World Cup Predictions Competition

[Kate Deller]

Well, what a night of results, wonder how many foresaw that!

Makes for an interesting World Cup.

[RST]

Well, what a night of results, wonder how many foresaw that!

Makes for an interesting World Cup.

Unsurprisingly nobody got any points in the Japan v Spain game and everybody got 1 point for Costa Rica v Germany! Chris Newbold was close having predicted a 3-2 German win.

[RST]

There we are then, the incessant football will start to slow now the group stages are over.

Today's congratulations go to Mick Docking for predicting Cameroon's 1-0 win (Cat being the only other person to score a point in that one).

It's all rather tight at the top with Robin holding just a 1 point lead over both Mr and Mrs Russell! JCS is now the leading player just 4 points behind Robin and Stan's one further back. Delboy and Parks lead the off field team's charge, being level with Stan. Who knew that putting down cones was great training for predicting scores

Too tired to go through 58 predictions for the last 16 qualifiers now but I'll try to get that done tomorrow.

[RST]

Not much change after scoring the 16 teams to qualify for the knockout stages as scores only ranged from 8 points to 12 points.

Next update will be after the 8 quarter finalists are decided.

[RST]

Many apologies - posted the update and realised I've scored it incorrectly. Should have been 2 points for each team qualifying for the quarter finals, not 1 point. Will re-do and post tomorrow

[RST]

Ok, let's try this again!

Eight teams left and the big guns are beginning to fire (apart from Spain who went off like a rocket and ended up like a damp squib).

Robin is now joined at the top by Angus, who along with Alice and Roy were the only ones to get 5 points for getting the total number of goals in the first knockout round correct. Three others managed a point for being within two goals of the total.

I'm a point behind the leaders with Stan and Charlie (so close to having Stan and Ollie, but he's 2 points further back!) a couple of points further back.

Next update will be after the quarter finals. Will be quite a few of us who will be hoping our prediction of France to do well will have been proved wrong by then!

[RST]

Well that was a tad disappointing, but well done England for finishing 5th out of the whole world!

On to the predictions and Robin has hung on to top spot, but is just a point ahead of Angus, Josh (Egghead, not Pob) and myself.

Plenty of points still available and fifteen players have picked Argentina to win, with two going for France so they will be hoping we don't see a Croatia v Morocco final!

Please feel free to check your own scores and flag up any discrepancies - after going through 58 papers for each update there's always a chance I've messed up somewhere.

Next update after the semi-finals.

[DarrenW]

Thanks Rupert like you and Steve I can imagine it's a difficult job doing the scores. Enjoyed it and much appreciated.

[RST]

Now just two matches to go and Angus stands alone at the top by a whole 2 points from Josh B with Stan a couple further back and long time leader Robin in fourth, so predicting the winner is as tricky now as the competition was in the first place!

With Angus, Josh, Stan and 5th place Steve Maxted all predicting an Argentinian win, Robin and I will be hoping our friends across the channel can prevail to give us any chance of getting back to the top spot (even though we both predicted a Brazilian win).

At the risk of repeating myself, actually I am totally repeating my last post by saying.....

Please feel free to check your own scores and flag up any discrepancies - after going through 58 papers for each update there's always a chance I've messed up somewhere.

Good luck for the final everyone, but please note there will not be a speedy final update as I'll have a carol service to go to after the footy!

[RST]

The winter World Cup is over, Messi has his prize and our prediction competition has its winner too and it's congratulations to Angus Tillson (who I believe is the friend of a friend of Kate).

Angus galloped away to win by 10 points from the runner-up who was me (I certainly didn't expect that to happen when I started all this off!) as I edged out Josh B by a point with Steve Maxted and Josh C-S joint fourth.

It could have been different as with the match standing at 2-2 in extra time, had there been no more goals and the French won on penalties I would have finished 5 points ahead of Angus, but given I would probably never have lived that down and people would be wondering how I'd fixed it perhaps this is the best result!

Angus takes the first prize of £145, I get £29 (which bizarrely enough is exactly what I spent on merchandise in the club shop yesterday!) and the Supporters' Trust gets £116.

As this was all for a bit of fun and to highlight the Supporters' Trust, if anyone wants to chip in to the Trust as a one-off or regular donation you can find all the relevant info here:

https://hitchintownfc.club/supporters-trust/

I have double checked the scores some way down the leader board to make sure I haven't made any mistakes, but if you think there's an error that would propel you up to 1st or 2nd please let me know asap (this does not include your predictions being rubbish so can you try again).

Finally can I take this opportunity to thank you all for taking part and I hope it added a little extra fun (and maybe some exasperation) to this last four weeks of footy and I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2023.

If you're reading this Angus I will be in touch very soon about getting you your winnings - well done again.