County cricket preview

County Championship Division One

Winner:

JL: Warwickshire
RA: Warwickshire

Relegated:

JL: Derby, Notts
RA: Derby, Middlesex

Top run scorer:

JL: James Taylor
RA: Varun Chopra

Top wicket taker:

JL: Stuart Meaker
RA: Graham Onions


County Championship Division Two

Promoted:

JL: Hampshire, Kent
RA: Hampshire, Lancashire

Top run scorer:

JL: Michael Carberry
RA: Sam Northeast

Top wicket taker:

JL: David Masters
RA: James Tomlinson

YB40 winners:

JL: Sussex
RA: Surrey

Twenty20 winners:

JL: Somerset
RA: Sussex


Internationals

Champions Trophy:

JL: Australia
RA: South Africa

England v. New Zealand Tests: (All results are put as England victories unless otherwise stated)

JL: 2-0
RA: 1-0

ODIs:

JL: 2-1
RA: 2-0

Twenty20s:

JL: 2-0
RA: 1-1

The Ashes:

JL: England 2-1
RA: England 2-1

England v. Australia ODIs:

JL: 3-2
RA: 3-1

Twenty20s:

JL: 1-1
RA: 1-0

Ashes top run scorers:

JL: England - Bell, Australia - Clarke
RA: England - Cook, Australia - Clarke

Top wicket taker:

JL: England - Anderson, Australia - Pattinson
RA: England - Anderson, Australia - Starc

Season round-up:

Using my own unique numbering system, here is my rating of how the Premier League clubs did this season with a very brief summary.

Rankings:

0 – Kesteven

1 – Horrendous

2 – Shocker

3 – Why always me?

4 – Liability

5 – Distinctly average

6 – Pretty, pretty, pretty… pretty good

7 – Gary Neville orgasm

8 – Shares in Kleenex have doubled

9 – Needs boning right now

10 – Babies were born on the back of this performances

Arsenal: 6 - Aim for 4th, got 4th. Anything else a bonus

Aston Villa: 6 - Stayed up with young team. Well, with Benteke

Chelsea: 7 - Any European trophy is decent. Will be nobs out next season

Everton: 7 - Finished above Liverpool

Fulham: 5 - More predictable than Nadal winning the French

Liverpool: 4 - Bit off more than they could chew

Manchester City: 3 - Massively underperformed and cocked up cup final

Manchester United: 8 - Boned the league but robbed in Europe

Newcastle: 4 - Decent Europa run but Depardew struggled in the league

Norwich: 6 - 11th place despite having no striker

QPR: 1 - Got more points than Derby. As good as it got

Reading: 3 - Not surprising considering they are tighter than a certain religious group

Southampton: 6 - Comfortable survival despite shocking sacking of Adkins

Stoke: 5 - Connoisseurs of the beautiful game... at Twickenham. Even more boring than Norwich

Sunderland: 4 - Rubbish apart from one win at St James'. Paolo made things interesting at least

Swansea: 8 - Pretty much a nobs out season

Tottenham: 5 - No trophy and missed out on 4th. Were baled out a lot of times

West Brom: 7 - Great league effort, shame it won't last

West Ham: 7 - 10th and an Olympic Stadium. Fairly decent

Wigan: 6 - No words... just no words

End of season football predictions... and results

Premier League winners:

Richard Ayling – Manchester City

Fraser Kesteven - Chelsea

Joel Lamy - Manchester City

Sam Travell – Manchester City

Result: Manchester United

Rest of the top four:

RA – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal

FK – Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal

JL - Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal

ST – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal

Result: Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal 

Relegated teams:

RA – Southampton, Swansea, Norwich

FK – Southampton, Reading, Swansea

JL - Southampton, Reading, Swansea

ST – Southampton, Swansea, Aston Villa

Result: QPR, Reading, Wigan (yes, really)

Top scorer:

RA – Aguero

FK - Aguero

JL - Aguero

ST – Van Persie

Result: Van Persie with 26 (got to give the man credit for sending those photos to Piers Morgan as well)

