[steven]

AUS OPEN 2010 'BATTLE OF THE BOARDS' PICK 'EM

"Be there or risk retaining your sanity for the next two weeks"

The entry form for the Australian Open pick 'em is now available via http://www.britishte...mpetitions.html

(at 05.40 GMT on Friday) You have just over 66 hours left to enter!

DEADLINE

The main draw starts at midnight UK time on Sunday night, so entries will close on Sunday at 23.59 GMT, which is 6.59 PM US Eastern, 10.59 Monday Melbourne time and 00.59 Monday CET. However, if you were not in the top 250 of the year-end overall pick 'em rankings, there is a very small chance that they may close earlier - please see (*) below.

There is plenty of time to enter, so no late entries will be accepted under any circumstances. In addition, Bethan (who has kindly agreed to process the entries again) will need to get some sleep on Sunday night, so unusually, the deadline will not be extended if rain delays the start of play.

CAVEAT

I have been ill recently and I have masses of work to catch up with, much of which (sadly) is even more important than BOTB. In particular, I have a meeting on Tuesday morning that I have to be well prepared for.

This may mean that the full results service doesn't become available until the end of R1 (instead of the end of day 1, like it usually does), but hopefully that would still be better than not having an AO pick 'em at all this year! Once they are up, updating them only takes a few seconds, so once updates actually start, they will be as frequent as ever, and even if it turns out that I can't get the full set of results page up until the end of R1, I'll find a way of getting some summary results up somewhere earlier.

I might do better than that, but just thought I should warn people in advance.

MATCHES INVOLVING QUALIFIERS

Qualifying is due to finish on Saturday. If it does, the entry form with qualifiers placed will be available by noon GMT on Saturday. You are of course welcome to enter before that and pick for matches involving qualifiers without knowing who they are if you want to.

(*) ENTRY LIMIT

We will cap the number of entrants at 500 if more than 500 people enter, with the top 250 in the overall pick 'em rankings getting automatic entry as long as they enter before the deadline and the remaining places going to those outside the top 250 and newbies on a first come first served basis. Automatic entry for top 250 players only applies if you enter with exactly the same name as is shown on the overall rankings at http://www.britishte...ranking.htm?n=1 so please be careful!

I doubt we'll go over 500 this time because Tennisopolis aren't 'bribing' anybody to be on their team any more :wink: but there is still an outside change that we might need to impose a limit if we get a sudden spike in entries from an unexpected source. A link on the competitions page gives more info about exactly how it would work.

EMAIL REMINDERS

Email reminders to those who asked for them will be going out sometime on Friday, or on Saturday afternoon to those who asked to be reminded only when qualifiers have been placed.

BOTB ON TWITTER

I'll post a few updates on the BOTB twitter at http://twitter.com/botb1 - e.g. if we happen to find out about any late withdrawals from the AO over the weekend, when the results go up, stuff like that.

GOOD LUCK! (this is going to be a tough one to pick, so you'll probably need it ...)

Finally, given the long gap since the last pick 'em, there are probably quite a few newbies on this forum who will have no idea what I'm talking about - would anyone like to give them an idea of why it's fun to take part? :-)

This post has been edited by steven: 15 January 2010 - 05:46 AM

[sirfredperry]

Ta Steven. I would urge anyone who has not taken part in the BOTB to get cracking over the weekend. It's enormous fun and can really add a little spice to what can sometimes seem fairly meaningless matches.

[steven]

Qualifiers are now placed.

[NorthernLight]

steven, on 16 January 2010 - 09:40 AM, said:

Qualifiers are now placed.

Excellent.

Hopefully a good turnout for the CC folk - would echo SFP's thoughts.

[sirfredperry]

Just completed my BOTB. Some really difficult selections. There was one particular first round encounter between two comparatively unknown Germans where the old stick-a-pin-in method was probably preferable.
Have gone for a Djoko win and agonised whether Fed would get past Davy in the quarters but decided that he would. Have gone for Rafa beating Roddick to get to the final. But what do you do with players like Gulbis, Birdbrain etc. Back 'em and hope for the best or ignore em? Anyone got any outrageous predictions ?

[Jack Ng]

just did my BOTB!
Roddick to win.... that considered outrageous ... lol

[sirfredperry]

Jack Ng, on 16 January 2010 - 12:37 PM, said:

just did my BOTB!
Roddick to win.... that considered outrageous ... lol

Not so much outrageous as courageous ! Mind you, you could be on to something.

[Jack Ng]

lol i love Roddick. and with statistics... one of these days he is SURE to beat Fed
i put him in final in Wimble 09, and it got me to joint 2nd in BOTB, so thought id make him one better this time

[Duchess]

i see where Simon has pulled out and Ferrer & Isner have moved around. Does this affect my picks?

[tlimvvo2max]

I'm in - too many stick-a-pin predictions to be confident, but it will have to do.

Nole to win, beating Roger in semi and Rafa in final!

(and I almost put Roger out in the quarters - it has to happen sooner or later and I do get the feeling he is not quite there for this one... I settled for him keeping his semi streak going. Just.)