Week 18 Results

Another good week for Claymore. 

Aardvark Abacus 3 v 2 The Wateringhole Society

Athletico Phoenix 1 v 2 Mega Buck Bandits

Final Fantasy XI 0 v 1 Cheese Makers

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 5 v 1 FCK2

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 2 v 2 San Dimas High School

Real Muppets 0 v 5 Claymore Athletic FC

The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 6 The Fabulous Artisans

YTFIB 0 v 2 Trusted By Millions

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	18	13	4	1	70	26	44	43
2	Athletico Phoenix	18	11	5	2	48	29	19	38
3	San Dimas High School	18	9	6	3	46	25	21	33
4	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	18	10	3	5	45	34	11	33
5	Aardvark Abacus	18	10	1	7	42	37	5	31
6	FCK2	18	9	1	8	35	30	5	28
7	The Fabulous Artisans	18	8	3	7	45	26	19	27
8	The Cow-Faced Juniors	18	7	5	6	39	41	-2	26
9	Cheese Makers	18	7	5	6	26	33	-7	26
10	The Wateringhole Society	18	7	4	7	28	33	-5	25
11	Trusted By Millions	18	7	2	9	23	33	-10	23
12	Mega Buck Bandits	18	6	3	9	20	34	-14	21
13	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	18	4	5	9	24	32	-8	17
14	Real Muppets	18	5	0	13	28	49	-21	15
15	Final Fantasy XI	18	3	3	12	25	52	-27	12
16	YTFIB	18	3	0	15	11	41	-30	9

Claymore still in 'beast' mode and the Muppets were on the wrong end this week. Sergio Aguero scored early and late and Wes Hoolahan and Craig Cathcart added goals in between, Ryan's team unable to muster a response. Claymore's lead is stretched to five points after a surprise defeat to Mega Bucks. Despite Per Mertersacker seeing red early on Brian was ahead through Diego Costa. A Jan Vertonghen own goal levelled the game and then my old friend 'narrative' arrived on the scene. Dave had very kindly loaned out Charlie Austin to something called QPR for much of this season but has  recalled the striker to his squad and it was his header, three minutes from time, that took all the points.

San Dimas continue to lose ground after being held by Nil Satis this week. My team were two up through Dieumerci Mbokani's clever backheel and a cool finish from James Milner but couldn't finish off the Salehs and cleans from Seamus Coleman and Danny Simpson shared the points. Fred has also left himself a lot to do, much like this weekend. His team trailed 1-0 to FCK2, Harry Kane on target again, with six minutes left but then it all went a bit crazy. Dele Alli got a Gazzaesque equaliser, Leo Ulloa poked in and the Nacer Chadli and Adam Lallana both added goals five minutes into injury time.

The Aardvarks needed a clean from Ryan Bertrand to down the Wateringhole Society, minutes after Kiran's team looked to have grabbed a point through Sebastian Bassong's long-ranger. The Artisans continue to do their best Claymore impression and stuck six past the CFJs this week. Two apiece from Roberto Firmino and Enner Valencia must have Ben wondering where his team have been up to now.

Cheese Makers are still in the mid-table mix, Robert Huth's clean giving Matthew the points against Final Fantasy. Trusted are making a late bid for the top half and Beef's side picked up another win, 2-0 against YTFIB, with an unmarked Jordan Henderson setting him on his way.

Week 17 Results

The top two pulling away from the rest. 

Cheese Makers 1 v 3 The Wateringhole Society

Claymore Athletic FC 6 v 1 Final Fantasy XI

FCK2 4 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 2 Aardvark Abacus

San Dimas High School 3 v 0 The Cow-Faced Juniors

The Fabulous Artisans 5 v 0 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Trusted By Millions 2 v 4 Athletico Phoenix

YTFIB 1 v 2 Real Muppets

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	17	12	4	1	65	26	39	40
2	Athletico Phoenix	17	11	5	1	47	27	20	38
3	San Dimas High School	17	9	5	3	44	23	21	32
4	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	17	9	3	5	40	33	7	30
5	FCK2	17	9	1	7	34	25	9	28
6	Aardvark Abacus	17	9	1	7	39	35	4	28
7	The Cow-Faced Juniors	17	7	5	5	38	35	3	26
8	The Wateringhole Society	17	7	4	6	26	30	-4	25
9	The Fabulous Artisans	17	7	3	7	39	25	14	24
10	Cheese Makers	17	6	5	6	25	33	-8	23
11	Trusted By Millions	17	6	2	9	21	33	-12	20
12	Mega Buck Bandits	17	5	3	9	18	33	-15	18
13	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	17	4	4	9	22	30	-8	16
14	Real Muppets	17	5	0	12	28	44	-16	15
15	Final Fantasy XI	17	3	3	11	25	51	-26	12
16	YTFIB	17	3	0	14	11	39	-28	9

Juggernaut. Steamroller. Runaway train. Have I used all those images to describe Clive's team this season? I'm running out! Just the 6-1 win for Clive this week. Ceri had the temerity to take the lead through a super Ayoze Perez finish but that just seemed to wind The Swordsmen up and they then went through the gears to run away with the points. Sergio Aguero's second goal, a surgical move slicing through the Fantasy defence, was the highlight. Athletico Phoenix are still on Clive's tail though after a battling win at Trusted. Brian had led twice, through Ashley Williams, and Diego Costa but Funes Mori looked to have grabbed Beef a point in injury time. Two cleans from Brian had other ideas though.

