Just to introduce it to anyone who'd be unfamiliar with it, it's fairly simple. For every senior championship game in either code in the county, I will start a thread with the fixtures and you must post up your selections as a reply - over the course of the year there will be a league table kept up, while there will also be a knockout championship coming into effect halfway through. The rules are straightforward:
i) One Competition, football and hurling combined. Most people will by nature lean towards one or the other, but sure if you dominate the hurling, but lose on account of not knowing your big ball you can act all smug, as hurling people are so good at!
(ii) Obviously there should be a clear reason not to just pick the favourites all the time, so the following system is in operation.
Matches which are close enough, i.e. 60/40 or closer, which will be all games unless I mark them otherwise, will return 2 points for correctly picking a winner.
Matches where there is a clear favourite, i.e. Kilcormac vs Ballyskenach this week, will have the teams marked in brackets - (F) for the favourite, and (U) for the underdog. Successfully tipping the favourite returns 1 point. Successfully tipping the underdog returns 3 points. Successfully tipping a draw in any football game returns five points - successfully tipping a hurling draw returns seven points.
The one change to this year is that I'm introducing handicaps for some of the huge mismatches. What happens here is that the underdog gets a named head start, and you can tip either side to win taking the handicap into account. For example purposes we'll take this week where it's Kinnitty plus nine points against Birr. You can tip Birr, and get two points if they win by ten or more, tip Kinnitty and get two points if they win, draw, or lose by eight or less, or go for the handicap draw for 5/7 points, seven in this case. You can also tip the underdog outright if you wish. In order to do so you must say Kinnitty Outright, otherwise I'll take it you're on the handicap. Successfully tipping a handicap underdog to win the match without the head start returns eight points. These will mainly be used for Birr/Coolderry/Rhode fixtures against non-contending teams to save the pointless exercise of 98% of posters tipping the favourite.
(iii) You may only make one pick per match, obviously enough.
(iv) Tips entered late will obviously be not allowed. However you're only disqualified from scoring in the games you are late for - so even if you miss a Friday night game, you can still attempt to pick all the other games that week.
(v) While the competition will include all senior championship games in both codes, we will add in other games towards the end of the year to make up sufficient fixtures. This may include intermediate/U-21/minor fixtures, to be added entirely at my own discretion!
Seriously, while there are those who would prefer to leave out intermediate etc. entirely, and there are others who would like it the whole way through, it's a rare animal in the county who'd be comfortable with the form of both Tullamore vs Ballyfore intermediate and Carrig vs Killavilla as well. So this is the best middle ground. (vi) Big games - i.e. county quarter/semi and finals in both codes will be eligible for double points
(vii) The prize is the respect and admiration of your peers. The Roll of Honour so far is....
League
2005 Séan Boyle Ó'Rathallaigh
2006 Plain of the Herbs
Paddy McCormack Cup
2005 Rynagh's Biffo
2006 Rynagh's Biffo
Daithí Regan Cup
2005 Mighty Pair O'Hands
2006 Fullback
Right, that's enough spiel for now, so here's this week's fixtures:
Sunday, 6th May
12:00 St Rynagh's (F) vs Shamrocks (U)
14:00 Seir Kieran vs Shinrone
15:30 Birr vs Kinnitty (+9 points)
15:30 Coolderry vs Tullamore (+7 points)
17:30 Kilcormac/Killoughey (F) vs Ballyskenach (U)
Monday, 7th May
15:00 Lusmagh vs Belmont
With the Birr and Coolderry games, remember these are handicap matches. Your options are tipping either side to win with the head start added on, to tip a handicap draw, or to tip either underdog outright and go for eight tipster points. If you wish to do this, make sure to state either Kinnitty outright or Tullamore outright.
