TCs: Results & Standings .. FIFA World Cup - 1:22 PM May 05 10

Post by gtho4 (533) 1:22 PM May 05 10 Tipping Comp FIFA World Cup 2010 The FIFA World Cup begins next month in South Africa on Friday 11th June. These are the 32 teams that have qualified for the finals tournament (the number in brackets is their group seeding). Italy are the defending titleholders. Group A (1) France (2) Mexico (3) Uruguay (4) South Africa Group B (1) Argentina (2) Greece (3) Nigeria (4) South Korea Group C (1) England  (2) United States (3) Algeria (4) Slovenia Group D (1) Germany  (2) Serbia  (3) Australia (4) Ghana Group E (1) Netherlands  (2) Cameroon (3) Denmark (4) Japan Group F (1) Italy  (2) Paraguay (3) Slovakia (4) New Zealand Group G (1) Brazil (2) Portugal (3) Ivory Coast (4) North Korea Group H (1) Spain (2) Chile (3) Switzerland (4) Honduras The rules for this comp are simple (they're almost the same as the UEFA Champions League): points seedings default upsets perfect picks other bonus pts dead-heats deadline one point for each correct pick (win or draw at 90 minutes). plus points for the seeding. if you forget to pick, the wooden spoon score is all yours (ineligible for bonus pts). if you pick a game solo (or one of two), you score a bonus point. of 8/8 score a bonus point. You also receive a knighthood from Her Majesty. no one picks a win, whoever picks a draw. no one picks a draw, whoever picks the upset win.  weekly wins vs. wooden spoon countback determine podium finishes; if they're identical, bonus pts will be used. is always kick-off in the first game of the round. If you miss the deadline, you score default. The tipping comp will run over 10 rounds with 8 pts up for grabs each round, plus seedings (the 10th round is 9 pts). The defending titleholder from the 2006 comp is Howie72, and LoeDaVinci was runner-up (halfbakedangi finished third). The three medallists from the 2002 comp are no longer with us.  Who's up for the 3rd edition of the World Cup tipping comp?

Post by gtho4 (533) 1:30 PM May 05 10 List of tipping threads: FIFA World Cup [ 1 ] Fri 11th June FIFA World Cup [ 2 ] Mon 14th June FIFA World Cup [ 3 ] Wed 16th June FIFA World Cup [ 4 ] Sat 19th June  FIFA World Cup [ 5 ] Tue 22nd June FIFA World Cup [ 6 ] Thu 24th June FIFA World Cup [ 7 ] Sat 26th June FIFA World Cup [ 8 ] Fri 2nd July FIFA World Cup [ 9 ] Tue 6th July FIFA World Cup [ 10 ] Sun 11th July_FINAL

Post by gtho4 (533) 1:31 PM May 05 10 Deadline: use 1130hrs GMT for the group matches, which is the earliest kick-off time (at the moment) for any of the group matches. The actual kick-off times are in the first column of the table below. However, as they've already changed some of the kick-off times due to tv commitments and/or commercial pressures (see second column), anyone who lodges after 1130hrs GMT may end up in no-man's land. 11:30am GMT is 3:30am US west coast, 5:30am FT time, 6:30am US east coast, 12:30pm lunchtime BST, 5:00pm in India, 7:30pm dinner time in Hong Kong, 9:30pm in Sydney, and 11:30pm almost midnight in NZ! all picks are at full-time 90 minutes QF and onwards are HT+FT  10 rounds of 8 pts per round but 10th round is 9 pts  1 Fri June 11 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT A South Africa v Mexico Fri June 11 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT A Uruguay v France Sat June 12 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT B Argentina v Nigeria (was 12:30pm BST)  Sat June 12 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT B South Korea v Greece (was 3:00pm BST) Sat June 12 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT C England v United States Sun June 13 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT C Algeria v Slovenia Sun June 13 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT D Germany v Australia (was 3:00pm BST) Sun June 13 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT D Serbia v Ghana (was 7:30pm BST) 2 Mon June 14 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT E Netherlands v Denmark Mon June 14 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT E Japan v Cameroon Mon June 14 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT F Italy v Paraguay Tue June 15 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT F New Zealand v Slovakia Tue June 15 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT G Ivory Coast v Portugal Tue June 15 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT G Brazil v North Korea Wed June 16 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT H Honduras v Chile Wed June 16 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT H Spain v Switzerland 3 Wed June 16 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT A South Africa v Uruguay Thu June 17 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT A France v Mexico (was 12:30 BST) Thu June 17 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT B Greece v Nigeria Thu June 17 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT B Argentina v South Korea (was 7:30pm BST) Fri June 18 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT D Germany v Serbia Fri June 18 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT C Slovenia v United States Fri June 18 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT C England v Algeria Sat June 19 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT D Ghana v Australia (was 12:30pm BST) 4 Sat June 19 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT E Netherlands v Japan (was 3:00pm BST) Sat June 19 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT E Cameroon v Denmark Sun June 20 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT F Slovakia v Paraguay Sun June 20 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT F Italy v New Zealand Sun June 20 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT G Brazil v Ivory Coast Mon June 21 1:30pm 1130hrs GMT G Portugal v North Korea Mon June 21 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT H Chile v Switzerland Mon June 21 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT H Spain v Honduras  5 Tue June 22 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT A Mexico v Uruguay Tue June 22 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT A France v South Africa Tue June 22 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT B Nigeria v South Korea Tue June 22 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT B Greece v Argentina Wed June 23 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT C Slovenia v England Wed June 23 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT C Algeria v United States Wed June 23 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT D Ghana v Germany Wed June 23 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT D Australia v Serbia advance picks: [add these pts to Round 9] [o] pick the four semi-finalists 6 Thu June 24 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT F Slovakia v Italy Thu June 24 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT F Paraguay v New Zealand Thu June 24 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT E Denmark v Japan Thu June 24 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT E Cameroon v Netherlands Fri June 25 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT G North Korea v Ivory Coast Fri June 25 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT G Portugal v Brazil Fri June 25 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT H Switzerland v Honduras Fri June 25 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT H Chile v Spain 7 Knock-out round [49] Sat June 26 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT 1A v 2B [50] Sat June 26 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT 1C v 2D [51] Sun June 27 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT 1D v 2C [52] Sun June 27 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT 1B v 2A [53] Mon June 28 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT 1E v 2F [54] Mon June 28 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT 1G v 2H [55] Tue June 29 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT 1F v 2E [56] Tue June 29 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT 1H v 2G advance picks: [add these pts to Round 10] [o] pick the two finalists [o] pick the winner (4 pts for correct pick, 2 pts if  they lose final, 1 pt if they lose semi-final) 8 Quarter-Finals HT+FT = 8 picks: [57] Fri July 2 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT W53 v W54 [58] Fri July 2 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT W49 v W50 [59] Sat July 3 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT W52 v W51 [60] Sat July 3 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT W55 v W56 9 Semi-Finals HT+FT = 4 picks [61] Tue July 6 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT W58 v W57 =[WQF2 v WQF1]= [62] Wed July 7 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT W59 v W60 =[WQF3 v WQF4]= +4 advance picks in Round 5 = total 8 picks 10 Final [63] 3rd place play-off - Sat July 10 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT LSF1 v LSF2 match #63 ignored for tipping comp HT+FT+WINNER = 3 picks [64] World Cup Final - Sun July 11 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT WSF1 v WSF2 +3 advance picks in Round 7 (1 pt + 1 pt + 4pts) = total 9 pts compared to what was announced back in December, some of the kick-off times  have changed already! Friday, 11 June 2010 South Africa v Mexico, Gp A, 15:00 Uruguay v France, Gp A, 19:30 Saturday, 12 June 2010 Argentina v Nigeria, Gp B, 15:00 England v USA, Gp C, 19:30 South Korea v Greece, Gp B, 12:30 Sunday, 13 June 2010 Algeria v Slovenia, Gp C, 12:30 Germany v Australia, Gp D, 19:30 Serbia v Ghana, Gp D, 15:00 Monday, 14 June 2010 Italy v Paraguay, Gp F, 19:30 Japan v Cameroon, Gp E, 15:00 Netherlands v Denmark, Gp E, 12:30 Tuesday, 15 June 2010 Brazil v North Korea, Gp G, 19:30 Ivory Coast v Portugal, Gp G, 15:00 New Zealand v Slovakia, Gp F, 12:30 Wednesday, 16 June 2010 Honduras v Chile, Gp H, 12:30 South Africa v Uruguay, Gp A, 19:30 Spain v Switzerland, Gp H, 15:00 Thursday, 17 June 2010 Argentina v South Korea, Gp B, 12:30 France v Mexico, Gp A, 19:30 Greece v Nigeria, Gp B, 15:00 Friday, 18 June 2010 England v Algeria, Gp C, 19:30 Germany v Serbia, Gp D, 12:30 Slovenia v USA, Gp C, 15:00 Saturday, 19 June 2010 Cameroon v Denmark, Gp E, 19:30 Ghana v Australia, Gp D, 15:00 Netherlands v Japan, Gp E, 12:30 Sunday, 20 June 2010 Brazil v Ivory Coast, Gp G, 19:30 Italy v New Zealand, Gp F, 15:00 Slovakia v Paraguay, Gp F, 12:30 Monday, 21 June 2010 Chile v Switzerland, Gp H, 15:00 Portugal v North Korea, Gp G, 12:30 Spain v Honduras, Gp H, 19:30 Tuesday, 22 June 2010 France v South Africa, Gp A, 15:00 Greece v Argentina, Gp B, 19:30 Mexico v Uruguay, Gp A, 15:00 Nigeria v South Korea, Gp B, 19:30 Wednesday, 23 June 2010 Australia v Serbia, Gp D, 19:30 Ghana v Germany, Gp D, 19:30 Slovenia v England, Gp C, 15:00 USA v Algeria, Gp C, 15:00 Thursday, 24 June 2010 Cameroon v Netherlands, Gp E, 19:30 Denmark v Japan, Gp E, 19:30 Paraguay v New Zealand, Gp F, 15:00 Slovakia v Italy, Gp F, 15:00 Friday, 25 June 2010 Chile v Spain, Gp H, 19:30 North Korea v Ivory Coast, Gp G, 15:00 Portugal v Brazil, Gp G, 15:00 Switzerland v Honduras, Gp H, 19:30 Saturday, 26 June 2010 Winner Gp A v Runner-up Gp B, 16R, 15:00 Winner Gp C v Runner-up Gp D, 16R, 19:30 Sunday, 27 June 2010 Winner Gp B v Runner-up Gp A, 16R, 19:30 Winner Gp D v Runner-up Gp C, 16R, 15:00 Monday, 28 June 2010 Winner Gp E v Runner-up Gp F, 16R, 15:00 Winner Gp G v Runner-up Gp H, 16R, 19:30 Tuesday, 29 June 2010 Winner Gp F v Runner-up Gp E, 16R, 15:00 Winner Gp H v Runner-up Gp G, 16R, 19:30 Friday, 2 July 2010 Wnr A/R-Up B v Wnr C/R-Up D, QF, 19:30 Wnr E/R-Up F v Wnr G/R-Up H, QF, 15:00 Saturday, 3 July 2010 Wnr B/R-Up A v Wnr D/R-Up C, QF, 15:00 Wnr F/R-Up E v Wnr H/R-Up G, QF, 19:30 Tuesday, 6 July 2010 Winner Q/F 1 v Winner Q/F 3, SF, 19:30 Wednesday, 7 July 2010 Winner Q/F 2 v Winner Q/F 4, SF, 19:30 Saturday, 10 July 2010 Loser SF1 v Loser SF2, F, 19:30 Sunday, 11 July 2010 Winners SF1 v Winners SF2, F, 19:30 The above times are BST = GMT+1 www.bbc.co.uk/sport/wcfixtures.stm kick-off times in first column are in local time and GMT: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/index.html http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/kostage.html there is no DST in South Africa : RSA is GMT +2 hrs http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=111 need to add in seedings in each tipping thread

Post by gtho4 (533) 1:32 PM May 05 10 pre-opening market to win the comp ..the first column is the market in December when  the draw for the group matches was announced; the second column is the market as it  stands today: . To win World Cup Code: SPAIN 5.25 5.00 BRAZIL 6.00 5.50 ENGLAND 6.50 6.50 ARGENTINA 12.0 7.50 ITALY 12.0 14.0 NETHERLANDS 12.0 13.0 GERMANY 13.0 13.0 FRANCE 14.0 17.0 IVORY COAST 26.0 31.0 PORTUGAL 26.0 29.0 CHILE 41.0 67.0 DENMARK 67.0 101.0 GHANA 67.0 67.0 MEXICO 67.0 67.0 PARAGUAY 67.0 81.0 SERBIA 67.0 67.0 USA 67.0 81.0 AUSTRALIA 81.0 81.0 CAMEROON 81.0 121.0 NIGERIA 81.0 101.0 SOUTH AFRICA 81.0 101.0 URUGUAY 81.0 101.0 GREECE 101.0 101.0 SWITZERLAND 126.0 201.0 SLOVAKIA 151.0 251.0 SLOVENIA 151.0 251.0 JAPAN 201.0 251.0 ALGERIA 251.0 351.0 SOUTH KOREA 251.0 301.0 NORTH KOREA 501.0 751.0 NEW ZEALAND 501.0 751.0 HONDURAS 601.0 751.0

Post by Sypher (32) 2:06 PM May 05 10 I reckon we should state which teams are going to be in the final four before the first kick of the game !! ENGLAND ALL THE WAY !!

Post by jonnowales (13002) 3:31 PM May 05 10 I'm in!

Post by paper_aero (10768) 3:31 PM May 05 10 I'm in

Post by DanielPoulson (16941) 6:31 PM May 05 10 I'd love to join you guys, however, being new to this style of competition, I'm not entirely sure how the seeding points work. I'd be very grateful if anybody could give a quick explanation. Thanks .

