The 19th season of the Fantasy League has just been completed and Sean Hegarty's Teletext Town take this year's title for the 2nd time in 3 years. This is Sean's 3rd Fantasy League title overall. Sir Mick Dryk's Loughton Knights came up on the rails to finish as runners-up and Sir Jez Sliwka's Gateaux were the Cup winners. We offer our congratulations to all.
15 Managers attended the Auction meeting, Andy Luck (Klopptomaniacs) could not make it as he was working in Brussels. Andy Cummins (Bray Head) turned up after having a few sherbets beforehand and received a fine for overbidding for a player. This was to be the story of his season as he eventually finished bottom of the table. Andrew Leach (Elland Back) was confident he could defend his title but ended up 10th. The Auction meeting was held for the 11th year running in the upstairs private room at The Calthorpe Arms, Grays Inn Road.
The top buys at the Auction were: £30 million Lukaku (Man Utd) Steve Blantz, £25 million Morata (Chelsea) Damon Budds, £22 million S. Mane (Liverpool) Julian Morris, £20 million S. Aguero (Man City) Glen Jack and £18 million Lacazette (Arsenal) by Sean Hegarty.
The first week of the season saw rreigning champions, Elland Back lose 3-1 to Klopptomaniacs. Puskas won 3-1 against Silent Bidders. Loughton Knights won 2-0 against Kick up the R's, Puma Kings won 2-1 against Dynamo Redhill, Teletext Town beat Shades of Grays 2-1 and Verry Tenables won 1-0 against Real Deportivo.
The second week saw Chedi Warriors beat Puma Kings 4-2, Puskas won 2-0 against Kick up the R's, Loughton Knights beat Real Deportivo 1-0 and Teletext Town drew 1-1 with Klopptomaniacs. Top of the league were Puskas, Loughton Knights and Gateaux all with 6pts.
Week 4 saw Verry Tenables beat Puma Kings 4-2, Kick up the R's beat Klopptomaniacs 1-0, Loughton Knights beat Shades of Grays 2-0 and Puskas beat Gateaux 2-0.
Week 6 saw Real Deportivo win 1-0 against Bray Head and Hophead win 2-0 over Verry Tenables. The league standings were: (1) Puskas 15pts, (2) Puma Kings 12pts, (3) Gateaux 12pts, (4) Loughton Knights 11 pts and (5) Teletext Town 11pts.
Week 8 results saw Teletext Town beat Loughton Knights 2-0, Puskas beat Shades of Grays 2-1, Puma Kings beat Gateaux 2-1 and Chedi Warriors hammer Dynamo Redhill 6-3. The table now looked like this (1) Puskas 21pts, (2) Teletext Town 17pts, (3) Puma Kings 16pts and (4) Gateaux 15 pts. Shades of Grays were at the foot of the table with 4pts.
Weeks 9 and 10 were the first 2 games in the group Cup games. Kick up the R's beat Real Deportivo 1-0, Silent Bidders beat Teletext Town 4-0, Hophead won 4-1 against Chedi Warriors, Shades of Grays won 2-1 against Puma Kings, Gateaux beat Kick up the R's 3-0, Dynamo Redhill won 4-2 against Klopptomaniacs and Puma Kings won 2-0 against Verry Tenables.
Week 11 saw Puma Kings beat Bray Head 4-1. Teletext Town won 2-0 against Verry Tenables, Silent Bidders won 3-0 against The Klopp boys. Chedi Warriors won 4-1 against Hophead and Elland Back beat Dynamo Redhill 2-0. The table looked like this: Puskas 22pts, Teletext Town 20pts, Puma Kings 19pts and Loughton Knights 15pts.
Week 13 was the final Cup group matches. Hophead drew 1-1 against Teletext Town, Gateaux won 2-1 against Real Deportivo, Kick up the R's won 3-0 against Elland Back, Chedi Warriors won 4-2 against Silent Bidders and Puma Kings beatThe Knights 3-0. The group winners were Gateaux, Hophead, Puma Kings and Dynamo Redhill. The runners up were Kick up the R's, Silent Bidders, Shades of Grays and Puskas. Week 14 saw the Cup quarter finals, and the winners were Gateaux 3-1 against Silent Bidders, Hophead 1-0 against Shades of Grays, Puma Kings 4-0 against Puskas and Dynamo Redhill 2-0 after a replay against Kick up the R's.
Week 15 saw the cup semi-finals take place. Hophead beat Dynamo Redhill 2-0 to go through and Gateaux beat Puma Kings 1-0, after the 1st game ended 3-3.
Weeks 16 and 17 saw Shades of Grays beat Elland Back 3-1. Teletext Town drew 1-1 with Hophead, Puskas won 2-1 against Chedi Warriors and Silent Bidders beat Puma Kings 1-0. Teletext beat Puma Kings 3-0. Loughton Knights won 1-0 against Verry Tenables, Puskas lost 4-1 to Dynamo Redhill and Gateaux beat Kick up the R's 3-2. The table looked like this (1) Puskas 26 pts, (2) Teletext Town 24pts, (3) Gateaux 21pts, (4) Puma Kings 20pts and (5) Loughton Knights 19pts.
Weeks 18 and 19 were the first and second legs of The Cup Final the first leg saw Gateaux thrash Hophead 6-0, and he also won the 2nd leg 421 to take a very one sided cup final win 10-2 on aggregate, which is the biggest winning Fantasy Cup Final margin. This was Jez's second Fantasy Cup win.
Week 20 saw Puskas surprisingly lose 2-0 to Klopptomaniacs, Teletext Town beat Gateaux 2-1 and Loughton Knights struggle to beat Bray Head 1-0. The following week (week 21) saw the penultimate league games, Teletext Town sealed the title thanks to a 2-0 win against Puskas and Real Deportivo won 3-0 against Chedi Warriors . (1) Teletext Town 30 pts, (2) Puskas 26pts, (3) Puma Kings 24 pts, (4) Gateaux 24 pts.
The final league games saw Loughton Knights beat Chedi Warriors 2-1, to take runners-up spot against all the odds. Puskas lost 1-0 to Verry Tenables and so the long time leaders finished in 3rd. Gateaux and Silent Bidderrs drew 0-0 to end up 4th and 5th respectively, Puma Kings lost 2-1 to Real Deportivo to end up 6th. Teletext Town ended the season on a winning note beating Kick up the R's 2-1. Other teams that won on the final day were Elland Back 1-0 against Hophead and Shades of Grays 2-0 winners against Klopptomaniacs.
Star team status was achieved by twelve teams during the campaign. However the teams that gained the accolade more than once were: Puma Kings 3, V. Tenables 3, Chedi Warriors 3 Klopptomaniacs 2, Dynamo Redhill 2 and Hophead 2.