First managerial casualty:

RA - Laudrup

FK- Clarke

JL - Allardyce

ST- Hughton

Result: Roberto di Matteo

Championship top two:

RA – Bolton, Leicester

FK – Wolves, Birmingham

JL - Birmingham, Leicester

ST – Bolton, Cardiff

Result: Cardiff, Hull (Kimsteven is being docked a point for picking a relegated side)

Teams who make play-offs:

RA – Wolves, Blackburn, Leeds, Cardiff

FK – Brighton, Leeds, Cardiff, Leicester

JL - Bolton, Wolves, Cardiff, Charlton

ST – Wolves, Blackburn, Forest, Leicester

Result: Watford, Brighton, Crystal Palace, Leicester

Top scorer:

RA – Doyle

FK - Doyle

JL – Fletcher

ST – Fletcher

Result: Glenn Murray with 30

Relegated teams:

RA – Peterborough, Bristol City, Barnsley

FK – Sheffield Wednesday, Bristol City, Barnsley

JL - Peterborough, Bristol City, Barnsley

ST – Peterborough, Bristol City, Barnsley

Result - Bristol City, Wolves, Peterborough

Forest position:

RA – 8^th

FK – 9^th

JL - 12^th

ST – 6^th

Result: 8th

Forest top scorer:

RA – Blackstock

FK - Blackstock

JL - Blackstock

ST – Cox

Result: Sharp with 10

League One top two:

RA – Sheffield United, MK Dons

FK – Sheffield United, Coventry

JL - Sheffield United, MK Dons

ST – Notts County, Coventry

Result: Doncaster and Bournemouth

League Two top three:

RA – Rotherham, Fleetwood, Southend

FK – Bristol Rovers, Oxford, Rotherham

JL - Rotherham, Southend, Cheltenham

ST – Fleetwood, Torquay, Coventry

Result: Gillingham, Rotherham and Port Vale

Blue Square winner:

RA – Luton

FK - Wrexham

JL - Mansfield

ST – Wrexham

Result: Mansfield

FA Cup winner:

RA – Manchester City

FK - Liverpool

JL - Chelsea

ST – Manchester United

Result: Wigan

League Cup winner:

RA – Chelsea

FK - Tottenham

JL - Tottenham

ST – Arsenal

Result: Swansea

Johnstone’s Paint Trophy winner:

RA – Swindon

FK - Doncaster

JL - Notts County

ST - Carlisle

Result: Crewe

Champions League winner:

RA – Barcelona

FK – Real Madrid

JL - Real Madrid

ST – Barcelona

Result: Bayern Munich 

Europa League winner:

RA – Atletico Madrid

FK - Lazio

JL - Napoli

ST – Tottenham

Result: Chelsea

La Liga winner:

RA – Barcelona

FK - Barcelona

JL - Real Madrid

ST – Barcelona

Result: Barcelona

Who will score more league goals: Messi or Ronaldo?

RA – Messi

FK - Messi

JL - Messi

ST – Ronaldo

Result: Messi, unless Ronaldo scores like 8 goals in each of his last two matches

Serie A winner:

RA – AC Milan

FK – AC Milan

JL - Juventus

ST – Inter Milan

Result: Juventus

Bundesliga winner:

RA – Bayern Munich

FK – Borussia Dortmund

JL - Bayern Munich

ST – Borussia Dortmund

Result: Bayern Munich

Ballon d’Or winner:

RA – Messi

FK - Messi

JL - Messi

ST – Xavi

Result: Messi

Dele Adebola league goals:

RA – 4

FK - 5

JL - 9

ST – 6

Result: This was removed as he went down to play in the Conference for Wrexham

Fernando Torres league goals:

RA – 13

FK - 11

JL - 14

ST – 17

Result: 23

Which club will RVP be at come the end of August:

RA – Arsenal

FK - Arsenal

JL - Manchester United

ST - Arsenal

Result: Manchester United

Final total:

RA - 11

FK - 10

JL - 13

ST - 10