Post by illiniman14 (19552) 7:06 PM May 05 10 Count me in as well

Post by LeoDaVinci (3629) 8:24 PM May 05 10 Take group A for example: (1) France (2) Mexico (3) Uruguay (4) South Africa Say France is playing against Uruguay, and you tip Uruguay to win and they do. So, you get the point for tipping correctly, plus three points for Uruguay's seeding. Say Mexico is playing South Africa that same day, you picked a draw, and it happens (fat chance, all you South Africa fans). You get one point for tipping the draw correctly, and (2+4/2)=3 points for the seeding as the average of SA's and Mexico's seeding. Oh, and I'm in.

Post by ozzz2002 (4925) 10:20 PM May 05 10 Quote: 8/8 score a bonus point. You also receive a knighthood from Her Majesty.  I already have a few of these, but I guess I could try for another...

Post by srini701 (10746) 4:39 AM May 06 10 Do you even have to ask? I'll be there

Post by PaulE (1013) 6:58 AM May 06 10 Count me in.

Post by gtho4 (533) 7:43 AM May 06 10 just posted: For a summary of the full tipping comp draw plus deadlines for picks (and advance picks), see 3rd post above.

Post by FussBudgetVP (9820) 10:57 AM May 06 10 Count me in please

Post by szabs (16428) 5:28 PM May 06 10 Please count me in

Post by DanielPoulson (16941) 5:44 PM May 06 10  Thank you very much LeoDaVinci, I understand it now.

Post by themonarch (17192) 4:06 AM May 07 10 I probably have the same odds winning this as the US taking the cup but I'll try it anyway. Count me in.

Post by KrivoyRog (12220) 9:48 AM May 07 10 Count me in, please. C'mon, Honduras!!

Post by gtho4 (533) 11:17 AM May 13 10 With 4 weeks to go we already have 13 accetpances: DanielPoulson FussBudget gtho4 illiniman14 jonnowales KrivoyRog LeoDaVinci ozzz2002 paper_aero srini701 Sypher szabs themonarch The 2006 comp had 18 runners when we jumped, and the 2002 comp had a field of 15 runners.

Post by LeoDaVinci (3629) 4:37 PM May 13 10 Come on, George needs to have a large spreadsheet with many tippers. Let's all go bring a friend to join and then we'll have 26!

Post by BxBarracuda (16615) 7:51 PM May 13 10 Why not, could my picks for this, which I know almost nothing about, be any worse then my AFL picks lol.

Post by triviapaul (17912) 6:27 PM May 19 10 Missed this signup, but I'm there.

Post by gtho4 (533) 10:45 AM May 31 10 With less than a fortnight to go, we now have 16 acceptances: BxBarracuda dg_dave DanielPoulson FussBudget gtho4 illiniman14 jonnowales KrivoyRog LeoDaVinci ozzz2002 paper_aero srini701 Sypher szabs themonarch triviapaul Please note that we sometimes have only 3 or 4 days between rounds .. each tipping thread had a link to the next round's tipping thread at the bottom of each post (in addition to the usual list of links at the start of this thread). 11 brave souls have already lodged their tips for the first round!

Post by gtho4 (533) 7:32 AM Jun 08 10 We now have 19 acceptances: BxBarracuda dg_dave DanielPoulson Davjack FussBudget gtho4 Howie72 illiniman14 jonnowales KrivoyRog LeoDaVinci ozzz2002 paper_aero srini701 Sypher szabs themonarch Toffees triviapaul 16 of the 19 have already lodged their tips for Round 1, starting Friday; and 11 have lodged their tips for Round 2, which starts on Monday

Post by MrFox (17618) 9:58 AM Jun 08 10 I will have a crac AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI AUSSIE OI AUSSIE OI AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI

Post by MissMarple1 (8281) 3:25 PM Jun 09 10 Am I too late? If not, I would like to take part too

Post by dg_dave (7907) 7:52 PM Jun 09 10 Quote: Am I too late? If not, I would like to take part too   First games play on Saturday, JM. I'm looking forward to this one...

Post by KrivoyRog (12220) 5:23 AM Jun 10 10 Are we having a pre-tournament stab at picking the winner/runner up or last 4 ?

Post by Sypher (32) 7:13 AM Jun 10 10 That would be cool...I reckon England will get to the Semis and than knocked out on a penalty shoot-out. Does that sound famaliar?

Post by srini701 (10746) 9:02 AM Jun 10 10 Knowing George, I am sure we will have that advance picks in round 3 or 4 or 5 with the points to be added to the final round

Post by gtho4 (533) 10:39 AM Jun 11 10 There are two sets of advance picks, one in Round 5, and another in Round 7.

Post by gtho4 (533) 10:51 AM Jun 11 10 market to win the comp: the first column is the pre-opening market back in December when the draw for the group matches was announced; the second column is the market at the start of May, and the third column is as it stands today, with just 3 hours left until kick-off: . To win World Cup Code: SPAIN 5.25 5.0 4.75 BRAZIL 6.0 5.5 5.5 ENGLAND 6.5 6.5 7.5 ARGENTINA 12.0 7.5 7.0 ITALY 12.0 14.0 15.0 NETHERLANDS 12.0 13.0 9.0 GERMANY 13.0 13.0 14.0 FRANCE 14.0 17.0 21.0 IVORY COAST 26.0 31.0 61.0 PORTUGAL 26.0 29.0 29.0 CHILE 41.0 67.0 71.0 DENMARK 67.0 101.0 126.0 GHANA 67.0 67.0 126.0 MEXICO 67.0 67.0 71.0 PARAGUAY 67.0 81.0 81.0 SERBIA 67.0 67.0 61.0 USA 67.0 81.0 81.0 AUSTRALIA 81.0 81.0 81.0 CAMEROON 81.0 121.0 101.0 NIGERIA 81.0 101.0 151.0 SOUTH AFRICA 81.0 101.0 126.0 URUGUAY 81.0 101.0 101.0 GREECE 101.0 101.0 126.0 SWITZERLAND 126.0 201.0 251.0 SLOVAKIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 SLOVENIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 JAPAN 201.0 251.0 351.0 ALGERIA 251.0 351.0 661.0 SOUTH KOREA 251.0 301.0 151.0 NORTH KOREA 501.0 751.0 1001.0 NEW ZEALAND 501.0 751.0 751.0 HONDURAS 601.0 751.0 801.0

Post by dg_dave (7907) 11:04 PM Jun 12 10 Well, we had an 81-1 to win the Cup tie a 15-2 to win the Cup. Will that change the bookies?

Post by gtho4 (533) 9:14 PM Jun 13 10 2010 FIFA World Cup Round 1 Friday 11th June 21 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 9-3-90 5-4-12 20-1-00 4-7-10 17-2-20 5-9-70 15-2-40 14-3-40 1-1 0-0 1-0 2-0 1-1 0-1 4-0 0-1 3 4 20 4 2 7 15 4 9 8 20 16 3 28 15 16 A 4v2 Sth Africa v Mexico A 3v1 Uruguay v France B 1v3 Argentina v Nigeria  B 4v2 Sth Korea v Greece C 1v2 England v USA C 3v4 Algeria v Slovenia D 1v3 Germany v Australia  D 2v4 Serbia v Ghana FussBudget KrivoyRog ozzz2002 FussBudget LeoDaVinci szabs Toffees  KrivoyRog  FussBudget KrivoyRog Davjack Howie72  dg_dave illinman14  DanielPoulson illiniman14 ozzz2002 PaulE ` 59 115 =174 Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- ------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- -------------------hf ws 1 1-1 FussBudget s 0 5 16 5 17 1 1 2 2-2 KrivoyRog s 0 3 14 3 15 1 3 3-3 ozzz2002 s 0 4 13 4 14 1 3 3-3 DanielPoulson 0 4 14 4 14 3 3-3 Davjack 0 4 14 4 14 3 3-3 Howie72 0 4 14 4 14 7 7-7 illiniman14 s 0 4 11½ 4 12½ 1 8 8-8 Toffees 0 4 12 4 12 8 8-8 LeoDaVinci 0 4 12 4 12 10 10-10 PaulE 0 3 9 3 9 10 10-10 srini701 0 3 9 3 9 12 12-12 szabs 0 3 7 3 7 13 13-13 dg_dave s 0 2 4½ 2 5½ 1 14 14-14 BxBarracuda 0 2 4 2 4 14 14-14 triviapaul 0 2 4 2 4 14 14-14 paper_aero 0 2 4 2 4 14 14-14 Sypher 0 2 4 2 4 18 18-18 themonarch 0 1 2 1 2 1 18 18-18 MrFox 0 1 2 1 2 1 18 18-18 JaneMarple 0 1 2 1 2 1 18 18-18 gtho4 0 1 2 1 2 1 late starters 2 59 174 1 4 5 wooden spoon 0 1 2 1 2 best picks 0 5 16 5 16 perfect picks 0 8 20½ 8 20½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk 1. +1 FussBudget 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 gtho4 JaneMarple MrFox themonarch | 2 | | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | | 2 | | | 5 | | 1 4 . There were 21 starters in the barriers when the starter dropped his flag, three more than the 18 who lodged picks 4 years ago in Germany .. 14 are newbies.  A special welcome to Toffees, the new kid on the block. He's a Tranmere Rovers fan, but supports Everton on the other side of the Mersey. He was roped in by Davjack and gtho4 (he works down the other end of the building). The 7 survivors from the previous World Cup are: gtho4, Howie72, JaneMarple, LeoDaVinci ozzz2002, PaulE and Sypher. Of these 7 only 2 played in the 2002 edition: gtho4 and Sypher. These two players players have been here so long they've got no idea where the keys are to get out. Ask the manager of a 7-11 store if he or she knows where the front-door keys are .. they've got no idea either! FussBudget hit the ground running when the starter fired his gun, and has blown us all away to pick 5/8 and jump to a 2 pt lead. He was 4/4 after the first 2 days! Four players collected a wooden spoon each, with humungous picks of 1/8. As two #1 seeds won, you'd think 2/8 would've been good enough for a wooden spoon. Please note that with a mammoth field of 21 runners, bonus pts for solo picks has been extended from solo or one of two, to solo or one of three. That's 8 of 64 games behind us .. the next round is less than 24 hours away, and the World Cup final is 28 days away!

Post by dg_dave (7907) 1:57 AM Jun 14 10 Quote: Ask the manager of a 7-11 store if he or she knows where the front-door keys are .. they've got no idea either! I didn't know they had 7-11's in Australia!  They are based here in Dallas.

Post by ozzz2002 (4925) 3:02 AM Jun 14 10 7-11 have been here since 1977.  Quote: 7-Eleven Stores Pty. Ltd. is an Australian company privately owned by the Withers/Barlow family. The company develops and franchises 7-Eleven stores in Australia under license from 7-Eleven Inc. of Dallas, Texas. As at May 2010, 7-Eleven operates 400 stores along the eastern seaboard of Australia.  I did not realise that they had been operating quite THAT long.

Post by dg_dave (7907) 3:04 AM Jun 14 10 Well, they are on every street corner here...lol.

Post by FussBudgetVP (9820) 10:39 PM Jun 14 10 Quote: FussBudget hit the ground running when the starter fired his gun, and has blown us all away to pick 5/8 and jump to a 2 pt lead. He was 4/4 after the first 2 days! I feel I should request that we stop the competition NOW

Post by gtho4 (533) 5:38 AM Jun 17 10 2010 FIFA World Cup Round 2 Monday 14th June 21 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 17-1-00 5-2-11 13-5-00 4-4-13 4-5-12 19-1-10 1-2-18 19-1-10 2-0 1-0 1-1 1-1 0-0 2-1 0-1 0-1 17 5 5 4 5 19 18 1 17 20 07½ 14 12½ 19 36 3 E 1v3 Netherlands v Denmark E 4v2 Japan v Cameroon F 1v2 Italy v Paraguay F 4v3 New Zealand v Slovakia G 3v2 Ivory Coast v Portugal G 1v4 Brazil v North Korea H 4v2 Honduras v Chile H 1v3 Spain v Switzerland KrivoyRog  ozzz2002 Howie72 Sypher themonarch JaneMarple  KrivoyRog dg_dave Sypher themonarch srini701  triviapaul Howie72 BxBarracuda gtho4  triviapaul MrFox FussBudget Toffees srini701  triviapaul MrFox  triviapaul MrFox Davjack  JaneMarple ` 74 129 =203 three players failed to lodge picks for the first 3 games Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- ------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- ------------------- hf ws 1 3 1-3 Howie72 4 14 5 16½ 9 30½ 1 2 1 1-2 FussBudget 5 17 4 10½ 9 27½ 1 1 3 3 3-3 ozzz2002 4 14 4 12 8 26 1 4 2 2-4 KrivoyRog 3 15 3 7½ 6 22½ 1 5 10 5-10 srini701 3 9 5 13 8 22 1 6 3 3-6 DanielPoulson 4 14 3 7 7 21 7 8 7-8 Toffees 4 12 3 8½ 7 20½ 8 7 7-8 illiniman14 4 12½ 3 7 7 19½ 1 9 18 9-18 JaneMarple s 1 2 5 16 6 19 1 1 1 9 8 8-9 LeoDaVinci 4 12 3 7 7 19 11 14 11-14 Sypher 2 4 5 14½ 7 18½ 12 3 3-12 Davjack 4 14 2 4 6 18 13 18 13-18 themonarch 1 2 5 14½ 6 16½ 1 1 14 10 10-14 PaulE 3 9 3 7 6 16 15 14 14-15 BxBarracuda 2 4 4 11½ 6 15½ 16 13 13-16 dg_dave 2 5½ 4 9½ 6 15 1 17 12 12-17 szabs 3 7 3 7 6 14 18 18 18-18 gtho4 1 2 4 11½ 5 13½ 1 19 14 14-19 triviapaul 2 4 2 8 4 12 20 14 14-20 paper_aero 2 4 3 7 5 11 21 18 18-21 MrFox 1 2 1 3½ 2 5½ 2 late starters 10 74 203 5 5 6 wooden spoon 1 2 1 3½ 2 5½ best picks 5 16 5 16½ 10 32½ perfect picks 8 20½ 8 21½ 16 42 b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. +2 FussBudget 2. +3 Howie72 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 MrFox gtho4 JaneMarple themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher themonarch 1/8 MrFox | 3 | | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | | 2 | | | 6 | | 5 5 . Howie72 picks 5/8 and replaces FussBudget out front. He was one of five players to pick 5/8 and, with 16½ pts, was the best performance this round. FussBudget slips to second, and ozzz2002 retains 3rd place.  These three have skipped away to put 3½ pts between themselves and the rest of the field, where a mere 4½ pts separates 4th and 12th place. With just two rounds gone, we have just the one dead-heat in the standings (equal 9th) .. the rest of us have exclusive possession of our rung on the ladder. All of us picked picked Spain to win except for two .. triviapaul picked a draw, and JaneMarple went the whole hock; she picked Switzerland to win and collects a bonus point for her efforts. As news spread north from Fleet Street that she picked the upset, the BBC and The Times dropped in for an interview. The journalists tried, but she refused to divulge her secret formula. That's the end of Round 2 .. every country has now played one game (see next post for market movements). If you're wondering how long to go until the final, there's a countdown-timer at the top of the page.

