Tipsters Competition Round 3 Results

[Lone Shark]

On an otherwise poor weekend for Edenderry with their seniors and juniors losing out, True Red at least gave the club something to cheer about in taking over at the top of the tipsters table with 24 points. One of only two tipsters along with Hyper to call St. Brigid’s to beat Gracefield, he now has a point to spare over Hocker in what is still a tight contest. Beirut also moved into a good position in third with ten points this week, his call of the Kilclonfert vs Rynaghs draw giving him half his tally.

However doffed cap of the week has to go to Noodles, who scored a stunning 17 points to outdo the field by a country mile in his debut week. An extra point for Edenderry and he would have got another five points there for another draw, but some of us are quite relieved that didn’t happen!

Thereorthereabouts made another stunning debut, though I had to take the executive decision to ignore his handicaps and simply take his teams. I don’t know if he would have gone for Tubber and Bracknagh off flat scores, but I had to presume he would meaning that was 14 points, and that without getting either of the two draws.

24 True Red
23 Hocker
20 Beirut
18 Biffo Army
17 Noodles, DD, Hyper, Phoenix, Bazza
16 Swiftpost, Turk
15 The Weasel, offalyman, Killer B, Corner Back, GreatDayForTheParish
14 Thereorthereabouts, Muck Savage, Aweflee, Uibhfhailiabu, Plain of the Herbs, Mighty Pair O’Hands, TheManFromFerbane, The Untouchable
13 Lone Shark, D Corner Flag
12 Offaly09, Naasmanrxrhode, Rossier, Kemo Sabe
11 Rynaghs Biffo
10 Bula Bula, theman
9 sparkling, keenonsport
8 Johnno81, Dynamo, Blue Moon
7 Lovelyhurling, Doon Massive, Corneyback, The Rat, Backofthenet, Red Exile, Joe Bloggs, Dual Star
5 Athlumneyboy, Bluegoalie
4 minor, faithfulman
3 Bluemoon, Georgio1
2 Slieve Bloom Man, Treasurer

[Lone Shark]

I forgot to mention that for the purposes of this, I ignored the Tullamore vs Walsh Island intermediate game since it wasn't an actual win. I think basically everyone went for WI anyway so it made no odds, but just in case there are any queries, there were no points for that.

[bazza]

This is my first year doing the tipsters competition and i was just wondering are more points awarded for different things such as predicting a draw or the use of handicaps? Is there special rules a newbie should be aware of? A full run down would be great if someone had the spare time!

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Thanks for that LS, appreciate the effort.

The hurling can't get going soon enough for me, the football scene, especially the intermediate, is not my forte!

[Lone Shark]

Sorry Bazza, I was getting it off in a hurry this year, so hence my lack of detail!

Anyway, here's the full story...

For every senior championship game in either code in the county, I will start a thread with the fixtures and you must post up your selections as a reply - over the course of the year there will be a league table kept up, while there will also be a knockout championship coming into effect halfway through. The rules are straightforward:

i) One Competition, football and hurling combined. Most people will by nature lean towards one or the other, but sure if you dominate the hurling, but lose on account of not knowing your big ball you can act all smug, as hurling people are so good at!

(ii) Obviously there should be a clear reason not to just pick the favourites all the time, so the following system is in operation.

Matches which are close enough, i.e. 60/40 or closer, which will be all games unless I mark them otherwise, will return 2 points for correctly picking a winner.

Matches where there is a clear favourite, i.e. Rhode vs Ballycumber this week, will have the teams marked in brackets - (F) for the favourite, and (U) for the underdog. Successfully tipping the favourite returns 1 point. Successfully tipping the underdog returns 3 points. Successfully tipping a draw in any football game returns five points - successfully tipping a hurling draw returns seven points.

There are also handicap matches, for games where nobody but the most fiercely loyal clubman would pick the underdog. What happens here is that the underdog gets a named head start, and you can tip either side to win taking the handicap into account. For example purposes we'll take a theoretical match between Birr and Ballyskenach where it's Ballyskenach plus ten points against Birr. You can tip Birr, and get two points if they win by eleven or more, tip Ballyskenach and get two points if they win, draw, or lose by nine or less, or go for the handicap draw for 5/7 points, seven in this case. You can also tip the underdog outright if you wish. In order to do so you must say Ballyskenach Outright, otherwise I'll take it you're on the handicap. Successfully tipping a handicap underdog to win the match without the head start returns eight points. These will mainly be used for Birr/Coolderry/Rhode fixtures against non-contending teams to save the pointless exercise of 98% of posters tipping the favourite.

(iii) You may only make one pick per match, obviously enough.

(iv) Tips entered late will obviously be not allowed. However you're only disqualified from scoring in the games you are late for - so even if you miss a Friday night game, you can still attempt to pick all the other games that week.

(v) While the competition would normally include all senior championship games in both codes, we will add in other games towards the end of the year to make up sufficient fixtures while I'm also taking the step of including intermediate football championship group games, to compensate for the increased size of the hurling championship this year. Games to be added later may include intermediate/junior/minor fixtures, to be added entirely at my own discretion! The key thing I go for all along is a balance of hurling and football, so hence the current structure.

(vi) Big games - i.e. senior county knockout games in both codes will be eligible for double points

(vii) The prize is the respect and admiration of your peers. The Roll of Honour so far is....

Complete Roll of Honour

Paddy McCormack Cup

2008 Swiftpost
2007 Hocker
2006 Rynagh's Biffo
2005 Rynagh's Biffo

Daithí Regan Cup

2008 Beirut
2007 The Magpie
2006 Fullback
2005 Mighty Pair O'Hands

League

2008 D Corner Flag
2007 Fullback
2006 Plain of the Herbs
2005 Seán Boyle Ó'Rathallaigh

[GreatDayForTheParish]

Sorry, I'm a fellow newbie. What's the difference between the Paddy McCormack Cup, the Daithi Regan Cup and the League?

i) One Competition, football and hurling combined. Most people will by nature lean towards one or the other, but sure if you dominate the hurling, but lose on account of not knowing your big ball you can act all smug, as hurling people are so good at!

Hurling is a far superior sport in all aspects to football and those who disagree know nothing.

[Thereorthereabouts]

Cheers for the update on how the comp works.

[Lone Shark]

Sorry, I'm a fellow newbie. What's the difference between the Paddy McCormack Cup, the Daithi Regan Cup and the League?

i) One Competition, football and hurling combined. Most people will by nature lean towards one or the other, but sure if you dominate the hurling, but lose on account of not knowing your big ball you can act all smug, as hurling people are so good at!

Hurling is a far superior sport in all aspects to football and those who disagree know nothing.

I'll leave the second part uncommented.....

Anyway, the initial idea was to keep lads involved midway through - so basically midway through the summer, on any given week, there will be a McCormack Cup first round. Basically it's like the first round of a captain's prize in golf. The top 12 scores PLUS ties (so in effect anything up to 20 tipsters) qualify for the McCormack Cup, the premier knockout competition. Those who fail to make this cut qualify for the Daithi Regan Cup. Then the next week we have round 2 - and if round 1 was football, then round 2 will be hurling, or vice versa. In week 2, all those who are eligible for each competition are counted seperately and the top eight in each cup qualify for the quarter finals - and it's one on one knockout from there, with the league running concurrently. The league is simply what's going on now - the accumulation of points over the course of a season.

[bazza]

Cheers for the run-down LS. Fair dues to you for the effort you go to! I'm happy enough with joint 5th also, considering i was clueless!