ITM Cup 2012 Tipping Competition and Discussion

[Somerset]

Starts in just over a week so probably a good time to get the topic up. Similar to last year with a lot of midweek matches in a relatively short season (finals are played at the end of October). Regarding the tipping competition, I'll combine it with the one I'm running on Cricsim to boost the numbers of tippers.

One point per correct tip. The highest scoring tipper(s) per round get an extra .1 to try and break ties at the end of the season. Two points for semi-final tips and three for finals.

Round one fixtures:
23/8 Hawkes Bay vs Auckland
24/8 Manawatu vs Wellington
24/8 Tasman vs Canterbury
25/8 BOP vs Taranaki
25/8 Otago vs Northland
26/8 North Harbour vs Waikato
26/8 Counties Manukau vs Southland

[Hurricane]

In with a post on the first page...

[BackFootPunch]

In

[Hurricane]

what team(s) do you support bfp?

[BackFootPunch]

Canterbury, but have a random soft spot for Manawatu. Also played cricket with a couple of the blokes in the Otago team so will be hoping they go well.

[ripper868]

Round one fixtures:
23/8 Hawkes Bay vs Auckland
24/8 Manawatu vs Wellington
24/8 Tasman vs Canterbury
25/8 BOP vs Taranaki
25/8 Otago vs Northland
26/8 North Harbour vs Waikato
26/8 Counties Manukau vs Southland

Not likely to see any matches but happy to be the blind placebo tipper...if you fall behind me you might as well give up.

[Hurricane]

@Ripper and BFP - do you jokers want Heartland games included or excluded or do you not care?
Somerset wants us to decide and tell him.

[ripper868]

Not fussed - I wont be seeing any of the games and tipping blind...Poverty Bay for the title though.

[BackFootPunch]

Happy to have the Heartland stuff in there.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Originally Posted by BackFootPunch

Happy to have the Heartland stuff in there.

Well said. Go the Rams!

[BackFootPunch]

Nah mate, North Otago got it sorted this year.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Originally Posted by BackFootPunch

Nah mate, North Otago got it sorted this year.

Well, there's a good chance, as always. KC put away Wanganui in pre-season, so hopefully we'll have a more open Heartlands this year.

[BackFootPunch]

An open competition would definitely be good. What do you think of the current incarnation of the NPC?

It seems a bit silly to me that we have four champion teams. Should just have a first division and second division tbh.

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Originally Posted by BackFootPunch

An open competition would definitely be good. What do you think of the current incarnation of the NPC?

It seems a bit silly to me that we have four champion teams. Should just have a first division and second division tbh.

Heartlands has been a massive success tbh. Cheap for the teams to run when they have no income. Heartlands works, and I try and go to a couple of games a year and watch the Mainfreight Rugby highlights too. Always good to hear that local commentator at the Poverty Bay games.

I definitely preferred the single division for the Air NZ Cup setup. Every team up there should play every other, else we miss out on the opportunity for the Tasmans to get up over Waikato, Auckland, Wellington or Canterbury - which is what the neutrals want to see.

Still love it though - can't get enough of the NPC.

[Somerset]

I think we'll include Heartland matches, as theres only been a couple of tipsters (sorry, Hurricane) that have expressed that they'd prefer not to. So the Heartland will count as a separate round from ITM Cup matches despite the games occuring over the same weekend. In other words, if you tip a perfect 7/7 in ITM Cup, and a perfect 7/7 in Heartland Championship, you'd score 14.2 rather than 14.1. Hope that makes sense.

Also, as for the rounds with only two midweek matches, I think a 0.05 bonus rather than a 0.1 bonus is the way to go.

I'll put up Heartland fixtures tomorrow.