So the Banterbury Review has had a bit of a Christmas break, but the leagues have had anything but! We now have our 16 qualifiers for the Shield, which starts in game-week 21 (Jan 11th). On New Year’s Day we have round 4 of the Banterbury Cup. So as we enter the second half of the season the leagues are really coming to life!! A lot of teams will not just be thinking about promotion or relegation but they will also be dreaming of cup glory or of winning the shield, which in my eyes is the ultimate glory. Ok so we will now go around the leagues, cup & shield with me your host Bench and I’ll try and update you as best I can!
Banterbury Cup – Ties to be played Jan 1st
1 Park Bench Exports v Fergie’s Henchmen
2 Busby Babes v Bocadillo Allstars
3 Gasco’s athletic v Monty (Caz Daz)
4 Son of a Pitch v Cookie’s Monsters
5 Horse FC v Manlet F.C
6 Kop Warriors v DavesRedDevils
7 WhoIsRonaldo v Buzz’s Bomb Squad
8 Owls Rule v Gallowgators
Banterbury Shield
So as I said earlier we now have our 16 for the first ever Banterbury Shield, which consists of the top 4 from each league at Christmas. The qualifying period lasted for 17 game-weeks and I feel the cream has risen to the top. Group 1 looks a bit tasty to say the least!
So here are the 16 and their groups plus the opening day fixtures (GW21)
Group 1
1) Cookie’s Monsters
2) James 101
3) Powerful Potty Fc
4) ChorleyRocks
Cookie’s Monsters v ChorleyRocks
James 101 v Powerful Potty Fc
Group 2
1) Gallowgators (Gallow)
2) CFC (Awesome)
3) White Boys Day (Drexel)
4) Where’s The Dosh? (The Cooky Boys)
Gallowgators v Where’s The Dosh?
CFC (Awesome) v White Boys Day
Group 3
1) Monty (Caz Daz) (Monty)
2) Norfulk-in-chance
3) Arsene’s Boys
4) WhoIsRonaldo
Monty (Caz Daz) v WhoIsRonaldo
Norfulk-in-chance v Arsene’s Boys
Group 4
1) 4th Place Trophy (Burnsey)
2) Park Bench Exports (bench)
3) Son of a Pitch (inertia)
4) we love manchester (gpriley)
4th Place Trophy v we love manchester
Park Bench Exports v Son of a Pitch
Now to the bread and butter stuff, although I’m sure the likes Mutts, Potty and Nifty will not be looking forward to it!
Premier
Cookie is top going into the New Year and what a stellar first half of the season he has had picking up 45 points, in all 4 of the leagues not one of the winners managed 80 points to win a league last season. Last season’s champion Bench is very much in contention, he seems to know how to win ugly (must be his beer goggles), he sits 3rd and just one win off Cookie. Also having a great season are Arsene’s Boys, who came up from the Championship and sit 2nd on the same points as Bench. Big shout-out to Pork n Cheese United who won all their festive fixtures and now sit 5th. Gasco’s athletic & Horse FC sit mid-table after a storming start which seems to have tailed off. Killer Instincts 2nd quarter has been a little bit special, after picking up only a point from his first 11 games he has won 6 form his last 9 including wins over the top 2. At the bottom we have THE MUTTS NUTS who surely can’t wait for the January WC and a new start after managing only one win and a draw in hhis 19 games. Joining Mutts in the bottom 3 at the half way mark are TheKopKnightRISES & Prutsers; allemaal.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/843/standings/
Championship
Moving on to the championship and Gallowgators ‘hits and build value’ strategy has no doubt worked in the first half of the season, as he is still in all 3 Banterbury competitions. James 101 & WhoIsRonaldo both favourites in Potty’s Bookmakers for promotion sit 2nd & 3rd at the half way stage. I would also watch-out for Mito’s Mercenaries in the 2nd half of the season, worth an each-way bet @ 20-1!
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/9338/standings/
League 1
What has happened to Potty? From 12 unbeaten and an 11 point lead at the top, to 7 defeats on the spin and stuck in Somerset with floods (of Tears) and he goes into the new year 5th in the table. So sitting top is Elliot aka CFC(Awesome), 2nd is Little Red aka Monty (Caz Daz), in 3rd we have GPriley’s we love Manchester, 4th is everyone’s favourite Dingo, DavesRedDevils, in 6th are Fergie’s Henchmen and in 7th is inittowinit***. An interesting 2nd half of the season is certainly in store in this league and lots of banter I hope.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/9479/standings/
League 2
I would like to congratulate the 4 teams that made the Shield, 4th Place Trophy, White Boys Day, ChorleyRocks & Norfulk-in-chance as well as the 2 teams who are still flying the flag on New Year’s Day in the Cup, Busby Babes (pj) & Owls Rule (NZ Alex).
