French Farce
With only a potential banana skin in Cardiff to come in two weeks, Eddie Jones is looking good for a Grand Slam. The Chariot upped its scoring rate on Sunday, and showed what accurate kicking could do to a defence, and already looks out of sight. Roll on the World Cup.
Spare a thought for long term F6NF punter Adrian Harlow therefore, who has backed England for the Grand Slam for at least the last 10 years. This year he didn’t get his entry in.
Ireland ground out a win in Murrayfield to satisfy the majority of entrants, whilst Wales’ winning margin in Rome wasn’t quite what people had been expecting; minus 15 was the mean forecast, but kept most happy.
League Leaders
The top of the table still has Geoff Brown on top, followed by Paul McMahon, who writes to point out that he’s not the Dundalk Paul McMahon, so clearing his name. They will be separated next time as they are opposite sides of the Wales v England spread.
Nigel Barnes from Linesight is chasing hard, and Gerry Kelly is within 10 points of the top. Not sure too many outside of this pack will be in contention come Paddy’s Day.

Leaders After Week 2

1 Geoff Brown 87
2 Paul McMahon 82
3 Nigel Barnes 80
4 Gerry Kelly 77
5 Frances Caffrey 74
6 Big Sam 68
7 Ed Roche 67
8 Lorenzo Carpanini 66
9 Kevin Grey 61
10 Mel O Hanlon 54
11 Andrew Lunan 53
12 Jennifer Lyne 52
13 Tony Madden 52
14 Colm Burke 51
15 Vincent Brady 51
16 Jack Lonergan 50

A wide open race to the bottom however is going on, with 9 having already passed the minus 100 mark, something of a record:

Wooden Spoon Contenders
452 Jonny Ryan -105
453 Tara Leonard Smith -108
454 John Hogan -124
455 Stephanie Lyons -159
456 Paul Barrett -177
457 Brian Connolly -187
458 Cathy O’Kearney White -198
459 Ashling O’Toole -208
460 Chengyuan Zhang -241

Chengyuan Zhang looking favourite for the Wooden Spoon at present, but Aisling O’Toole put in a big performance this weekend, so one to watch.

Winners Alright
Winner of the Hanley Pepper “Structurally Sound Award” for the performer of the weekend goes to David McGoldrick with a solid 44 points. “This is a great competition, I didn’t think I’d done that well and I win a structural design for my own Man Shed! Cant wait to get started on that, thanks guys” said McGoldrick from his estimating machine in Linesight.

Week 2 Top Guns

David McGoldrick 44
Helena Burke 43
Brenda Gavin 38
Garth Beattie 38
Paddy Kenna 37
Tony Madden 37
Marguerite Sharpe 36
Sinead Vaughan 36
Geoff Brown 35
Jennifer Lyne 35
Nigel Barnes 35
Tomas Purcell 35
Danny Griffin 34
Dominick O Kelly 34
Kieran Spellman 34
Mel O Hanlon 34
Sean Close 34
Conor Coyle 33
Ian Fitzsimons 33
Joe Lee 33

The Leo Lynch “Ladies Choice Award” goes to Helena Burke as the highest scoring lady, narrowly beating previous winner Brenda Gavin to the chase.
“That’s brilliant” said Helena. “I just need now to decide who to take on the cruise to Japan with me. That is the prize, right?”
Helena may be a little disappointed come awards night . . .
Special mention goes to Joe Lee, who not only managed to score 33 points this weekend, but also managed to come home alive from Edinburgh and his son’s stag. There’s life in that liver yet. Not much, but some.