Post by gtho4 (533) 5:39 AM Jun 17 10 market to win the comp: the first column is the pre-opening market back in December (when the draw for the group matches was announced); the second column is the market at the start of May; the third column is the market last week before the the first game; and fourth column as it stands today (after each of the 32 teams have played one game). . To win World Cup (pre-opening) Code: SPAIN 5.25 5.0 4.75 5.5 BRAZIL 6.0 5.5 5.5 5.5 ENGLAND 6.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 ARGENTINA 12.0 7.5 7.0 6.0 ITALY 12.0 14.0 15.0 15.0 NETHERLANDS 12.0 13.0 9.0 8.0 GERMANY 13.0 13.0 14.0 7.0 FRANCE 14.0 17.0 21.0 26.0 IVORY COAST 26.0 31.0 61.0 34.0 PORTUGAL 26.0 29.0 29.0 26.0 CHILE 41.0 67.0 71.0 51.0 DENMARK 67.0 101.0 126.0 201.0 GHANA 67.0 67.0 126.0 81.0 MEXICO 67.0 67.0 71.0 81.0 PARAGUAY 67.0 81.0 81.0 81.0 SERBIA 67.0 67.0 61.0 151.0 USA 67.0 81.0 81.0 67.0 AUSTRALIA 81.0 81.0 81.0 301.0 CAMEROON 81.0 121.0 101.0 301.0 NIGERIA 81.0 101.0 151.0 201.0 SOUTH AFRICA 81.0 101.0 126.0 751.0 URUGUAY 81.0 101.0 101.0 51.0 GREECE 101.0 101.0 126.0 501.0 SWITZERLAND 126.0 201.0 251.0 126.0 SLOVAKIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 501.0 SLOVENIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 301.0 JAPAN 201.0 251.0 351.0 251.0 ALGERIA 251.0 351.0 661.0 801.0 SOUTH KOREA 251.0 301.0 151.0 126.0 NORTH KOREA 501.0 751.0 1001.0 801.0 NEW ZEALAND 501.0 751.0 751.0 751.0 HONDURAS 601.0 751.0 801.0 1001.0     . To win World Cup (today) Code: BRAZIL 6.0 5.5 5.5 5.5 SPAIN 5.25 5.0 4.75 5.5 ARGENTINA 12.0 7.5 7.0 6.0 GERMANY 13.0 13.0 14.0 7.0 NETHERLANDS 12.0 13.0 9.0 8.0 ENGLAND 6.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 ITALY 12.0 14.0 15.0 15.0 PORTUGAL 26.0 29.0 29.0 26.0 FRANCE 14.0 17.0 21.0 26.0 IVORY COAST 26.0 31.0 61.0 34.0 URUGUAY 81.0 101.0 101.0 51.0 CHILE 41.0 67.0 71.0 51.0 USA 67.0 81.0 81.0 67.0 GHANA 67.0 67.0 126.0 81.0 MEXICO 67.0 67.0 71.0 81.0 PARAGUAY 67.0 81.0 81.0 81.0 SWITZERLAND 126.0 201.0 251.0 126.0 SOUTH KOREA 251.0 301.0 151.0 126.0 SERBIA 67.0 67.0 61.0 151.0 NIGERIA 81.0 101.0 151.0 201.0 DENMARK 67.0 101.0 126.0 201.0 JAPAN 201.0 251.0 351.0 251.0 SLOVENIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 301.0 CAMEROON 81.0 121.0 101.0 301.0 AUSTRALIA 81.0 81.0 81.0 301.0 SLOVAKIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 501.0 GREECE 101.0 101.0 126.0 501.0 SOUTH AFRICA 81.0 101.0 126.0 751.0 NORTH KOREA 501.0 751.0 1001.0 801.0 ALGERIA 251.0 351.0 661.0 801.0 NEW ZEALAND 501.0 751.0 751.0 751.0 HONDURAS 601.0 751.0 801.0 1001.0 The sequence for the table on the left is the pre-opening market; the sequence for the table on the right is as it stands today.

Post by srini701 (10746) 7:15 AM Jun 17 10 Quote: As news spread north from Fleet Street that she picked the upset, the BBC and The Times dropped in for an interview. The journalists tried, but she refused to divulge her secret formula. The media searched across the whole wide world, and found that less than 10 people had actually tipped Spain to lose to Switzerland....Jane's one of them....has she also become a multi-millionaire with this one tip?

Post by MrFox (17618) 10:43 AM Jun 17 10 Maybe I'll go for the spoon this year. I'm well on my way already.

Post by triviapaul (17912) 5:04 PM Jun 17 10 Another one in the category "it must be true 'cos it's on the internet": Did you know that when you Google 'oracle' and 'football', JaneMarple's name shows up?

Post by gtho4 (533) 5:39 PM Jun 19 10 2010 FIFA World Cup Round 3 Wednesday 16th June 21 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 5-7-90 15-4-20 5-4-12 20-0-10 18-3-00 3-6-12 20-1-00 8-2-11 0-3 0-2 2-1 4-1 0-1 2-2 0-0 1-1 9 2 5 20 0 6 1 2 27 4 10 20 0 18 2 7 A 4v3 RSA v Uruguay A 1v2 France v Mexico  B 2v3 Greece v Nigeria B 1v4 Argentina v KOR  D 1v2 Germany v Serbia C 4v2 Slovenia v USA C 1v3 England v Algeria D 4v3 Ghana v Australia MrFox dg_dave  MrFox dg_dave DanielPoulson ozzz2002 Sypher  JaneMarple  KrivoyRog dg_dave themonarch  Howie72 FussBudget LeoDaVinci paper_aero szabs Toffees  KrivoyRog  Howie72 illiniman14 ` 45 88 =133 Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- ------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- ------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 s 9 30½ 4 14½ 13 46 2 1 2 2 1-2 FussBudget 9 27½ 2 6 11 33½ 1 1 2 4 2-4 KrivoyRog ws 6 22½ 3 9 9 33½ 3 4 3 3-4 ozzz2002 8 26 2 5 10 31 1 5 7 5-8 Toffees 7 20½ 3 10 10 30½ 6 9 6-9 LeoDaVinci 7 19 3 10 10 29 7 11 7-14 Sypher 6 18½ 3 9 10 27½ 8 8 7-8 illiniman14 s 7 19½ 2 6½ 7 27 2 9 6 3-9 DanielPoulson 7 21 2 5 9 26 10 16 10-16 dg_dave ws 6 15 3 8 9 25 3 11 5 5-11 srini701 8 22 1 2 9 24 1 11 17 11-17 szabs 6 14 3 10 9 24 11 12 3-12 Davjack 6 18 2 6 8 24 14 14 10-14 PaulE 6 16 2 6 8 22 15 13 13-18 themonarch w 6 16½ 1 2 7 19½ 1 1 1 16 9 9-18 JaneMarple 6 19 0 0 6 19 1 2 1 17 21 17-21 MrFox s 2 5½ 4 12 6 18½ 1 2 1 18 15 14-18 BxBarracuda 6 15½ 1 2 7 17½ 19 20 14-20 paper_aero 5 11 2 6 7 17 20 18 18-20 gtho4 5 13½ 1 2 6 15½ 1 21 19 14-21 triviapaul 4 12 1 2 5 14 late starters 10 45 133 7 6 14 wooden spoon 2 5½ 0 0 2 5½ best picks 10 32½ 4 10½ 14 43 perfect picks 16 42 8 26½ 24 68½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. +2 FussBudget 2. +3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 MrFox JaneMarple gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher themonarch 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox 0/8 JaneMarple | 4 | | 5 | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | | 2 | | | 14 | | 7 6 . Howie72 wins this round as well with 4/8 and extends his lead out front to a mammoth eye-boggling 12½ pts. He can be caught .. each round has 8 pts up for grabs (there are seven rounds left). The other winner is MrFox .. he's no longer bringing up the rear. JaneMarple collects the wooden spoon with 0/8, aka zilch. That effort sees her drop 7 places and is now a mere ½ pt in front of MrFox. After 3 rounds these two players have two spoons and a weekly win! Biggest movers up the table were dg_dave and szabs .. both of them moved up 6 places. The 3rd round saw the first upset picked by no-one : Germany v Serbia 0-1. Three players picked a draw, and collect a bonus point for their efforts. The other upset was Algeria holding England to a 0-0 draw. All of us picked England except for KrivoyRog. He picked a draw, and collected a bonus point for a solo pick. Each country in Groups A to D have just the one match left. If the USA and England win their last group match, the USA will top the group and England will face Germany in the KO Round if Germany win their group. Germany will probably beat Ghana 3-0, which means Australia will go through to play the USA if they beat Serbia 3-0. If the unthinkable happens and Germany lose (say) 0-1 again, Australia are cactus .. they need to beat Serbia 6-0. Something to ponder -- Germany thump Ghana 4-0 and Australia scramble home 1-0 against Serbia. Ghana and Australia will end up with identical pts, an identical GD and identical goals scored. Which country progresses to the KO Round? FIFA pull a coin out of their pocket and give it a toss skywards (there used to be play-offs for dead-heats but FIFA, in their wisdom, got rid of them years ago).  Mexico v Uruguay will probably be a drab affair, as a draw will guarantee both of them a spot in the KO Round .. and that will see South Africa become the first host eliminated at the group stage. Group A Code: W D L F-A GD pts Uruguay 1 1 0 3-0 +3 4 Mexico 1 1 0 3-1 +2 4 France 0 1 1 0-2 -2 1 RSA 0 1 1 1-4 -3 1 Mexico v Uruguay France v Sth Africa Group B Code: W D L F-A GD pts Argentina 2 0 0 5-1 +4 6 Sth Korea 1 0 1 3-4 -1 3 Greece 1 0 1 2-3 -1 3 Nigeria 0 0 2 1-3 -2 0 Nigeria v South Korea Greece v Argentina Group C Code: W D L F-A GD pts Slovenia 1 1 0 3-2 +1 4 USA 0 2 0 3-3 0 2 England 0 2 0 1-1 0 2 Algeria 0 1 1 0-1 -1 1 Slovenia v England USA v Algeria Group D Code: W D L F-A GD pts Ghana 1 1 0 2 1 +1 4 Germany 1 0 1 4 1 +3 3 Serbia 1 0 1 1 1 0 3 Australia 0 1 1 1 5 -4 1 Ghana v Germany Australia v Serbia

Post by Toffees (22626) 5:12 AM Jun 21 10 George, I thought if it was a dead heat that the team higher in FIFA rankings coming into the competition goes through.........?

Post by srini701 (10746) 6:01 AM Jun 21 10 I have a question. We get points in initial rounds for seeding of the teams. What happens in KO rounds? How will the teams be seeded (just 1, 2 based on where they finish in group) or do they carry forward their seedings from round 1 (say a 4th ranked team qualifies, will it still carry a weightage of 4 points if it wins round 2)?

Post by gtho4 (533) 7:21 AM Jun 21 10 Quote: I have a question. We get points in initial rounds for seeding of the teams. What happens in KO rounds? How will the teams be seeded (just 1, 2 based on where they finish in group) or do they carry forward their seedings from round 1 (say a 4th ranked team qualifies, will it still carry a weightage of 4 points if it wins round 2)?  The seedings don't change, they apply from start to finish

Post by gtho4 (533) 7:28 AM Jun 21 10 Quote: George, I thought if it was a dead heat that the team higher in FIFA rankings coming into the competition goes through.........?  nope, you'd think they'd choose something, anything, apart from drawing of lots (toss of a coin). See paragraph 5 of regulation 39 : Regulations 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (it's on pages 49 and 50) I think there was a coin toss in the European Nations Cup in the 1960s, after a play-off was still drawn after extra time, but I can't put my hands on it at the moment to vefify.

Post by gtho4 (533) 7:41 AM Jun 21 10 Found it; it was one of the semi-finals of Euro 1968, which ended a draw after extra time. There was no replay. SEMIFINALS  Napoli, June 5, San Paolo Stadium Italy 0-0 Soviet Union [aet] [ref: Tschenscher (West Germany); att: 69,000] Italy: Zoff, Burgnich, Facchetti, Bercellino, Castano, Ferrini, Domenghini, Juliano, Mazzola, Rivera, Prati Soviet Union: Psenichnikov, Afonin, Istomin, Kaplichni, Shesternev, Lenev, Malofeev, Byshovets, Banishevsky, Logofet, Evriuzhikin  Italy progresses on coin toss.  Firenze, June 5, Stadio Comunale Yugoslavia 1-0 England [Dzajic 86] [ref: Ortiz de Mendibil (Spain); att: 22,000] [sent off: Mullery 90] Yugoslavia: Pantelic, Fazlagic, Damjanovic, Pavlovic, Paunovic, Holcer, Petkovic, Osim, Musemic, Trivic, Dzajic England: Banks, Newton, Wilson, Mullery, Labone, Moore, Ball, Peters, B. Charlton, Hunt, Hunter  Italy beat Yugoslavia 2-0 in a replay, after the final finished 1-1 aet : http://www.rsssf.com/tables/68e.html

Post by ozzz2002 (4925) 8:04 AM Jun 21 10 What a coincidence! That is how I pick my tips.

