END OF YEAR AWARDS! – SK Ballers

? END OF YEAR TEAM AWARDS! ?

It’s time! After a long re are your Teams Of The Year from each of our league nights!

SUNDAY: STOCKPORT EAGLES

The Eagles started 2018 in the bottom division, where they had been since Ballers started. A full year of playing week in, week out saw them rise through the divisions and end the year with a third place finish in the Premiership

MONDAY: NETSIX & CHILL

Netsix joined the Monday league in March, and after an up and down start they went through their second full season unbeaten to win the Championship and end the yeat as favourites to win this seasons Premiership

TUESDAY: GANGS OF DWIGHT YORKE

Gangs have dominated the Tuesday league throughout 2018, before making the move to the Sunday league in recent weeks. They picked up three top division titles in 2018, so it’s no real surprise they sit top of the overall league table

WEDNESDAY: STOCKPORT EAGLES

In the whole of 2018, only 8 teams have played in our Wednesday league, which means we are extra grateful to all of those teams for sticking around! Eagles were the constant bridesmaids, never actually winning the league, but their consistency and durability means they finish top overall!

? END OF YEAR INDIVIDUAL AWARDS! ?

Here’s how the individual awards will be dished out in the early part of 2019…..

PLAYER OF THE YEAR & GOLDEN BOOT: RAY DONNELLY

When you play week in, week out, regularly on a Sunday and Wednesday, while also dabbling with a bit of Monday and Tuesday, and you can hit a ball, you’re in with a chance. Ray’s total of goals for the year was double that of second placed Liam Watson, and when you play and score that often, it’s not going to go unnoticed. So it’s a golden boot and player of the year double for Ray!

GOLDEN GLOVE: WILL HUDSON

Another player who gets about the night’s, the number of clean sheets Will has kept this year is ridiculous! His 11 meant he was 8 clear of second place, and came from just 61 appearances.

Congratulations to both winners.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

SUNDAY: Despite going from the brink of promotion to the Premiership back to the bottom division, THE VETERANS stuck at it and finished in the top 10 while playing the most league games of any team this year. Fellow bottom division sides INTER YOUR SISTER and DEPORTIVO LACK OF TALENT also made the top 10, again mostly because they played more games than most. FC AOTS crashed the top 10 as their results picked up as the year went on, as they escaped the bottom division in the final season of the year.

MONDAY: PHANTOM BRAZILIANS finally had a season outside of the top flight this year for the first time, but picked up enough wins while in the Championship to finish the year in the top 5 having played the most games. We lost PATHETICO MADRID towards the end of the year, but they pick up a top 10 spot despite a goal difference of -111! Hopefully we’ll see them back in our leagues in 2019….

TUESDAY: BEERCALONA had a very slow start having joined us this year, but a steady improvement saw them spend a season in the Premiership, and they picked up enough points to finish third overall. SHAKA also had an up and down year, but their massive squad helped them to play and win enough games to finish second.

WEDNESDAY: If they hadn’t moved to Tuesday for the extra challenge, MICHU AT DE GEA BA probably would have won this one, after picking up the first two title of the year. EXETER GENTLY‘s improvement through the year saw them finish second in the final season of the year, and second in the overall league table, while OUT OF SHAPE FC (formerly Magpie FC) played more games than anyone else, but they could only finish 6th overall.

And then, finally, there’s WELLSPRING, who appear in none of the top 10 lists, despite having a pretty good year. They shifted between nights a bit too much to play enough games to make any top 10, but they also had lads who would come in at the drop of a hat to help other teams out, and without teams and lads like that we wouldn’t be here!

⚽ AND FINALLY….! ⚽

We’ve made it through another year!

We head into 2019 with high hopes that Ballers can continue to grow, that we can keep coming up with new ideas to keep things fresh and give more back to the customers, and that we can hopefully keep doing more things right than wrong. We’ll always try…..

A massive thanks to all teams who’ve taken part. The biggest portion of the thanks goes to those who’ve been with us all / most of the year, but anyone who has taken part has helped us keep ticking along. If you’re not currently playing we’ll hopefully see you back early in the new year.

As always, we couldn’t have done it without the support from John and everyone at Reddish North End. We like to think that we have a mutually beneficial relationship, but the deal they do for us allows us to keep the cost to the customer at a reasonable level, and the trust they show in us to look after their facility is appreciated.

And finally, we couldn’t do it without the necessary evil that are the referees, so many, many thanks to Steve, Matt, Callum and Tom. Finally (finally), thanks to Rach and Hayley for taking some of the weight and allowing me to spend time wandering around the pitches pretending that what I’m doing is actually work.

Whatever you are doing this new years eve, have a good one, stay safe, and we’ll see you in 2019!