Two significant events in the Championship last night. Firstly, Keith's Cardiff won promotion to the top flight for the first time in 51 years after a 0-0 draw with Jane's Charlton. However, the free curry spot is not yet secured as Amy's Hull, who lost 1-0 at Shirley's Wolves, can still catch them.
Going the other way, Kelly's Bristol City lost at home to Chris' Birmingham 1-0, confirming their relegation and finishing bottom of the league. Dave's Leeds beat Anna's Burnley 1-0 meaning Leeds are now as good as safe for another season, whilst Burnley have been dragged right back into the fight. Pete's Leicester moved back into the Play off places at Marg's Bolton expense with a hard fought 3-2 victory. Dan's Brighton moved up to 4th with a 0-0 draw against Peterborough, moving Paula's Crystal Palace down to 5th (though on the same points) after being beaten 3-0 (!) by Jan's Ipswich who move 5 points clear of the relegation zone. Scott's Watford lost ground on the automatic places after being beaten 1-0 by Millwall. This leaves them 6 points adrift of Hull with 9 to play for. Mick's Forest blew an opportunity to push back into the play offs after a 1-0 loss to Colin's Middlesborough.
At the lower end of the league, Shirley's Blackburn scored a much needed 1-0 win over Andy's Huddersfield, which moved Blackburn out of the relegation zone and were replaced by Huddersfield. Jim's Derby drew 1-1 with Barnsley and Lyn's Blackpool drew 0-0 with my Sheffield Wednesday, doing neither team any huge favours in the race to avoid the drop. (N.B. It is still possible, even with 3 games to go, that all teams that are 9th (Charlton) and below can still get relegated)
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Monday, 15 April 2013
CCC Midweek fixtures - Tuesday 16th April
Tuesday 16th April
Barnsley V Jim
Shirley V Andy
Kelly V Chris
Keith V Jane
Jan V Paula
Dave V Anna
Pete V Margs
Colin V Mick
Millwall V Scott
Peterborough V Dan
Sue V Amy
Lyn V Ted
Match of the Day? Ted's choice. All yours Ted for the match reports thanks
:-)
Barnsley V Jim
Shirley V Andy
Kelly V Chris
Keith V Jane
Jan V Paula
Dave V Anna
Pete V Margs
Colin V Mick
Millwall V Scott
Peterborough V Dan
Sue V Amy
Lyn V Ted
Match of the Day? Ted's choice. All yours Ted for the match reports thanks
:-)
CCC match reports and update
Friday night saw Chris's Birmingham in a pretty pink visit Pete's Leicester. The visitors gave Pete the lead gifting them an own goal but Birmingham equalised early in the second half. Pete's team regained the lead but a controversial 90th minute penalty for Birmingham meant the game finished a 2-2 draw.
In Saturday's early kick off Ted's Sheffield Wednesday lead the first half 1-0. But perhaps it was an inspiring half-time team talk by Leed's new manager Brian McDermott that resulted in Dave's team playing a more attacking game in the second half and they won 2-1 at home after two goals in 6 minutes by Luke Varney.
At the top Keith’s Cardiff came closer to securing promotion with a 3- 0 home win against Mick’s Forest who were down to 10 men in the first half after a sending off for violent conduct. Amy’s Hull kept pace with a 1-2 away win at Jan’s Ipswich but Scott’s Watford fell short losing 3-2 at Peterborough. Scott’s team were 2-0, reduced to 10 men and then let in a third before battling back with two late goals.
In Saturday's early kick off Ted's Sheffield Wednesday lead the first half 1-0. But perhaps it was an inspiring half-time team talk by Leed's new manager Brian McDermott that resulted in Dave's team playing a more attacking game in the second half and they won 2-1 at home after two goals in 6 minutes by Luke Varney.
At the top Keith’s Cardiff came closer to securing promotion with a 3- 0 home win against Mick’s Forest who were down to 10 men in the first half after a sending off for violent conduct. Amy’s Hull kept pace with a 1-2 away win at Jan’s Ipswich but Scott’s Watford fell short losing 3-2 at Peterborough. Scott’s team were 2-0, reduced to 10 men and then let in a third before battling back with two late goals.
Margs’ Bolton added to Kelly’s misery beating her Bristol City team 1-2 away. Sue’s Wolves were confirmed second from bottom after some shocking defending allowed Andy’s Huddersfield to take away the three points with a 1-3 away win; two goals scored in two minutes by Beckford. The final score line had already been achieved by the time Sue’s O’Hara received a red card. Shirley’s Blackburn achieved her first win in eleven games with a 2-0 win over Jim’s Derby moving her slightly up the table. There was a 1-0 home win for Lyn’s Blackpool over Anna’s Burnley and Dan took the points away from Colin’s Middlesbrough after a 0-2 win. Jane got the score line of the day as her Charlton team scored 6 away at Barnsley with just one in reply for the home team.
