Battle-ground Earth. The final countdown. Survival of the Fittest. Who will roll the dice? And any other mixed metaphors you may care to throw in.

And so it comes to this. Here we all are sandwiched between an Alexis and an Alex.

How did this happen? I hear you ask. It's quite simple - they are either better than us, or worse than us. And we are only as good as us.


(Alex is there, he's just fallen back and dropped off the chart is all).

BUT wait, there is still one round for a challenger to emerge spectre-like from the shadows. A Steven Bradbury brandishing a sharpened ice-skate rising form the ice-floe.

The final round or two are traditionally full of upsets (clearly lacking last week, where 44% of all tipsters got either a perfect 9 or an 8). The trick of course is to select where the upset will fall.

Lex is doubly well-placed. She has a lower margin total than her immediate rivals and a one game buffer. It's going to take guts, a lot of luck or a very big bribe to pull it off.

For the record Lex is only bettered in the points total by Derek (other than those way lower down who have received multiple zeros by not entering their tips). Bob Catter needs to make up one game and do 41 points better tonight. Ando needs 1 game and a miracle or to make up 2 games, Matt needs 2 games and a 37 point improvement, and Lloydy, Taffa, Phil and Juzzy need a goddam miracle.

Juzzy of course goes by the nom-de-tip of The Devil, and he may have the contacts to pull it off. If you get scared easily turn away now. Here's Juzzy's status as we speak. Just check out his total points, or I guess you could call it the The Devil's number...

And also there's all the proof you need that the Devil can't be photographed too.

Good luck and good tipping to all. Good luck to the Tigers.
Good riddance to another joyless and sapping home and away season for me and my boys.