League Fixture Numero 3 (amended..)

Another great Sunday, full of SUN !  and blue sky, and much merriment,.... although I understand this was not applicable to London.   Shame..  Venice was nice though !..

Heard of no real interesting stories, so just to thank you for the comments on referees, on the whole, getting some good and some very good feedback, which is very pleasant to hear !  Apologies to Barnes and Celtic for the late arrival of their ref (will let agency know).   OK, so not all glorious news on refs, hopefully his reason was acceptable.   Hopefully, not the shape of things to come..

Results last Sunday were:-

Celtic 7 Barnes 3

Hendrix 1 Bloods 5

Groovers 1 Lisbarnes 6

Madras 1 Bob 1

Loko 1 WKK 3

And the table means Lisbarnes are top with WKK 2nd only due to Goal Difference, both teams having won their 1st 3 games, followed by the Bobs, Madras, Groovers, ahhhh, you can look at the table and see the positions.

Madras have finally not scored more than 5 goals only managing 1 - well done the Bobs for containing them (..).  Loko and Hendrix yet to score any points - come on guys ! ;-)

Celtic can go third if they win their game in hand, and will be 3 points behind the leaders.  News from the Groovers camp is their Ramadan season is now over, and are looking forward to running on full.. enough commentary..  have a good week.

1st cup games round !

First round of Cup Games - results as follows

Loko 3  Hendrix 0

Bob 1  Madras 6

Bloods 1 WKK 2

Lisbarnes 7 Groovers 2

What happened to the Bobs with their 6-0 defeat ...!??  I know they were short of players when I called at 10h30.. why did I call I hear you ask...? no? oh.. well, tell u anyway.. essentially the ref agency called up as the ref was at the pitch with no players to be found, and hence, I needed to find out in order to stabilise the refs concern - it doesn't get more riveting than that !.... mmmmmm...   The other point to make is that Madras scored 7 last week... so what is their new weapon..?   Madras, I await your update in the comments section...  Other comments: we also had another large score line between Lisbarnes and Groovers..  and I hear the WKK Bloods game was a corker !  And Loko secured their first win of the season !  WOW - these cup games sure are something! Stay tuned to the Barnesalona blog site for more happenings in the following weeks to come.  Remember that we only have 1 round of games this season, not the 2 we used to have so every win is important to the point tally score thingamibob..  Signing out.

Though feel the need to mention that THE SUN WAS OUT AGAIN !  3 weeks running ! can you believe it !

And the second week went by, and still the sun shone.   

So, some interesting results with Madras beating Loko 7-2 !  Hendrix giving the Lisbarnes a run for their money with a 3-2 loss, and WKK beating Barnes 3-1.  Celtic v Bloods was postponed due to Wiggy's wedding.   And so his Celtic comrades had to ensure he got to the altar, meaning a team could not be fielded - good enough excuse to me - Congratulations Wiggy ! (ps - apologies if I have misspelt Wiggy..).

Getting back to serious matters.. WKK are top of the league only due to having scored more goals than Lisbarnes, both teams on same number of points, with the Groovers and the Bobs right behind in pursuit... God, these 1st 2 weeks are proving incredibly exciting !  .. calm down.. 

Anyway, above is latest league standings.

we've scored 46 goals so far !  Averaging 2.3 goals a game... 40% games won and 20% drawn.

Cup games this weekend - all to play for.  When I say all, its just the James Rettie Cup and the Barnesalona Cup.. nothing major..  just be nice if the sun stuck around again..

LEAGUE TABLE after 1st week

1st weekend of the new season 08-09

Hi guys,

There seems to be a trend for the 1st week of the season - sunny, blue sky, warm weather..  I don't remember one season where weather hasn't been like that for the opening week.. we should just end it here, and start a new league every weekend... ok.. I will try reducing the number of silly commentaries..  perhaps our friend from Bloods who writes all those off the wall emails should write in and take over..  James?

Today, we had 28 goals, 5 wins, and no draws..  top of the table are the Groovers (who have lost their Ladbrooke tag and are now simple Groovers).   Barnes beat London Bloods 4-1, which is the surprise result of the weekend.  We had (unless I hear otherwise) only one real silly moment from a goalkeeper kicking an opponent with the ball out of play.. there are always some !   The word twat comes to mind :-)   

Allan who managed Barnes for many many years, has now embarked on a new adventure playing for WKK who lost their 2 goalkeepers over the Summer - good luck Allan.  I understand London Bloods are also looking for a new keeper - if anyone knows of anyone..!?  Any other teams needing players? .. let me know.