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/my-leagues/9698/standings/
Qualification League
This is a classic league with 2 places up for grabs in the official Banterbury leagues. The current top 5 are Norfolk n’ Chance, The Cape Bulls, The special onesie, NINja Warriors & Cloughie’s Revival. All 5 are in with a great shout of qulification so best of luck to you all as well as to all the other managers in the league, of course!
H2H for the opening of FF247
What’s the story FC, LANGOLD SM4CKHEADS(Chopper), Mystic Devils, Zoostorm FC (Flingy) and The Gift & The Curse have all won 6 out of 7 in this qualification league.
Happy New Year to you all from the Banterbury Leagues and everyone at FF247!
This article was written by Bench
Hey guys! I would really appreciate a few more replies on who to replace Ramsey with. I can afford anybody 8.8 and less. I was thinking about Nasri, since in lackin city attacking coverage? I only need him to have good fixtures FT the next three matches until I play my WC. Thank you :red-flag:
Navas maybe?
Do you rate Navas over Nasri? Naval isn’t completely nailed on though
Ok Veer, I’ll jump right in with recommendations. You already have Whittingham, Hazard, and Walcott. You should keep these for the rest of the season unless something happens such as an injury.
You’re right in missing Manchester City cover, but in the coming weeks I feel that their matches aren’t the best and they may struggle. Swansea and Newcastle away are hard games.
Arsenal (CAR, avl, FUL) – Cazorla
Crystal Palace (NOR, tot, STK) – Puncheon
Everton (STK, nor, WBA) – Barkley
Liverpool (HUL, stk, AVL) – Coutinho, Sterling
Newcastle (WBA, mci, WHM) – Cabaye, Sissoko
Sunderland (AVL, ful, SOT) – Ki
Creating chances: Coutinho, Sterling, Puncheon, Ki, Sissoko, Cazorla, Barkley, Cabaye.
Attempts at goal: Coutinho, Barkley, Cabaye, Sterling, Puncheon, Cazorla, Ki, Sissoko.
Shot accuracy: Puncehon, Sissoko, Ki, Cabaye, Sterling, Cazorla, Barkley, Coutinho.
Team’s goal involvement: Cabaye, Sissoko, Sterling, Puncheon, Cazorla, Ki, Barkley, Coutinho.
Flingy, a great little post thanks mate. What do you recon is priority for my team this week (0.4 in bank):
1- Johnson to Koscieney
2- Rosienior to Alcatraz
3- El Ahemidy to Mutch
4- Hold transfer
5- Anything else!
Thanks
Are you purposefully playing 3-5-2 or is that because Rooney didn’t play?
If not, and you’re unsure if Rooney will play again, swap out El Ahmadi so you’ll have a decent player coming on for your 5 man midfield if that’s the case.
Cheers Flingy, I do normally go 3-4-3 but also recognise Rosienior needs to go and Alcatraz is a nice extra Everton defender till the Jan W/C. Would you suggest Mutch for 4.8 or less?
Thank you very much flingy, you don’t know how much I appreciate it
Bench; thanks for the update, awesome work as ever!
Cookie; who does the emails for the site? I sent through an idea a few weeks ago and wondered if you got it? Cheers mate.
Morning Alex, I will look into it for you mate, apologies for missing that!
Not a problem pal, let me know if you haven’t got it and i’ll send again. i’d appreciate your thoughts on my team dilemma (post 19.2) 😉
Morning Alex, I replied to your mail mate
I’ll forward you on the mail again.
Morning Kop, hows things mate? I never got it, how odd! whats your email, i’ll fire you a mail to make sure I gave you correct address. Cheers.
You can email kopwarrior@gmail.com
Have just sent you email Kop.
Cheers Alex, I’m just heading out now but I’ll get back to you this afternoon.
TEAM NEWS: @MesutOzil1088, @aaronramsey are still out, Giroud and @KieranGibbs are also out for the Cardiff game!
Also read about Walcott being a doubt? Is this for real????
I haven’t heard the Walcott rumour, but the rest is correct from the press conference.
Can’t say I didn’t see it coming, those players played almost (if not all) of our games in both the Champions League and Premier League. Giroud has been knackered for weeks, Ramsey looked slow and wasteful, Ozil looks lazy (although may just be his play style).
