Nearly 3 weeks have passed since the end of the 2023/24 season. I would just like to thank you all for taking part again. Another congratulations to Chris Wood on the Bezza League win. Also, congratulations to our cup competition winners…Adam Campbell (Cup), Phil Ellis (Europe), Chris Gill (Shield) and Glenn Baker (Knockout).

Looking back at the season just gone, here are a few stats and facts that may interest you. On his way to winning the league, Chris Wood broke the record for the most amount of weeks (24) spent at the top in a season. It also ended up being the closest title race in history, only 5 points separating the top 5 when the season came to end. Here is a list of other info from this season…

• Simon Bowden and Stevie Fairless, who finished 4^th and 5^th respectively, predicted the most correct scores – 47. Chris Wood predicted 43, while Ken Nicholson, Chris Coan and Daryl Henson predicted 42.
• Mark Johnson finished the season in 39th place, but still managed to break the record for the most amount of correct outcomes in a season. Johnson predicted 189 outcomes, taking over the previous record of 188 by Liam McLean back in 2019. Grant Taylor predicted 186 outcomes this season, while Adam Smith and Phil Ellis predicted 185.
• As stated above, Chris Wood held top spot for 24 weeks, but 6 other people experienced some time at the summit before Wood took over. Neil Pearce (9 weeks), Mark Patrick (3 weeks), Pete Stevenson (3 weeks), Matt McHugh (1 week), Paul Hardie (1 week) and Dave Malpas (1 week).
• Out of the 38 weeks of the season, 9 people experienced a weekly top spot finish on more than one occasion. Adam Goode was top scorer the most on 3 separate weeks. Simon Bowden, Rob Bosher, Phillip Clayton, Phil Ellis, Chris Wood, Paul Simpson, Lee Davison and Rachel Baird were top scorers twice.
• The highest points tally this season was 17 points. Not enough to get on the board for the top 3 highest scores of all time! Paul Hardie and Dave Malpas were first to score this on the opening week of the season. Alex Hamilton posted a score of 17 points on week 5, with Lee Davison also scoring 17 points on week 6.
• An average weekly score of 7.13 was enough to qualify for next seasons Bezza Europe, the highest since 2019. The points tally to make the top 10 was also up on previous years.
• The Bezza League winners curse was nearly broken this campaign. Former champions Paul Ryder and Simon Bowden came close to regaining the titles they won in 2017 and 2020 respectively. We still await someone to win the league for a second…Chris Wood perhaps? Reigning champion Dan Stewart finished a respectable 14^th place after a tough start to the season with the hangover of celebrating last years triumph.
• After claiming the title this season, it was only the 2^nd time that Wood has finished in the top 10, after his 5^th place in 2015-16. Former champion Paul Ryder also made the top 10 for the 2^nd time this season. Ryder has failed to make It inside the top 80 the same amount of times as he has been in the top 10! Liam McLean finished 3^rd this season, 1 place higher than his previous best back in 2014-2015.
• Harris Khan made it 8 top 10 finishes in 11 seasons with his late surge up the table to finish in 7^th. Simon Bowden has 6 top 10 finishes under his belt. Alex Hamilton, Tom Beck, Liam McLean, Mark Summerill, Sarah Cuthbertson and Dan Stewart have all finished in the top 10 on 4 occasions.

Chris Wood is the new Bezza League champion!

Wood won the Bezza League crown after a nervous final day. Over the last few weeks it looked like Wood was going to have the title wrapped up before the last week but a poor run of form saw the chasing pack catch up. Having led for 23 weeks before going into the last round of matches, and a lead that was once at 17 points on week 23, the gap was cut to just 2 points to make the final day a bit more interesting! But he managed to see off the challenge of former champions Simon Bowden and Paul Ryder, plus a late surge by Liam McLean. At one point during the games today, there were 3 people sharing the lead and it looked like we could have had a league champion decided on correct scores. It was a tough start to the season for the former Bezza Shield champion, but by round 15 he found himself sitting at the Bezza League summit. Wood pretty much went on to dominate the 2nd half of the season.

Paul Ryder and Simon Bowden had started the day hoping to break the Bezza League’s winners curse by winning the league for a 2nd time, which is still yet to be done. Although, we did have 5 former champions in this seasons top 15. Last seasons champion Dan Stewart wasn’t too far away from defending his title, finishing this season in 14th place. Paul Ryder’s 2nd place today means he has came the closest to regaining a title, only 2 points separated him to a second Bezza League triumph. There was only 5 points between champion Chris Wood and Stevie Fairless in 5th, making it the closest title race we have ever had.

The final top 10 in order… Chris Wood, Paul Ryder, Liam McLean, Simon Bowden, Stevie Fairless, Tom Beck, Harris Khan, Ian Rogerson, Alex Hamilton and Ken Nicholson. Well done on your performances this season.

Not forgetting the top scorers from this weekend. Phillip Clayton topped the scoring charts for week 38 with 15 points. Its the 2nd week in a row that Clayton has been top scorer, both weeks with 15 points. 3 correct scores and 6 correct outcomes meant Clayton finished the season in 63rd. 

TOP SCORERS THIS ROUND

1st – Phillip Clayton – 15pts

2nd – Philip Gray | Tom Beck – 14pts

3rd – David Purves | Marc Jarvis | Ste Kay | Phil Ellis | Neil Pearce – 13pts

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART THIS SEASON. IT HAS BEEN ANOTHER GREAT CAMPAIGN IN THE BEZZA. HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT AND I HOPE TO SEE YOU BACK AGAIN NEXT SEASON WHERE WE HAVE MORE COMPETITIONS PLANNED.