Week 23 Results

The Artisans' lead shrinks to two points, just four points cover the top five. Tight.

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

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Fabulous Artisans	23	15	1	7	54	35	19	46
2	Trusted By Millions	23	13	5	5	58	38	20	44
3	Claymore Athletic FC	23	14	2	7	65	47	18	44
4	Aardvark Abacus	23	13	4	6	48	28	20	43
5	Athletico Phoenix	23	13	3	7	49	40	9	42
6	San Dimas High School	23	10	5	8	46	37	9	35
7	You Know Your Boston Rock FC	23	9	7	7	53	47	6	34
8	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	23	9	6	8	39	33	6	33
9	The Cow-Faced Juniors	23	8	7	8	52	49	3	31
10	The Cheese Makers	23	9	4	10	33	32	1	31
11	The Dead Parrots	23	8	2	13	31	52	-21	26
12	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	23	7	4	12	26	40	-14	25
13	Final Fantasy XI	23	6	4	13	35	42	-7	22
14	York's Returning Glory	23	6	4	13	33	62	-29	22
15	Real Muppets	23	5	5	13	36	51	-15	20
16	Mega Buck Bandits	23	5	5	13	35	60	-25	20

Trusted By Millions make the headline slot this week with their defeat of the league-leading Artisans which gives the championship pot another stir. Papiss Cisse was a big-money January signing for Beef and it took him just six minutes to open the scoring. Ben was level ten minutes later after Kieran Gibbs  fired home a rare goal but the Artisans found themselves 4-1 down by half-time. Cisse adding a second between two headers from David Wheater. Leighton Baines curled a free-kick home to reduce the advantage on the hour but the returning Stephane Sessegnon made it 5-2 on 76 minutes before another free-kick from the Artisans, this time from Taye Taiwo completed the scoring. Two points now separate the sides.

Claymore are level on points with Trusted but two behind on goal difference. Clive improved that column with a 5-1 beating of York's this week. It took him 42 minutes to find a breakthrough before Wayne Rooney smashed in from close range but the scores were level on the hour when Peter Crouch struck a spectacular volley from outside the area into the far corner of the Claymore goal. Four clean sheets ultimately gave Claymore the points and condemned Julian's team to a sixth straight defeat.

The Aardvarks are fourth but needed a clean sheet from Phil Jagielka to grab a point at the Cheese Makers. Matthew's team had led through Shane Long (who is yet to look like repaying his £12.5m fee) but failed to close the game out. Athletico Phoenix are a point further behind after getting back to winning ways. Mega Bucks kept Robin van Persie quiet and took the lead through Matt Jarvis but cleans from old stagers Brad Friedel and Phil Neville gave Brian the win.

San Dimas hang on to sixth place after my team turned in a tidy performance in beating the Muppets. Hatem Ben Arfa ran the show and opened the scoring on 12 minutes and Theo Walcott doubled the lead on the 25-minute mark. James McClean (one of the finds of the season) pulled one back for Ryan 20 minutes from the end but I had a clean fom Sylvain Distin to round things off. Boston Rock are a point behind in seventh after their come-from-behind victory at Final Fantasy. Gary Caldwell and Yaya Toure put Ceri two up but Sheriff notched three cleans (you may have read how in an earlier message) to get the win.

A point further back are our current champions Fred West. The Gardeners won a low-key game against the Parrots with cleans from Patrice Evra and Younes Kaboul. Our final game of the week was an entertaining three-all draw between the CFJs and Nil Satis. Chris raced into a three goal lead with two from Grant Holt before the break and one from Luis Suarez just after. Steven N'Zonzi started Paul's fightback on 56 minutes, Nikica Jelavic scored his first Nil Satis goal 20 minutes later and when Holt saw read five minutes from time Paul made the extra man pay and Mikel Arteta smashed home the equaliser as time ran out.

Week 22 Results

The Artisans keep their four point lead.

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

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Fabulous Artisans	22	15	1	6	51	30	21	46
2	Aardvark Abacus	22	13	3	6	47	27	20	42
3	Trusted By Millions	22	12	5	5	53	35	18	41
4	Claymore Athletic FC	22	13	2	7	60	46	14	41
5	Athletico Phoenix	22	12	3	7	47	39	8	39
6	San Dimas High School	22	9	5	8	43	36	7	32
7	You Know Your Boston Rock FC	22	8	7	7	50	45	5	31
8	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	22	8	6	8	37	33	4	30
9	The Cow-Faced Juniors	22	8	6	8	49	46	3	30
10	The Cheese Makers	22	9	3	10	32	31	1	30
11	The Dead Parrots	22	8	2	12	31	50	-19	26
12	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	22	7	3	12	23	37	-14	24
13	Final Fantasy XI	22	6	4	12	33	39	-6	22
14	York's Returning Glory	22	6	4	12	32	57	-25	22
15	Real Muppets	22	5	5	12	35	48	-13	20
16	Mega Buck Bandits	22	5	5	12	34	58	-24	20

Ben appears to be through his blip after beating Claymore last week and now the Phoenix this. Brian's title hopes aren't over but he can perhaps only risk one more defeat. Ben's certainly not home and dry either as the Aardvarks, Trusted and Claymore all racked up routine wins to stay in hot pursuit.

