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 4th and 5th 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 14th 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 2nd time that Wood has finished in the top 10, after his 5th place in 2015-16. Former champion Paul Ryder also made the top 10 for the 2nd 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 3rd 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 7th. 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.