Tims Fantasy Football


Year	Event	Technical Details
1994	The Beginning In January 1994 the Daily Telegraph Newspaper began its Fantasy Football Competition. Half the Premier League season had already been played. At that time Tim, Pete Black and Dave Sears worked together in the Manufacturing Group of CMB (formerly Metal Box plc) and decided to enter a team into the Telegraph competition called Sporting Warndon. In order to monitor the teams performance Tim created a spreadsheet into which he typed the weekly scores (printed by the Telegraph on a Wednesday morning). As a bit of extra fun we all created our own teams and ran a small league competition. The founding Teams were therefore Sporting Warndon, Sears Stars, Black Jacks, Sears Juniors (run by Dave's sons), Tims Terriers and Bristol XI (players in the Premier League who had once played for Bristol City or Bristol Rovers). In that first season the 'must have' player was Andy Cole who was thumping goals in for Newcastle United (and the Bristol XI). Tims Terriers won this inaugural competition by hitting top spot on the last day of the Season!	Player scores were typed into a Lotus-123 spreadsheet. Teams were then sorted by Lotus macros. Results were issued by the three of us crowding around a Laptop screen to see where we were in a 'Quality' meeting on a Wednesday morning!
1995	The Comms Team In June 1994 the CMB Manufacturing Team disbanded and Tim joined new colleagues in the Communications Team at CMB. After the previous part Season Tim embarked on the first full season of Tims Fantasy Football. He recruited his new work colleagues and the league expanded to 13 teams for the 1994/1995 season. The FA Cup was introduced for that season and the Subbuteo Plastic Trophies were issued for the first time. By adding a few extra colleagues, and family members of current managers, we grew to 18 teams between 1995 and 1997. The Comms Team moved to AT&T during this period, opening up more potential managers. In these early years the Telegraph included a rule whereby you could only have two players from any Premier League team. As the Arsenal defence was invincible at that team every team seemed to include at least two players out of Seamon, Dixon, Winterburn, Bould and Adams!	Results were issued in text format via email. Entries were submitted using dropdown lists on a Lotus spreadsheet.
1996	Craig Foulkes became the first manager to win the league and cup double. As this was the only year he entered he is the only manager with a 100% record. One of our early dominant managers, Katy Fox, who won the league three times in six years joined for the first time in 1996. The big player to have in your team was Alan Shearer, possible alternatives were Les Ferdinand or Robbie Fowler.
1997	AT&T Istel and Softlab In June 1997 AT&T lost the Comms contract with CMB and Tim moved to AT&T Istel to work for the MG Rover Group IT team, these guys then moved to Softlab after BMW bought Rover Group. More new colleagues were recruited into TimsFF and the league expanded to 20-30 teams.	Player scores were typed into an Excel spreadsheet. Teams were then sorted by Lotus macros in Excel compatability mode. Results were issued as html attachments by email (not everyone could open Excel spreadsheets!). Entries were submitted using dropdown lists on an Excel spreadsheet.
1998	Andy Darby became the first non Metal Box employee to win the league.
1999	Mike West joined in 1999 (Tim had never met him - he was a colleague of a colleague I think!). Mike won the league at his first attempt and went on to become our most succesful manager to date (5 Championships and 6 FA Cups). Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink, Dwight Yorke and Michael Owen were the men to have in your team, but with so many high scorers to choose from there wasn't a real 'must have' player!	The first very basic Tims Fantasy Football website was set up using Tims Feeserve account.
2001	and on to CSC! In April 2001, following BMW giving up on Rover Group and selling it as a split entity, Tim moved to CSC to work. More new meat was recruited into TimsFF and the league grew up to 32 teams.	Player scores were still typed into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which had been completely re-written to run Microsoft VBA Macros. Results were issued as Excel spreadsheet file attachments in email although the website was still being updated. Entries were still submitted using dropdown lists on an Excel spreadsheet.
2002	At the suggestion of Chris Holmes the first Tims Fantasy International tournament was introduced for the 2002 World Cup.
2005	Mike West becomes the second manager to win the League and Cup Double.
2006	The Photo Gallery is introduced to the Website so we can see some of the Managers we are competing against (many of us have never met). Mike West becomes the only manager to have won three Championships in a row. Mike's 2006 victory was courtesy of a hatfull of points in the FA Cup Final penalty shootout between Liverpool and West Ham. This subsequently led to: 1. Tim introducing the rule whereby if you want to makes changes for the Cup Final you have to do it before the last Premier League match. 2. The Telegraph removing Penalty Shootout points from the scoring system. (They obviously watch our Results) The players to have are now Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard and Ruud Van Nistelrooy.	The Website has now moved to a free Hosting service called freeuk.com. We've also now got a new dedicated free domain name of www.timsff.co.cc Results were issued as an Excel spreadsheet as well as online . Entry is still by completing dropdown lists on an Excel spreadsheet. Player scores are now copy and pasted from the Telegraph Website into Tims Spreadsheet, so Tim doesn't need to spend the first 30 minutes of the working day typing the scores in every Wednesday!