San Dimas have somehow fluked their way into sixth, mostly helped by Boston Rock and Fred taking points off each other. There's two points covering sixth to tenth with the Cheese Makers winning and the CFJs beating the Muppets in an unofficial  FA Cup third place play-off.

FA Cup semi-final results

Two old rivals will meet in the final.

The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 4 Claymore Athletic FC
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 3 v 1 Real Muppets

Cup specialists Boston Rock will have a chance to win a sixth FA Cup final after a dramatic late comeback against Real Muppets. After a cagey ninety minutes Thomas Vermaelen put Ryan's side ahead in injury time but Sheriff's men dug deep to produce cleans from Scott Dann, Rio Ferdinand and Steven Caulker which put their side into their fifth FA Cup final in seven seasons.

Boston rock's opponents will be high-scoring Claymore. It was a comfortable win for Clive over the CFJs and it only took ten minutes for Claymore to make the breakthrough with Wes Hoolahan hooking in a volley. Wayne Rooney took his tally for the season in all competitions to nineteen with a first-half near-post volley ten minutes before the break and then a penalty on 71 minutes which took the game totally out of Chris' reach. Jonny Evans rounded off a great night for Claymore.

Our finalists have played in nine FA Cup finals between them but the meeting on the 9-11 April will be the first time they have clashed in the final of this tournament.

Week 21 Results

Ben's team seem back on song with a big win against one of his title rivals.

Rearranged Week 20 fixture

Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 2 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Week 21

Aardvark Abacus 3 v 0 Real Muppets
Athletico Phoenix 4 v 0 The Dead Parrots
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 0 v 1 Trusted By Millions
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 3 Final Fantasy XI
San Dimas High School 4 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits
The Fabulous Artisans 3 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC
York’s Returning Glory 0 v 6 The Cow-Faced Juniors
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 1 v 0 The Cheese Makers

1	The Fabulous Artisans	21	14	1	6	48	30	18	43
2	Aardvark Abacus	21	12	3	6	45	27	18	39
3	Athletico Phoenix	21	12	3	6	47	36	11	39
4	Trusted By Millions	21	11	5	5	49	34	15	38
5	Claymore Athletic FC	21	12	2	7	56	45	11	38
6	You Know Your Boston Rock FC	21	8	6	7	48	43	5	30
7	San Dimas High School	21	8	5	8	41	35	6	29
8	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	21	8	5	8	35	31	4	29
9	The Cow-Faced Juniors	21	7	6	8	47	45	2	27
10	The Cheese Makers	21	8	3	10	30	30	0	27
11	The Dead Parrots	21	8	2	11	30	46	-16	26
12	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	21	7	3	11	23	35	-12	24
13	Final Fantasy XI	21	6	4	11	32	37	-5	22
14	York's Returning Glory	21	6	4	11	31	55	-24	22
15	Real Muppets	21	5	5	11	34	46	-12	20
16	Mega Buck Bandits	21	5	5	11	33	54	-21	20

As the Artisans seemed to be running out of steam and Claymore carrying all before them so the title race decided to take another turn. Ben's lead has been somewhat elastic over the last few weeks but it stretched in his favour after a 3-1 win. Wayne Rooney had put Clive in front just before the break but the game turned in 10 second half minutes. Ashley Young's scissor kick levelled the game on the hour and then Mario Balotelli, after his strip club exertions the night before, and Young again within a minute keep Ben ahead of the pack and drops Clive to fifth. The Aardvarks are second on goal difference after a comfortable win over the resurgent Muppets. Laurent Koscielny shinned home a clearance (how many own goals have the Muppets conceded this season?) and a couple of cleans saw Ady's team home.

Athletico Phoenix are third after putting four past the Parrots. Robin van Persie took his league haul to 22 with the opener on the half hour and then a stunning cushioned volley in the last minute. In between times Bobby Zamora opened his Phoenix account and David Dunn found the target with his header which must be a collectors item! Trusted are only a point further back after a win over Fred. It was a quiet game only settled by a Robert Huth clean. Fred's hopes of defending his title have (cliche alert!) come down with the Christmas lights - he hasn't won this year. Fred's failure drops him to eighth with Boston Rock now the 'best of the rest'.

It was a tight game for Sheriff against the Cheese Makers which was decided by Jermain Defoe's strike three minutes from time. Matthew is now outside the top half for the first time this season, his team are really going through a goal shy period. Conversely, San Dimas have hit their highest position of the season after adding to the Mega Bucks woes. Dave's team had already slumped to defeat in their rearranged week 20 fixture against Nil Satis and there was no mercy from my recent signing Pavel Pogrebnyak who scored a hat-trick.

Biggest winners of the week were the CFJs who crushed York's 6-0. Julian's team decided to give Chris a helping hand through a Gretar Steinsson own goal and then recent signing Gylfi Sigurdsson added a brace either side of half-time. Clint Dempsey also struck twice and Matthew Etherington also got his name on the scoresheet. Final Fantasy picked up only their second win since November but their 3-1 defeat of Nil Satis lifted them off the bottom. Royston Drenthe had given Paul hopes of an 'Okus double' with the opener but Gareth McAuley struck from close range and logged a clean sheet along with Angel Rangel to give Ceri the win and drop her hubby to last place.