Golden Boot Game Blog

As I write this it is Friday 13th November, a fitting day to write about Week 13 of the Golden Boot game. A week for which the first selections were entered on Halloween and which proved one of the more momentous weeks this season so far.

To be fair, trap ceam have been consistently brilliant ever since Week 10 – the start of Spot Prize 2. Four consecutive top five weekly placings has seen them establish a formidable lead of 32 points in the Spot Prize table. This is not yet a winning lead but, with only one more week to count after the break for internationals in Week 14, it is going to take a large reversal of fortune for anyone else to snatch Spot Prize 2.

The real story of Week 13, though, is the change of leader in the Golden Boot game. After an unlucky week for Magic Eight Balls which saw them only collect 3 points the door was finally open for trap ceam to reap the reward of their recent good form and take a healthy lead at the top of the Golden Boot game table.

It is good to know that Week 13 was lucky for some although perhaps the spookiest aspect of the week is that trap ceam now lead the table by 13 points from Magic Eight Balls and they are also 13 points ahead of third placed sheebee. Wyrd!

We have been back from the international break for a couple of weeks now and it seems to me that we are not getting as many goals as before it. That is to say, the strikers picked by teams in the Golden Boot Game are not getting the goals, they are going to other, lesser, players. How much better for us all if Lescott had just stepped out of the way rather than tapping the ball over the line.

I suppose we must be thankful for the intervention of red beach balls etc. that help our chosen strikers score. Certainly, as far as the Golden Boot Game goes, inanimate objects are of more use than international defenders.

Of course most refs will now know the rules and such outside intervention will lead to goals being chalked off. I wonder how long it will be before the refs understand the rule about positioning the ball for a corner kick, though. In a world where six officials can conspire to show a red card to the wrong player, I won’t be holding my breath on that one.

To tidy up Spot Prize 1, the manager of the winning team, junkyard dogs, very generously decided to donate the prize to Marie Curie Cancer Care. In fact, this is the first time that a prize in the Golden Boot Game has been converted into a 20 pounds donation in this way. It might start a trend.

Spot Prize 2 has now been running for two weeks and trap ceam have proved anything but their Spoonerism by being the only team to finish in the top ten on both occasions. This has given them a good early lead with, effectively, just three more weeks to go. There are two more weeks of matches before another international break after which the first set of matches marks the finale for Spot Prize 2.

The good thing about each week being treated separately, however, is that one bad week can change everything. We certainly won’t be able to call this one until all those Week 15 matches are over and the final positions totted up.

Finally, Magic Eight Balls continue to lead the Golden Boot Game going into November. Obviously, trap ceam have closed the gap somewhat over the last couple of weeks but still have some way to go to get ahead of the Golden Boot Game’s most consistently successful team.

Spot Prize 1 turned out to have a quite unexpected result. In past seasons it has almost always gone to the current leader of the Golden Boot Game but this season proved an exception.

Although Magic Eight Balls hold a comfortable 14 point lead no fewer than ten teams outscored them on those vital eight point goals during Spot Prize 1. While the overall leaders managed just seven 8-pointers and nine other teams managed eight 8-pointers we had a clear winner of the first prize to be awarded this season.

I can keep up the suspense no longer. The winner is junkyard dogs. Congratulations to them on getting nine 8-point goals over the first eight weeks of the season. As the only team to average more than one a week they fully deserve their victory.

So, as Week 8 sees the end of Spot Prize 1, so Week 9 sees the start of Spot Prize 2. Except that it doesn’t, of course, because the Premier League has no matches in Week 9. Yes, even though England have already qualified for the World Cup finals, many of the Premier League players will be involved in vital matches over the next ten days. However, none of the goals they score will count in the Golden Boot Game.

Spot Prize 2 will get underway in Week 10, though, and I should tell you about the rules. First, it will last for six weeks, ending after all matches in Week 15 have been played. This will be on or before 27 November 2009.

The six weeks of Spot Prize 2 will each count as a separate competition with scoring being the same as in the Golden Boot Game. Your team’s score for each week will be their position in that weeks competition. Naturally, the team with the fewest position points after all six weeks will be the winners. To put it simply, if your team is the best team in each of the six weeks you will get 6 points and win the prize.

Now there are a couple of other rules to point out. If any team joins the game mid way through the competition their position for the weeks they missed will be determined as if they had scored no goals in each of those weeks (in other words they will be last or joint last) so you can’t win by joining late.

Finally, if there is a tie on position points at the end of Spot Prize 2, the team with the lowest position in any week (the best performance in any week) will win. If that is tied the second lowest positions will be considered etc. until we have a winner.

WEB SITE TROUBLE

Lets start this blog with an apology. Some of you might have noticed that the web site was, effectively, out of action last Saturday. This was caused by a simple typo by the controllers. The effect was that the week did not begin until 28 September. Since the previous week had ended at midnight on 25 September, the game thought it was not in any game week. Once the offending date was corrected everything quickly returned to normal.

