Bezza League 24-25 Review

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Firstly, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for taking part again this season. Obviously it wouldn’t exist without all of you making it what it is. Hopefully you have enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing you take part again next season. We hope to make some more improvements and adjustments for the new season after another successful campaign in the bag. The addition of the Eliminator this season seemed to be a positive so will look to run more of those again.

Its 2 weeks now since Harris Khan won his first title in the Bezza League, some may say it was about time. Khan has come so close on many occasions over the years but finally made it over the line this season. In the end he won it by 13 points, which is the 3rd biggest winning margin. Khan now has the highest points per week (PPW) average in Bezza League history with 7.45ppw, just ahead of former champion Tom Beck (7.33ppw) and Alex Hamilton (7.31ppw). Khan spent 9 weeks at the top of the table this season, with 8 of the those at the end of the season.

A massive congratulations to our cup competition winners as well this season…Craig Robinson (Cup), Steve Chilton (Europe), Kev Purves (Shield) and David Purves (Knockout). Well done to the 4 winners of our new Eliminator comps…Harris Khan, Philip Gray, Stevie Fairless and Greg Pullinger.

Here are a few more stats and bits of info that may interest you from the season just gone…

  • The most amount of correct scores were predicted by our league champion Harris Khan with 49. Mick Wilson who finished in 5th was 2nd on that list with 48, Craig Robinson (6th) predicted 47 correct scores.
  • Phillip Clayton finished 68th in the league but still managed to come out on top with the most amount of correct outcomes predicting 172. Mark Johnson, who was 20th, was 2nd with 170 correct outcomes. Jamie Liddell was the 3rd highest with 169 outcomes, despite finishing in 89th position.
  • As shown above, Harris Khan spent 9 weeks at the top of the table during the season which was the most anyone spent at the summit this campaign. Craig Robinson, only in his second season, spent 7 weeks at the top. While Ken Nicholson and Andrew Davison both topped the table for 5 weeks. Kev Purves (4 weeks), Adam Brown (4 weeks), Greg Pullinger (2 weeks), Chris Hodgson (2 weeks) and Craig Allan (1 week) all experienced some time at the top.
  • The highest weekly score of the season was 18 points, 1 point better than the highest last season. Craig Robinson opened up on week 1 with 18 points, with Ian Rogerson and Adam Goode scoring 18 points on week 31. Not enough to get on the board for the top 3 scores of all time.
  • Out of the 38 weeks, 8 people experienced a weekly top spot finish on more than one occasion. Craig Robinson, Rory Kirk, Stevie Fairless, Alex McIsaac, Aaron Carr, Ian Rogerson, Rachel Baird and Adam Smith were all top scorers on 2 separate weeks.
  • An average weekly score of 6.7 was enough to qualify into next seasons Bezza Europe, the lowest since 2021. The tally of 268 points to make the top 10 was also down on previous seasons and was the 4th lowest tally for a 10th place finish in Bezza League history.
  • Harris Khan has now finished in the top 32 in 11 of his 12 seasons in the Bezza and out of those 11 seasons he has been in the top 10 on 9 occasions. Kev Purves, who was 2nd in the league this season makes the top 10 for only the second time, the first time back in 2013 he was runner up on that occasion as well. Carl Collier was 3rd this season, finishes in the top 10 for the first time.
  • Last seasons champion Chris Wood found it particularly hard this season, finishing down in 85th. The winners curse strikes again! We still await someone to retain or regain a Bezza League title. Could it be Khan next season?
  • Here is a look at how well our other former champions have fared this season…Rachel Baird (45th), Adam Cairns (94th), Paul Simpson (15th), Paul Ryder (47th), Rob Bosher Jnr (23rd), Simon Bowden (39th), Tom Beck (37th), Kev Morrison (44th) and Dan Stewart (8th).
  • 2 out of our 12 newcomers this season made it into the top 32. Rory Kirk (21st) and Graeme Golledge (28th) both qualify for Bezza Europe next year.

Khan Cruises To Bezza League Glory

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Harris Khan is the new Bezza League champion! Khan wins his first piece of Bezza League silverware after years of trying and coming so close. He had previously been runner up twice and 3rd twice earlier in his Bezza League career but just couldn’t get over the line. This time around he cruised to the title, with a 13 point winning margin over Kev Purves in 2nd, finishing the season off in style with 10 points on the final day. Its the 9th time in 12 seasons that Khan has finished inside the top 10.