Post by KrivoyRog (12220) 6:27 PM Jun 21 10 A chap rang into Talksport Radio today and said he'd studied previous World Cups and noticed that, especially in the early group games, teams were very cagey and defences were generally on top. So he stuck a load of bets on scores of 0-0, 1-0, 1-1. He was right. I think 12 of the first 16 games were these low scores. He didn't say how much he'd won but it was a tidy sum. Why didn't I think of that!

Post by dg_dave (7907) 10:48 PM Jun 21 10 He lost with Portugal!

Post by gtho4 (533) 1:57 AM Jun 22 10 2010 FIFA World Cup Round 4 Saturday 19th June 20 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 19-1-00 5-9-60 6-4-10 20-0-00 18-1-10 15-4-10 11-7-20 19-0-10 1-0 1-2 0-2 1-1 3-1 7-0 1-0 1-0 19 6 10 0 18 15 11 19 19 18 20 0 18 30 22 19 E 1v4 Netherlands v Japan E 2v3 Cameroon v Denmark F 3v2 Slovakia v Paraguay F 1v4 Italy v New Zealand G 1v3 Brazil v Ivory Coast G 2v4 Portugal v Nth Korea H 2v3 Chile v Switzerland H 1v4 Spain v Honduras MrFox  JaneMarple KrivoyRog DanielPoulson Davjack Howie72 Sypher  JaneMarple srini701  MrFox gtho4 KrivoyRog PaulE triviapaul  JaneMarple ` 98 146 =244 Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- --------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- --------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 13 46 5 13 18 59 2 1 2 2 2-4 KrivoyRog 9 33½ 6 16 15 49½ 3 3 5 3-8 Toffees 10 30½ 6 15 16 45½ 4 9 3-9 DanielPoulson 9 26 7 19 16 45 1 5 4 3-5 ozzz2002 10 31 5 12 15 43 1 6 2 1-6 FussBudget 11 33½ 4 9 15 42½ 1 1 1 7 6 6-9 LeoDaVinci 10 29 5 12 15 41 8 7 7-14 Sypher 10 27½ 5 13 15 40½ 9 11 5-11 srini701 9 24 5 13 14 37 1 9 11 3-12 Davjack 8 24 5 13 13 37 11 11 11-17 szabs 9 24 5 12 14 36 11 8 7-11 illiniman14 7 27 4 9 11 36 1 2 13 14 10-14 PaulE 8 22 5 12 13 34 14 10 10-16 dg_dave 9 25 13 33 3 15 20 14-20 paper_aero 7 17 6 15 13 32 16 16 9-18 JaneMarple 6 19 4 12 10 31 1 3 1 17 17 17-21 MrFox 6 18½ 4 10 10 28½ 1 3 1 18 15 13-18 themonarch 7 19½ 4 8 11 27½ 1 2 1 19 18 14-19 BxBarracuda 7 17½ 4 9 11 26½ 1 20 19 14-21 triviapaul 5 14 5 12 10 26 21 21 18-21 gtho4 6 15½ 4 9 10 24½ 2 late starters 25 98 244 8 13 14 wooden spoon 2 5½ 4 8 6 13½ best picks 14 43 7 19 21 62 perfect picks 24 68½ 8 21½ 32 90 b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. +2 FussBudget 2. +3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. +9½ Howie72 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox themonarch 0/8 JaneMarple themonarch illiniman14 98/168 58.3% | 4 | 7/8 DanielPoulson 4/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 Bxbarracuda FussBudget | 5 | | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | | 2 | | | 14 | | 8 13 . DanielPoulson hits pay dirt with a humungous 7/8 .. he missed the Italy v NZ draw, like the rest of us! With that effort he flies up the table into 4th place.  Seven of us collected a wooden spoon each .. that's 1/3rd of the field. Howie72 and KrivoyRog retain 1st and 2nd place, but every one else in the top 10 moved up or down.  Cameroon and North Korea have started packing their bags. They're the first teams eliminated .. they cannot progress to the KO round no matter what happens in their last group match. One more round of picks and we're half through the comp. Group E Code: W D L F-A GD pts Netherlands 2 0 0 3-0 +3 6 Japan 1 0 1 1-1 0 3 Denmark 1 0 1 2-3 -1 3 Cameroon 0 0 2 1-3 -2 0 Denmark v Japan Cameroon v Netherlands Group F Code: W D L F-A GD pts Paraguay 1 1 0 3-1 +2 4 New Zealand 0 2 0 2-2 0 2 Italy 0 2 0 2-2 0 2 Slovakia 0 1 1 1-3 -2 1 Slovakia v Italy Paraguay v New Zealand Group G Code: W D L F-A GD pts Brazil 2 0 0 5-2 +3 6 Portugal 1 1 0 7-0 +7 4 Ivory Coast 0 1 1 1-3 -2 1 North Korea 0 0 2 1-9 -8 0 Portugal v Brazil N Korea v Ivory Coast Group H Code: W D L F-A GD pts Chile 2 0 0 2-0 +2 6 Spain 1 0 1 2-1 +1 3 Switzerland 1 0 1 1-1 0 3 Honduras 0 0 2 0-3 -3 0 Switzerland v Honduras Chile v Spain

Post by gtho4 (533) 5:16 AM Jun 24 10 2010 FIFA World Cup end of group matches Groups A-D Round 5 Tuesday 22nd June 21 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 7-9-50 12-6-30 4-9-80 0-0-21 1-4-16 3-5-13 0-0-19 8-8-50 0-1 1-2 2-2 0-2 0-1 0-1 0-1 2-1 5 3 9 21 16 13 21 8 150 120 31½ 210 160 260 210 240 A 2v3 Mexico v Uruguay A 1v4 France v Sth Africa B 3v4 Nigeria v Sth Korea B 2v1 Greece v Argentina C 4v1 Slovenia v England C 3v2 Algeria v USA D 4v1 Ghana v Germany D 3v2 Australia v Serbia themonarch gtho4 LeoDaVinci MrFox Toffees  themonarch gtho4 PaulE  themonarch dg_dave JaneMarple KrivoyRog szabs  MrFox Toffees FussBudget gtho4 PaulE JaneMarple Davjack Sypher ` 96 166½ =262½ Ghana v Germany was a gimme Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- --------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- --------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 18 59 5 13½ 23 72½ 2 1 2 3 2-8 Toffees 16 45½ 6 17 22 62½ 3 6 1-6 FussBudget 15 42½ 5 14½ 20 57 1 1 1 4 7 4-9 LeoDaVinci 15 41 5 14½ 20 55½ 5 4 3-9 DanielPoulson 16 45 4 9 20 54 1 6 2 2-6 KrivoyRog 15 49½ 2 4 17 53½ 1 3 6 5 3-6 ozzz2002 15 43 4 10½ 19 53½ 1 8 13 8-14 PaulE s 13 34 6 18 19 53 1 9 8 7-14 Sypher 15 40½ 4 10 19 50½ 10 17 10-21 MrFox 10 28½ 7 21½ 17 50 2 3 1 11 18 11-18 themonarch s 11 27½ 6 20½ 17 49 1 2 2 12 9 5-12 srini701 14 37 4 10½ 18 47½ 1 12 21 12-21 gtho4 s 10 24½ 7 22 17 47½ 1 2 1 14 9 3-14 Davjack 13 37 4 10 17 47 15 11 7-15 illiniman14 11 36 4 9 15 45 1 2 16 14 10-16 dg_dave 13 33 4 11½ 17 44½ 3 17 11 11-17 szabs 14 36 3 7 17 43 18 15 14-20 paper_aero 13 32 4 10½ 17 42½ 19 16 9-19 JaneMarple 10 31 4 11 14 42 1 3 1 10 19 14-19 BxBarracuda 11 26½ 4 9 15 35½ 1 21 20 14-21 triviapaul 10 26 4 9 14 35 late starters 34 96 262½ 10 14 17 wooden spoon 6 13½ 2 4 6 13½ best picks 21 62 7 22 28 84 perfect picks 32 90 8 26½ 32 116½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. +2 FussBudget 2. +3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. + 9½ Howie72 5. +10 Howie72 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox themonarch 0/8 JaneMarple themonarch illiniman14 98/168 58.3% | 4 | 7/8 DanielPoulson 4/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 Bxbarracuda FussBudget 96/168 57.1% 3 | 5 | 7/8 gtho4 MrFox 2/8 KrivoyRog | 6 | | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | | 2 | | | 17 | | 10 14 . MrFox and gtho4 are this round's winners with 7/8. After 5 rounds MrFox has received 5 awards, two wins and three spoons! KrivoyRog collects the wooden spoon with 2/8 and slips from 2nd to 6th place. Toffees replaces him in 2nd place, and the former leader FussBudget is back into the top three. Howie72 is still somewhere out there on the horizon, all on his lonesome.  Ghana v Germany was a gimme for Toffees and gtho4 as everyone picked Germany. Toffees picked G as the winner, when both teams started with G, and gtho4 reposted his tips to fix the missing pick, and then deleted the new post instead of the original post. Three players picked the upset win by South Africa, and collected a bonus point each for their efforts. despite the win, South Africa failed to progress, on goal difference .. ditto Australia. They also won against a higher seed, but failed to progress on goal difference *sniff* Four of the 8 groups have now been decided .. 8 teams progress and the others have started to pack. Three of the #1 seeds are through (France failed to progress) .. and two of the four #4 seeds made it through to the KO Round. That's half the matches for the KO Round settled. The identity of the other 8 teams to play in the KO Round will be decided on Friday, just 18 odd hours before the KO Round starts! Please note that you can lodge your 8 picks for the KO matches in two sets of four (the first deadline is Saturday and the second deadline is Monday) : FIFA World Cup [ 7 ] Sat 26th June. Tips for the last set of group matches closes later today : FIFA World Cup [ 6 ] Thu 24th June. Group A Code: W D L F-A pts (3) Uruguay 2 1 0 4-0 +4 7 (2) Mexico 1 1 1 3-2 +1 4 (4) RSA 1 1 1 3-5 -2 4 (1) France 0 1 2 1-4 -3 1 Group B Code: W D L F-A pts (1) Argentina 3 0 0 7-1 +6 9 (4) Sth Korea 1 1 1 5-6 -1 4 (2) Greece 1 0 2 2-5 -3 3 (3) Nigeria 0 1 2 3-5 -2 1 Group C Code: W D L F-A pts (2) USA 1 2 0 4-3 +1 5 (1) England 1 2 0 2-1 +1 5 (4) Slovenia 1 1 1 3-3 0 4 (3) Algeria 0 1 2 0-2 -2 1 Group D Code: W D L F-A pts (1) Germany 2 0 1 5 1 +4 6 (4) Ghana 1 1 1 2 2 0 4 (3) Australia 1 1 1 3 6 -3 4 (2) Serbia 1 0 2 2 3 -1 3

Post by gtho4 (533) 8:13 AM Jun 24 10 Advance tips lodged in Round 5, second last set of group matches Code: Name the four semi-finalists one point a pick, added into Round 9 pts (the 2nd last round) Bxbarracuda 4 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands DanielPoulson 4 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina Davjack 4 Brazil Germany Netherlands Italy dg_dave 4 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Ghana FussBudget 4 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands gtho4 4 Brazil Argentina Chile USA Howie72 4 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy illiniman14 4 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy JaneMarple 4 Brazil Germany England Italy KrivoyRog 4 Brazil Netherlands Chile Mexico LeoDaVinci 4 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Paraguay MrFox 4 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina ozzz2002 4 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands paper_aero 4 Germany Spain Argentina Netherlands PaulE 4 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina srini701 4 Brazil Germnay Argentina Paraguay Sypher 4 Brazil Germany England Argentina szabs 4 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina triviapaul 4 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands Toffees 4 Brazil England Argentina Chile themonarch 4 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Chile 84 20 15 5+3 16 10 4+2 4+1 2+1+1 Those of us who have *both* England and Germany will lose one of them on the weekend, as they face each other in the KO Round. Thirteen countries have been selected, of which seven are #1 seeds:      20 16 15 10 5 4 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 (1) Brazil (1) Argentina (1) Germany (1) Netherlands (1) Spain (2) Chile (1) Italy (1) England (3) Uruguay (2) Paraguay (4) Ghana (2) Mexico (2) USA

Post by srini701 (10746) 10:40 AM Jun 24 10 Quote: Those of us who have *both* England and Germany will lose one of them on the weekend, as they face each other in the KO Round. And those of us who have *both* Germany and Argentina or England and Argentina in the semis will also lose one of them once the quarters are done  Whoever picked USA/Ghana/Uruguay (there are about 4-5 of you), hats off to you ....just wish South Koreamakes it to the last 4 instead of any of these 3 (that's sadism for you  )

