As most of you will remember, last year we had a little tipping competition on here based on the Offaly Senior Football and hurling championships - roughly!
For those who don't know the story, it's very simple. For every senior championship game in either code in the county, you must post up your selections - 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 I propose the following system:
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. Clara vs Rynaghs 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. This is a change from last year.
(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 Rhode vs Kilclonfert intermediate and Carrig vs Durrow as well. So this is the best middle ground. (vi) Selected big games towards the end of the year may be eligible for double points - this will be confirmed at the time.
(vii) The prize is the respect and admiration of your peers. The current hoders of the League/McCormack Cup/Regan Cup titles are Seán Boyle Ó Rathallaigh, Rynagh's Biffo and Mighty Pair O'Hands respectively. They have been basking in the glory of this all winter - that prestige alone is well worth competing for.
So for this week, here are your fixtures (I am aware that some of these may be called off due to the hurling, but if that happens it's just zero on that game for everyone).
Saturday 15th
6pm St. Brigid's (F) vs Shannonbridge (U)
6pm Edenderry vs Ballycumber
Sunday 16th
12pm Clara (F) vs St. Rynagh's
2pm Tullamore (U) vs Rhode (F)
3.30pm Kilcormac/Killoughey (F) vs Shamrocks (U)
6pm Doon (F) vs Erin Rovers (U)
If there are any questions, just ask. Good luck folks .....
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If it is, are you on drugs?
