The Silver Fern

Early reminder to get your tips in before the first game this evening (Drua v Blues). https://thesilverfern.com/tipping-submit/

It's a tough week to tip ...

@African-Monkey said in EPL 2024/2025:

@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:

It has become easier to win the Europa and Conference leagues if you qualify for them without the bumping down of failed UCL and Europa teams. Bodo-Glimt v Spurs second leg will be fascinating given the home record of the Norwegian team and Spurs being somewhat flaky.

Yup i think people are sleeping on this 2nd leg. It's so bloody cold up in Bodo that it makes it tough for any traveling side up there. Like playing the Drua in Fiji in Super Rugby, but with completely opposite climates.

I think playing them in May shouldn't be too bad - better than February anyway. Bodo have lost all of the away games in their Europa League run - and won all of their home games. Interesting.

PSG v Inter final - should be a good one. Didn't see this morning's game, reports were that Arsenal channeled 1980s Wimbledon in their approach to get it in the mixer - that's one way to avoid the press.

It has become easier to win the Europa and Conference leagues if you qualify for them without the bumping down of failed UCL and Europa teams. Bodo-Glimt v Spurs second leg will be fascinating given the home record of the Norwegian team and Spurs being somewhat flaky.

Crazy game, crazy 2 leg tie. Well done to Inter, they definitely earned their place

How about putting the vowels back in you illiterate fuckwits? SVNS my arse.

I've got the Flashscore app - really good if you follow football as the goal updates are almost instant and covers a wide range of sports. Rugby is covered down to NPC level with the score updates being fairly prompt, Heartland is just the scores well after the game has finished.

Watched some highlights of the Black Ferns from the first day, some new faces appeared because of the players joining the 15s squad - all the newbies looked very impressive

@Machpants said in TSF Super Rugby Tipping 2025:

Back down in the mid twenties, my best days behind me haha

That's not unrelated to the fact that you didn't submit any tips!

The results are updated https://thesilverfern.com/tipping/ - the form for next week is ready for your tips, note only 4 games to pick so a maximum of 15 points for each game. All 4 look tough to choose so it could be the week to make your move up (or down!).

Best of the weekend was Laurence with 54, only 3/5 on picks for all 4 category picks correct. Picking 4/5 were @BartMan who also topped 50 points, @taniwharugby Victor, @Hurrycanes @delicatessen and Boof. Plenty only picked 2/5 and if you missed out on category picks, it was a bad week for you.

@hydro11 still leads but the gap is down to 6 points from @Chris who is 12 ahead of @Winger

In the Sequel Cup the semi-finals are Laurence v @mikey07 and @Higgins v @sportboy

Finally in the teams comp, BOP Chiefs and Blues A are definitely in the playoffs after wins at the weekend. Barbarians lost to Canes Black and because a 3 person Canes Gold team beat a full strength SunJags, 7 of the 8 can still make the top 4. Barbarians play the 2 teams above them in the final 2 weeks so their fate is in their own hands.

@bayimports said in EPL 2024/2025:

Evanilson red card rescinded … impact on match though huge. Doesn’t help us now

It seemed a harsh call although it looked ugly he definitely slipped. Ait-Nouri stood on Bernardo Silva in today's game and they rightly ruled it not a red although the still shot was bad.

3 hours until the first game https://thesilverfern.com/tipping-submit/

UCL Semi-Finals

Arsenal froze a bit, conceded an early goal to PSG and were possibly a bit unlucky not to get an equaliser - but it could have been worse. Tough gig to go to Paris and win by 2 given how PSG have dominated English teams there this season but always a chance from a set-piece.

Barcelona v Inter - what a crazy game. Inter 2 up after 20, 2-2 by half-time and 3-3 by the end. Barca could have had more (Lamal was awesome) but they play such a high line they make Ange's Spurs look cautious and are always likely to concede. Some great goals in this game, find highlights if you haven't already.

