Thank you for the explanation, Yuzuru, I understand now

John wrote:I'll go and have a lie down now before the football match.

Good idea!

If the result is greater than this deviation then the statistical result shows there is something more than co-incidence/chance and demonstrates (proves) a theory?

Oh, not exactly, but I don?t think the moderators would like that we would get into this theme

Give our results two or three months. If we are doing fantastic we may bring up again, if we doing very poorly we should quietly forget that we had this conversation

Yuzuru, I've had further thoughts about the control group for faves idea. Since picking the correct score is the problem here, how about picking the same score for every game? Over the years 2-1 has probably been the most common score, so that might be the one to use.

So far the faves have won 12 games and the scoreline has been 2-1 for three of them. This would give a running total of 18 points. Not bad! I know it's too soon to draw any conclusions, but it's interesting nonetheless. I'll keep an eye on it.

The Guardian have at last added points from Monday's game. Gosh, what a difference just one game makes! The Skyscript team are now ranked 188. Well done, Susie - you were the only one to pick up a point from that game

It seems that the 1-0 scoreline has been more common over the past two weeks. Anyone going for the faves, using that scoreline for all games, would now have 22 points!

I am pleased to announce that the Skyscript team is now ranked 74. I think we are doing really well

Some more so than others.....

And I'm having a good time .....

I must apologise to my fellow team members for my abysmal performance this weekend. I know there's one more game to go but at this rate I don't hold out much hope. Not surprisingly, my personal ranking has plummeted about 1200 places. I was 124 last week

Now I know how Deb felt the first week. I shall try and do a lot better next week

I'm pleased to report that the Skyscript team has just experienced its best week so far. Since the 3rd week we have been slipping down the rankings to a low of 449 last week, but now we have moved up to 247. Deb and Susie are doing particularly well as they are very good at predicting the correct scores. Obviously it's important to get the results right, but in this competition you get a lot more points for getting the score right too and this is what boosts your position in the rankings.

So I'd be interested to know whether people are using astrology to predict the scores or whether it is inspired (or uninspired) guesswork. For my own part, although I try to use astrology, I generally feel when I do get a score right that it's more down to luck

Hi Ficina et al

Yes, the Skyscript team isn't doing too badly

Regarding the prediction of score I can tell you quite frankly that I don't use astrology to get those. What I do do however, is that I get a general feel of the varying strengths of the teams, thereby predicting winner-loser-or evens, and then I fill in the details of the actual score by guestimate.

Although, after this weekend, I'm a lot less sure of my ablility to even get the winner-loser scenario right Somehow, most teams did not accommodate my reading of their charts . I shall have to let them know, that that is NOT on! How dare Man U win as Mercury combust :-)?!?

And Ficina, I have to confess, even though you were kind enough to let me have that odds and evens listing, I'm still pretty much up the creek wihout a paddle when it comes to that. But it's okay - I think the less background I know, the easier for me to play the game.

I see this coming weekend is a bye?! What am I going to do this Saturday arvie? Take to drink, maybe!

Cheers

Susie

Hi Ficina

I claim this as a victory for astrology using the method I outlined in the other thread. I know nothing about football; my husband knows nothing about astrology. I let him make his football predictions and then I adapt these to include the astrological themes that I am aware of, seeing the whole chart as relevant to the home team. Let's say he predicts a 2-1 win for the home team, but the chart shows themes of disappointment or sorrow, I'll change that to a 2-2 draw. If the chart is really bad I go against his prediction.

I only make a change when I feel strongly about something, otherwise I leave it alone. This week I changed his prediction of a loss to Sunderland by Arsenal because with two angular benefics and the Moon in the 11th applying to the sextile to the Sun, the chart was really favourable. I was tempted to change it to a win for Sunderland but I knew that they were the underdogs so I reasoned that a draw would feel like a win to them. I used an opposite reasoning for one of the changes I made to his Sunday predictions. He predicted a 3-1 win to Portsmouth, but the chart kicked off with the same angular benefics so I couldn't see anyone (even the home team) suffering from such a *dramatic* sense of loss. So I moderated that to a 2-1 win, which was the correct result. I got 3 points for the Chelsea match, but only by going along with him. But then I lost out by changing his Man U v Liverpool result to a predicted draw, whereas he correctly predicted the result with a 3-2 win to Liverpool. But the reason for this change wasn't even astrological. He simply always always always predicts Liverpool to win, which they usually do of course, but I was trying to make allowance for his bias - you see that's where I go wrong. The minute I think about anything but astrology I'm lost !

This is all very broad strokes and it's definitely not a 'marketable' or even reliable technique!! It is all a bit of an astrological experiment for me, but working so far because I have consistently out-predicted my husband using his knowledge + astrology. I'm also limited in that I don't want to spend more than, say 10 minutes a week on this. I'd rather be sipping Sangria with Susie.

Deb

Deb you have a really cool arrangement there, with a soccer-fundi husband, and a wealth of astrological knowledge.

My husband knows zip about soccer, and when I describe a soccer scenario to him, he just nervously says: "stick with what you see in the chart". So, it's pretty much the blind leading the blind!

I find that when I keep things simple, I get the best results. The 10 minute approach also works best for me. When I think long and hard about one particular game/chart, I invariably get it completely wrong.

And Deb, swing by any weekend: we've got lots of Sangria and summer is just starting!