Post by gtho4 (533) 5:56 AM Jun 26 10 2010 FIFA World Cup end of group matches Groups E-H Round 6 Thursday 24th June 21 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 1-4-16 15-2-40 8-7-60 0-2-19 3-3-15 2-4-15 15-4-20 3-2-16 3-2 0-0 1-3 1-2 1-3 0-0 0-0 1-2 1 2 6 19 15 4 4 16 30 60 240 190 450 60 140 160 F 3v1 Slovakia v Italy F 2v4 Paraguay v New Zealand E 3v4 Denmark v Japan E 2v1 Cameroon v Netherlands G 4v3 Nth Korea v Ivory Coast G 2v1 Portugal v Brazil H 3v4 Switzerland v Honduras H 2v1 Chile v Spain JaneMarple  dg_dave Sypher  dg_dave Sypher LeoDaVinci Howie72 Toffees KrivoyRog  FussBudget LeoDaVinci  illiniman14 paper_aero themonarch Toffees  illiniman14 paper_aero themonarch szabs  BxBarracuda ozzz2002 triviapaul Toffees KrivoyRog ` 66 132 =198 Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- --------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- --------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 23 72½ 4 13 27 85½ 2 1 2 2 2-8 Toffees 22 62½ 4 13½ 26 76 3 9 3-14 Sypher s 19 50½ 4 15 23 66½ 1 3 4 3-9 LeoDaVinci 20 55½ 3 11 23 66½ 5 11 5-18 themonarch 17 49 5 15 22 64 2 2 2 6 5 3-9 DanielPoulson 20 54 3 8 23 62 1 7 8 7-14 PaulE 19 53 3 8 22 61 1 8 6 2-8 KrivoyRog 17 53½ 2 7 19 60½ 1 3 9 15 7-15 illiniman14 15 45 5 15 20 60 1 1 2 10 3 1-10 FussBudget 20 57 1 2 21 59 1 2 1 11 16 10-16 dg_dave s 17 44½ 4 13 21 58½ 4 12 10 10-21 MrFox 17 50 3 8 20 58 2 3 1 13 18 13-20 paper_aero 17 42½ 5 15 22 57½ 1 14 12 5-14 srini701 18 47½ 3 8 21 55½ 1 14 17 11-17 szabs 17 43 4 12½ 21 55½ 14 12 12-21 gtho4 17 47½ 3 8 20 55½ 1 2 1 14 6 3-14 ozzz2002 19 53½ 1 2 20 55½ 1 1 18 14 3-18 Davjack 17 47 3 8 20 55 19 19 9-19 JaneMarple s 14 42 3 8 17 51 1 3 2 20 21 14-21 triviapaul 14 35 2 6 16 41 21 20 14-21 BxBarracuda 15 35½ 1 2 16 37½ 2 late starters 37 66 198 13 17 20 wooden spoon 8 17½ 1 2 9 19½ best picks 28 84 5 15 33 99 perfect picks 32 116½ 8 28 40 144½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. + 2 FussBudget 2. + 3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. + 9½ Howie72 5. +10 Howie72 6. + 9½ Howie72 7. 8. 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox themonarch 0/8 JaneMarple themonarch illiniman14 98/168 58.3% | 4 | 7/8 DanielPoulson 4/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 BxBarracuda FussBudget 96/168 57.1% 3 | 5 | 7/8 gtho4 MrFox 2/8 KrivoyRog 66/168 39.3% 3 | 6 | 5/8 illiniman14 paper_aero themonarch 1/8 ozzz2002 BxBarracuda FussBudget | 7 | | 8 | | 9 | |10 | | | 20 | | 13 17 . There were three winners for the last set of group matches, and three wooden spooners. All three winners have moved up 5 or 6 places .. themonarch is on a roll .. in two rounds he's gone from 18th to 11th to 5th! He's now a mere 2½ pts off the podium. FussBudget and his spoon fell 7 places from 3rd to 10th but ozzz2002 went one better. He fell 8 places from 6th to 14th. There was a lot of movement and jostling in the standings. All of us moved up or down a spot or two, or eight, apart from the two leaders and JaneMarple in 19th place. Protests have been lodged alleging swinging elbows, tripping and feigned diving .. the stewards are still examining the prints. dg_dave, JaneMarple and Sypher all scored a bonus point for solo picks. We've played 6 rounds and dg_dave has collected 4 bonus points! Everyone except four has now scored a weekly win, collected a wooden spoon, or tipped a solo pick. The four players who are still looking for their first, of any description: Toffees, szabs, Davjack and triviapaul. In a remarkable display of consistency Toffees has nonetheless managed to hang on to 2nd place. Howie72 is still out there somewhere on the horizon. Toffees is 9½ pts in arrears. The gap back to Sypher and LeoDaVinci in equal 3rd place is also 9½ pts! The 11 players in 3rd to 13th are separated by 9 pts .. and the rest of us are praying for a miracle. Although there are still 4 rounds left, the only players with a realistic chance of catching the two runaways are those 11 players. That's the end of the group stage. Of the eight groups only two were played out according to the scrip, and finished according to their seedings 1-2-3-4 .. Group G and Group H. The upsets were in the other 6 groups.  The KO Round starts this morning (USA), today (UK) or tonight (India and oz) : FIFA World Cup [ 7 ] Sat 26th June. Group E Code: W D L F-A pts (1) Netherla 3 0 0 5-1 +4 9 (4) Japan 2 0 1 4-2 +2 6 (3) Denmark 1 0 2 3-6 -3 3 (2) Cameroon 0 0 3 2-5 -3 0 Group F Code: W D L F-A pts (2) Paraguay 1 2 0 3-1 +2 5 (3) Slovakia 1 1 1 4-5 -1 4 (4) N Zealand 0 3 0 2-2 0 3 (1) Italy 0 2 1 4-5 -1 2 Group G Code: W D L F-A pts (1) Brazil 2 1 0 5-2 +3 7 (2) Portugal 1 2 0 7-0 +7 5 (3) I Coast 1 1 1 4-3 +1 4 (4) N Korea 0 0 3 1-12 -11 0 Group H Code: W D L F-A pts (1) Spain 2 0 1 4-2 +2 6 (2) Chile 2 0 1 3-2 +1 6 (3) Switzerl 1 1 1 1-1 0 4 (4) Honduras 0 1 2 0-3 -3 1

Post by gtho4 (533) 8:24 AM Jun 26 10 market to win the comp: the first column is the pre-opening market back in December (when the draw for the group matches was announced); the second column is the market at the start of May; the third column is the market last week before the the first game; the fourth column was after each of the 32 teams have played one game; and the 5th column is today, a the end of the group stage. . . To win World Cup Code: BRAZIL 6.0 5.5 5.5 5.5 4.5 SPAIN 5.25 5.0 4.75 5.5 5.0 ARGENTINA 12.0 7.5 7.0 6.0 5.5 GERMANY 13.0 13.0 14.0 7.0 11.0 NETHERLANDS 12.0 13.0 9.0 8.0 7.0 ENGLAND 6.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 11.0 ITALY 12.0 14.0 15.0 15.0 PORTUGAL 26.0 29.0 29.0 26.0 21.0 FRANCE 14.0 17.0 21.0 26.0 IVORY COAST 26.0 31.0 61.0 34.0 URUGUAY 81.0 101.0 101.0 51.0 17.0 CHILE 41.0 67.0 71.0 51.0 45.0 USA 67.0 81.0 81.0 67.0 41.0 GHANA 67.0 67.0 126.0 81.0 51.0 MEXICO 67.0 67.0 71.0 81.0 81.0 PARAGUAY 67.0 81.0 81.0 81.0 41.0 SWITZERLAND 126.0 201.0 251.0 126.0 SOUTH KOREA 251.0 301.0 151.0 126.0 101.0 SERBIA 67.0 67.0 61.0 151.0 NIGERIA 81.0 101.0 151.0 201.0 DENMARK 67.0 101.0 126.0 201.0 JAPAN 201.0 251.0 351.0 251.0 91.0 SLOVENIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 301.0 CAMEROON 81.0 121.0 101.0 301.0 AUSTRALIA 81.0 81.0 81.0 301.0 SLOVAKIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 501.0 201.0 GREECE 101.0 101.0 126.0 501.0 SOUTH AFRICA 81.0 101.0 126.0 751.0 NORTH KOREA 501.0 751.0 1001.0 801.0 ALGERIA 251.0 351.0 661.0 801.0 NEW ZEALAND 501.0 751.0 751.0 751.0 HONDURAS 601.0 751.0 801.0 1001.0 The sequence for the table is as it stood after each team had played one game (the 4th column).

Post by MrFox (17618) 10:09 AM Jun 26 10 I was wondering if we can get bonus points for guessing the score? Just a suggestion.

Post by gtho4 (533) 11:35 AM Jun 26 10 It's too late to change the rules; we shouldn't change them mid-stream half-way through a tipping comp. btw pick the score was used in Euro 2008 as there were fewer games played (16 teams in that comp vs. 32 teams in the World Cup). They weren't bonus pts but actual picks - 4 games each round + 4 pick the scores = 8 picks a round.

Post by illiniman14 (19552) 1:07 PM Jun 26 10 More of a comical note really, but Sypher seems to have stolen my spot under the 'weekly winner' column for the last set

Post by gtho4 (533) 9:45 AM Jun 27 10 oops, now fixed!

Post by MrFox (17618) 7:41 AM Jun 29 10 ok

Post by gtho4 (533) 1:19 AM Jun 30 10 2010 FIFA World Cup KO Round Round 7 Saturday 26th June 21 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 16-0-10 10-2-60 9-5-60 18-1-10 20-1-00 18-0-10 9-7-50 9-6-50 2-1 1-1 4-1 3-1 2-1 3-0 0-0 1-0 16 2 9 18 20 18 7 9 480 60 90 180 200 180 210 90 3v4 Uruguay v S Korea 2v4 USA v Ghana 1v1 Germany v England 1v2 Argentina v Mexico 1v3 Netherlands v SVK 1v2 Brazil v Chile 2v4 Paraguay v Japan 1v2 Spain v Portugal JaneMarple Howie72 Davjack LeoDaVinci Sypher  srini701 paper_aero  KrivoyRog triviapaul Davjack  MrFox  KrivoyRog BxBarracuda PaulE  srini701 triviapaul Howie72 gtho4 LeoDaVinci ozzz2002 themonarch  ` 99 149 =248 no tips x4 for 1st game, x3 for 2nd game, x1 for 3rd game,  x1 for 4th game, x2 for 6th game and x1 for last game! (15 of 21 players lodged picks for everything) Ghana won 2-1 aet and Paraguay advanced on penalties Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- --------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- --------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 27 85½ 6 14 33 99½ 2 1 2 2 2-8 Toffees 26 76 4 10 30 86 3 5 3-18 themonarch 22 64 6 16 28 80 2 2 2 4 3 3-9 LeoDaVinci 23 66½ 5 12 28 78½ 5 14 5-14 srini701 s 21 55½ 7 20 28 76½ 2 1 6 6 3-9 DanielPoulson 23 62 6 14 29 76 1 7 3 3-14 Sypher 23 66½ 4 8 27 74½ 1 8 13 8-20 paper_aero s 22 57½ 5 14 27 72½ 1 1 9 9 7-15 illiniman14 20 60 5 12 25 72 1 1 2 10 14 3-14 ozzz2002 20 55½ 6 16 26 71½ 1 1 11 10 1-11 FussBudget 21 59 5 12 26 71 1 2 1 12 12 10-21 MrFox 20 58 5 12 25 70 2 3 1 13 14 11-17 szabs 21 55½ 6 14 27 69½ 13 14 12-21 gtho4 20 55½ 5 14 25 69½ 1 2 1 15 7 7-15 PaulE 22 61 3 8 25 69 1 1 16 11 10-16 dg_dave 21 58½ 4 10 25 68½ 4 16 8 2-16 KrivoyRog 19 60½ 3 8 22 68½ 2 3 18 18 3-18 Davjack 20 55 3 6 23 61 1 19 19 9-19 JaneMarple 17 51 3 6 20 57 1 4 2 20 20 14-21 triviapaul 16 41 4 12 20 53 21 21 14-21 BxBarracuda 16 37½ 4 10 20 47½ 2 late starters 60 99 248 14 21 22 wooden spoon 9 19½ 3 6 12 25½ best picks 33 99 7 20 40 106 perfect picks 40 144½ 8 22 48 166½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. + 2 FussBudget 2. + 3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. + 9½ Howie72 5. +10 Howie72 6. + 9½ Howie72 7. +13½ Howie72 8. 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox themonarch 0/8 JaneMarple themonarch illiniman14 98/168 58.3% | 4 | 7/8 DanielPoulson 4/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 BxBarracuda FussBudget 96/168 57.1% 3 | 5 | 7/8 gtho4 MrFox 2/8 KrivoyRog 66/168 39.3% 3 | 6 | 5/8 paper_aero Sypher themonarch 1/8 ozzz2002 BxBarracuda FussBudget 99/156 63.4% 2 | 7 | 7/8 srini701 3/8 JaneMarple Davjack KrivioyRog PauklE | 8 | | 9 | |10 | | | 22 | | 14 21 . srini701 is this round's winner with humungous picks of 7/8. He picked all matches except Germany v England to fly up the table into 4th place .. he moved up *nine* spots!  There were 4 wooden spooners. PaulE tumbled *eight* places from 7th (his highest position so far) to 15th (his lowest position so far). KrivoyRog also dropped 8 spots .. over the last 4 rounds KrivoyRog has fallen from 2nd - 6th - 8th - 16th. Despite scoring zero for the first game, Howie72 continues on his merry way out front. He picked 6 of the remaining 7 games (another show-off like srini701, lol) and extends his lead even more, to a mouth-watering 13½ pts. Toffees retains 2nd spot but sees his margin over 3rd cut back to 6 pts .. themonarch is on a roll .. over the previous three rounds he climbed 18th to 11th to 5th. This week he's moved up again, into 3rd place and onto the podium! The scheduling of this tournament by FIFA has played havoc with this round. We had just 18 odd hours between the last group MATCH and the first of 8 matches in this round (which were spread across 4 days to "mirror" when the last match in each group was played aka allow the teams a break). We tried to get around this by allowing tips in two sets of four which, with advance picks for the final, created one almighty mess.  BxBarracuda lodged his picks in sets, of six and two, and picked one game twice (same pick in both sets). PaulE lodged one set of six, but didn't make it back in time for the second set of two. Davjack made it for the second set of four, but missed the first set and his advance picks. Toffees lodged his second set using his mobile phone! Howie72 and LeoDaVinci were running around looking for an internet cafe (they're both away at the moment) .. Howie72 missed the first game and LeoDaVinci missed the first two games (ditto Sypher). All of those players received zero for the games missed .. if JaneMarple had picked Uruguay for the first game it would've been a gimme for the four who missed it (everyone else who lodged picks chose Uruguay) .. which leaves us with the advance picks lodged by Howie72, LeoDaVinci and Sypher. Their advance picks were lodged after the first game had started, but none of their advance picks had played. The luck of the draw favoured them .. they were fortunate that the scheduling of group matches put all the tournament favourites (and their picks) towards the end of the KO Round, rather than the front i.e. none of their advance picks and none of the tournament favourites played in the first two games.  As none of these three players gained any advantage I'm inclined, at the moment, to let their advance picks stand. I don't see the point in killing them off just because they're running around looking for a cafe .. Sypher wasn't, he simply forgot; so let's give him zero pts for his advance picks, lol. The alternative is to ignore the two advance picks for the finalists but allow the advance pick for the winner, on the basis that (a) there is no way known to man that the first two games had *any* input into selecting a winner (b) they "deserve" to have a penalty inflicted upon them. Please note that, if the 3rd game had started, no advance picks would have been accepted.  Fair dinkum, you three blokes are causing some angst working out what to do! Anyone else got any thoughts on what's fair and equitable .. keep in mind that the deadline I chose for the advance picks was to ensure that no team had played when the advance picks were chosen .. which, as it has tuned out, is what happened anyway with these three players. Three players are still looking for their first win, spoon or bonus point: Toffees, szabs and triviapaul. In a remarkable display of consistency Toffees continues to hang in there and retain 2nd place. We're now down to the business end of the comp .. quarter-finals, semis and final. There are 3 rounds left and 25 pts up for grabs. The quarter-finals start at the end of the week : FIFA World Cup [ 8 ] Fri 2nd July. The two sets of advance picks are in the post below this one .. 9 of 21 players have lost one or two sem-finalists, and 2 players have already lost a finalist and their winner.