Wilshere is next, although he’s had rests he’s slow, doesn’t know where to be, gives the ball away at every opportunity. Takes a clobbering most times he tries to shield the ball or win it back and expects to get fouls given whilst he goes down like a bag of spuds off being touched.
Luckily Podolski and Walcott can lend a hand to Giroud up front. Because putting your faith in Lord Bendtner will not bring you that far!
Haha like your Wilshere metaphor. He is such a talent and joy to watch but sometimes goes through very dry spells of producing next to nothing on the pitch.
Btw Walcott just got flagged now!!! But I doubt it’s anything serious…these FPL people maybe got influenced by the rumours going around?
Suarez might get the nod for captain with Wallys 75% doubt…maybe even Rooney (surely he is fit once and for all!)!
Wow, that’s interesting from an FPL perspective, and worrying from an Arsenal perspective. If anyone has a FT lying about Podolski would now be a great shirt term punt as a 3rd striker.
My captain is currently Walcott. Anyone think that’s too risky now? I mean, he’ll probably still play, so it shouldn’t make much differences right? Only that almost all will be going with Suárez (c) now though, so if it backfired I’d be in big trouble…
What do you think?
My captain is also Walcott atm. Now the tinkering begins. Leave it on him and hope he plays a full game (if he does he has very good chances of scoring nicely this GW) or put it on Suarez who is facing a stubborn Hull defense. My guess is almost everybody will have it on Suarez so if we are looking for a differential we should stick it on Wally. And put Suarez VC just in case. This is a toughie! Not that many have Walcott so if he does well we will climb up the rankings. And since we already got Suarez we would “only” lose out on 50% of his score. Note the “only”…coz if he scores 4 we will surely regret it big time! (already happened to me once and I wish for it not too happen again!)
KungFu I agree – Walcott of he plays 90 should give great returns, in my gut I feel those better than Suarez’s, and if he doesn’t play we’d have the solid and ‘safe’ vc like most others. Sounds good.
Only 2 problems are a) Suarez goes wild and, like when he played Spurs and destroyed them, or b) Walcott comes on as a sub…
…despite the risks I still think I’ll stick with him and claim ‘50%’ of Suarez’s points, which seems bizarre, but true
Exactly! Well….I might change my mind next year if we get a bit more info by the deadline… 😉
“on Walcott and Rosicky…
Walcott has a little shoulder problem. Rosicky got a little kick on his calf. They are all going to be assessed this morning.”
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/team-news-who-is-fit-to-face-cardiff-
Tekno – do you think, if Walcott is deemed unable to start, he will just not play full stop, or that he could come on as a sub?
Considering that he will be assessed, the injury is probably not that serious and given Arsenals multiple injuries I think he’s likely to play unless he absolutely can’t. However, I find it worrying that it’s his shoulder that’s injured, what if he fell on it and damaged it even more during the match? Surely he’d be subbed.
If he doesn’t start, and the injury isn’t so serious that he can’t be on the bench, I think there’s a chance that he’ll come on for a 1 pointer, especially if Arsenal needs a goal.
It’s too risky to captain him for me james, I’ll go with Rooney if Moyes says he’s fit or Suarez if not.
After reading that I’m worried too. I think I’ll try and wake up before 11:30 tomorrow morning (alarm for 11?) and figure out what’s what then. But what I will say is, if Walcott looks too risky, then it’s 100% Suárez for me – are you looking for a differential in Rooney, or do you just think he’s got a better chance than Suárez?
I’ll go with Rooney because neither my cup opponent nor my Banterbury opponent have him, while they both have Suarez. It gives me an advantage over them and I also feel confident that Rooney will get points if he plays because Tottenham have been defensively shaky lately I’d be surprised if he outscored Suarez though, but I’d also be surprised if Suarez outscored Rooney by a large margin.
Now you have all FF247 thinking 😉 Think I might go with Roo as well now….having a one pointer Wally on would not be that great for my fpl ambitions!
Can Anyone Rate My Starting 11
Mignolet
Barnsley – Sagna – Ridgewell
Yaya Toure – Hazard – Walcott – Januzaj
LUKAKU – (c)SURAEZ – ROONEY
Bench : Marshall – Whittingham – B.Turner – Chester
hi demsie
here to collect the prize
Happy New Year Bench.
This Article is a fantastic read mate.
So Powerful Potty is wounded,wet and totaly pissed off in Somerset.
But my recovery starts today and it will be immense.
My natuaral Competiveness is back in time for my…
Group of Death Shield Compitition.
Bring it on.
Potty