a month away) here's an old final from the archives. The WSFFL History books only stretch back this far due to an unfortunate computer crash.

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v Viola's Pier 0
Silvestre 90

This was the first Fantasy Cup Final played at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. Fred West Landscape Gardening XI, finally won some silverware, in their 3rd Final. Having previously lost to Claymore Athletic FC and Trusted by Millions in the 1997 and 98 Fantasy FA Cup Finals, on both occasions by 2-1.

In a very closely fought game, dominated by defences, it was a very late goal by Fred West's French International, Mikael Silvestre, that settled this tense affair. With Beckham and Co. winning the midfield battle for supremacy. Viola's defence stood firm, right to the 90th minute, when the game was "sorted" by the six million pound man.

(Match report by Sheriff)

The attendance was 78,592 and the game played on the weekend of 13 January 2001, so the 'Boxing Day' tradition was yet to be set.

Fred's line up that day was;

GK - Given Sub - De Goey
DEF - Brown, Lundekvam, Desailly, Silvestre Sub - Ferrer
MID - Beckham, Vieira, Wise, Ljungberg Sub - Karembeu
ATT - Piercy, Armstrong Sub - Carbone

And Viola's Pier went into the game thus;

GK - Hedman Sub - Van Der Gouw
DEF - Winterburn, Irwin, Rowett, Bridge Sub - Staunton
MID - Johnson, Powell, Magilton, Windass Sub - McAllister
ATT - Gudjohnsen, Quinn Sub - Ferdinand

Viola's Pier were managed by Steve Paul and the franchise is now known as Dynamo Kev.
Mikael Silvestre's winner wasn't a goal but the decisive clean sheet. (For newer players this is how Sheriff, our previous co-ordinator, displayed a scoring clean sheet.)

Some interesting names involved. Some are still playing in WSFFL - Given, Bridge and Silvestre, some are now in the media - Winterburn, Desailly and Ferdinand - and some are involved in other roles. Gary McAllister is Leeds manager, Dennis Wise does something at Newcastle and Niall Quinn is chairman at Sunderland.

And of the lesser lights does anyone remember John Piercy who started up front for Fred?

Week 11 Results

Aardvark Abacus 0 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Final Fantasy XI 1 v 0 San Dimas High School
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 0 v 0 Real Muppets
Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 4 22 Legged Groove Machine
The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 0 Dynamo Kev
The Dead Parrots 1 v 2 Trusted By Millions
York’s Returning Glory 1 v 3 The Fabulous Artisans
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 2 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

Groovers and Trusted only teams in the top half to win.

WSFFL History - This time last year

As we're a third of the way through the season I thought I'd compare and contrast with last year's table at this stage of the season.

Eleven Imaginary Boys (now the CFJs) were top with 27 points.
Aardvark were next on 22 but surged to the title with only two more defeats
Mega Bucks had third spot with 19 but eventually slipped down the table
Boston Rock, Fred and Claymore all had six wins and four defeats
The Muppets were two points further back and Melwood (now Dynamo Kev) were on the same mark.
The Marmosets (now the Fabulous Artisans) were ninth on 14 points
Trusted and San Dimas had four wins and six defeats in the bank
The Groovers and Nil Satis were on ten points
Final Fantasy were 14th on 8 points, York's had seven
And the Parrots propped up the table with six points.

So...

The CFJs are 14 points and six places worse off than last season
Dangerously, Aardvark have five more points and have hit the top already
Mega Bucks are tenth this time after a recent wobble
Boston Rock are fourth again but have two points more
Fred is three places and five points behind last season's tally
Claymore are down in 13th this time and have won five fewer games
The Muppets have made an excellent start and have seven points more
Melwood are seven places back and half their 2007/8 points total
The Artisans are in the same place but three points worse off
Trusted have six points more and are five places up on last season
San Dimas are also up five places but only have two points more
The Groovers are the big climbers, up nine spots and 12 points
Nil Satis have slipped a place and are two points behind last year
Final Fantasy are two places and three points adrift of last year's score
York's have thee points more and are up four places
The Parrots have improved four places by gaining three more points.

Who's the Man?

As well as a surprise England call-up Michael Mancienne has another reason to celebrate this week.

The Isleworth-born 20-year old has put pen to paper on a lucrative contract with league-leading Aardvark Abacus.

Ady swooped for the Chelsea defender (who's currently on loan at Wolves) after hearing of his call-up and will be paying the youngster a princely FF£750 a week.

Week 10 Results

22 Legged Groove Machine 1 v 1 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Claymore Athletic FC 3 v 2 The Dead Parrots
Dynamo Kev 2 v 3 Aardvark Abacus
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 1 York’s Returning Glory
Real Muppets 7 v 1 Final Fantasy XI
San Dimas High School 1 v 0 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
The Fabulous Artisans 3 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits
Trusted By Millions 2 v 7 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Aardvark keep getting it done.
Groovers still unbeaten.
Claymore get the elusive win.

Oh! Jay Simpson

(It's not my headline. I read it somewhere and found it worth repeating!)

Ben's back from holiday and after a scouting mission to the Emirates Stadium has added Arsenal's Jay Simpson to the Artisans squad.

Simpson joins fellow Gunners youngster Kieran Gibbs in moving to the Artisans as Ben seeks to build a title-winning squad for the 2011/12 WSFFL Season.