Wrexham Schmexham! Notts County are definitely into the play-offs of League 2 with a very outside chance of automatic promotion. All of these things need to happen on Saturday

• Notts beat Doncaster at Notts (Donny already promoted but battling with Port Vale for the title - hopefully on the beach already)
• Bradford lose at home to Fleetwood (mid table team, not much to play for) - Bradford have not won their last 4.
• Walsall do not win at Crewe (mid table team, not much to play for) - Walsall were the runaway leaders but then the wheels fell off and they haven't won in weeks.

The Wrexham story is interesting because they weren't bought and then someone thought this story is so great, let's make a reality series. They were bought to meet the requirements of a long running reality series, carefully selected to be somewhat run down but big enough to become a premier league club one day. They are content and all of the players in the story are content, the movie stars, the manager, the players, the staff, the fans - consumed as content. Once you realise that, a relegation fight next season might be a good thing for them, add a new dimension to the story - sack the manager? A great few programmes out of that. Stay up on the last day of the season? Even better. In fact their worst result would be a mid-table, no chance at either end of the table - hence why that probably won't happen. They are now the Kardashians.

If they get promoted next season, Wrexham would be the first club to be promoted from 4th tier to 1st tier consecutively (one season faster than Swansea). It would also be 4 promotions in 4 seasons from non-league which would of course be incredible. Luton went from non-league to premier league but it took them a few seasons longer.

Listening to a journalist on Wrexham last night, what sets them apart from other teams is not the investment of the owners (plenty of money floating around in football) but the Netflix doco - this means they can command huge sponsorship deals that other small clubs cannot. How long can the doco last? A few more years yet I suspect especially if they can have another promotion push.

Will supporters of every other club hate Wrexham? Absolutely

Unfortunate for the epic narrative that both of Liverpool's title wins have been a foregone conclusion from early after Christmas - not their fault, in both seasons they were miles better than anyone else. Only Arsenal could have pushed them this season, but they drew too many games.

@Dan54 said in TSF Super Rugby Tipping 2025:

Just checking, what is latest I can put in picks. I going away tomorrow for about 10 days, and think I get home about 4pm on Friday next week, should still have time to put them in? I will put in this weeks probably tonight with even more of a guess then usual. I know I way down bottom of the comp, but as a matter of principle, if I enter comp, always try and put in picks regardless

Cutoff is the first game so by 7pm on Friday night is fine.

Results are in https://thesilverfern.com/tipping/

Only 7 picked the Hurricanes to win but unfortunately all of those 7 also picked the Blues to win so nobody managed 5/5. Top scorer was @antipodean with 56 with @machpants & @Dan54 scoring 53 and 5 other scores of 50 or more. The category picks were good for a few with 3/4 picked by 14 players and Winger getting 4/4 to rescue some poor tips.

@hydro11 increased the lead to 9 over @Chris with Langakali, @Kruse @Winger all close behind and still fighting for the title.

Quarter-finalists are known in the Sequel Cup, a replay between @Tim and Kruse to decide the 8th qualifier.

BOP Chiefs beat the SunJags to make them virtual certainties for the play-offs - the other 3 spots are between 4 teams.

Just 3 hours to tip before the Chiefs play their game of cricket https://thesilverfern.com/tipping-submit/

@nonpartizan said in Athletics:

@MiketheSnow said in Athletics:

Over 70 years

Unbelievable

The interesting thing is that when Bannister broke the barrier he did so with an Aussie and I think an American from Kansas hot on his heels - they were all striving to break the barrier and were edging ever closer to it in the preceding years.

Not that I am poo pooing it but it seems inconceivable that a runner with no peer competitors is going to be able to take 7 seconds off her personal best/world record. I really hope she does it because it would be an extraordinary feat.

Sounds like she will be paced start to finish by men so she should certainly be able to beat her own record. Seems a big ask to knock that much time off though