Paula didn’t play as the fixture was scheduled against Millwall who were fighting in the FA Cup. Paula and Shirley have a game in hand over the other teams. | April 14th | ||||
| Team | Pts | Who | Pence in the pound | |
| 1 | Cardiff | 83 | Keith | 0p |
| 2 | Hull | 77 | Amy | 0.3p |
| 3 | Watford | 71 | Scott | 0.8p |
| 4 | Crystal Palace | 66 | Paula | 1.4p |
| 5 | Brighton | 65 | Dan | 1.6p |
| 6 | Bolton | 63 | Margs | 2.1p |
| 7 | Nottm Forest | 63 | Mick | 2.1p |
| 8 | Leicester | 61 | Pete | 2.7p |
| 9 | Charlton | 57 | Jane | 4.1p |
| 10 | Leeds United | 55 | Dave | 4.8p |
| 11 | Middlesbrough | 55 | Colin | 4.8p |
| 12 | Birmingham | 54 | Chris | 5.3p |
| 13 | Blackpool | 54 | Lyn | 5.3p |
| 14 | Burnley | 54 | Anna | 5.3p |
| 15 | Derby | 54 | Jim | 5.3p |
| 16 | Ipswich | 53 | Jan | 6p |
| 17 | Sheff Wed | 53 | Ted | 6p |
| 18 | Huddersfield | 51 | Andy | 7.5p |
| 19 | Blackburn | 50 | Shirley | 8.2p |
| 20 | Wolves | 48 | Sue | 9.9p |
| 21 | Bristol City | 40 | Kelly | 16.5p |
Thursday, 11 April 2013
CCC Team of the Week - Keith's Cardiff (guess what happened at wembley?)
So from top to bottom and Kelly to Keith. The only welsh team in the history of the CCC
Cardiff City play their home games at the Cardiff City Stadium where they moved to in 2009 after 99 years at nearby Ninian Park. The Club record attendance at Ninian Park was 57,893 against Arsenal whilst at Cardiff City Stadium it was 26,098 against Paula’s Palace.
Cardiff City are the only club outside of England to win the FA Cup which they did on St George’s Day in 1927 beating Arsenal 1-0 in the first match to be broadcast nationwide by BBC Radio. More recently they lost to Portsmouth J. They have also been regular winners of the Welsh Cup and as the winner of the Cup in 1966-67 gained entry to the UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup, reaching the semi-finals in 1967-68.
Riverside A.F.C. was formed in 1899 as a way of keeping players from the Riverside Cricket Club together and in shape during the winter months. In 1905 Cardiff was granted city status by King Edward VII, but the club had to join the South Wales Amateur League in 1907 before they were deemed good enough to change the name of the club to include City. They played their first Football League home match against Clapton Orient (who?) in August 1920.
After a season long tussle (1923-24) they went into the last game of the season one point ahead of second-placed Andy’s Huddersfield. Andy’s team beat Mick’s Forest 3-0 but Cardiff missed a penalty and were held to a 0-0 draw by Chris’s Birmingham so they ended the season in second place on goal average. Although they had scored one more goal than Huddersfield during the season, Cardiff also conceded one more meaning they had a worse scoring-to-conceding ratio of 1.794 compared with Huddersfield's 1.818. If goal difference was used, Cardiff would have been champions.
In the 1950s the Cardiff chairman established close links with Torquay after regularly visiting the hotel owned by the Torquay chairman. In following seasons any players not thought to be good enough for Cardiff would be offered to Torquay and Cardiff had first pick of the good players from Torquay. The relation lasted until 1954. Between 1985 and 1993, Cardiff were continuously in the lower two divisions of the league and in 1996 finished they finished in their lowest-ever league position – 22nd of 24 in Division Three.
By 25 May 2003, Cardiff played QPR in the play-offs and the Bluebirds clinched a 1-0 win scoring on 114minutes to return to division one after 18years and they have remained at Championship level ever since, mostly mid-table. Not one to miss out on the woes suffered by most of our teams, during that season the club were involved in a court case with financial backers Langston over the repayment of a £31m loan taken out by former chairman Sam Hammam in 2004. Years later, having staved off a winding up order from HMRC under a payment agreement, in November 2009, Ridsdale (ex_leeds) offered a "Golden Ticket" scheme to fans, buy the 2010/11 season ticket before 6 January 2010 and no price rise for 2 years and all monies raised would be spent on players in the January 2010 transfer window. However, late January Ridsdale admitted that in addition to the "Golden Ticket" money not being spent on players, club assets would be sold to fulfil a £2.7M tax bill, and avert another winding up order.
