The playoffs have their first 2 confirmed teams!
The Chippenham Packers have won the South and all but wrapped up a first round bye as they have the highest points for, over 200 points more than my Eagles, so they pretty much get the next 3 weeks off.
The Spartans haven’t completely won their division (one win for them or one loss for the Wombats does it) but they are guaranteed a place with one of the best record places as nobody in the Midlands or South can get to 8 wins and not win the division.
The Midlands title still isn’t completely decided either, and week 12 is a decider as the Eagles and the Otters face off against each other. Otters need to win and then beat the Fireflies and hope that the Eagles lose to the Chargers, and the Otters need to outscore the Eagles by 170 points if these results happen. Unlikely but not impossible.
So the 2 byes are currently with the Packers and the Spartans, and third place is currently held by the Eagles. The next 2 best records come from the North as they have 2 teams on 6-5, the Wombats and the Flyers and four teams have 5-6 records to be one place back (Bandits, Otters, Seahawks, Pythons). The highest points scorer remaining is also from the North as the Bandits currently have 1275 PF.
The Buzzsaw
Week 10 - Oxford Pythons
Are the Pythons on a late season playoff surge? This is the fourth week in a row they have beaten their previous score and have now the highest score of the week with 153.72, trouncing one of the bookies favourites, Nottingham Bandits. The gambles that Olly has taken all came good, Lamar Jackson goes from being told to try WR to an MVP candidate (scoring 33 points), Tyreek Hill comes back from what could have been a career ending legal issue and gets 27 points and Derrick Henry is the late season RB to own with 32 points. Getting into the playoffs would require a wildcard spot as the Packers are controlling the south, so every win is critical.
Week 11 - Oxford Seahawks
In week 10, Dan and his Seahawks posted a season low 65 points. I can only assume a behind-closed-doors meeting was held between players and management because this week they put up their - and the week’s - highest score with 135 points. It was a crucial win for the Seahawks as it keeps them in touch with the defeated Flyers and the Wombats, and also improves the chances of taking a HPS playoff spot. Relying on Bills players, Allen with 33 points and Brown with 30, is a risky strategy, lets see if it pays off.
Wigan Wombats – 🏆
Chippenham Packers - 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Gateshead Spartans – 🏆
Derby Otters - 🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Irish Flyers - 🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆
Oxford Seahawks - 🏆
Highest Point Scorer
Week 10 - Andover Sandslashers
Two Cardinals in the top ten as well as two Giants is not something that would have been obvious a couple of weeks ago but the top player was Christian Kirk with 34.8 points with his QB Murray in the top ten with 26.7 points. Darius Slayton has something of the Victor Cruz about him and he came in 6th with 26.1 points and his QB, Jones was 4th with 30.32 points. The Sandslashers may have Larry Fitzgerald’s successor in Arizona which is a highlight in a disappointing season.
Week 11 - Oxford Seahawks
A big week for quarterbacks with 7 of them making up the top ten and the top three being Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott. The Seahawks led the week with the week’s highest point scorer Allen who put up 33.84 points against the talent-poor Dolphins, using both his arm and his legs.
Lamar Jackson hasn’t scored below 20 points since week 5 and the number six on the list was a free agent, Jeff Driskel!
Wigan Wombats – 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies – 🏆
Oxford Seahawks – 🏆🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits – 🏆
Hereford Chargers - 🏆
Derby Otters - 🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆
Chippenham Packers - 🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆
Unluckiest Loser
Week 10 - Nottingham Bandits
The Bandits must have been nervous going into the matchup with the Pythons. The Pythons were growing in strength and the rest of the North had much better matchups in the Sandslashers, Otters and Fireflies so a defeat here would be damaging for the playoff positions. The 4th highest score would have beaten 2 division rivals but the Pythons scored first overall. It’s weeks like this that make you hate fantasy football as 72 and 74 were winning scores this week and this is now the 4th time the Bandits have won this award.
Week 11 - Wigan Wombats
The Wombats had a nice matchup against the Chargers who had averaged around 70 points in the last five weeks and a win here would keep them one game back from the Spartans and make their week 13 meeting a battle for the title. Instead the most schizophrenic team in the league switch from bad to good again and the 5th highest score of 104.48 isn’t enough to win.
Oxford Seahawks – 🏆🏆
Andover Sandslashers – 🏆
Hereford Chargers – 🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Wigan Wombats - 🏆
Closest Matchup
Week 10 - Flitwick Fireflies
Damn! An upset of the narrowest margin! The bottom of the Midlands Fireflies beat the top of the North Spartans by 0.04 points, 0.04!!!!! Congratulations Michael, I know it sounds patronising to keep saying this, but beating a former champ with the trash you were left with is still impressive.
