Erskine Cup Opening Matches

With a short turnaround between the weekend matches which finished last night, and the midweek matches which start tonight, there's not too much time for a detailed write up of the FTL results, but the table and a few highlights are here. One unforeseen circumstance came up this weekend, when for some reason there are no Pinnacle Sports prices recorded for the Queens Park Rangers v Stoke City game. It wasn't a hugely popular fixture, and I went with the average prices per Football Data.

First, the entries in profit, and there are a lot of them with the overall total up by a combined 35.03 points, which is quite impressive.

Mortimer has quietly moved up the table, (up 8.41 at the weekend) and now leads after BettingTools.co.uk dropped a couple of places. Draw Picks is having a great start, and made another 5.88 with five winning draws from 11 selections. Fairfranco slipped three places, but Trend to end was the big mover of the week, up by 21 places which may be a record. His big winner was Crystal Palace (9.52) to win at Everton, so entering that win was a delight. Bundeslayga made a small profit, Jamie A made a bigger one (3.85) and Club Havana had his best week (5.49) and is on a good run. Drawmaster made 2.48 with four draws from 11, the XX Unders had seven winners from 11, and Football Elite made 2.96 to move into profit thanks to Mainz '05 and Leicester City. Football Investor was economical, one bet, one win, and Sjosta made a small loss. Ian Erskine tried to break the rules by having more than one selection in the same game, but I caught him. If someone does this, e.g Augsburg v Werder Bremen Draw followed by Lay Augsburg, I take the first bet and discard the second, so Ian actually benefited by this rule! Paul Watson tried the same trick too, but fortunately for me, I'm not as stupid as I look (a great relief to my mother).

As for the losers, here they are:

Bounty Boy TFA's Draws got hot with two winners from four to move up the table, and there's not really any highlights at the bottom. @ValueBankFooty lost his five-fold acca and it wasn't even close with two winners and three losers. The unlucky 33rd placed Paul Watson is eliminated from the Erskine Cup, for which next weekend represents the opening Group matches. I say unlucky, but in the end, it wasn't even close.

The Groups are thus set for the Erskine Cup, and the Groups and match ups are below. The format should be fairly obvious, so without further ado, here are the Groups A to H and next weekend's ties:

OverGoalify, Skeeve and TFA Euro Draws have yet to make a bet, but can still take 3 points if their opponent makes a loss. Or they may be in action this weekend. Who knows? The drama of a cup weekend has already begun.

TFA_Raz is in the same group as mentor TFA and his Euro Draws, who open their campaign against another Draw seeker Drawmaster. Oh the delicious irony should this match end in a draw!

I wish everyone the best of luck this weekend, except Football Investor, Skeeve, Fairfranco and Betcast.