I am thinking of running a new "Fishy Pontoon Buster Game" to coincide with the start of the new season but just wanting to ask how many people would be interested in this again. I have run this for a few seasons now but the last couple of games have seen a reduced number of entries.

Any suggestions as to how we could maybe tweek the format to get more people interested. I know the main bugbear is that when a team doesn't play they score a default 2 goals. Could this be changed somehow maybe. It seems a bit unfair that the said team should be given "nil" as it's not the fault of the team that they don't play, for one reason or another, international breaks being the main one for the top 2 divisions. Also I usually donate 25% of the taking to The Mariners Trust, should I carry on like this or would people prefer the whole pot to be used as prize money or have another source they would like the money donated to.

So, who would be up for this again and any suggestions how we could alter the game, (remember, we don't want to make things too complicated) or do we just leave it as it has been in the past as it has always been quite popular.

Over to you.

Personally Les I'm happy as it is. Unless they are drastic I wouldn't be bothered with a couple of changes. The one thing I would definitely like to keep though would be the donation.  

I'm in.

Maybe , if a team doesn't play you give them the same score as they got in the previous week ?

Im in ! When do u start it and how much ? :K) ::) :D

Quoted from supertown

Maybe , if a team doesn't play you give them the same score as they got in the previous week ?

Be a bit controversial that though as a team is usually at home one week and then away the next. Say Arsenal beat Burnley 6 nil at home and then their game away at Chelsea was postponed for some reason?

Quoted from sidneyparkmariner

Im in ! When do u start it and how much ? :K) ::) :D

It's a tenner a team. Usually we get about 50 entries so it's always a decent payout to the winner. There's also usually a couple of other prizes awarded too.

I'll put a thread up in a week or so's time. Just testing the water at the minute. I'll PM you when I'm taking entries.

I'm in , happy as it Les.

UTM

One small change I would propose to make is rather than saying only games count Friday to Monday, is to say only games count Thursdays to Tuesdays, as I noticed last season that there were the odd Championship "weekend" game being played on the Thursday evening. There were a couple of occasions last season where a team played on Thursday and didn't score, but due to the then rules of the competition, scored the default 2.

There will normally be no need to wait for any Tuesday games but with including Tuesday, then there is a good chance that if a team does not play at the weekend,  there is a chance they might play on the Tuesday, thus negating the need to award a default 2 goals if they haven't played over the weekend. As always though it will only be the first game that counts in this time frame.

Thoughts?

Les, firstly, I'm in whatever the format..

As for the default 2 on International break, I was going to suggest that it becomes a blank week for all but then I thought that isn't really fair if your 3rd tier team scores the correct number of goals that would have won the pot on a normal week.

How about having a reserve team? So for example, I get Chelsea in the main game but on International break, I switch to my reserve team for that week only. The reserve teams could be all of the conference and/or Scottish League 1 and 2 for example.

If we agreed that the reserve teams are only taken from the Conference and in the almost impossible scenario of having 50 entries that randomly selected all of the Prem and Championship teams (44) then 44 people would be sharing 24 conference reserve teams, so maybe have a rule that states the reserve numbers can only be chosen a maximum twice. It is more than likely that the reserve teams are used only once throughout the duration of the buster but for one week only during each game, i think it would be acceptable.

So when you ask for numbers, I say 11, 45 or 76 for my main team and a single number between 1 and 24 for my reserve team. If my main team is a Prem or Championship team, then I also get a reserve team.

Quoted from ivanosandwich

Les, firstly, I'm in whatever the format..

As for the default 2 on International break, I was going to suggest that it becomes a blank week for all but then I thought that isn't really fair if your 3rd tier team scores the correct number of goals that would have won the pot on a normal week.

How about having a reserve team? So for example, I get Chelsea in the main game but on International break, I switch to my reserve team for that week only. The reserve teams could be all of the conference and/or Scottish League 1 and 2 for example.

If we agreed that the reserve teams are only taken from the Conference and in the almost impossible scenario of having 50 entries that randomly selected all of the Prem and Championship teams (44) then 44 people would be sharing 24 conference reserve teams, so maybe have a rule that states the reserve numbers can only be chosen a maximum twice. It is more than likely that the reserve teams are used only once throughout the duration of the buster but for one week only during each game, i think it would be acceptable.

So when you ask for numbers, I say 11, 45 or 76 for my main team and a single number between 1 and 24 for my reserve team. If my main team is a Prem or Championship team, then I also get a reserve team.

Interesting, might think about that. I could even use National League North and South teams as reserve teams, thus giving us 48.

Count me in Les, which ever format .

Les
I'm also in whatever but to make it easier for you couldn't you say if your team does not play for whatever reason you will receive your teams average score in the game to that point i.e. in round 5 your team doesn't play because its an international week, in the previous 4 rounds they scored 15 goals at an average of 3.75 which rounded to the nearest whole number equals 4 so that would be their score for the week. You would have to stipulate which way you round a .5 up or down.
I would also say if you are wanting to start a competition and an international break is looming then could you hold back a week or two so to avoid that weekend.
But it's a yes from me whatever you decide, keep up the good work.

Edit
One instance where it may be unfair is a team scores 6 first week then it has a blank so already on 12. Or worse still it has a 7 followed by two blank weeks!! Game over. So maybe if you have a blank on weeks 1-3 then it's a default 2 points every round after that apply the average.

To be honest, I'm thinking of just leaving it as it is. At the end of the day, it's the same for everyone and in all the time I've been doing the competition, I think there's only been one instance where a team has won due to the default 2.

Make it's all a lot easier for me too really, so if everyone's happy with that we'll just run again with the same rules as before.

I'll start taking entries in a week or so.

i am in again


and yeah doesn't need tapering with we know the rules before we enter.....by entering we are accepting