Hi Folks
All that nonsense with hydration breaks and long half times and presidential interference is over now and we are shortly back to proper football. My thanks again to @OxfordBlue for his excellent WC score prediction contest.
I will again running the Gasroom score prediction contest this season. I very much hope that @railwaysteve will again run the crowd prediction one.
Purpose.
The competition is designed to raise money for a small charity that makes a noticeable difference. I ask that if you can, you donate at least ÂŁ10 here Chair Boy is fundraising for Samaritans of Plymouth, East Cornwall and South West Devon. See important donation tips below.The alert amongst you will notice that this is a new page. Somewhat to my surprise the old one closed after five years after we reached well over ÂŁ3000 (incl gift aid) for the cause. Sincere thanks. I assume that sadly means that the predictor who has set up a monthly standing order (thanks mate) will probably have to redo if he wishes to continue.
I am using my local branch as I know the money makes a real difference to them. The way Samaritans works is that calls from anywhere in the UK are distributed to next available volunteer so a volunteer in Plymouth is equally likely to be talking to a caller in need in Aberdeen as High Wycombe as Devon. It costs an average £1.25 or so to answer a call - so your £10 would fund c 8 calls - at least one of which is likely to have made a real difference to someone’s life, perhaps making the difference between them choosing to end that life or not.
To be clear though, this competition is designed to be inclusive. If you want to take part and either can’t or don’t want to donate, that’s cool. Just predict and join in.
Important donation tips
Go to the site and follow the links through.
If you are a UK tax payer - if you live in the UK you almost certainly are - please **do elect to donate under Gift Aid. It costs you nothing but the government will add an extra 25% to your donation.
*DO NOT choose the tip option - in fact you need to set “supporting Justgiving services” to NIL. The site already deducts a small amount from your donation to cover site costs. If you choose to tip, all that tip money goes to the site and not the charity. Some may think they are bstards for trying to con the donating public in this way but I couldn’t possibly comment. All charity donation sites do the same though, I believe.
What do I need to do
Each match I will open a thread and all you have to do is predict the result of that match. Closing time for predictions is 1 minute before kick off. I’ll do the rest
Scoring system
The scoring system is ridiculously complex such that even I am sometimes surprised at what the spreadsheet throws out. It is basically
Home Win Predicted - 4pts
Away Win - 5pts
Draw - 6pts
Correctly predicting that draw is not 1-1 - 1pt
Correct Score - 2pts
Correct prediction of exactly two goal margin - 2pts
Correct prediction of exactly three goal margin - 4pts
Each goal margin out --1pt (ie predict a 1-0 home win, actual result 2-0 away win - score -3pts
No prediction - nil points
Aggregate points over course of season wins title. If scores are level number of correct score predictions is “goal difference”
When can I join
You can join at any stage of season but obviously better chance of victory if you predict all 46 games.
Think that’s it - Any questions do ask.
Otherwise
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predict Blackpool here.
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donations here Chair Boy is fundraising for Samaritans of Plymouth, East Cornwall and South West Devon
