h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ok, here are my ideas on the what, where, how and when for this competition.

Firsly running the competition has got a lot more time consuming with 18 to 20 players per week instead of the 8 to 10 we used to have. Now I'm absolutely *not* saying that I wish these new folk would just go away, no, I really enjoy having more people playing. But I am going to need to take a break at some point.

My plan at the moment is to end this current season on the weekend of Saturday 13th December. It will give me a break over Christmas, and a chance for you lot to return to the bosom of your families - who undoubtedly don't have internet access and would be offended if you were thinking of match predictions over the turkey and Xmas pud!

The dilemma I have is when do I start the next season? I would love to kick off with the FA Cup 3rd round. But that is a bit early as those games are played on Saturday 3rd January, meaning the new page and thread etc has to be up and running before the New Year. Maybe it would be better to start the next weekend with a selection from the Premiership?

Longer term, I'm not planning on running the short playoffs competition - though it was fun last year, not least because I won it - as this clashes with the end of the Premiership season and hence the last weeks of the main competition for next spring. It got rather confusing last year running two competitions side by side, with folk missing making predictions in one or other of the threads. Now with the number of players we've now got that confusion can only get worse.

Also I am *not* going to run one of those summer long competitions picking games from all manner of European and American leagues, as it descended into a bit of a farce last summer. What I will obviously be running is a Euro 2004 competition, though I've not really thought through the details as to timings and how many matches per round will get selected. But hey, I've plenty of time to work that out.

Well, now that I've got that of off my chest. I'd like to hear your thoughts and ideas on what I've just said

It all sounds fair enough to me. Although last summer's competition was my first season, and although it was a little odd with random matches, I did quite enjoy it.

I think starting with the 3rd Round would be great, although agree that it would be a little problem. There's a possible solution - presumably, the 3rd Round draw will be before Christmas. What do you think of the idea of starting the new season's thread as soon as the draw's made, and we just have a long run in to our first lot of games. Although as they'll be long term predictions, it might be a possibility to allow changes of scorer predictions in the event of injuries, but it would mean extra work for you.

That is a pretty damn good idea. Cheers

I've taken a look at the fixture list for the FA Cup and the 2nd round is played on the 6th December, so I presume the draw will be during the next week - the FA's site didn't give a date for the draw - so that would be before this current season ends. I don't see a problem with having 'long term' threads running for a month over Christmas. All I need do is post occasionally in the new season sign up thread, the prediction thread and any other thread I have around the place advertising the competition. Sorted

"descended into a bit of a farce last summer. "

Really? I thought my hat-trick of three consecutive zero-points weeks was quite impressive, frankly.

B

That was one of the few highlights

Maybe if you can't make the third round you could start with the fourth? Just a thought.

There's something special about the 3rd Round, though - a veritable smorgasbord of matches...

Starting with the 4th round isn't a goer, as that isn't until the end of January. I'd be getting withdrawl symptoms if I waited that long for kick off

well if we do do this (fair enough), then could you make the number of predictions we have to make double the number please? or even 15? no? maybe not. id be happy to help you, if you wanted, though i dont know how much work im getting this term.

Double sets of predictions for special occasions are certainly do-able

As for the marking process, it's rather a one man job to be honest. The individual points are tabulated on sheets of paper - the possible outcomes result/score/scorer/1st scorer/total points along the top. Then I mark each game for each player down the side. With 20 players that would go to 4 sheets of A4, covered mostly with zeros.

The code for the table and for the thread where I say what everyone got their points for is done on a couple of Excel spreadsheets. I use a weird array of text functions to grab information that is in a simple grid and turns it into something postable.

As to how long this all takes. Well I reckon with interruptions and cups of tea, it usually takes me an hour from start to finish for an average week's results.

oh, ok. you sound like you do it a lot better than i would...

cheers, by the way

re: Desky's marking process

Bloody hell, I just used to write people's predictions down on scraps of paper and write numbers next to them while watching final score...

Looking at the current league table and the way that everything is tightening up at the top, it occured to me that I need to sort out what will happen if there is a tie for the Champion at the end of the season. You see I have a strictly limited number of mousemats available for distribution.

My thinking is that if this situation occurs, I'll settle it by comparing the weekly points of the winners head to head. This is sort of the way that Champions League tables work, so I think it's good enough for us.

Does anyone have any comments?

Without even looking at mine v Ormondroyd's (or yours, GD) it sounds like a fair idea.

That's fine by me!

Just out of interest, who would be ahead under that system once Ormy closes the gap?

It's 9-5 in favour of Ormy.

Ooops! sorry, no it's not. It's 8-6 instead.