TTFE

Ever since last Thursday I just haven’t been the same.

It’s like an undeniable chortling monkey has taken residence upon my shoulders uttering the same, bone-chilling words… ‘Faaaaatman… Scooooop!”. Over and over again, this pernicious primate continued to undermine my footballing ability reminding me of that woeful miss which summed up what was a below-par performance at Sophia.  On a night which missed tackles and mislaid passes became the least of my worries, that one golden opportunity to make amends for the piss-poor play only added to what was an already overloaded catalogue of errors.

Fatman Scoop is the nickname I’ve earned for my incredible tendency to fire the ball over the goal when completely unnecessary or seemingly impossible to do so. And last Thursday was perhaps the best example you will ever see of Da Scoop in action. As I went back to my  recommended position as defender to absorb all the insults, Callum said to me it was ‘like Rosenthal’ and I couldn’t have agreed more. For those who aren’t aware of who he is, Israeli Ronny Rosenthal is known for perhaps the most famous footballing blunder of all time where he missed an open goal by hitting the crossbar, much to his horror. See that very horror below…

So it got me thinking about other woeful open goal misses which will stand the test of time (and make me feel better as they are worse than mine!).

These have been taken from a Guardian article and are all extremely high on the embarrassing Miss-o-Meter. But do you have any football misses that you can suggest are even better?

It’s taken a while, but I’ve finally got off my backside and worked out the results of last year’s State of Play questionnaire. So what are the highlights? Abandon games which are too rainy and let the kitty take the hit? Change the day because it always rains on a Thursday? And even dogging as a new social activity?!?! The members of TTFE have spoken and have not disappointed in expressing an interesting, if not bizarre, array of opinions.

On the 6 v 7 a side debate, it remains split down the middle with only a 2.7% swing to 7-a-side. However it only means that nearly 60% favour it, so we’re not talking a runaway sentiment for a larger group of players.

When it comes to reasons why you play, more of you believe TTFE is about the social aspects of the game rather than the football itself, citing a huge increase on last year on having a laugh and socialising with friends. The need for improving football ability took a nosedive compared to 2011.

Meanwhile the main reasons you access TTFE related sites are for information on the kitty, Team Picker Cup news and for general banter. Less than half of you check the sites for your bib-related news updates.

Lastly, the top social activities include SLODBNs, the Xmas Meal and Computer/Video Game nights. Poker and paintballing gathered the most yawns.

For more detailed info check out the spreadsheet for a full breakdown of the responses. Click the image above to access it. Thanks again for all those who participated and we hope we can ask the same of you in December 2013.  

… is what I would be saying if we don’t have your help. Chris and I will be away for games towards the end of March (my organising partner of crime of course will be ‘celebrating’ the passing of his nuptials and no, he didn’t offer to take me!) so that means there will be no one to collect the money and organise games for these games.

Therefore unless we have someone who can step into our shoes for these games, we have no option but to cancel these games. Cancellations require a week in advance, so we need to cancel by this Thursday at the very latest. We need one or two (or three or four) people to take the roles of kitty holder and organiser for two weeks (21st and 28th March).

If are willing to help out, please let Chris or myself know ASAP. If we do not get any replies by Thursday 12pm (noon) then I will take the steps to cancel both games.

Thanks all!

A short time ago, I put up this post:- Getting Games is Getting Hard and not much has changed.

In fact, since then, we’ve got a big hitter for long term attendance lower down the list and yet to be invited this week, our good friend Paul Preece – this is really surprising how popular TTFE is and although Paul is one of my closest, it’s not me who gets to choose who is invited – we work on a fairness based system that is worked out by a formula and Paul has simply dropped down the invite order.

You can see how YOU are affected by such things by going to any one of the organisational “Next Game” sections:-Next Game

• Next Game
  
• Who’s In
• Streaks Ending
• Team Picking
• Invite Order

Or just browse to them from the menu above!

Who will be first to get to 300?…

…Chris!

With the recent success of TTFE’s popularity, it is difficult to give everyone a game every week only made slightly easier by a few players being off due to other commitments.

As of a few weeks ago, a few players have started returning with even more returning this week and this is making it difficult for players who haven’t played as many games in the last 6 months.

Let’s take a minute to remember how it works…

We try to invite 14 players to each game, the 14 who are invited are determined by the invite order, this invite order is decided by 2 main factors:

1. How many games a player has played in the last 3 years
2. How many games a player has played in the last 6 months

The top 10 attending players in the last 3 years are automatically invited, and the next 4 invited are the top 4 attenders in the last 6 months. From that point, any player that is OUT, means a further player can be invited until we get to the bottom of the list. The invite order is updated and displayed every week on the Game organising thread on the forum and on the relevant page on this site for visibility should you wish to view it.

There are additional factors taken into account…

1. Players who have not played in the last 6 months are lower on the invite order even if they would naturally be in the top 10 in the last 3 years.
2. Players who are “OUT unless stated” are automatically dropped to the bottom of the invite order.
3. Some players can/have opted to be lower in the list than they naturally would be

So why is it getting hard to get games at the moment?

In the last few of games, TTFE has not got as far down the invite order as we have over the course of the last year and as such we’ve had some people wanting of games.

In the last game, we had 14 players by the time 16 players had been invited with 31 *current players – that’s only half way down the list!

So… in short… if you want to play and are struggling to get games, the only thing I can suggest is that you take any options you get as early as possible cos the more you play, the more you’re invited.

(*current being players who have played at least 1 game in the last 6 months and haven’t said they are OUT unless stated)

Well done to Mike who won £10 last night on the State of Play survey draw. The names of around 15 participants went into my ‘fanny pack’ and his name was drawn out by our Mr Impartiality, Callum Gigg. Don’t spend it all at one now Mike!

Meanwhile, your completed comments are currently being compiled, collated and churned quicker than you can say Findus Horse… I mean Beef, Lasagna. I’ll be making the results public very soon as some last minute replies have forced me to complete the report again, so watch this space!