Post by gtho4 (533) 1:20 AM Jun 30 10 Advance tips lodged in Round 5, second last set of group matches Code: Name the four semi-finalists one point a pick, added into Round 9 pts (the 2nd last round) Bxbarracuda Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands DanielPoulson Brazil Germany Spain Argentina Davjack 3 Brazil Germany Netherlands Italy dg_dave Brazil Argentina Netherlands Ghana FussBudget Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands gtho4 2 Brazil Argentina Chile USA Howie72 3 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy illiniman14 3 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy JaneMarple 2 Brazil Germany England Italy KrivoyRog 2 Brazil Netherlands Chile Mexico LeoDaVinci Brazil Argentina Netherlands Paraguay MrFox Brazil Germany Spain Argentina ozzz2002 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands paper_aero Germany Spain Argentina Netherlands PaulE Brazil Germany Spain Argentina srini701 Brazil Germany Argentina Paraguay Sypher 3 Brazil Germany England Argentina szabs Brazil Germany Spain Argentina triviapaul Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands Toffees 2 Brazil England Argentina Chile themonarch 3 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Chile 84 20 15 5+3 16 10 4+2 4+1 2+1+1 Advance tips lodged in Round 7, knock-out round Code: Name the two finalists and the winner one point each finalist, plus 4 pts max for picking the winner; added into Round 10 (final round) -------- two finalists ------- --------- winner-------------- Bxbarracuda Brazil Portugal Brazil DanielPoulson Argentina Netherlands Netherlands Davjack dg_dave Brazil Argentina Argentina FussBudget Argentina Netherlands Argentina gtho4 Brazil Argentina Argentina Howie72 Brazil Germany Brazil illiniman14 Brazil Argentina Brazil JaneMarple Argentina England England KrivoyRog Mexico Netherlands Netherlands LeoDaVinci Brazil Argentina Argentina MrFox Brazil Argentina Argentina ozzz2002 Brazil Netherlands Netherlands paper_aero Brazil Argentina Brazil PaulE Brazil Spain Spain srini701 Brazil Spain Brazil Sypher Brazil Argentina Argentina szabs Argentina Spain Spain triviapaul Brazil Argentina Brazil Toffees Brazil England England themonarch Argentina Netherlands Netherlands 14 13+1 5+3+2+1+1 6+2 6 4+2 One player did not lodge advance picks (his name is Davjack), and 3 players lodged theirs late (see previous post). Finalists: one point per pick (added into Round 10). Winner : four points if they win the final, 2 points if they're the losing finalist, one point if they lose their semi-final.

Post by gtho4 (533) 10:21 AM Jun 30 10 market to win the comp: first column is the pre-opening market back in December (when the draw for the group matches was announced); the second column is the market at the start of May;  third column is the market at the start, before the the first game;  the fourth column was the market after each of the 32 teams have played one game;  the 5th column was the market at the end of the group stage; sixth column is today after completion of the KO Round, going into the quarter-finals on Friday. . . To win World Cup Code: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) SPAIN 5.25 5.0 4.75 5.5 5.0 3.5 BRAZIL 6.0 5.5 5.5 5.5 4.5 3.4 ENGLAND 6.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 11.0 ARGENTINA 12.0 7.5 7.0 6.0 5.5 5.0 ITALY 12.0 14.0 15.0 15.0 NETHERLANDS 12.0 13.0 9.0 8.0 7.0 8.0 GERMANY 13.0 13.0 14.0 7.0 11.0 8.0 FRANCE 14.0 17.0 21.0 26.0 IVORY COAST 26.0 31.0 61.0 34.0 PORTUGAL 26.0 29.0 29.0 26.0 21.0 CHILE 41.0 67.0 71.0 51.0 45.0 DENMARK 67.0 101.0 126.0 201.0 GHANA 67.0 67.0 126.0 81.0 51.0 34.0 MEXICO 67.0 67.0 71.0 81.0 81.0 PARAGUAY 67.0 81.0 81.0 81.0 41.0 41.0 SERBIA 67.0 67.0 61.0 151.0 USA 67.0 81.0 81.0 67.0 41.0 AUSTRALIA 81.0 81.0 81.0 301.0 CAMEROON 81.0 121.0 101.0 301.0 NIGERIA 81.0 101.0 151.0 201.0 SOUTH AFRICA 81.0 101.0 126.0 751.0 URUGUAY 81.0 101.0 101.0 51.0 17.0 17.0 GREECE 101.0 101.0 126.0 501.0 SWITZERLAND 126.0 201.0 251.0 126.0 SLOVAKIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 501.0 201.0 SLOVENIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 301.0 JAPAN 201.0 251.0 351.0 251.0 91.0 ALGERIA 251.0 351.0 661.0 801.0 SOUTH KOREA 251.0 301.0 151.0 126.0 101.0 NORTH KOREA 501.0 751.0 1001.0 801.0 NEW ZEALAND 501.0 751.0 751.0 751.0 HONDURAS 601.0 751.0 801.0 1001.0

Post by gtho4 (533) 10:53 AM Jul 02 10 As no-one has posted their thoughts, or sent a PM either, I've been thinking about the three advance picks in the shower (the radio was broken), and while driving to work (white lines are boring). The schedule of games for KO Round were as follows: [49] Sat 26 June 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT  [50] Sat 26 June 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT [51] Sun 27 June 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT [52] Sun 27 June 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT [53] Mon 28 June 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT [54] Mon 28 June 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT [55] Tue 29 June 4:00pm 1400hrs GMT [56] Tue 29 June 8:30pm 1830hrs GMT 3v4 Uruguay v South Korea 2v4 USA v Ghana 1v1 Germany v England 1v2 Argentina v Mexico 1v3 Netherlands v Slovakia 1v2 Brazil v Chile 2v4 Paraguay v Japan 1v2 Spain v Portugal As the last match of the group stages was played less than 18 hours before the start of the KO Round, split picks were allowed (as long as the match hadn't started). We can also allow this for advance picks (as long as a match which determined a finalist hadn't started). The FIFA barrell gave the four semi-finalists from these 8 matches as follows (every two KO matches gave one semi-finalist): [61] Semi-Final #1 [1st & 2nd KO match][49][50] v [5th & 6th KO match] [53][54] Uruguay/Ghana v Netherlands/Brazil  [62] Semi-Final #2 [3rd & 4th KO match][51][52] v [7th & 8th KO match][55][56] Argentina/Germany v Paraguay/Spain Howie72 lodged his picks after the first match, and LeoDaVinci lodged his after the first two matches (ditto Sypher). The results of the first two matches had an impact on who played in the Final as the winner of [61] .. it had no impact on the other half of the draw, being the winner of [62]. Therefore, an advance pick for a finalist that comes through the first half of the draw is invalid, but an advance pick through the second half of the draw will stand.  These three tippers thus lose Brazil as an advance pick for a finalist -- this may seem to make "no sense" (as if they'd pick against Brazil in that half of the draw); but the fact is that that half of the draw had started. However, as stated in the results post above, their advance picks for the winner will stand (x1 for Brazil x2 for Argentina). Advance tips lodged in Round 5, second last set of group matches Code: Name the four semi-finalists one point a pick, added into Round 9 pts (the 2nd last round) Bxbarracuda Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands DanielPoulson Brazil Germany Spain Argentina Davjack 3 Brazil Germany Netherlands Italy dg_dave Brazil Argentina Netherlands Ghana FussBudget Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands gtho4 2 Brazil Argentina Chile USA Howie72 3 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy illiniman14 3 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy JaneMarple 2 Brazil Germany England Italy KrivoyRog 2 Brazil Netherlands Chile Mexico LeoDaVinci Brazil Argentina Netherlands Paraguay MrFox Brazil Germany Spain Argentina ozzz2002 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands paper_aero Germany Spain Argentina Netherlands PaulE Brazil Germany Spain Argentina srini701 Brazil Germany Argentina Paraguay Sypher 3 Brazil Germany England Argentina szabs Brazil Germany Spain Argentina triviapaul Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands Toffees 2 Brazil England Argentina Chile themonarch 3 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Chile 84 20 15 5+3 16 10 4+2 4+1 2+1+1 Advance tips lodged in Round 7, knock-out round Code: Name the two finalists and the winner one point each finalist, plus 4 pts max for picking the winner; added into Round 10 (final round) -------- two finalists ------- --------- winner-------------- Bxbarracuda Brazil Portugal Brazil DanielPoulson Argentina Netherlands Netherlands Davjack dg_dave Brazil Argentina Argentina FussBudget Argentina Netherlands Argentina gtho4 Brazil Argentina Argentina Howie72 Brazil Germany Brazil illiniman14 Brazil Argentina Brazil JaneMarple Argentina England England KrivoyRog Mexico Netherlands Netherlands LeoDaVinci Brazil Argentina Argentina MrFox Brazil Argentina Argentina ozzz2002 Brazil Netherlands Netherlands paper_aero Brazil Argentina Brazil PaulE Brazil Spain Spain srini701 Brazil Spain Brazil Sypher Brazil Argentina Argentina szabs Argentina Spain Spain triviapaul Brazil Argentina Brazil Toffees Brazil England England themonarch Argentina Netherlands Netherlands 14 13+1 5+3+2+1+1 6+2 6 4+2 One player did not lodge advance picks (his name is Davjack), and 3 players lodged theirs late. Finalists: one point per pick (added into Round 10). Winner : four points if they win the final, 2 points if they're the losing finalist, one point if they lose their semi-final.

Post by srini701 (10746) 11:19 AM Jul 02 10 I think you should just allow ALL the advance picks to stand...I don't think anybody's got any sort of advantage...and given the number of tips Brazil and Argentina have got, fair to say these could/would have been the choices of our friends too....so please allow their tips to stand and don't deduct any points, I beseech you on behalf of my friends here, o mighty G! ps: white lines on roads may be boring, but they are there for a purpose. So don't think of FT tipping while driving...do it while you are parking instead

Post by LeoDaVinci (3629) 2:49 PM Jul 02 10 I agree! (with srini of course)

Post by dg_dave (7907) 3:08 PM Jul 02 10 Looking at the list, it looks like all three picked Brazil as a finalist. Since most everyone else picked Brazil, I'd say let them stand.

Post by BxBarracuda (16615) 3:39 PM Jul 02 10 Doesn't matter to me with the forward picks for the Semi Finalists. As well as some others, I have both teams in two of the four games and none in the other two. So I am guaranteed two wins and two losses from my advanced picks.  Though my adance picks for the finalists may both be gone soon.

Post by gtho4 (533) 3:55 PM Jul 02 10 It's all academic, Brazil are out! HT : 0-1 : Netherlands v Brazil FT : 2-1 : Netherlands v Brazil

Post by LeoDaVinci (3629) 3:59 PM Jul 02 10 Damn academics!

Post by dg_dave (7907) 7:21 PM Jul 02 10 Looks like it's irrelevant now...they definitely stand!