CHARITIES

We have finally managed to add up all the votes entered on the registration forms for the various charities you would like to see us support this season. As it turns out, any charity receiving more than one vote would end up in the top three. So, here they are:

- WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature)
- Marie Curie Cancer Care
- Medecins Sans Frontieres

Thanks for all your votes. We will donate £20 to each of the chosen charities and any Spot Prize winner can add to that by donating their prize to whichever of the three charities they wish.

GOLDEN BOOT GAME

Finally, a word about the Golden Boot Game. There have been plenty of goals over the past few weeks and this has made for some high scoring. This week most teams got over 30 points, a mark usually only achieved by the top couple of teams each week. The result of all this is that Magic Eight Balls have opened a gap of five points at the top. This is nothing in the grand scheme of things but is a comfortable lead compared with the two previous weeks.

In the Spot Prize 1 game we finally have an outright leader, junkyard dogs, with nine goals. There are seven teams on eight goals who will be hoping that the free scoring continues for another week of Premier League action. By Tuesday of next week all the matches counting towards Spot Prize 1 will have been completed and the first Golden Boot prize of the 2009 – 2010 season will have been won.

The Golden Boot Game, like the Premier League itself, is back from the break for the internationals. After three more weeks there will be another international break and at that point our first prize of the season, Spot Prize 1, will be awarded.

The winner of Spot Prize 1 will be the team with most 8-point goals at that stage. So far three teams (sillstars, manutd rule and France) lead the way with five qualifying goals. Another three teams (Do Ya Think Youre Gerrard Enuff, junkyard dogs and warriors) are just one goal behind. There is plenty of time for any team to make a break from the pack and clinch the prize over the next three weeks.

In the main Golden Boot Game Magic Eight Balls stands on top of a very congested table. More than a dozen teams are within 20 points of the leader with B F Giants, Spartak Gringley, sheebee and Oxford Orange able to take top spot with a single goal.

Of course, the Golden Boot Game is a marathon, not a sprint and any team still has every chance of closing gap over the next eight or nine months.

Finally, on an admin note, we will be announcing the three charities that you will be able to donate your prize to in our next blog. This is just to enable any late sign ups to have their say. We obviously need to have this information available before the winner of Spot Prize 1 gets to choose their prize so watch this space over the next couple of weeks to find out how the voting went.

The season has started and for the first time the Golden Boot Game also started on day one of the Premier League. So, far everything has gone well. There were plenty of goals (the six extra games helped) and every team scored some points.

Perhaps the best thing was that the site worked reasonably well with no major mishaps. Perhaps this was down to good preparation by the control team but more likely it was down to luck.

The early leaders are familiar names with Magic Eight Balls setting a hot pace (ten goals and 45 points) from Spartak Gringley last season’s champions (a mere eight goals and 41 points).

Eight does seem to be the magic number as eight teams scored two 8-point goals to lead the Spot Prize 1 race at this early stage. Statistically, Do Ya Think Your Gerrard Enuff were the strongest link in week 1 but it’s a few weeks yet until the winner gets chance to wear that Golden Boot Game tee shirt.

Talking of which, if you want to see the Thin Controller modeling the new tee shirt go to http://www.goaldenboot.co.uk/golden_boot_prize.html to see the pic. I am not sure his manly good looks and athletic frame are causing David Beckham to lose sleep over his modeling career, though.

And on that bombshell, it just remains for me to thank everyone who has signed up to play and to wish every team the best of luck for the coming season.

Yes, there are less than four weeks to go to the start of the new Premier League season and the updates to the web site are just about complete.

We already have 25 teams who have signed up at www.goaldenboot.co.uk/register.html with many of the usual suspects returning for another chance to win the top prize. Hopefully we will get many more before the season finally starts. If you know anyone who is interested make sure they don’t miss out.

Remember that this is one of the few games that still costs absolutely nothing to play. Even in these credit crunching times that has got to be good value.

The only thing we have not got ready for the new season is the new tee shirt. We are expecting them this week, honest. As soon as they arrive I will get some sort of picture put on the web site. In the meantime I will upload an image of the mock up shirt to the blog. Remember this is not exactly what the new shirt will be like but it should give you some idea.

Finally, can I ask you all a favour. If you have any mates who like football or free stuff or even sad fantasy games then point them in the direction of our web site. If we get more players we can get more (and better) prizes. It is as simple as that.

Now that the Premier League fixtures for the 2009/2010 season have been released we can start preparing the Golden Boot Game for the coming campaign. However, we have not been entirely idle during the close season, having already secured the usual first prize for next season.

There will be 39 weeks in next season’s Golden Boot Game season. Five weeks currently have no fixtures scheduled due to international matches or FA Cup commitments. No doubt the schedule will change as the season progresses but we will stick to the same basic rule: the matches actually played in a particular week will count towards that week. To put that another way, rescheduled matches will count towards the week in which they are actually played rather than the week they were scheduled for.

