Fantasy League Update - GW5

Gameweek 5 - 22/09/2023

In the Premier League, Kay Waters won her first game of the season (58-48 over second-bottom Graham Hall) but still sits at the bottom of the league. Chris Parvin takes top spot after winning 4 on the bounce, and also having had 4 Manager-of-the-Week scores on the bounce. Amazing performance, Chris! Stephen Towers and Kim Fong each have some "of-the-week" and "of the month" points as well, but not as many as Chris; John Waters, who actually has the best win/draw/loss record in the Prem being one of only three players in the entire league system to remain undefeated after 5 games, sits in 4th place as he's not picked up any bonus points for highest weekly or monthly scores.

Michael Hannard is Manager of the Week in the Championship (FIIIIIX!) and he climbs to 6th, having won 3 in a row. Enda McGuane managed to hold me to a 44-all draw, but still hasn't picked up a win this season and sits bottom of the division. Ian Thirkeld, Liam Frost and Ibrahim Halawi occupy the top 3 positions in the table, having won 4 out of their 5 each.

Yiu Keung Tsang now has 4 wins in a row and sits top of League One thanks to 3rd place Manager of the Month bonus in August, and Manager of the Week this week with 63 points. Jonny Hedley and David Morton drop to the bottom two places after each losing their 4th out of 5 games this season.

League Two's top six haven't budged. Jack Robson and Steve Beggs are still yet to pick up a win, though the former did pick up his first point of the campaign in Gameweek 5, a very good result against top-of-the-league Ashley Birchall. Iftekar Hussein is Manager of the Week after picking up 60 points in his win over Roy Parkinson.

National League One's top two have stayed put, Greg Surtees leading as the second unbeaten player in the competition thus far. Rory Shoemaker picked up his first win of the season against Ciaran O'Toole, but still props up the rest of the table. Great match-up between John Thomas and Andrew Barcs, the former winning 68-57, making him Manager of the Week, despite the fact his opponent had the third-highest score in the division. That score of 57 would've been enough for Manager of the Week in any of the three lower divisions however John is the highest scorer in the whole league system, for Gameweek 5.

As mentioned, Sam Benton's 57 points were enough to bag the Manager of the Week award in National League Two; his inconsistency so far, though, sees him occupy 6th place in the table. Sam beat Ben Harper 57-39; the latter remains top despite losing his first game of the competition so far. David Miller picks up his first win (and his first points) of the season but stays bottom of the league.

Robert Pentland is up to 10th* after picking up his first win of the season in National League Three, a narrow victory over 2nd-placed David Martin. Joshua Lian sits top of the league as one of three players in this division who've won 4 out of 5. His 57 points consigned Callum Henderson to his second defeat on the bounce, after a strong start. Joshua gets his second Manager of the Week award.

*(please note, at the time of publishing, the National League Three Table is not displaying in the correct order. We are working to rectify this as soon as we can).

Last but not least (because divisions were assigned randomly) it's National League Four, where we find our third and final undefeated player... and, in fact, the only player to have picked up 5 wins out of 5 - congratulations Gokula Maanickam! Matthew Pike's 4th win puts him equal on points with Gokula, thanks to his bonus points for Manager of the Month in August. Joe Bullimore picks up his first win of the season beating Ryley Hill 54-48.

As for the tournament, the tables will be updated after Game 2 which is in Gameweek 7. I can tell you thought that, after one game, the following people top their groups:

Group 1 - Greg Surtees

Group 2 - Craig Purvis

Group 3 - Stephen Wallace

Group 4 - Mike Waters

Group 5 - Jonny Hedley

Group 6 - Liam Frost

Group 7 - Graham Clark

Group 8 - Iftekar Hussain

Group 9 - Simon Morton

Group 10 - Ilkka Pentillä

Group 11 - Leslie Anderson

Group 12 - Daryl Coombs

Group 13 - Stephen Towers

Group 14 - Ian Garrett

Group 15 - David Martin

Group 16 - Jonathan McGrath

Group 17 - David Morton

Group 18 - Ashley Birchall

Group 19 - Jonathan Adamson

Group 20 - James Crunkhorn

Group 21 - Daniel Bishop

Group 22 - Richard Harrison

Group 23 - Joshua Lian

Group 24 - Ross Macdonald

Coming up...

Gameweek 6 is AAAAAALL about the Cup. There are no league games slated, just a single knockout fixture for everyone who made it through Round 1 (and got a bye).

The fixtures are as follows. Each 'branch' of 4 fixtures below will eventually produce one quarter-finalist. You can see the full tree by clicking here.

L. Petty (PL) vs M. Pike (NL4)

J. Hedley (L1) vs J. Robson (L2)

Y. Mo (L1) vs S. Latimer (NL3)

D. Osguthorpe (PL) vs F. Nilsson (L2)

L. Frost (CH) vs G. Maanickam (NL4)

T. Slater (L1) vs A. Walker (L1)

P. Riley (PL) vs L. Anderson (NL3)

R. Hutchinson (CH) vs D. Coombs (L2)

Y-K. Tsang (L1) vs S. Benton (NL2)

K. Waters (PL) vs R. Parkinson (L2)

I. Halawi (CH) vs D. Morton (L1)

S. Bucktrout (L1) vs C. Abbott (L1)

K. Fong (PL) vs P. Thomson (L2)

S. Morton (L1) vs P. Christie (NL3)

I. Thirkeld (CH) vs R. Jensen (NL3)

G. Hall (PL) vs R. Huntington (L2)

R. Macdonald (CH) vs R. Daju (NL2)

D. Hadfield (CH) vs S. Beggs (L2)

C. Purvis (CH) vs J. Davidson (L2)

A. Young (PL) vs J. Bullimore (NL4)

R. Waters (CH) vs S. Baxter (NL4)

D. Bishop (PL) vs L. Girdlestone (NL3)

E. McGuane (CH) vs C. Henderson (NL3)

J. Waters (PL) vs G. Surtees (NL1)

J. Crunkhorn (CH) vs N. Wilson (NL1)

S. Towers (PL) vs B. Harper (NL2)

G. Clark (L1) vs C. Wesbroom (NL3)

J. Sheppard (CH) vs A. Roberts (NL2)

M. Hannard (CH) vs R. Percy (NL1)

S. Kinghorn (PL) vs J. Lian (NL3)

B. Douglass (L1) vs D. Bell (NL2)

C. Parvin (PL) vs A. Banks (NL2)

The tastiest fixture IMO... John Waters vs Greg Surtees. The latter has started 4 divisions below but they are two of only three undefeated players in the league fixtures so far, so it should be a great match nonetheless. Meanwhile, the other unbeaten league player, Gokula Maanickam, goes up against Liam Frost, who currently site 2nd in the Championship, so another fixture featuring two in-form players.

The biggest disparity between two players belongs to the fixture between Andrew Young, who's 8th in the Premier League, and Joe Bullimore, who's rock bottom of National League Four. There are 88 places between them! The only other fixture where top division plays bottom division is Lee Petty (5th in the Premier League) vs Matthew Pike (2nd in National League Four). There are 81 places between them.

Best of luck everyone!