Pure DFC Archive

Some really big games coming up and quite a few of the top teams have to still play each other, will be a very interesting end to the season.

DARTFORD
Sat 23rd Mar H Hampton & Richmond Borough
Sat 30th Mar H Truro City
Sat 6th Apr A Weston-super-Mare
Sat 13th Apr H Chippenham Town
Sat 20th Apr A Eastbourne Borough
Mon 22nd Apr H Billericay Town
Sat 27th Apr A Oxford City

WOKING
Sat 23rd Mar H Slough Town
Sat 30th Mar A Bath City
Sat 6th Apr H Torquay United
Sat 13th Apr A Chelmsford City
Sat 20th Apr H Concord Rangers
Mon 22nd Apr A Dulwich Hamlet
Sat 27th Apr H Gloucester City

TORQUAY
Sat 23rd Mar A Concord Rangers
Sat 30th Mar H Wealdstone
Tue 2nd Apr H Chelmsford City
Sat 6th Apr A Woking
Sat 13th Apr H Eastbourne Borough
Fri 19th Apr A Chippenham Town
Mon 22nd Apr H Hungerford Town
Sat 27th Apr A St Albans City

BATH
Sat 23rd Mar A Eastbourne Borough
Sat 30th Mar H Woking
Sat 6th Apr A Welling United
Sat 13th Apr H St Albans City
Fri 19th Apr A Hungerford Town
Mon 22nd Apr H Oxford City
Sat 27th Apr A Billericay Town

WELLING
Sat 23rd Mar A Weston-super-Mare
Sat 30th Mar A Gloucester City
Sat 6th Apr H Bath City
Sat 13th Apr A Slough Town
Sat 20th Apr H Chelmsford City
Mon 22nd Apr A East Thurrock United
Sat 27th Apr H Hampton & Richmond Borough

CHELMSFORD
Sat 23rd Mar A Truro City
Sat 30th Mar H Oxford City
Tue 2nd Apr A Torquay United
Sat 6th Apr A St Albans City
Sat 13th Apr H Woking
Sat 20th Apr A Welling United
Mon 22nd Apr H Wealdstone
Sat 27th Apr A Chippenham Town

BILLERICAY
Sat 23rd Mar H Hungerford Town
Sat 30th Mar A Dulwich Hamlet
Sat 6th Apr H Hampton & Richmond Borough
Sat 13th Apr A Gloucester City
Sat 20th Apr H Hemel Hempstead Town
Mon 22nd Apr A Dartford
Sat 27th Apr H Bath City

CONCORD
Sat 23rd Mar H Torquay United
Sat 30th Mar H Weston-super-Mare
Sat 6th Apr A Truro City
Sat 13th Apr H Oxford City
Sat 20th Apr A Woking
Mon 22nd Apr H St Albans City
Sat 27th Apr A Eastbourne Borough

WEALDSTONE
Sat 23rd Mar H Chippenham Town
Sat 30th Mar A Torquay United
Sat 6th Apr H East Thurrock United
Sat 13th Apr A Hampton & Richmond Borough
Sat 20th Apr H Dulwich Hamlet
Mon 22nd Apr A Chelmsford City
Sat 27th Apr H Hemel Hempstead Town

ST ALBANS
Sat 23rd Mar H Gloucester City
Sat 30th Mar A Slough Town
Sat 6th Apr H Chelmsford City
Sat 13th Apr A Bath City
Fri 19th Apr H East Thurrock United
Mon 22nd Apr A Concord Rangers
Sat 27th Apr H Torquay United

Leaving aside Torquay and Woking, Darts probably have the easiest run-in (on paper) of all the other contenders. If you add up the current table positions of all the opponents of these teams you get:

Darts: 104 (7 matches) - so the "average" opponent is around position 15 (roughly = 104/7) in the table;

Bath: 72 (7) --> 10

Welling: 98 (7) --> 14

Chelmsford: 68 (8) --> 8.5

Billericay: 93 (7) --> 13

Concord: 83 (7) --> 12

Wealdstone: 84 (7) --> 12

St. Albans: 70 (7) --> 10

On that basis, Darts and Welling have the easiest run-ins and Chelmsford have the hardest. That's all on paper, of course....

I'm sorry, but could you run that by me again??

M1 South wrote:I'm sorry, but could you run that by me again??

It's just a way of trying to give a value to how difficult each team's set of matches is - the higher the average number, the "easier" those matches should be (since, on the whole, the teams being played are lower in the table). To take an extreme example, if two teams each had three matches left (say) and one team was playing the bottom three teams (positions 20, 21 and 22) that average would be (20+21+22)/3 = 21, while the other team was (say) playing the top three in the table, so that average would be (1+2+3)/3 = 2. So (arguably) the team with the higher average (21, in this case) has the easier set of matches - clearly so in this example, since they are playing teams much lower in the table.

The thing is though GRD, the Darts are infamous for doing well against the teams at the top but not so well against those at the bottom (Or any opposition down to 10 x men)
I appriciate your obvious time & effort put into these calculations though!!
I was okay with Maths at School when it was just numbers, but as soon as they started using letters & algebra thingy's my mind wandered somewhat!!

As we approach the business end of the season it's all beginning to start looking a little messy at the top end of the division, then again, not quite as bad as the National League with so many Southern based teams at the bottom of the league...what is that all about and how will that work out. It reminds of Mike Reeds Runaround.

As we know from last season, you can finish 7th and still go up, so I guess we must ensure that we are in the mix at seasons end.

M1 South wrote:The thing is though GRD, the Darts are infamous for doing well against the teams at the top but not so well against those at the bottom (Or any opposition down to 10 x men)!

I did think about adding a comment along those lines but decided that it would be a bit of a buzzkill after seeing how easy (!) the Darts' run-in is......

Yes GRD, we're not exactly consistent, are we? Looking at our remaining games everyone of them is going to be tough. You'd like to think there are at least 12 easy points there, but......

Jonty wrote:As we approach the business end of the season it's all beginning to start looking a little messy at the top end of the division, then again, not quite as bad as the National League with so many Southern based teams at the bottom of the league...what is that all about and how will that work out. It reminds of Mike Reeds Runaround.

As we know from last season, you can finish 7th and still go up, so I guess we must ensure that we are in the mix at seasons end.

It looks like all 4 x relegated teams from the National will be Southern, some geek on the National forum has suggested Gloucester & Oxford will be moved to the North which makes sense.
He also predicts Weymouth & Dorking will come up, so a much tougher Nat South division next season with some really big games in there!!

M1 South wrote:

Jonty wrote:As we approach the business end of the season it's all beginning to start looking a little messy at the top end of the division, then again, not quite as bad as the National League with so many Southern based teams at the bottom of the league...what is that all about and how will that work out. It reminds of Mike Reeds Runaround.

As we know from last season, you can finish 7th and still go up, so I guess we must ensure that we are in the mix at seasons end.

It looks like all 4 x relegated teams from the National will be Southern, some geek on the National forum has suggested Gloucester & Oxford will be moved to the North which makes sense.
He also predicts Weymouth & Dorking will come up, so a much tougher Nat South division next season with some really big games in there!!

Thanks for the info M1S. I can't really believe any of the teams coming up/down can be any stronger than those already in the division. My biggest concern is our ageing team, should we remain in the division. At the same time, if we were to go up by some miracle, I guess that we would lose at least 4 players, who have served the club so well over the years. Then again, the wheels could quite easily fall off in the run in and we won't even make the play-off. However, I feel confident in the way the team are performing at the moment and fully expect us to scrape home. All these scenarios are not worth thinking about as we should focus only on our next game. Can't wait for it.