Yes, despite the economic state of the country and the difficulty in obtaining sponsorship, you will be able to win holiday accommodation for a week at Arrowvean Cottage in Porthleven once again in the 2009/2010 Golden Boot Game. I can also state that we will have a second prize for the runner up in the Golden Boot Game and six Spot Prizes which will run throughout the season. Full details of prizes and the Spot Prize competitions will be available on the Golden Boot Game web site from 1st July 2009.

Talking of web sites we have recently acquired http://www.goldenbootgame.co.uk and will be preparing this to run alongside our original site. For the moment this site is under construction. We hope to be able to introduce some improved features here while keeping the original site functionality (for traditionalists) on the existing site. Watch this space for developments.

The other thing we have been struggling with is the design of the new tee shirt for the 2009/2010 season. We are hoping that this will be available before 1st July so that we can include pictures on the web site from the start. However, not only do we not have a final shirt design, we do not have a supermodel to model it, either. The lovely Laura has returned to Oz, so we may be left with the athletic frame of the Thin Controller – not as pretty as his distant cousin but very cheap.

Remember that you can register for the 2009/2010 season of the Golden Boot Game from 1st July 2009. Until then have a good holiday and mind how you go.

THIS SEASON - The Prizes

The winners of the Golden Boot Game for the 2008/2009 season are one of the original founder members, Spartak Gringley. They were our first champions back in 2004 and five years later they have returned to the top spot again. They completed the season in style with a best of the week six goals and 29 points from the final set of matches. So it is well deserved congratulations to Spartak Gringley from all of us.

Meanwhile, the battle for second place took a tactical turn. Both superstar and hothotshotsorwhat picked the same strikers in their first seven positions. As superstar also picked Anelka in position 8 they increased their hold on second spot by one goal and one point. So congratulations to superstar, the winners from 2007, on securing the second prize this time.

Finally, for this season, Spot Prize 5 was won by We Love You Georgie We Do. They made sure there were no slip ups by playing right to the end, getting 23 points from the final set of matches, for a dominant victory in the competition. This repeated their win in the final Spot Prize of last season. If they can get it together from the start of next season then overall victory could follow. Congratulations to We Love You Georgie We Do on their victory in Spot Prize 5.

So, in the end there was no dramatic turn around on the final day and the Premier League season ended without a goal glut from any of today’s strikers but with even more abject failure from one previous Golden Boot winner (Alan Shearer). However, like the Golden Boot Game, this season’s Golden Boot goes to a former winner returning after a few years to win the top prize again, Nicolas Anelka.

NEXT SEASON - The Plans

Season 2008/2009 is now at an end. The control team would like to thank everyone who played this season. We hope to see you all around for next season and for many seasons after. Registration for the 2009/2010 season will start on 4th July 2009. Everyone will need to re-register for next season. We will send out a reminder early in July to everyone who took part this season.

The 2009/2010 season will see a major change to the Golden Boot Game. We will be starting the Golden Boot Game from Week 1 of the Premier League. There will be no warm up Golden Trainer Game (Practice Game). You will all be expected to be ready to go on day one in pursuit of the main prize. As a consequence, however, there will be an extra Spot Prize competition, making six Spot Prizes in all.

We will, also, have a new T shirt design for the coming season. This will be unveiled towards the end of June, hopefully. So keep your eyes on the web site or this blog during the close season for news of that and the other prizes to be won next season.

This is getting too long so I will end by wishing you all the best for the season break from the Fat Controller (Paul) the Thin Controller (Mark) and the Tall Controller (Barry).

This week Louis Saha could have made a big difference to any team’s score. However, only one team, Piglets, picked him. Even though the six points Saha scored for them are, no doubt, very welcome, Piglets will not be winning anything this season. Ten other strikers scored a single goal each. It was Blueghost who made the most of this by picking Defoe, Kuyt and Anelka in the top three places. Blueghost will not be winning anything this season.

The result of the top teams missing their opportunities is that things stay pretty much the same. In the Golden Boot Game Spartak Gringley have a 25 point lead from superstar and the gap back to hothotshotsorwhat has opened to 11 points.

Fifteen points from We Love You Georgie We Do was more than enough to maintain a healthy lead at the head of the Spot Prize 5 standings. With 29 points in hand and only 10 matches to be played it will take an exceptional performance to stop the prize going to the runaway leaders.

Next week is the final week of the season and the remaining prizes will all be decided on Sunday. Only about six Premier League sides have something to play for but that is probably more than in the Golden Boot Game.

For all those who think they might win a prize, please give us until the end of Monday to announce the winners. We need to apply some checks before we finally decide who has won the prizes. This is just to make sure that we have not messed up. There is nothing worse than awarding someone a prize and then having to take it off them. Unlike University Challenge we would like to make sure we get it right first time.

Finally, thanks to all those who have played this season. I think I speak for all the controllers when I say it has been a pleasure running the game throughout the season. I can’t think of any arguments. The technology has worked reasonably well most of the time and we haven’t messed up too often. I hope you all feel it was worth your time playing and we look forward to seeing you all back for the 2009 – 2010 season.

One final blog next week when we will reveal the winners and let you know our plans for the close season.