West Midlands Champions !!

[BOINGBLITZ]

Congratulations to my West Midlands team who have tonight retained the APAT Online League Division One Title. In a Titanic struggle with Luton on the Final Table, it was myself (5th), Ant Williams (4th) and winner Steve Redfern who gave us our 3rd win on the trot to clinch victory with a game to spare.
I am proud to be Captain of this team as throughout this season different players have stepped up to the mark and collected points and on the whole the majority of our team have treated this event as just that, a "TEAM" game.
Tonight's FT performance by the 3 named above epitomised that ethic against 3 from Luton when 6-handed in what was a unique situation that probably wont arise again.
It is still all to play for in the Final game as we have 9 players still in the running for 3 (possibly 4) seats as Champions.Commiserations to Luton, Solent and Liverpool who have made this a great season and we look forward to locking horns again in 2012.

[gerry5421]

Well done west midlands

[Waz1892]

Congratulations on a series of superb performances, and a well deserved league win.  

[duke3016]

oh feck off with the back slapping 

well done ya eejits

[Foggy]

oh feck off with the back slapping 

well done ya eejits

Usual classic statement.......................lololollololollololl

[Cyntaf]

Congratulations to all the West Midlands Team

[PHIL_TC]

Well done, great achievement and congrats from the Stockton team

[scouse3465]

Congratulations to the west midlands ! Massive favourites all the way and proved it by smashing it all season !

[AJDUK]

Would be interesting to see what the points would have been if Birmingham and Walsall played individually. WM players at the top always seem to be the ex-brum guys. I think Birmingham might have squeaked the league on their own. Ironic really.

[AMRN]

Would be interesting to see what the points would have been if Birmingham and Walsall played individually. WM players at the top always seem to be the ex-brum guys. I think Birmingham might have squeaked the league on their own. Ironic really.

Looking at our performance stats, 6 of our top 8 are ex-Bham, 1 is ex-Walsall, and 1 is a newbie (who would have been Bham).

Yes I agree with you - Bham may well have won this league on it's own.

Not to detract from the win, but there was much talk at the start of the season about how the combined West Mids would win based purely on the numbers game.... well, I think that if the player lists are analysed over the course of the season, both Liverpool and Luton had generally more players than West Mids (Luton substantially so).   It really is all about quality, not quantity.

[TightEnd]

It really is all about quality, not quantity.

nothing like winning with a bit of class, and that's nothing like......

[PHIL_TC]

It really is all about quality, not quantity.

nothing like winning with a bit of class, and that's nothing like......

Beat me to it... bit harsh that Steve as I consider myself a distant relative of the Luton gang   

[AMRN]

It really is all about quality, not quantity.

nothing like winning with a bit of class, and that's nothing like......

       

[Chipaccrual]

I don't think Steve was having a dig at any particular club, well I certainly didn't read it like that.

There was a lot of discussion about prior to the season that the league would be all down to the volume of players and that the West Midlands team would be at a significant advantage (In fact, some had already declared the winners before a matchday had been played).

Although they have gone on to win this season, and my congratulations to them, I think the poiint that Steve is making, which is backed up by the player number statistics, is that they weren't just all about the volume of players, but more about quality players that are able to collect points in this style of tournament.

Just my opinion, obviously.  

[AMRN]

Thanks Leigh - exactly what I was trying to say.

Player volume clearly does help in this format, but my point was meant to be that volume is not an over-riding factor.  Unfortunately for West Mids though, many people won't see beyond the player volume angle because of the discussion that took place before the league started.....   

We've had some incredibly consistent individual performers in the West Mids team (me definitely excluded from that!) - it's that individual consistency that has won us the league.