Ready's Benfleet Bet

It's that time of year again when the mighty (Rochdale) play the underdogs (Charlton) in the world's best cup competition. For our American viewers, it is only known as the worlds best competition but the winners do not actually become the world champions as that would be silly and require every football team in the world to take part and not just those from England!

As you are well aware we started the Road to Cardiff back in August with Odd Down FC and 8 rounds later we're still supporting a non-league team in the form of Yeading - more on their Cup tie with Newcastle nearer to the big day.

So, those old hands - and we have a number of previous winners amongst us - know that Ready sets the rules, it is free to enter but the competition is only open to N&R FL manager's. The prize fund is £25 (about $4m by the current exchange rate).

All you have to do is email your entry by no later than 6pm BST (12noon CST) on January 7th 2005. The entry forms will be emailed to you shortly. You can also fax me entries to 001 312 381 6878.

The rules will be included within the entry form but I will repeat them again here. Remember Ready's decision is final.

Scoring Points
1 point home win
2 points away win
3 points draw
3 points correct score
1 additional point per goal in a game where the score has been correctly predicted and there are 5 goals or more during the game.

The rules
No more than 11 draws allowed
No more than 6 identical scores, i.e. 2-1, 1-1 etc. Please note that 1-2 counts as a different score to 2-1
10 points deducted for each breach of rule.

May the best man or woman win. Any problems call me on 001 312 381 4382.