Roll up, roll up for the Red, Amber and Black Predictions League. All are welcome. Glow from the Leigh board did well last year which just goes to show how warm, fuzzy and inclusive we are…or something like that.

The only difference to previous years is that I am now running it (many thanks to bullinenemyland who has kindly run it for us in previous years). This means you can probably expect it to be slightly more sarcastic and odd, but broadly the same. This year there will be a prize for the winner of not less than £1.

To recap on the rulesCorrectly predict winning side - 1pt
Correctly predict winning side and the winning margin - 5pts
Correctly predict a draw - 10pts
Correctly predict every game in round - Double points awarded (based on your basic weekly score)
Top weekly points scorer will also get a bonus 5pts. If there is a draw, a tiebreaker will be used to decide who wins.[/list

The top 12 at the end of the regular season go on to predict the super 8 fixtures at which point I’ll try and remember how that works.

I will maintain the leaderboard and a copy of the rules in a sticky at the top of the page.

I will set a date and time each week that I expect predictions to be in. If you are late none of them will count.

So if all the above didn’t make you feel like you were in Nazi Germany and you still want to play, here’s your first predictions

Predictions MUST be in by no later than 12 Noon on Sunday 7th February 2015. Any predictions after this will NOT be counted.

Can you give an example of how we word our predictions?
Should we be putting exact scorelines? Or just winning team and winning margin?

Just winning team and margin e.g.

Leigh by 18
Bulls by 10
Fax by 16

etc

Leigh by 32
Bradford by 10
Halifax by 22
London B by 14
Dewsbury by 18
Sheffield by 14

Tie breaker – 224

Leigh by 12
Bradford by 16
Halifax by 32
London by 20
Dewsbury by 8
Workington vs Sheffield 12-12 draw.

Tie breaker 240

Leigh by 24
Bradford by 18
Halifax by 12
London B by 8
Dewsbury by 12
Sheffield by 6

Tie breaker – 248

Leigh by 28 Bradford by 8 fax by 10 London by 20 dewsbury by 14 Sheffield by 10. Tiebreaker 222

Leigh by - 36
Bradford by - 32
Halifax by - 38
London by -18
Dewsbury by - 10
Sheffield by - 12

Tie Break - 280

Leigh by 26
Bulls by 14
Fax by 22
London by 12
Dewsbury by 16
Sheffield by 14

Tie breaker 240 points

Batley vs Leigh - Leigh by 50
Bradford vs Featherstone - Bulls by 50
Halifax vs Whitehaven - Halifax by 50
Oldham vs London - Oldham by 50
Swinton vs Dewsbury - Dewsbury by 50
Workington vs Sheffield - Sheffield by 50

Tie breaker - 250

But if it's just winning team and margin, that means we have no possible method of predicting a draw. I mean, you could at a pinch say the winning margin is predicted to be nil, but if we are obliged to post the winning team, then that wouldn't help in the case of the draw, as there [iis[/i no winner. Surely this is a major flaw in the said procedure? I am going to immediately write a strong letter to Sepp Blatter, who simply should never have allowed this to happen.

Also, if you predict winning team and margin, you get the 5 points, but does that mean you score 6 points, or is your 1 point for predicting the winning team in those circumstances cruelly extinguished, and so really you are only getting 4 for predicting the correct margin?

These are my preliminary concerns. There may be more, depending if I win or not.

Batley vs Leigh - Leigh by 46
Bradford vs Featherstone - Bulls by 34
Halifax vs Whitehaven - Halifax by 30
Oldham vs London - London by 8
Swinton vs Dewsbury - Dewsbury by 26
Workington vs Sheffield - Sheffield by 24

Tie breaker - 250

Also, we need a tiebreaker tiebreaker for cases such as the above, where Bullseye has blatantly copied my tiebreaker answer of 250.

Leigh by 18
Bulls by14
Fax by 24
London by 10
Dewsbury by 22
Sheffield by 8
Aggregate 246

I may be paraphrasing but I think if FA had asked these questions of FA, he would have proclaimed "Strewth its like herding cats". I presume you are attempting to gain some sort of vengeance for the piffle people bothered you with when you ran your own competition.

For the sake of clarity, the best solution I can think of for YOU specifically, is that in the event that you believe a draw will take place, you send a fax to me to that effect. I will require you to also purchase me a fax machine.