All in all, it was a good beginning to the season - the most pleasing factor was that of hearing from various sources and various teams the pledge to be less "aggressive" towards referees and fellow players.   Teams such as the Groovers have thrown 3 of their players out who caused much aggro last season, the Bloods have taken an oath to have less backchat, Celtic were kind enough to return a football they took end of last season from the Bobs, the clubhouse had a great turnout with 5 of the teams making an appearance - which means there will now be food lunchtime !  and etc...  keep it up guys !  :-)

The table:- (until I figure out how to copy into a jpg (with my new iMac thing), it will be in this format and emailed.   If any mac users know how to convert a xls file into a jpg, let me know !

d PL Won Draw Lost GF GA GD Points

Groovers 1 1 0 0 6 1 5 3

Barnes FC 1 1 0 0 4 1 3 3

Sporting Lisbarnes 1 1 0 0 4 1 3 3

Uncle Bob 1 1 0 0 3 0 3 3

WKK 1 1 0 0 5 3 2 3

Real Madras 1 0 0 1 3 5 -2 0

Celtic 1 0 0 1 1 4 -3 0

Hendrix 1 0 0 1 0 3 -3 0

London Bloods 1 0 0 1 1 4 -3 0

Lokomotiv FC 1 0 0 1 1 6 -5 0

Catch u all next week for the next league weekend.

EMAIL TO MANAGERS 02.09.08

Hi guys, Season soon to kick off.  

A few things.  

1. New fixture list to accommodate the Groovers for Ramadan = 1st 2 weeks of season - moved them to afternoon game. 

2. Contact List - all managers details - pls take note so can get in touch with eachother for any issues. 

3. Linesmen - issue has been brought up - I think you guys need to agree with eachother to provide linesmen - b4 each game? b4 season kicks off? 

4. Changing Rooms - there will be a petition going around to sign and send to council for improvements request/demand. 

5. Refs - I will be requesting that the ref agency confirm to the Home team manager the name and number of the ref so can contact him for any reason such as late, etc.. to let u know this confirmation can happen late on saturday night so don't worry too much if not received anything by then - will confirm once agency agreed. I will be managing the getting of these - all u will get is a conf, with number,name (hopefully!) 

6. Would also like to introduce new request..! could the Home team manager please send me text with result of game 

7. Blog - I am looking to carry on the blog for the coming season http://barnesalonafc.blogspot.com/ and will be looking to upload the league tables on there each week. Please let ur guys know.  

And lastly, ..  

8. Let's keep this a friendly league, enjoy the competition, respect each other :-) please remind your players who get heated to not spoil the enjoyment of a Sunday footy game ! I know you would all rather go home and get ready for the week, having enjoyed kicking a ball around with other friends/teammates ! I hope captains will take this on board and set the example - if anything does go down, let both captains talk and discuss how to resolve in amicable way ! I will obviously want to hear of any issues throughout the season.  

I need to bore myself with the usual saying I re-iterate at the beginning of each season..  

Live it - love it - play it

NEW SEASON 2008-2009

A new season...  that's 5 years now I've been running this league... will be my 6th season... longer than James, who created it... funny how things go..

Anyway, all teams are as last season, no changes there, except for some new personnel, in the shape of players, managers and possibly referees..  Got a new contact (again) for pitch hiring.. another relationship to build, trust to grow.  Let's see how this season pans out..

There is also one big difference in the cup format - there is no longer a second round in the group preliminaries, so as to liberate weekends for the obligatory rains and cancellations that cause stress and aggro near end of season in order to catch these up!  Good news for all I believe + gives us 3  weeks off for Xmas !  Maybe its more a positive for me!..

My wishes...  the usual, but, I imagine there will still be the obligatory players who don't understand the premise of playing football for the joy of it, and are intent of ruining a football for game for all others; and the usual complaints about referees, who are, with no shadow of a doubt, superhuman specimens, who can only but see everything around them, every single motion of a ball, of a kick, of off-ball incidents, their "x-ray vision see-through players radar capturing imaging of all that is between the lines that form a boundary of a football pitch"!  

On a serious note, let's look to reduce the amount of abuse referees get.  Yes, they will make mistakes, there is no 2 ways about it, that has always been the case, and, will always be - we need to accept that is also part of the game.   I would urge the captains and managers, and all players in fact, to curb and kill off any descent hurled towards referees - they are human beings. No, really, they are !   

BUT, as per usual, and thank goodness, there will be many positives, such as good camaraderie, clubhouse banter, fun filled rivalries, healthy competition, and positive feedback on the ethos of the league, and its uniqueness.   And many players themselves taking on the helm and disciplining those who get out of line.  

I should stop waffling on.. let the games begin.  Oh, and, I should finish off with 

Live It - Love It - Play It