Thursday, November 27, 2008
From what I can tell, at some point, almost everyone got injured but mainly the Mince men. Wills' knee is goosed and so he's going to be out for the rest of the season. He's going to go to the docs to get it checked out so we wish him a speedy recovery and return to Fitbaw! Apart from that, it seemed a tight game so well played to all.
Only two games left that count towards the POTY and, as far as I can tell, only Alan and Gordo are still in with a shout. Alan has to lose it and Gordo has to win it. I fully expect both players to play the next two weeks with no sneaky tactical "injuries".
Next week we'll have to wait and see who recovered enough to play but Alan, Gordo, Scott and myself should all be back and it's only Wills that's out at the moment but I'll wait until Monday for the fitness tests to come in.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Neil, Andy and Gordo are back this week. Well Gordo's sort of back. He said he'd play but now just feels knackered after his flight yesterday. The hunt is on for a replacement but if one can't be found, Gordo will play anyway.
Alan claims to have twisted his knee and can't play and swears that it has nothing to do about preserving his lead at the top of the table. Alan's an honest chap so I believe him - thousands wouldn't! Scott has a parents' night and I'm oot as well.
If there are no teams up by the end of the day, please bring both tops with you to the park and you'll have to sort it yourselves, but I shall try my best to get a Gordo replacement AND get teams picked and posted before 5pm.
Have a good game chaps.
UPDATE - Gordo's out and Robert's in! Almost got teams I swear!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
In reality though, we might have got pumped by more had the Tatties had more room to run about on us. Who knows. Back to a big pitch next week - number 8.
Next week Gordo is still on holiday, Andy and Neil should be back but I may have to miss out as my Granny's got a small procedure in hospital and my folks are away so I'm on visiting duty.
The stats have been updated and Alan extends his new lead at the top of the table. Could he be the first player to win POTY twice? Only three games remain before the night out for him to be caught.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Gordon's on holiday, Andy's in London, Neil's not well, Foxy has only just confirmed he can play and so have I, so there's been a lot of player swapping shenanigans going on but we now have ten. Craig, Jon and Kyle is making his comeback tonight - hurrah!
Teams to follow at some point but bring both tops just in case.
UPDATE - I totally forgot that we're on a wee pitch tonight. Pish! Number 11.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Stuart said before the game this he thought the teams were unbalanced in favour of the Mince and I suppose the result confirms that but at the same time, Foxy thought that the Tatties had the slightly stronger side and Scott thought that they had more natural goal scorers. It just goes to show that everyone obviously has different opinions of everyone else's abilities.
If the teams were unbalanced, I don't think they were as much as the scoreline suggests. The Mince had everything go right for them last night where as the opposite could be said for the Tatties. We picked up every spare ball in the midfield and managed to put away most of our chances. Everyone in our team played really well at the same time which, I think, exaggerated the difference in the two teams. I shall endeavour to do better in the team selection next week.
Speaking of which, Gordo is on holiday for the next two weeks so at the moment, I think it'll be the same players so I'll do some swapping around to mix it up and try get a better balance.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
This year, the Fitbaw Xmas Night Oot will be held at the Drum and Monkey. I went round a few places with no luck and thought I'd just chance my arm at our regular Friday lunchtime pint place. They're going to keep us tables and drinking space and do us a buffet (probably through in the back area). It's a good pub that does good food but they were wanting £7/head for the basic buffet. After some ducking and diving I have managed to get them to agree to £4/head so it won't be anything super fancy but it should be better than the barely edible stuff we've had the last few years. So, 6pm onwards at the Drum and Monkey where Mr Andy Hood will be dishing out the awards and abuse.
Pitch 6 for tonight's game for a change. I've tried to pick the teams to give everyone a chance to play against their nearest rival, as well as keeping them fair of course, to try and make the last few games as interesting as possible.
Gordo's a bit poorly and we all know about Kyle so Craigo's the tenth man.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The Old Print Works, the venue for our Xmas Night Oot since the beginning of Fitbaw is currently just for re-development. We need a new venue, somewhere in town, where we can get our own private(ish) space and some cheap food and, more importantly, beer.
I went up the Arc, just because it was next door, and they could hire us out the upstairs area and hopefully do burgers for £1 but the manager is going to call me back to discuss but nothing is booked yet.
Can anyone think of anywhere else we could go or have an opinion on The Arc (it's normally full of students but does at least have a couple of pool tables).
Well it was nice to be back, see you all again and get a wee run around but it's still pish losing all the time. Next season, I'm just going back to fixing the teams in my favour again. I think the fairest thing to do in the run up to the end of the season is go back to picking the team automatically (1 v 2, etc) so that everyone gets as much chance to rise up the table in the last few games that they are. It also, hopefully, will make the race for POTY as close as possible. I'll see how that works out.
Next week Foxy and William should be back so, barring any injuries, it'll just be ten hardcore players hopefully. If Kyle decides to gather his toys and put them back in the pram then it could even be a Hat of Doooooom situation.
The Xmas Night Oot is confirmed for the 12th December. Everyone seems to be able to make it, including most of the regular reserves so I'll go get that booked today and get back you with details of the wondrous buffet and times, etc.
Finally, I was talking to Scott on the way home about the points system that we use. Scott said that in one the school leagues his kids are involved in, they get bonus points for completing fixtures (to stop teams pulling out of league matches to try and preserve leads and sneaky tactics like that). A few folk have said to me in the past that they think it can be unfair that someone who has won less games can be above them in the stats and, in the past, I've looked into trying to find some way to incorporate a small reward for playing Fitbaw but never found a satisfactory solution.
After discussing it with Scott, I thought about adding 0.01 for every game that you play. It's not a huge amount and won't effect the standings hugely but it's enough to make a difference when two players are close in the table. It also gives folk incentives to keep playing and not get lazy or go in a huff or try to preserve a table position. Obviously this is up for discussion and nothing will happen this year, but maybe we can decide what to do at the ADM (Annual Drinking Meeting) at Xmas. In the meantime, here's the original stats without any bonus points, and here's the proposed ones where you get 0.01 for every game played. For example if your points per game are 1.4 and you've played 30 games, then your points will actually be 1.7. Thoughts?
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
So here we go. After not playing or doing any kind of sport (unless lugging bags of rubble counts as a sport) since my birthday (when I LOST), I'm making my comeback tonight. As part of my intensive training for tonight, I did have to jog for the train this morning for at least two minutes (phew). So as long as the game only last two minutes and the pace doesn't go anywhere beyond a light jog, I should be absolutely fine.
Martie is out as always, Wills is taking the kids to see fireworks and Kyle is still missing for unknown reasons although maybe this recent paparazzi shot may give us some clue as to why he's not playing...
Teams to follow shortly.
UPDATE - Foxy (the wee shite) has pulled out last minute as he managed to wangle a free ticket (hospitality) to Parkheid tonight to watch Celtic get pumped again by Man U. he very graciously managed to get Robert to step in last minute so you can all disregard the teams as they will need repicking.