Jun 6

Written by: Rodney Joyce
06/06/2006

We playing a Sweepstake at work for the upcoming Football (soccer where I come from) World Cup – if you didn’t know this please turn your PC off, pack it up and take it back to PC World and tell them you are too stupid to own it.

Anyway – our company has shrunk since the 2000 glory days (I remember it well - 130 employees (down to 30 now), champagne at lunch, sp*nking cash like James does on a Thursday at lunch – oh the good old days) – so we made it £2 per team, with most of the dev team taking 2 and the rest of the company picking up the scraps…  Then it was putting your hand in a bag and having a good rummage around (stoppid James) – so it’s all down to pot luck who you get – Prize money for 1st and 2nd and a little something for the biggest loser (no Tim, I mean of the sweepstake – the person with the team who does the worst (which incidentally is still better than my home South Africa, who didn’t qualify, but in true gravy-train style have ensured a place in the 2010 tournament by BUYING their place… you gotta love it… Viva SA!

Bla bla… what teams did I pick I hear you say? Well I know a thing or two about pot luck, and I managed to get Germany and Italy – 2 very respectable contenders. So I’ll be shouting for England, then those two (dunno what happens if they all make the final – I reckon someone cheated in that case)… I stuck up my little dudes on my desk cubicle below my photo of my home beach in South Africa - Nahoon - one of my favourite places in the world.



But seriously – the best way to get behind a team is to have a little punt on it- get down the PC and place a bet on England to win – you’d be amazed how loud you shout when you about to loose £2500 (long story, and yes, I lost – I was young and foolish and needed the money – after that I was still young and foolish and needed a lot more money – reminds me of when I did £10 000 on shares (haha – another funny story – luckily I learnt from that – never put £10k on a internet IPO when the bubble bursts) – but I am not really a gambling man (check out PokerDIY.com if you don't believe me!)

I run my predictions through the ScorePredictor below and it's going to be a Germany vs Brazil Final folks, with Brazil clinching it... check it out... you read it here first (this was done based on extreme ignorance (I know nothing about football), and what Tim coined the Binary Scoring System - which is where you put a 1 next to the team you think will win and a 0 next to the other. Draws don't count in my world...

Right - thats enough... back to work - here are some useful sites for you:
World Cup Kickoff - Interactive Timetable - very cool!
Profiles on the England squad
Score Predictor

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