Post by gtho4 (533) 11:12 PM Jul 03 10 2010 FIFA World Cup Quarter-Finals Round 8 Friday 2nd July 19 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 3-10-60 6-00-13 8-10-10 12-3-40 6-9-40 13-3-30 1-8-90 0-3-15 0-1 2-1 0-1 1-1 0-1 0-4 0-0 0-1 6 6 1 3 4 3 8 15 6 6 4 10½ 4 3 12 15 HT : 1v1 Netherlands v Brazil FT : 1v1 Netherlands v Brazil HT : 3v4 Uruguay v Ghana FT : 3v4 Uruguay v Ghana HT : 1v1 Argentina v Germany FT : 1v1 Argentina v Germany HT : 2v1 Paraguay v Spain FT : 2v1 Paraguay v Spain BxBarracuda themonarch JaneMarple gtho4 MrFox Sypher  ozzz2002 themonarch triviapaul szabs DanielPoulson KrivoyRog  BxBarracuda  BxBarracuda LeoDaVinci triviapaul  ozzz2002 JaneMarple triviapaul szabs  ozzz2002 themonarch triviapaul  LeoDaVinci Toffees triviapaul 46 60½ =106½ Uruguay advanced via penalties lottery one player forgot the last two picks Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- --------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- --------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 33 99½ 33 99½ 2 1 2 3 2-18 themonarch s 28 80 5 10½ 33 91½ 3 2 3 3 2 2-8 Toffees 30 86 1 2½ 31 88½ 1 4 4 3-9 LeoDaVinci s 28 78½ 2 7 30 86½ 1 5 10 3-14 ozzz2002 s 26 71½ 4 8 30 80½ 1 2 6 6 3-9 DanielPoulson 29 76 2 4 31 80 1 7 5 5-14 srini701 28 76½ 1 2 29 78½ 2 1 1 7 7 3-14 Sypher 27 74½ 2 4 29 78½ 1 9 8 8-20 paper_aero 27 72½ 2 4½ 29 77 1 1 10 12 10-21 MrFox 25 70 3 6½ 28 76½ 2 3 1 11 13 11-21 gtho4 25 69½ 3 6½ 28 76 1 2 1 12 13 11-17 szabs 27 69½ 3 6 30 75½ 13 9 7-15 illiniman14 25 72 1 2 26 74 1 2 2 14 15 7-15 PaulE 25 69 2 4½ 27 73½ 1 1 15 11 1-15 FussBudget 26 71 1 2 27 73 1 3 1 16 16 2-16 KrivoyRog 22 68½ 2 4 24 72½ 2 3 17 16 10-17 dg_dave 25 68½ 1 2 26 70½ 1 4 18 20 14-21 triviapaul ss 20 53 4 10½ 24 65½ 2 18 21 14-21 BxBarracuda ss 20 47½ 5 16 25 65½ 1 2 2 20 18 3-20 Davjack 23 61 23 61 1 20 19 9-20 JaneMarple 20 57 2 4 22 61 1 4 2 late starters 65 46 106½ 16 26 29 wooden spoon 12 25½ 1 2 14 29½ best picks 40 106 5 16 45 122 perfect picks 48 166½ 8 21 56 187½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. + 2 FussBudget 2. + 3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. + 9½ Howie72 5. +10 Howie72 6. + 9½ Howie72 7. +13½ Howie72 8. + 8 Howie72 9. 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox themonarch 0/8 JaneMarple BxBarracuda themonarch 98/168 58.3% | 4 | 7/8 DanielPoulson 4/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 FussBudget illiniman14 96/168 57.1% 3 | 5 | 7/8 gtho4 MrFox 2/8 KrivoyRog 66/168 39.3% 3 | 6 | 5/8 paper_aero Sypher themonarch 1/8 ozzz2002 BxBarracuda FussBudget 99/156 63.4% 2 | 7 | 7/8 srini701 3/8 JaneMarple Davjack KrivioyRog PauklE 46/150 30.6% 7 | 8 | 5/8 BxBarracuda themonarch 1/8 dg_dave srini701 Toffees FussBudget illiniman14 | 9 | |10 | | | 29 | | 16 26 . Only two players picked better than 50% for the quarter-finals .. this round's winners are BxBarracuda (his first) and themonarch (his 2nd in the last 3 rounds) with 5/8. BxBarracuda missed both picks for the Argentina game, and the full-time result in the Brazil game .. themonarch missed both picks for the Uruguay game, and the half-time result in the Argentina game. BxBarracuda also scored *two* bonus pts for solo picks, and finally moved himself off the bottom rung. There were 5 wooden spooners with 1/8 .. all of them except Toffees were looking at 0/8, zilch, until 7 minutes from the end of the last game, when Spain scored in the 83rd to win the match. The two Kiwis, Davjack & Howie72, failed to lodge picks. Nonetheless, Howie72 retains his lead .. his margin out front has been shaved from 13½ pts to 8 pts. Toffees, with a wooden spoon under his arm, slipped from 2nd to 3rd; he was replaced by themonarch, who continues to rise and rise up the table. He's moved up the table for the 5th straight round : 18th - 11th - 5th - 3rd - 2nd. What are the odds of taking over 1st place in the semi-finals, to make it six straight? Toffees collected a spoon, LeoDaVinci collected a bonus point, and triviapaul collected *two* bonus pts .. leaving szabs as the only player still looking for their first win, spoon or bonus point.  The four semi-finalists have been decided .. and *both* Brazil and Argentina are out! This means no-one picked the four semi-finalists with their advance picks .. paper_aero hit pay dirt with three and, in a class act, Toffees and gtho4 picked none! The rest of us have two or just the one (see post below this one; it's full of red). We did no better with our advance picks for the final .. only six of us have a live pick for the winner! The semi-final round starts on Tuesday : FIFA World Cup [ 9 ] Tue 6th July and the Final follows on Sunday 11th July. There are 17 pts (plus seedings) up for grabs over the last two rounds.

Post by gtho4 (533) 11:14 PM Jul 03 10 Uruguay Netherlands Germany Spain Advance tips lodged in Round 5, second last set of group matches Code: Name the four semi-finalists one point a pick, added into Round 9 pts (the 2nd last round) BxBarracuda 2 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands DanielPoulson 2 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina Davjack 2 Brazil Germany Netherlands Italy dg_dave 1 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Ghanal FussBudget 2 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands gtho4 - Brazil Argentina Chile USA Howie72 2 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy illiniman14 2 Brazil Germany Uruguay Italy JaneMarple 1 Brazil Germany England Italy KrivoyRog 1 Brazil Netherlands Chile Mexico LeoDaVinci 1 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Paraguay MrFox 2 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina ozzz2002 2 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands paper_aero 3 Germany Spain Argentina Netherlands PaulE 2 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina srini701 1 Brazil Germany Argentina Paraguay Sypher 1 Brazil Germany England Argentina szabs 2 Brazil Germany Spain Argentina triviapaul 2 Brazil Germany Argentina Netherlands Toffees - Brazil England Argentina Chile themonarch 1 Brazil Argentina Netherlands Chile 84 20 15 5+3 16 10 4+2 4+1 2+1+1 Uruguay are a #3 seed, the other three semi-finalists are a #1 seed Advance tips lodged in Round 7, knock-out round Code: Name the two finalists and the winner one point each finalist, plus 4 pts max for picking the winner; added into Round 10 (final round) -------- two finalists ------- --------- winner-------------- BxBarracuda Brazil Portugal Brazil DanielPoulson Argentina Netherlands Netherlands Davjack dg_dave Brazil Argentina Argentina FussBudget Argentina Netherlands Argentina gtho4 Brazil Argentina Argentina Howie72 Brazil Germany Brazil illiniman14 Brazil Argentina Brazil JaneMarple Argentina England England KrivoyRog Mexico Netherlands Netherlands LeoDaVinci Brazil Argentina Argentina MrFox Brazil Argentina Argentina ozzz2002 Brazil Netherlands Netherlands paper_aero Brazil Argentina Brazil PaulE Brazil Spain Spain srini701 Brazil Spain Brazil Sypher Brazil Argentina Argentina szabs Argentina Spain Spain triviapaul Brazil Argentina Brazil Toffees Brazil England England themonarch Argentina Netherlands Netherlands 14+1 13+1 5+3+2+1 6+2 6+2 4 One player did not lodge advance picks (his name is Davjack), and 3 players lodged theirs late. Finalists: one point per pick (added into Round 10). Winner : four points if they win the final, 2 points if they're the losing finalist, one point if they lose their semi-final.

Post by gtho4 (533) 11:21 PM Jul 03 10 market to win the comp: first column is the pre-opening market back in December (when the draw for the group matches was announced); the second column was the market at the start of May;  third column was the opening market day zero at the start, before the the first game;  the fourth column was the market after each of the 32 teams had played one game;  the 5th column was the market after the completion of all group matches; sixth column was after completion of the KO Round, going into the quarter-finals; 7th column is today, after the quarter-finals finished.  . . To win World Cup Code: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) SPAIN 5.25 5.0 4.75 5.5 5.0 3.5 2.85 BRAZIL 6.0 5.5 5.5 5.5 4.5 3.4 ENGLAND 6.5 6.5 7.5 8.5 11.0 ARGENTINA 12.0 7.5 7.0 6.0 5.5 5.0 ITALY 12.0 14.0 15.0 15.0 NETHERLANDS 12.0 13.0 9.0 8.0 7.0 8.0 3.00 GERMANY 13.0 13.0 14.0 7.0 11.0 8.0 2.90 FRANCE 14.0 17.0 21.0 26.0 IVORY COAST 26.0 31.0 61.0 34.0 PORTUGAL 26.0 29.0 29.0 26.0 21.0 CHILE 41.0 67.0 71.0 51.0 45.0 DENMARK 67.0 101.0 126.0 201.0 GHANA 67.0 67.0 126.0 81.0 51.0 34.0 MEXICO 67.0 67.0 71.0 81.0 81.0 PARAGUAY 67.0 81.0 81.0 81.0 41.0 41.0 SERBIA 67.0 67.0 61.0 151.0 USA 67.0 81.0 81.0 67.0 41.0 AUSTRALIA 81.0 81.0 81.0 301.0 CAMEROON 81.0 121.0 101.0 301.0 NIGERIA 81.0 101.0 151.0 201.0 SOUTH AFRICA 81.0 101.0 126.0 751.0 URUGUAY 81.0 101.0 101.0 51.0 17.0 17.0 13.0 GREECE 101.0 101.0 126.0 501.0 SWITZERLAND 126.0 201.0 251.0 126.0 SLOVAKIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 501.0 201.0 SLOVENIA 151.0 251.0 351.0 301.0 JAPAN 201.0 251.0 351.0 251.0 91.0 ALGERIA 251.0 351.0 661.0 801.0 SOUTH KOREA 251.0 301.0 151.0 126.0 101.0 NORTH KOREA 501.0 751.0 1001.0 801.0 NEW ZEALAND 501.0 751.0 751.0 751.0 HONDURAS 601.0 751.0 801.0 1001.0

Post by gtho4 (533) 4:43 AM Jul 08 10 2010 FIFA World Cup Semi-Finals Round 9 Tuesday 6th July 21 of 21 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 2-6-12 1-2-17 8-12-00 12-3-50 Advance Picks x4 1-1 2-3 0-0 0-1 6 17 12 5 2 10 15 5 12 17 12 5 6 10 15 5 HT : 3v1 Uruguay v Netherlands FT : 3v1 Uruguay v Netherlands HT : 1v1 Germany v Spain FT : 1v1 Germany v Spain  3 Uruguay 1 Netherlands 1 Germany 1 Spain Howie72 illiniman14 gtho4 Toffees paper_aero PaulE  Howie72 KrivoyRog gtho4  MrFox szabs FussBudget Toffees PaulE  Howie72 illiniman14  dg_dave KrivoyRog gtho4 Toffees LeoDaVinci themonarch  MrFox szabs DanielPoulson paper_aero PaulE 72 82 =154 one player lodged advance picks only Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- -------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- -------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 s 33 99½ 3 9 36 109½ 2 2 2 2 2-18 themonarch 33 91½ 3 6 36 97½ 3 2 3 2 3 2-8 Toffees 31 88½ 4 9 35 97½ 1 4 4 3-9 LeoDaVinci 30 86½ 3 6 33 92½ 1 5 9 5-20 paper_aero 29 77 6 13 35 90 2 1 6 13 6-15 illiniman14 s 26 74 5 13 31 88 1 2 3 7 14 7-15 PaulE 27 73½ 6 13 33 86½ 1 1 1 7 10 7-21 MrFox 28 76½ 5 10 33 86½ 2 3 1 7 5 3-14 ozzz2002 30 80½ 3 6 33 86½ 1 2 10 6 3-10 DanielPoulson 31 80 3 6 34 86 1 11 12 11-17 szabs 30 75½ 5 10 35 85½ 12 7 5-14 srini701 29 78½ 2 4 31 82½ 2 2 1 12 7 3-14 Sypher 29 78½ 2 4 31 82½ 1 1 14 15 1-15 FussBudget 27 73 4 8 31 81 1 3 1 14 11 11-21 gtho4 28 76 2 5 30 81 1 3 1 16 16 2-16 KrivoyRog 24 72½ 2 4 26 76½ 3 3 17 17 10-17 dg_dave 26 70½ 2 4 28 74½ 2 4 18 18 14-21 triviapaul 24 65½ 4 8 28 73½ 2 18 18 14-21 BxBarracuda 25 65½ 4 8 29 73½ 1 2 2 20 20 3-20 Davjack 23 61 2 4 25 65 2 20 20 9-20 JaneMarple 22 61 2 4 24 65 1 5 2 late starters 00 72 154 18 33 31 wooden spoon 14 29½ 2 4 16 33½ best picks 45 122 6 13 51 135 perfect picks 56 187½ 8 19 64 206½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. + 2 FussBudget 2. + 3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. + 9½ Howie72 5. +10 Howie72 6. + 9½ Howie72 7. +13½ Howie72 8. + 8 Howie72 9. +12 Howie72 10. .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox themonarch 0/8 JaneMarple BxBarracuda themonarch 98/168 58.3% | 4 | 7/8 DanielPoulson 4/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 FussBudget illiniman14 96/168 57.1% 3 | 5 | 7/8 gtho4 MrFox 2/8 KrivoyRog 66/168 39.3% 3 | 6 | 5/8 paper_aero Sypher themonarch 1/8 ozzz2002 BxBarracuda FussBudget 99/156 63.4% 2 | 7 | 7/8 srini701 3/8 JaneMarple KrivoyRog Davjack PaulE 46/150 30.6% 7 | 8 | 5/8 BxBarracuda themonarch 1/8 dg_dave srini701 Toffees FussBudget illiniman14 72/164 43.9% 2 | 9 | 6/8 paper_aero PaulE 2/8 dg_dave srini701 Davjack KrivoyRog JaneMarple |10 | gtho4 Sypher | | 31 | | 18 33 . Two players managed to pick 6/8 for a win! Both of them missed the Uruguay advance pick .. paper_aero missed the full-time result in the Germany game and PaulE missed the Netherlands advance pick (and thus PaulE picked all four results for the semis).  Six of us collected a wooden spoon each with a paltry 2/8 .. gtho4 and Toffees scored zero with their advance picks. Howie72 and illiniman14 scored a bonus pt each as they were the only tipsters to chose Uruguay as one of their advance picks. LeoDaVinci retains 4th spot sans a win or a spoon, ditto trivipaul .. szabs is the only player without a win, a spoon or a bonus point.  Way out there somewhere on the horizon, Howie72 extends his lead to 12 pts, and wins the tipping comp, with a round to spare! With 9 pts up for grabs in the last round, he cannot be caught. He set a scorching pace out front .. the rest of us crumbled in his wake. All hail Sir Howie .. mate, take a bow, well done! After 5 rounds of climbing the table, themonarch did not move from 2nd place. For those of us with short memories, his move up the table for 5 straight rounds was 18th-11th-5th-3rd-2nd. Toffees has joined him in equal second place. He was the other player to pick all four results for the semis. Anyone within 9 points of second can catch either or both of them .. but 6 of those 9 pts are locked in as advance picks (see next post). Only 6 of 21 players have a live pick for the winner, and only 8 players successfully picked a finalist (no one picked both). This means that the podium positions have been decided. All that's left is for themonarch andToffees to sort out who takes silver and who takes bronze. If the Netherlands win, themonarch will collect 4 pts and take silver. If the Netherlands lose he'll collect 2 pts and *probably* silver. Live pick for the winner: Spain : szabs (of course!) and PaulE. Netherlands : DanielPoulson, KrivoyRog, ozzz2002 and themonarch. (but not triviapaul!) Since the world cup began in 1930, seven nations have been crowned world champions (see list of prior winners below). The final on Sunday will be Spain's first-ever appearance in a World Cup Final, and the 3rd for the Netherlands. The Netherlands lost the 1974 final (1-2 to West Germany) and the 1978 final (1-3 to Argentina aet). The winner of Sunday's final will be the 8th country crowned world champions. 5 .. Brazil . . . . 1958 1962 1970 1994 2002 4 .. Italy .. . . . 1934 1938 1982 2006 3 .. Germany . . 1954 1974 1990 2 .. Argentina . 1978 1986 2 .. Uruguay . . 1930 1950 1 .. France . . . 1998 1 .. England .. . 1966 The hosts were the winners in 6 of those 18 finals :  1930, 1934, 1966, 1974, 1978 and 1998. Brazil in 1950 and Sweden in 1958 were hosts who lost the final.