Since taking over at the top on week 31, Khan never really looked like he was going to give that place up. Kev Purves, Craig Robinson, Carl Collier, Greg Pullinger and Chris Gill have all tried over the last few weeks of the season but couldn’t quite get close enough. 

3 people share top spot on the final day as Rachel Hay, Aaron Carr and Paul Simpson all scored 11 points, with all 3 making it into Bezza Europe for next season. 

With Harris Khan taking the title, Kev Purves finishes the season in 2nd, repeating the 2nd place finish he had 12 years ago. Carl Collier was 3rd, 2 points behind Purves for his highest finish of his career. Greg Pullinger finishes 4th, with Mick Wilson in 5th.

TOP SCORER THIS WEEK

1ST – Rachel Hay | Aaron Carr | Paul Simpson – 11pts

2ND – Adam Brown | Rory Kirk | Dave Malpas | Stevie Fairless | Mark Patrick | Harris Khan | Mark Heathorn | Marc Jarvis – 10pts

3RD – Kev Illingworth | Amanda Adams | Kev Booth | Craig Rowell | Stevie Docherty | Rachel Baird | Sam Kirk | James Crentsil | Carl Collier | Jamie Liddell – 9pts

End of season review to follow…

Purves’ Knockout Blow

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David Purves is the new Bezza Knockout champion after a 13-11 victory over reigning champion Glenn Baker. Its the first piece of silverware to enter the cabinet for Purves and a good finish to a difficult season. The odds were in favour of Baker being the first person to win a cup competition back to back but it wasn’t to be as Purves’ 3 correct scores and 4 correct outcomes were just too much. Congratulations David.

Chilton Conquers Europe

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Steve Chilton is the new Bezza Europe champion after beating Brian Baird 3-2 in the final this week. Its the first trophy of Chilton’s Bezza League career and it ensures another Bezza Europe campaign next season. It was looking like Baird was going to take the win after being 1-0 up after the first 3 games. During the PSG v Arsenal game, Baird was leading 2-1 until Saka’s goal for Arsenal turned things around for Chilton. Chilton took the 3 points from the final game to take the Bezza Europe title home. A massive win for Chilton and his Bezza League status! For Baird, back to the drawing board after coming close twice now, Bezza Cup semi final and Bezza Europe runner up. Congratulations Steve.

Robinson Romps To Cup Glory

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Craig Robinson is the new Bezza Cup champion after just edging a close encounter with Colin Timney. Both players only scored 1 point over the 2 FA Cup semi final ties over the weekend but Robinson takes home the title after securing the win on goals predicted.. Robinson wins the cup on the smallest of margins, 1 goal. Its a tough one to take for Timney after making it all the way to lose out by a goal. For Robinson, his season keeps getting better. He has the cup to his name, but can he make it the league and cup double. Robinson is only 1 point off the top of the league table with only 4 weeks remaining. He would be the first person since Tom Beck in 2021 to win a league and cup double.

Purves Powers To Bezza Shield Victory

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Kev Purves has won his first piece of Bezza League silverware after winning the Bezza Shield at the weekend. Purves won an enthralling encounter 3-2 over Grant Taylor…ok, maybe enthralling is wrong word to use…but nevertheless Purves took home the win and puts his name into the Bezza League history books. Congratulations to Kev on the win!

The Bezza Eliminator

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Coming soon…the Bezza League’s new Eliminator competition.

The Eliminator is a separate competition and will run alongside normal league proceedings and the first edition of the event will begin on Week 4 of the new Bezza League season, just after the international break.

How to Play

Let me (Garry) know if you want in! If you don’t, that’s fine, you just continue to submit predictions as normal. Its £5 to enter and winner takes all. To play you just need to enter your normal league predictions with the top 50% of scorers, plus ties, making it through to the next round. The process will continue each week until there are 5 or less players left in the competition. Once we are down to 5 or less players, the person with the highest score on that final week will take home the prize pot. If there is a tie on points with any of the players left then the prize pot will be shared out between the players on the highest score for that final week. I will look to run these numerous times throughout the season, so there will be more chances to take home the cash pot.

Submitting Your Predictions

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MESSAGE FOR NEW MEMBERS. Current members, or seasoned pro’s, will already know this…but please make sure you click the ‘Submit’ button to send your scores as shown in the screenshot below. You can double check your scores are in by either checking the ‘Outstanding Matches’ section just below ‘Predict Scores’ or check your emails. In the Outstanding Matches section, if the matches still show the kick off time (as shown below) and not your scores then your predictions have not been sent. Please double check! You should have a confirmation email with a copy of your predictions. Any questions just let me know

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