2008's Multi-million pound men

It's not impossible that there will be an inter-team transfer at over £10m before the year draws to a close but it is highly unlikely. So, on a quiet night, I thought I'd list 2008's £10m+ signings.

My comments on their performance so far are in brackets.

£18m Jose Bosingwa - Claymore (A shining light for Clive during his poor start)
£17m Shaun Wright-Phillips - Boston Rock (Bound to make an impact soon)
£17m Giovani Dos Santos - Fred West (Yet to make an impression)
£16m Andrea Dossena - Fred West (One of Fred's better performers thus far)
£16m Roman Pavlyuchenko - Groovers (A slow start but signs of warming up)
£16m Robinho - Trusted (Six goals already, looking worth the money)
£13m Jo - Trusted (Beef's other Brazilian has been less convincing)
£13m Afonso Alves - Claymore (Jury still out, can be good or very poor)
£12.5m Carlos Cuellar - Aardvark (Not had much of an opportunity)
£12.5m Martin Skrtel - Artisans (Injured at present but looks a good signing)
£12m Vincent Kompany - Muppets (Not bad, but perhaps a bit pricey)
£11.5m Johan Elmander - Artisans (Has Ben paid over the odds?)
£11m Alan Hutton - Mega Bucks (Injury problems hopefully behind him)

What credit crunch?!

If you have any comments about the ten million-pound men, please drop me a mail.

WSFFL Rulebook - Abandoned games

Watching Blackburn v Chelsea on the weekend I thought it was as close at it's come to a Premier League abandonment for quite some time.

With that in mind I thought I'd stick up a reminder of the abandonment rule if anyone is interested...

In short, when a game is abandoned it is treated the same way as a postponement.

This means, in effect, the game never happened, and any goals scored/clean sheets accumulated do NOT count. It also means, however, that if any manager has players from the abandoned match in their starting line-up or amongst their subs this weekend, they CAN be replaced at any time throughout the weekend, providing that their replacement's team has not kicked off yet.

Week 9 Results

Aardvark Abacus 4 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Claymore Athletic FC 0 v 5 Trusted By Millions
Final Fantasy XI 1 v 2 22 Legged Groove Machine
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans
Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
The Dead Parrots 1 v 3 San Dimas High School
York’s Returning Glory 3 v 2 Dynamo Kev
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 3 v 1 Real Muppets

Aardvark back to winning ways.
Boston Rock end the Muppets unbeaten start.
More woe for Claymore.

WSFFL History - PCMT Finals

It is my intention*, as we build up to this season's Paul Cartmell Memorial Trophy Final, to focus on some of the history of the competition.

I'll start with a list of the previous finals:

2007/08 You Know Your Boston Rock FC 3 Claymore Athletic FC 1
2006/07 Trusted By Millions 2 Aardvark Abacus 0
2005/06 Aardvark Abacus 3 Trusted By Millions 2
2004/05 You Know Your Boston Rock FC 3 San Dimas High School 0
2003/04 You Know Your Boston Rock FC 5 Final Fantasy XI 2
2002/03 Kylie Bumcheeks 3 Aardvark Abacus 1
2001/02 Kylie Bumcheeks 4 San Dimas High School 0 (after 2-2 draw)
2000/01 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 Viola's Pier 0
1999/00 Real Muppets 3 Woodchester Rovers 1
1998/99 22 Legged Groove Machine 2 Sporting Chance 1 (after 1-1 and 2-2 draws)
1997/98 Claymore Athletic FC 1 Donkey Derby County 0
1996/97 Aardvark Abacus 4 22 Legged Groove Machine 1
1995/96 22 Legged Groove Machine 4 Supersonic Rovers 1

This season's finalists, Aardvark and Boston Rock, have won the trophy five times between them but this will be the first time they have met in the final.

*but of course the road to hell is paved with good intentions!

Week 8 Results - A defeat for Aardvark Abacus

22 Legged Groove Machine 2 v 2 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
Dynamo Kev 1 v 3 Mega Buck Bandits
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 1 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Real Muppets 3 v 0 The Dead Parrots
San Dimas High School 1 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC (score corrected from 1-2)
The Cow-Faced Juniors 5 v 3 York’s Returning Glory
The Fabulous Artisans 0 v 1 Final Fantasy XI
Trusted By Millions 3 v 2 Aardvark Abacus

First win for Final Fantasy.
Muppets cut the gap to a single point.

PCMT Semi-Final Results and Reaction

Aardvark Abacus 5 v 1 The Cow-Faced Juniors

The Dead Parrots 1 v 4 You Know Your Boston Rock FC

Chris Howell, Cow-Faced Juniors manager said: "Well, that's why we have the word 'junior' in our team name, it was totally men against boys tonight & we had no answer. Everything had to go right for us to have a chance & to play without a goalkeeper in hindsight was most probably a mistake. I thought our cow faces would scare off the Aardvaaks but obviously not! Good luck to both finalists on Boxing Day"."

Parrots manager Dean Watts was left "applauding Bentley & Jenas's goals" for Boston Rock and considers that the "'monkey on the back' when playing the Parrots has finally been put to rest".

That left Boston Rock manager with the last word on the semis: "I now hope to go on and retain "my" trophy by wiping the floor with the Aardvark in the Boxing Day showpiece. You know what they say about Aardvarks - crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside..."