Post by gtho4 (533) 4:46 AM Jul 08 10 Netherlands Spain Advance tips lodged in Round 7, knock-out round Code: Name the two finalists and the winner one point each finalist, plus 4 pts max for picking the winner; added into Round 10 (final round) -------- two finalists ------- --------- winner-------------- BxBarracuda Brazil Portugal Brazil DanielPoulson Argentina Netherlands Netherlands Davjack dg_dave Brazil Argentina Argentina FussBudget Argentina Netherlands Argentina gtho4 Brazil Argentina Argentina Howie72 Brazil Germany Brazil illiniman14 Brazil Argentina Brazil JaneMarple Argentina England England KrivoyRog Mexico Netherlands Netherlands LeoDaVinci Brazil Argentina Argentina MrFox Brazil Argentina Argentina ozzz2002 Brazil Netherlands Netherlands paper_aero Brazil Argentina Brazil PaulE Brazil Spain Spain srini701 Brazil Spain Brazil Sypher Brazil Argentina Argentina szabs Argentina Spain Spain triviapaul Brazil Argentina Brazil Toffees Brazil England England themonarch Argentina Netherlands Netherlands 14+1 13+1+1 5+3+2 6+2 6+2 4 Finalists: one point per pick (added into Round 10). Winner : four points if they win the final, 2 points if they're the losing finalist, one point if they lose their semi-final.

Post by gtho4 (533) 3:22 PM Jul 12 10 2010 FIFA World Cup WORLD CUP FINAL Round 10 Sunday 11th July 21 of 22 players lodged tips: picks correct seeds 5-14-10 11-05-40 12-00-80 Advance Picks x3 0-0 0-0 0-1  14 5 8 8 8 5 3 14 5 8 2 4 5 3 HT : 1v1 Netherlands v Spain FT : 1v1 Netherlands v Spain Win: Netherlands/Spain winner (4 pts): Spain winner (2 pts): Netherlands finalist : Netherlands finalist : Spain dg_dave gtho4 paper_aero Sypher themonarch  PaulE szabs  DanielPoulson KrivoyRog ozzz2002 themonarch  DanielPoulson KrivoyRog ozzz2002 themonarch FussBudget  PaulE szabs srini701 51 41 =92 No tipster had an advance pick for the winner which lost their semi-final;  all of the other advance picks (winner) failed to make it to the semis! One player lodged advance picks but no picks for the final, one player  lodged picks but no advance picks, and one lodged none for either set. Tipping Comp Standings Code: position LW TW ----- ----- -------------------- TW LW hi-lo picks pts pk pts bp ----- ----- -------------------- hf ws 1 1 1-3 Howie72 36 109½ 2 4 38 113½ 2 2 2 2 2-18 themonarch 36 97½ 6 11 42 108½ 3 2 3 3 7 3-15 PaulE ss 33 86½ 7 11 40 99½ 2 1 3 4 11 4-17 szabs ss 35 85½ 7 11 42 98½ 1 2 5 2 2-8 Toffees 35 97½ 0 0 35 97½ 2 6 5 5-20 paper_aero 35 90 3 6 38 96 2 1 7 7 3-14 ozzz2002 33 86½ 4 7 37 93½ 1 2 8 10 3-10 DanielPoulson 34 86 4 7 38 93 1 9 4 3-9 LeoDaVinci 33 92½ 0 0 33 92½ 1 1 10 6 6-15 illiniman14 31 88 1 2 32 90 1 2 3 11 12 5-14 srini701 s 31 82½ 3 6 34 89½ 2 2 2 12 7 7-21 MrFox 33 86½ 1 2 34 88½ 2 3 1 12 12 3-14 Sypher 31 82½ 3 6 34 88½ 1 1 14 14 11-21 gtho4 30 81 2 4 32 85 1 3 1 15 14 1-15 FussBudget 31 81 1 2 32 83 1 3 1 16 16 2-16 KrivoyRog 26 76½ 3 5 29 81½ 3 3 17 17 10-17 dg_dave 28 74½ 2 4 30 78½ 2 4 18 18 14-21 BxBarracuda 29 73½ 1 2 30 75½ 1 2 2 19 18 14-21 triviapaul 28 73½ 0 0 28 73½ 1 2 20 20 20-20 aya3098 00 00 1 2 25 67 21 20 3-21 Davjack 25 65 25 65 2 21 20 9-21 JaneMarple 24 65 0 0 24 65 1 6 2 51 92 20 37 36 wooden spoon 16 33½ 0 0 16 33½ best picks 51 135 7 11 58 146 perfect picks 64 206½ 9 15 73 221½ b = bonus point for perfect picks. s = bonus pt for picking a result solo, or one of two/three. w = pt for picking draw, no one picked win. o = no one picked draw, bonus for picking upset win. bp = total bonus pts Weekly Leader Code: wk . . . . . . . . . . . 1. + 2 FussBudget 2. + 3 Howie72 3. +12½ Howie72 4. + 9½ Howie72 5. +10 Howie72 6. + 9½ Howie72 7. +13½ Howie72 8. + 8 Howie72 9. +12 Howie72 10. +5 Howie72 .  . Hall of Fame: Code: | | Weekly Winner Wooden Spoon. . . . . . . bp |wk | 59/168 35.1% 5 | 1 | 5/8 FussBudget 1/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 themonarch 74/168 44.0% 1 | 2 | 5/8 Howie72 JaneMarple srini701 Sypher 1/8 MrFox 45/168 26.7% 8 | 3 | 4/8 Howie72 MrFox themonarch 0/8 JaneMarple BxBarracuda themonarch 98/168 58.3% | 4 | 7/8 DanielPoulson 4/8 JaneMarple MrFox gtho4 FussBudget illiniman14 96/168 57.1% 3 | 5 | 7/8 gtho4 MrFox 2/8 KrivoyRog 66/168 39.3% 3 | 6 | 5/8 paper_aero Sypher themonarch 1/8 ozzz2002 BxBarracuda FussBudget 99/156 63.4% 2 | 7 | 7/8 srini701 3/8 JaneMarple KrivoyRog Davjack PaulE 46/150 30.6% 7 | 8 | 5/8 BxBarracuda themonarch 1/8 dg_dave srini701 Toffees FussBudget illiniman14 72/164 43.9% 2 | 9 | 6/8 PaulE paper_aero 2/8 dg_dave srini701 Davjack KrivoyRog JaneMarple gtho4 92/180 51.1% 5 |10 | 7/9 PaulE szabs 0/9 LeoDaVinci Toffees triviapaul JaneMarple Sypher | | 36 | | 18 37 . No one saw that coming .. a photo-finish for the bronze medal. Toffees picked 0/9 and staggered across the line dragging a wooden spoon, but PaulE and szabs flew along the rails with a withering finish .. and the stewards called for the photo. After examining the prints PaulE won bronze by a nose, and a short half-head separated szabs in 4th place and Toffees in fifth!  You should've heard Toffees over lunch in the staff canteen .. all he had to do was hit pay dirt with one pick, just one, and he would've scored 2 pts, one for the pick and one for the seed .. enough to retain 3rd spot: How'd that happen; are you sure? is a rough translation and/or paraphrasing of the lunchtime conversation .. so much for gtho4 and his fearless predictions. PaulE and szabs picked 7/9 each .. both of them picked everything except the result at full-time and the Netherlands as a finalist with their advance picks. However, 7/9 for 9 pts wasn't enough to displace Toffees, it was the two bonus points for two solo picks that did it! Where did PaulE and szabs come from? No one knows, but the ducks and stars all fell into a straight line. PaulE was never higher than 7th, until he hit the finish line, and szabs was never higher than 11th until she hit the finish line .. in fact, no one from 3rd down to 12th retained their spot from the second last round to the finish post! Three players tipped 3/3/ for the half-time result, the full-time result and the winner: paper_aero,Sypher and themonarch. As expected, Howie72 won the gold medal, and themonarch won silver. We all saw that one .. that part of the comp was played out according to the script. There were four wooden spoons for the last round. JaneMarple, LeoDaVinci and triviapaul also picked a humungous 0/9 to finish the tipping comp.  aya3098 was a late starter. Welcome aboard! The protests lodged by Davjack and JaneMarple were dismissed by the stewards. They accepted the report from the track officials .. there was no interference when aya3098, running alongside the rails in the infield, jumped the fence and landed alongside the tail-enders, still running. There were 221 pts in this comp, and a mere 3½ pts separated 3rd-4th-5th-6th .. szabs missed bronze by one solitary point .. but she don't care, not one iota: Spain are world champions, for the first time ever! No one knows where she is, but she should surface over the next 24 hours. Spain became the 8th nation crowned world champions, and the 12th nation to play in a World Cup Final. 5 .. Brazil . . . . 1958 1962 1970 1994 2002 4 .. Italy .. . . . 1934 1938 1982 2006 3 .. Germany .. 1954 1974 1990 2 .. Uruguay . . 1930 1950 2 .. Argentina . 1978 1986 1 .. England . . 1966 1 .. France . . . 1998 1 .. Spain . . . . 2010 The hosts were the winners in 6 of those 19 finals : 1930, 1934, 1966, 1974, 1978 and 1998. Brazil in 1950 and Sweden in 1958 were hosts who lost the final. The Netherlands have now lost 3 world cup finals which is one less than Germany, who've lost four: 4 .. Germany . . . . . . 1966 1982 1986 2002 3 .. Netherlands . . . . 1974 1978 2010 2 .. Hungary . .. . . . . 1938 1954 2 .. Czechoslovakia .. 1934 1962 2 .. Argentina . . .. . . 1930 1990 2 .. Italy . . . . . . . . . 1970 1994 2 .. Brazil . . .. . . . . . 1950 1998 1 .. Sweden . . . . . . . 1958 1 .. France . . . . . . . . 2006 If we ignored seedings, themonarch and szabs would've dead-heated for first with 42 picks, followed by PaulE with 40 picks, and three players with 38 each: DanielPoulson, Howie72 and paper_aero. But that's not how it finished: 1st  : Howie72 2nd : themonarch 3rd  : PaulE Howie72 won the gold medal in the 2006 Germany tipping comp, and thus he retains his title. Her Majesty was suitably impressed: All hail Sir Howie! Thank you to everyone who participated, congrats to the 3 winners, and commiserations to the rest of us. That's it for another 4 years, until 2014 Brazil. We'll see most of the cast at the world cup in the UEFA Champions League which starts mid-September. The draw for the group matches takes place at the end of next month after the completion of the qualifying rounds, which started earlier this week. The FA Premier League starts mid-August.

Post by themonarch (17192) 4:44 PM Jul 12 10 That was fun thanks for running it. I hope I'll see everyone here and more in 4 years.

Post by dg_dave (7907) 5:12 PM Jul 12 10 Wonder if the host will win in 4? Great comp as always G.

Post by triviapaul (17912) 7:44 PM Jul 12 10 Actually reading George's roundup was more entertaining than watching the final, thanks for the comp! Congrats tot he winners, hail Sir Howie. Let's tune in in 4 years when Holland will win the cup by actually playing football, instead of leaving studmarks in the opponent's chest.

Post by LeoDaVinci (3629) 9:51 PM Jul 12 10 Anything was more exciting than that final. Watching plants grow, watching ice melt, watching my laundry fold itself... Congratulations to the winners and thanks to George for the write-ups.

Post by ozzz2002 (4925) 10:19 PM Jul 12 10 Nicely done, Howie, but please do not let it go to your head. After all, Australia scored more points than the Kiwis.  And a big thanks to George for running the show. I am not sure how all the numbers fitted together, but it looks pretty awe-inspiring from this side!

Post by srini701 (10746) 5:29 AM Jul 13 10 Big Congratulations to Howie and themonarch for running away with this. Congrats to PaulE for that last minute surge (don't forget, his name IS "Paul", the flavour of the tournament  ) Fantastic job as usual, G  Thanks a lot for the entertaining write ups.... Ozz, Sir Howie has a right to let this get to his head....after all, New Zealand remained the ONLY unbeaten team in the whole tournament!

Post by ozzz2002 (4925) 10:49 AM Jul 13 10 Quote: New Zealand remained the ONLY unbeaten team in the whole tournament! Wow! I did not realise that! Did you also know that Spain scored the lowest number of goals for the winner of ANY World Cup- only 7 goals in 8 games?

Post by szabs (16428) 12:30 PM Jul 13 10 Ok time to get back to real life again, after all the celebrations . Congratulations to the three winners  , especially to PaulE for believing in Spain. Believe me there where many times when I didn't think we would make it, but thanks to Paul the Octopus our faith was revived . A VERY big thankyou to George for running this comp, which seems highly complicated, but you have done a fantastic job once again.

Post by DanielPoulson (16941) 1:02 PM Jul 13 10 Congratulations to our winners and thanks for putting together a great comp .

Post by PaulE (1013) 6:44 AM Jul 14 10 Well done to everyone involved, especially George for running another superb comp.