If just of one Aaron Rodgers passes had been a single yard further, if the ball was spotted badly or the receiver sneezed as he caught the ball and fell slightly further forward, we have a tie game. Just 1 passing yard was the difference between these teams, that is insane and is right up there with the first UKD final in terms of heart-breaking margins of defeat (I am never getting over that).
Week 11 - Gateshead Spartans
Chris must really enjoy the tension on a Monday night as he is yet again involved in the closest matchup of the week, but this time his Spartans are on the winning side beating my Eagles (I have a weakness against Chris’) by a massive 6 points compared to last week. Travis Kelce woke up a little too late to save the matchup for me and it was painful to watch the Patriots / Eagles game knowing that cheering against Michel and Sanu was hurting my fantasy team and seeing Edelman make crucial catches was especially agonising.
Oxford Seahawks - 🏆🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons – 🏆
Andover Sandslashers – 🏆🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles - 🏆
Chippenham Packers - 🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆
Most Impactful Injury
Week 10 - Gateshead Spartans
Devonta Freeman looks to be on the sidelines for a little while and whilst the Spartans have the depth to cover until he returns (CMC, Williams, Mack) the injury occurred in the third quarter in the week where Chris lost by 0.04 points and it would have been very likely that Freeman would have had 1 more yard if he hadn’t gotten injured. Normally I look to the future for the impact but this injury has already had a big impact.
The Flyers playoff push could be slowed by the ankle injury to Saquon as Sanders, Mixon and Gordon are very hot and cold each week.
The accumulation of injuries to my roster have meant that I’ve been playing 2 TEs each week and having Kelce and Hooper being the TE1 and 2 it made sense but now Hooper is going to miss some time. Add this to Adams, Hilton, Breida and Howard (as well as losing AB) and my team is falling apart much quicker than I thought!
The Spartans get this one for the impact that it has already had.
Week 11 - Gateshead Spartans
Matt Stafford being out wasn’t a problem for the Packers as they have Dak as a decent replacement and then Foles behind him.
For the second week in a row, the Spartans take a blow at running back as Marlon Mack is now injured. If you look at their roster now, they only have 2 fully healthy backs in McCaffrey and White.
Spartans get another one.
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons – 🏆
Irish Flyers – 🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆🏆
Wigan Wombats - 🏆
Derby Otters - 🏆
Oxford Seahawks - 🏆
Worst Decision
Week 10 - Oxford Seahawks and Andover Sandslashers
Sometimes it is hard to find any bad decisions but this week isn’t one of those times.
The easiest one is the fact that Scott had the highest scorer of the week on the bench (Kirk 34 points) and had Kupp in the line up who scored nothing. This cost a win but without clear indication that Kupp wasn’t playing, it would have been a bold move to swap them. Kirk over Anderson is another, more likely possibility.
The Seahawks had a couple of decisions to make. Wilson is a better QB than Josh Allen but Wilson was facing the 49ers defense whilst Allen was facing the Cleveland defense, swapping them gives the Seahawks a win. The same can be said for starting Henderson over Barber as Henderson hasn’t really shown anything this season but Barber at least has a floor.
The Spartans could have started Jarvis Landry instead of Sanders (on a new team) or Metcalf (against the 49ers defense) and we wouldn’t be talking about the narrowest victory imaginable.
Mike, once again chose the lower scoring QB, but they both scored well so it didn’t make (just wanted to mention it, sorry)
I want award half to the Sandslashers and half to the Seahawks but it might be hard for Dan to put half a trophy in the final edit. Having said that, he is good with this sort of thing so I’m doing it.
Week 11 - Coventry Eagles
This is one of those harder weeks but I have one on hand as it was my mistake. Not playing Samuels with Connor being out was a week win mistake as Sanu cannot be trusted yet in the New England system.
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆
Irish Flyers - 🏆🏆
Hereford Chargers – 🏆
Coventry Eagles – 🏆🏆
Wigan Wombats - 🏆
Oxford Seahawks - 🏆🌓
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆🏆
Andover Sandslashers - 🌓
Roll of Honour
Andover Sandslashers - 🏆🏆🏆🏆🌓
Chippenham Packers - 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Coventry Eagles - 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Derby Otters - 🏆🏆🏆
Flitwick Fireflies - 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Gateshead Spartans - 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Hereford Chargers - 🏆🏆🏆
Irish Flyers - 🏆🏆🏆🏆
Nottingham Bandits - 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Oxford Pythons - 🏆🏆🏆
Oxford Seahawks - 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🌓
Wigan Wombats - 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