San Dimas picked up their first win since the PCMT Final when seeing off the CFJs 3-0. After a quiet first half a Charlie Daniels penalty opened the scoring and David Silva scored his first of the season to lead me back into third place. That's because Fred drop to fourth after a crushing defeat to the Artisans. Patrick van Aanholt has turned into some sort of surprise goal machine of late and he opened the scoring five minutes before the break. Christian Eriksen added a second two minutes later and one in the second half while a couple of cleans completed the rout.

FCK2 had only won one out of six and left it late to beat Nil Satis. John Terry's clumsy own goal put Paul and Dan in front but Harry Kane equalised from the spot and Terry (offside) scored at the right end eight minutes into injury time. There was still time for a couple of cleans to make it look a bit more one-sided. Ady looks like being the top Bevan this season after beating the Bandits. It was a bit of a dreary affair with Ady relying on Ryan Bertrand and Daley Blind cleans for the points.

Kiran is now top Warr after a 3-1 win at the Stade de Fromage. This was another game drifting towards a draw before Erik Pieters and Chancel Mbemba got the deciding Wateringhole cleans. The Muppets got their fifth win of the season after edging YTFIB 2-1. A Fabian Delph long-ranger gave Julian the lead bit Moussa Dembele levelled for Ryan on the hour and Laurent Koscielny was the man with the winning clean.

Week 16 Results

A bit of daylight for Claymore.

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 6 The Fabulous Artisans

Athletico Phoenix 1 v 1 San Dimas High School

Final Fantasy XI 0 v 3 Mega Buck Bandits

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 4 v 4 Cheese Makers

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 2 v 1 YTFIB

Real Muppets 1 v 4 Trusted By Millions

The Cow-Faced Juniors 2 v 4 Claymore Athletic FC

The Wateringhole Society 3 v 0 FCK2

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	16	11	4	1	59	25	34	37
2	Athletico Phoenix	16	10	5	1	43	25	18	35
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	16	9	3	4	40	28	12	30
4	San Dimas High School	16	8	5	3	41	23	18	29
5	The Cow-Faced Juniors	16	7	5	4	38	32	6	26
6	FCK2	16	8	1	7	30	24	6	25
7	Aardvark Abacus	16	8	1	7	37	35	2	25
8	Cheese Makers	16	6	5	5	24	30	-6	23
9	The Wateringhole Society	16	6	4	6	23	29	-6	22
10	The Fabulous Artisans	16	6	3	7	34	25	9	21
11	Trusted By Millions	16	6	2	8	19	29	-10	20
12	Mega Buck Bandits	16	5	3	8	18	31	-13	18
13	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	16	4	4	8	21	26	-5	16
14	Real Muppets	16	4	0	12	26	43	-17	12
15	Final Fantasy XI	16	3	3	10	24	45	-21	12
16	YTFIB	16	3	0	13	10	37	-27	9

Wayne Rooney has had a poor season but celebrated his recall to Clive's starting line-up (in place of Olivier Giroud) with two goals (doubling his season's tally) that helped his team to victory over the CFJs. Gio Wijnaldum and Dimitri Payet were also on the scoresheet - Clive's team can hurt you in all sorts of ways. It was a doubly good week for Claymore as the chasing pack all slipped up. Athletico and San Dimas played out a drab draw, Jon Walters' goal for me cancelled by Carl Jenkinson's clean while Fred was held to a 4-4 draw by Cheese Makers. Jermain Defoe has hit a sudden vein of form and scored a hat-trick for Fred to put him 4-2 up with five minutes left but he couldn't hold on against Matthew's brace of cleans.

FCK2 and the Aardvarks were other top-half sides going down to comfortable defeats. The Aardvarks were hammered by the Artisans - Roberto Firmino got two for Ben as did Enner Valencia who belatedly opened his season's account. FCK2 had no answer to the Wateringhole Society - Andre Ayew back on the scoresheet for Kiran in that one. The Muppets are still languishing near the foot of the table. Ryan's team looked set for a point against Trusted through a Mitrovic penalty but three cleans for Beef took the points.

Mega Bucks will take the Okus bragging rights into next season following victory against Final Fantasy. Harry Arter got his first for Dave but th turning point was probably Ceri's trusty defender Gareth McAuley scoring an own goal on 73 minutes. A danny Simpson clean was the winner for Nil Satis against YTFIB which puts a bit of distance between those teams down at the bottom of the table.

WSFFL FA Cup - 1st round results

Fred's defence of the trophy safely carried into the quarters, while Nil Satis spring the biggest shock.

