Vanderbilt and the Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder.

Back in August I invited people to predict which teams were going to finish as the top 5 in the Premiership. And they did!

( This is what actually happened: )
So, the top two changed places, but otherwise the same as last year. ( These were the predictions: )
So everyone got the right top 5... well, OK, maybe that was the easy part. According to the by-now-familiar undyingking's Rank Correlation Coefficient, ( That gives scores of: )
Well done again dr_bob, the only one not to wildly underestimate Sir Alex's merry men. But let's hope that next year things get shaken up a bit more...

It's that time of year again -- last August I asked people who they thought would finish in the top 5 Premiership places over 2005-6. Best predictor was dr_bob. But can he repeat his feat? Or can you do better? Now is the time to get predicting. Who will be the top 5 at the end of the 2006-7 season?

Here below is my guess, concealed within a dazzling blur of whiteness*:
( and beneath an lj-cut )

Did I really hear this last night, or was it a glorious dream?

Meira hoofs over the bar in the dying moments.
Lawrenson: Don't give up the day job, Fernando.
Motty: He can hear the drums, Fernando, in a minute -- they're going out!

I very much like the idea of Motty being a closet Abba devotee, sweating inside his sheepskin. In fact, why not remake Abba: The Movie with him in the Lou Carpenter bodyguard role?

From the Northern Rock website:



Um, that'd be a 'no' then I guess.

I've just had an email from Alastair Campbell (not the guy from UB40):

Tomorrow England kick off their World Cup campaign. And you can follow their progress on Labour's website with myself and Sadiq Khan, MP for Tooting.

Sadiq and I will be watching all the drama and excitement from Germany and will be blogging exclusively on the site.

You never know... there might even be a bit of politics along the way.

Please join us online and send in your comments. We'd be delighted to hear your views.

It's like recreating that atmosphere of being in the pub watching footie with your mates, only instead of the pub, it's a political website, and instead of your mates, it's... well, I don't know anything about Sadiq Khan, but if we can judge him by the company he keeps... And all with the promise of "a bit of politics along the way". Yes, I always find being ranted at by swivel-eyed Blairites makes for a fun evening.

Can you imagine anything more enjoyable? Go on, try.

The estimable quantumboo found this site, and I've set up a mini-league on it -- join up, make your predictions, and see if your wild guesses are better luckier than ours! Not a serious contest of experts, just a bit of fun, honest... Do please also pass on to friends you think might be interested, the more the merrier I think.

There's a pub up the road, The Blooming Fuchsia, that I only go to for important football matches, ie. those involving West Ham in a position of some hope / peril. There are many much nicer pubs nearby, but they don't have football, so the Fuchsia it is. There's usually a dozen or so West Ham fams in there for the games (many of whom are Sikhs, for some reason). It's become a lucky pub, because so far they've always won when I've watched it there -- most importantly, last year's promotion playoff final and yesterday's FA Cup semifinal. I'm a bit alarmed by this development, because it means for them to keep winning I now have to keep on going to the Fuchsia. It's all too easy for these jinx tokens to leap into your life. I'm not really expecting them to beat Liverpool in the final, so maybe watching it at the Fuchsia instead of at home would be a good way to kill the jinx. On the other hand, what if they were to win? -- then I'd have to go there for all England's World Cup games as well, and it's not actually very handy for our new house. How much more difficult could my life be?

Do you have any supporting-team-related superstitions, lucky socks and the like? -- or am I the only one still childish enough to?