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Basingstoke stands tall as Steve wins league

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21st May 2014
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Basingstoke Rejects manager Steve Rayner (right) was crowned as champion of the TopUp Tax Fantasy Football League for the 2013-14 season.

Steve, who is the Taxassist franchise holder in Basingstoke, was a dark horse. He rose to prominence in the league’s Southern Division during the early part of the season, and then left everyone else in his wake when he entered the 136-tream AccountingWEB/TopUp Tax main league in January.

So how did the champ react when he heard the big news?

“It’s very pleasing, actually,” answered Steve, adding, “I’m not a football supporter, so I don’t try and build a team. I try to put together a selection of point-scoring opportunities.”

Spoken like a true accountant.

Statistical prowess and consistency were the hallmarks of the Rejects’ march to glory, which saw Steve gain 2,483pts and 713th place in the 3.2m strong Fantasy Premier League.

Basingstoke Rejects - TopUp Tax fantasy football leauge winners 2013-14His final selection (pictured right) ended up with a 3-4-3 formation packed with free-scoring attackers Suarez, Giroud and Aguero, along with creative midfielders of the calibre of Juan Mata and Christian Eriksen alongside Yaya Toure (top midfield player this year) and Aaron Ramsay, who replaced Steve Gerrard for the run-in.

The defence was another matter, featuring “who’s he play for?” journeymen such as Stoke’s Marc Wilson and Crystal Palace’s Joel Ward.

This pattern is all part of Rayner’s masterplan. “I do try to get defenders as cheaply as possible. Attackers tend to score more points overall, while you can pay twice as much for the bigger name defenders than a cheaper player who will score a reasonable level.”

While professing not to be much of a fan, after playing fantasy football for four years Steve admits, “I am starting to enjoy football.”

Where before he never used to give more than five minutes’ thought to the game, he admits to occasionally watching Match of the Day to cast an eye on his team. With his Basingstoke Rejects performing so well through the season, he says, “It’s become a pleasure to watch.”

Steve will be presented with a trophy for his efforts this year, along with the customary Marks & Spencer voucher courtesy of our league sponsors, TopUp Tax.

Also receiving prizes are our regional winners, who all put up excellent performances over the past nine months.

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Replies (4)

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By mrme89
21st May 2014 19:58

Congratlations to all the winners.

 

When it was suggested here https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/group-thread/fantasy-football-kpi-scorecard-challenge , I had hoped I would have done better. Not to worry, there's always next season if John will be running another league.

Thanks (2)
John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
22nd May 2014 11:57

Certainly planning to!

Thanks Mr Me89 - it was a great idea that seemed to strike a chord with other members. We all owe you our gratitude, along with our sponsors, TopUp Tax who made it possible to offer a few prizes.

We had 136+ members all season long and have given prizes to 12 different managers over the course of the season, which helped keep people interested all season long.

I, too, am disappointed that my intentions to stick to rigorous statistical analysis were eroded by other demands - and the hunches I played didn't really work out as I had hoped.

Nevermind - there's always next season to look forward to. We are in negotiations with our sponsors to expand the offering and we hope to bring in a few more pundits to liven up proceedings.

Feedback and ideas on how the league worked would be most helpful too. Because it was quite a last minute thing, we didn't communicate the way our league worked very well at the start of the season. My feeling was that the regional divisions worked well to stimulate a few extra local rivalries. What do you think?

Thanks (0)
By mrme89
22nd May 2014 14:12

I don't think I would change anything. I liked the addition of the regional leagues.

 

The only thing for me was not getting enough time to check how the team was doing and not making any changes if needed. From December, it was pretty much a write-off for me.

I hope to check it weekly next season.

 

Far too late now, but would have been fun to do one of the world cup fantasy leagues.

 

Thanks (0)
John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
30th May 2014 16:45

The trophies are on their way!

The engraver has been in touch and I've taken delivery of the first trophies for delivery to all of our champions. This is what Steve Rayner's looks like.

It's been great fun sharing the good news and hearing the wisdom with our top managers.

Midlands champion Jon Dale (Big Nose, No Hair) said he tries to build some value in his teams before Christmas by shopping for players early who look like their values will rise. "This usually means buying players early in a gameweek to take advantage prior to their transfer value increasing," he added.

By Christmas the team should be worth much more than others in the league, enabling Jon to splash out in the January transfer window.

But there's another key factor: “We have a mini league in the work office and the person who finishes bottom each month has to buy bacon sandwiches for the others - this tends to keep you focussed on your team throughout the season!”

Dunkan Akers, manager of the Western divisional winner Alpha Babtridge, was also the champion of his office league at Devon Accountants Easterbrook Eaton.

“We always do a work league, so it was easy to sign up to the AccountingWEB/TopUp League. 

Duncan would like to think his success is down to statistical prowess, coupled with a small amount of football knowledge. “It’s just a case of looking at the numbers - like everything else,” he says.

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