Aardvark Abacus 4 v 1 Final Fantasy XI

Cheese Makers 1 v 4 Athletico Phoenix

FCK2 2 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 2 v 1 YTFIB

Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 2 Real Muppets

San Dimas High School 2 v 2 The Wateringhole Society

The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 3 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Trusted By Millions 3 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans

Replay

The Wateringhole Society 3 v 1 San Dimas High School

First defence - Fred's first FA Cup game as holder was successful. Just. Julian had led for much of the game through Peter Crouch but two cleans put Fred in the quarter-final hat.

Fighting on two fronts -  Joint league leaders Claymore and Athletico are still fighting on two fronts. Clive's team edged out FCK2, Aaron Cresswell's clean was the difference, while James Morrison's goal deep in injury time helped Brian past Cheese Makers.

Trying to get back on top - No current managers has lifted more trophies than Ady but it's nearly seven years since his last win. He's one step closer after beating Final Fantasy 4-1 and will be pleased to see Phil Jagielka back on the scoresheet.

Concentrating on the Cup - It hasn't been a happy first half of the season for the Muppets, Trusted and Nil Satis but the Cup brought them all some relief. Kevin de Bruyne's goal was the decider for Ryan against Mega Bucks, Beef turned round a two goal deficit to down the Artisans while Nil Satis easily saw off the Charity Shield winning CFJs with Aaron Ramsey and Bafe Gomis both getting late goals.

Doing it again - One replay to sort out. Three time winners San Dimas were held by The Wateringhole Society. Allan Nyom's clean for Kiran meaning we try again alongside the league matches this week.

In the replay - Joe Hart and Jonas Okore bagged the deciding cleans for Kiran to down the three-time winners and take him into the quarters at the first attempt.

Week 15 Results

The unbeaten run stops at 14. 

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 0 San Dimas High School

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Cheese Makers 2 v 1 The Fabulous Artisans

Final Fantasy XI 1 v 0 Trusted By Millions

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 3 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC

Real Muppets 2 v 1 FCK2

The Cow-Faced Juniors 3 v 0 YTFIB

The Wateringhole Society 0 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	15	10	4	1	55	23	32	34
2	Athletico Phoenix	15	10	4	1	42	24	18	34
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	15	9	2	4	36	24	12	29
4	San Dimas High School	15	8	4	3	40	22	18	28
5	The Cow-Faced Juniors	15	7	5	3	36	28	8	26
6	FCK2	15	8	1	6	30	21	9	25
7	Aardvark Abacus	15	8	1	6	36	29	7	25
8	Cheese Makers	15	6	4	5	20	26	-6	22
9	The Wateringhole Society	15	5	4	6	20	29	-9	19
10	The Fabulous Artisans	15	5	3	7	28	24	4	18
11	Trusted By Millions	15	5	2	8	15	28	-13	17
12	Mega Buck Bandits	15	4	3	8	15	30	-15	15
13	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	15	3	4	8	19	25	-6	13
14	Real Muppets	15	4	0	11	25	39	-14	12
15	Final Fantasy XI	15	3	3	9	23	42	-19	12
16	YTFIB	15	3	0	12	9	35	-26	9

Soapbox alert! One of the things that gets my goat about modern football reporting is the outcome has to be part of some wider narrative. Team X loses so Manager Y must be in trouble. Player Z scores/saves, blocks, assists/whatever and is on the way to breaking some recently discovered record in the history of Team A or League B. The subtleties of the game, the flow, the players that do things that can't easily be quantified are going unnoticed and unreported in the quest for an easily understood narrative.

But I can't avoid the fact that this week narrative landed in the WSFFL's lap and punched us in the face. How else to explain that a team that's gone unbeaten for 14 matches at the start of the season fails to equal the record by being beaten by the team that holds the record. Jermain Defoe got two of the goals for Fred in his win that lifts him to third. That's as many as he got in the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons combined.

Athletico join Claymore on 34 points after edging Nil Satis 2-1. An Oscar tap in on the half hour put the Salehs ahead but Brian's strikers appear to be getting back in the mood and Anthony Martial and Diego Costa sent the points to Kingham. San Dimas drop a place after a loss to the Aardvarks. I'm putting it down to PCMT hangover and not that Ady's team was better to the tune of two clean sheets.

The CFJs have climbed to fifth, all his goals coming from midfield in 10 second half minutes against YTFIB. Carlos Gil and Willian's efforts both goal of the month contenders. A textbook Andy Carroll header put FCK2 ahead against the Muppets but Ryan's team turned it round to take the win. Laurent Koscielny was Ryan's star man with a goal and a clean. The Cheesers round out the top eight at the halfway point. Matthew's team trailed to Patrick van Aanholt's deflected shot for the Artisans but cleans from Angelo Ogbonna and Robert Huth sent the Stade de Fromage crowd home happy.

We haven't had two many saved penalties this season but one from Artur Boruc set up a win for Mega Bucks at the Wateringhole Society. That made it double delight at Okus as Ceri picked up her first win since August through Yaya Toure's superb late, controlled volley against Trusted.