They have been in the Championship play-offs several times beating Pete’s Leicester 4–3 in a penalty shoot-out in semis but lost 3–2 to Lyn’s Blackpool and lost the following two season 3–0 and 5-0 on aggregate to Jane’s ex-Reading and Mick’s ex-West Ham in the semis.
In 2012, the club's Malaysian then-owners announced plans to re-brand the club including the change of the club's home colours and crest from blue to red. However, this was not the first attempted re-brand as shortly after purchasing the club in august 2000 Sam Hamman controversially pledged to get the entire Welsh nation to support Cardiff by renaming the club "The Cardiff Celts". This was to involve changing the club colours to green, red and white. At that time lengthy talks with senior players and fans, convinced the new owner not to change the name of the club; however the club crest was redesigned to incorporated the Cardiff City bluebird in front of the Flag of Saint David. But if Keith is going to wear any Cardiff kit I hope he finds the retro purple and yellow kit of the 70s
There was much discussion on whether Cardiff could play in Europe if they qualified, it being the English League etc. Platini said they could although the FA weren’t sure but changed their stance to say Cardiff could play in Europe should they win the FA Cup Final but they lost to Portsmouth (did I mention that?).
Cardiff City are the only club outside of England to win the FA Cup which they did on St George’s Day in 1927 beating Arsenal 1-0 in the first match to be broadcast nationwide by BBC Radio. More recently they lost to Portsmouth J. They have also been regular winners of the Welsh Cup and as the winner of the Cup in 1966-67 gained entry to the UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup, reaching the semi-finals in 1967-68. Riverside A.F.C. was formed in 1899 as a way of keeping players from the Riverside Cricket Club together and in shape during the winter months. In 1905 Cardiff was granted city status by King Edward VII, but the club had to join the South Wales Amateur League in 1907 before they were deemed good enough to change the name of the club to include City. They played their first Football League home match against Clapton Orient (who?) in August 1920.
In the 1950s the Cardiff chairman established close links with Torquay after regularly visiting the hotel owned by the Torquay chairman. In following seasons any players not thought to be good enough for Cardiff would be offered to Torquay and Cardiff had first pick of the good players from Torquay. The relation lasted until 1954. Between 1985 and 1993, Cardiff were continuously in the lower two divisions of the league and in 1996 finished they finished in their lowest-ever league position – 22nd of 24 in Division Three.
By 25 May 2003, Cardiff played QPR in the play-offs and the Bluebirds clinched a 1-0 win scoring on 114minutes to return to division one after 18years and they have remained at Championship level ever since, mostly mid-table. Not one to miss out on the woes suffered by most of our teams, during that season the club were involved in a court case with financial backers Langston over the repayment of a £31m loan taken out by former chairman Sam Hammam in 2004. Years later, having staved off a winding up order from HMRC under a payment agreement, in November 2009, Ridsdale (ex_leeds) offered a "Golden Ticket" scheme to fans, buy the 2010/11 season ticket before 6 January 2010 and no price rise for 2 years and all monies raised would be spent on players in the January 2010 transfer window. However, late January Ridsdale admitted that in addition to the "Golden Ticket" money not being spent on players, club assets would be sold to fulfil a £2.7M tax bill, and avert another winding up order.
In 2012, the club's Malaysian then-owners announced plans to re-brand the club including the change of the club's home colours and crest from blue to red. However, this was not the first attempted re-brand as shortly after purchasing the club in august 2000 Sam Hamman controversially pledged to get the entire Welsh nation to support Cardiff by renaming the club "The Cardiff Celts". This was to involve changing the club colours to green, red and white. At that time lengthy talks with senior players and fans, convinced the new owner not to change the name of the club; however the club crest was redesigned to incorporated the Cardiff City bluebird in front of the Flag of Saint David. But if Keith is going to wear any Cardiff kit I hope he finds the retro purple and yellow kit of the 70s
There was much discussion on whether Cardiff could play in Europe if they qualified, it being the English League etc. Platini said they could although the FA weren’t sure but changed their stance to say Cardiff could play in Europe should they win the FA Cup Final but they lost to Portsmouth (did I mention that?).
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
CCC - Ted's joy and update on last year's teams that left the CCC
It started as a night of woe for Ted as his Sheffield Wednesday team conceded away at Millwall after just 2minutes, but by half time they had levelled to 1-1. Chris Maguire scored in injury-time to give Ted the three pints and shoot him up the table above Dave and Lyn. It is a timely run of form with three wins and a draw in the last four matches. However, at the top of the table, Keith’s Cardiff have only won one of their last four, with a defeat and two draws, one of the draw at home to Barnsley last night. Cardiff had taken the lead and looked set for the three points until 5 minutes of extra time was added. How much further extra tie there should be I am not sure but Barnsley equalised on 90+7th minute to the dismay of the Cardiff fans.
With five games left to play (six for Shirley’s Blackburn), the only people who can gain the top spot and have the free curry are Keith (it’s been his for a while), Amy, Scott and Paula although it would be a very outside chance for Paula.
Other news – Shirley’s latest (care-taker) manager Gary Bowyer has been summonded to India for talks with the owners.
And last year’s teams – League One: Margs’ Portsmouth are in court today to see if the Supporters Trust can force the sale of Fratton Park to them (well that’s what I think it is), Anna’s Coventry were deducted 10 points as they were deemed in administration after being taken to court by the Ricoh Arena landlords. Premier League: Jane’s Reading have new manager Adkins but as they are currently at the bottom of the table look like they will be re-joining the CCC but Mick’s West Ham have achieved a mid-table status and although safety isn’t yet guaranteed the odds on them going down must be high.
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
CCC update, table & this week's fixtures
Of the top 9 teams only Amy and Margs were able to capitalize with a win and gain on those teams around them.
Amy’s Hull beat Colin’s Middlesborough 1-0 to keep second place and Margs’ Bolton beat Sue’s lowly Wolves with two early goals. Keith’s Cardiff was held to a 0-0 draw by Scott’s Watford and it was a similar score line for Paula’s Palace at home to Barnsley. There were 1-1 draws for Mick’s Forest at home to Lyn’s struggling Blackpool, Dan’s Brighton at home to Pete’s Leicester and Chris’ Birmingham V Millwall. Lyn’s team were down to 10 players and Mick needing a 81st minute penalty to clinch a point, Dan’s team scored in the 88th minute to claim the point but Chris squandered their 1-0 lead. Andy’s Huddersfield took the lead twice but ended up with a 2-2 draw at home to Peterborough.
Team of the Week may have inspired Kelly’s Bristol City as they took a first half lead away at Anna’s Burnley but they let in three second half goals to remain at the bottom. To add to her woes, Ted’s Sheffield Wednesday came from behind to beat Shirley’s Blackburn and not only move away from Kelly but is now level on cost and points with Shirley.
Three goals in the match between Jane’s Charlton and Dave’s Leeds saw Jane take the lead, Dave equalise with 9 minutes of normal time to go but Jane secure the win with a headed goal in the 90th+5minutes. Jan took the opportunity to go above Dave in the table after winning 1-0 away at Jim’s Derby. Jan’s goal was an injury time winner after Derby had missed a penalty for the fourth time in a row. Something to work on at the training ground.
Latest table update...
| April 8th | ||||
| Team | Pts | Who | Pence in the pound | |
| 1 | Cardiff | 79 | Keith | 0p |
| 2 | Hull | 74 | Amy | 0.2p |
| 3 | Watford | 71 | Scott | 0.5p |
| 4 | Crystal Palace | 66 | Paula | 1.1p |
| 5 | Nottm Forest | 63 | Mick | 1.7p |
| 6 | Brighton | 62 | Dan | 1.9p |
| 7 | Bolton | 60 | Margs | 2.4p |
| 8 | Leicester | 60 | Pete | 2.4p |
| 9 | Middlesbrough | 55 | Colin | 4.1p |
| 10 | Burnley | 54 | Anna | 4.5p |
| 11 | Charlton | 54 | Jane | 4.5p |
| 12 | Derby | 54 | Jim | 4.5p |
| 13 | Birmingham | 53 | Chris | 5p |
| 14 | Ipswich | 53 | Jan | 5p |
| 15 | Leeds United | 52 | Dave | 5.7p |
| 16 | Blackpool | 51 | Lyn | 6.3p |
| 17 | Huddersfield | 48 | Andy | 8.4p |
| 18 | Wolves | 48 | Sue | 8.4p |
| 19 | Blackburn | 47 | Shirley | 9.2p |
| 20 | Sheff Wed | 47 | Ted | 9.2p |
| 21 | Bristol City | 40 | Kelly | 15p |
This week's fixtures
| Tuesday 9th April 2013 | ||
| Keith | V | Barnsley |
| Millwall | V | Ted |
| Friday 12th April 2013 | ||
| Pete | V | Chris |
| Saturday 13th April 2013 | ||
| Dave | V | Ted |
| Barnsley | V | Jane |
| Shirley | V | Jim |
| Lyn | V | Anna |
| Kelly | V | Margs |
| Keith | V | Mick |
| Jan | V | Amy |
| Colin | V | Dan |
| Peterborough | V | Scott |
| Match of the Day - fighting to reduce the debt | ||
| Sue | V | Andy |
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