2007	The number of Transfers allowed is upped from 12 to 15 for the 2007/2008 Season. Cristiano Ronaldo is now the new 'must have' player.
2009	Tim becomes the third manager to win the League and Cup Double. At the instigation of Pete Black the 'Most Improved Team' trophy is introduced, and alongside it the 'Best New Team' Trophy for managers with no previous season to improve from!	The Entry system finally becomes a dropdown form on the Webpage instead of an Excel spreadsheet.
2010	The number of Transfers allowed is upped from 15 to 18 for the 2010/2011 Season. Pete Black becomes the first Manager to hold the European Championship and the World Cup at the same time (Having a team full of Spanish players helps!).
2011	The League is shared by John Dickinson and Mike West, leading to the introduction of Most Best Weeks and Best Average League position to separate level teams in future competitions.	The Website now has a new background, but is still a text based menu
2012	Dave Webber becomes the first manager to win the League and the Best New Team Trophy in the same season. (A first season win had previously been achieved by Paul Murton (1995), Craig Foulkes (1996) and Mike West (1999) but the Best New Team Trophy did not exist!)	Having exhausted free domain names and hosting services (which keep disappearing off the face of the Internet), Tim finally bites the bullet, buys a Domain name, and signs up to a proper Hosting Service. www.timsff.co.uk is born! A little executable called 'statsgrabber' is written (not by Tim but by a colleague) that automatically rips the player scores from the Telegraph Website and creates an Excel .csv file that can be pasted into Tims Spreadsheet. Production of the weekly results therefore gets faster!
2013	Having taken early retirement from CSC Tim takes a part time post with the British Red Cross and picks up a few more Managers from his new colleagues. Dave Webber becomes the second Manager to retain the League Trophy The players to rely on are now Van Persie and Suarez, but midfielders Mata and Bale are also popular.	A revamp to the Website to celebrate the new Domain Name, Menus down the left of the page are joined by active selection buttons across the page. All the Results pages (Results, Cup Scores, Player Stats) are created in html using Excel formulas that can be copied and pasted into files loaded to the Website.
2014	Team Shirts and Shorts are introduced for the first time to add a bit of colour to the competition. The Transfer Request page is added to the Webpage to make changes to your team easier.
2015	Sam Elliott becomes the second manager to win the League and the Best New Team Trophy in the same season. You now need to have Sergio Aguero in your team, preferably backed up by Eden Hazard The first (and so far only) Tims Fantasy Football end of year Bar-b-que takes place and Sam Elliott is presented with his League Championship Trophy. Now that Tim and Teresa no longer live in the Midlands this event is not likely to be repeated.... unless you have a good sized garden and would like to host it!
2016	Nathan Dickinson becomes the youngest ever Winner of the League Title aged just 9. Harry Kane is now your essential striker.
2017	Cup specialist Dave Budd adds the League to his FA Cup Triumph to become the fourth Double Winner. He also becomes the only manager to retain the Cup for a second season. Following a short poll of Managers the league is split into two divisions for the 2017/18 season. This gives us Promotion and Relegation and helps to maintain interest through the season for the majority of managers who are not in contention for the League Title. The number of Transfers allowed is upped from 18 to 22 for the 2017/2018 Season. Harry Kane is still up there, but highest scorer is now Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal.
2018	Dave Bradbury is the first Division 2 Champion. Andy Sosnowski becomes the second Manager to hold the European Championship and the World Cup at the same time. The man you must have in your team (preferably alongside the reliable Harry Kane) is now Mo Salah.	A monthly history for each player in your team is introduced so that you can see who is not performing.
2019	Kieren Thurston becomes the first Manager to win Division 2 and the Best New Team trophy in the same season. Flags are lowered to half mast as Tim is relegated from Division 1 in his own competition! Whose daft idea was it to introduce Relegation? The league has 41 teams for the first time in the 2018/19 season - our highest number of entries yet.	The Latest (so far!) revamp of the Website gives dropdown menus across the top of the page. All the Results pages (Results, Cup Scores, Player Stats) are created in html using Excel formulas and are now exported from Excel directly to .php pages that can be loaded to the Website. All static html pages are also converted to php pages to allow a common menu page to be loaded to all Website pages. A new conversion routine is added to process all files before they are added to the website to cope with the increasing number of foreign alphabet characters in players names.
2020	Socks are added to the Kit selection to complete the look. Roger Leese becomes the first (and only) member of the British Red Cross joiners to win the league. Ralph Cotterill becomes the second Manager to win Division 2 and the Best New Team trophy in the same season.
2022	Andy Sosnowski becomes the third manager to retain the League Winner Trophy.
2023	The 2022/23 season ends with the one player you must have in your team being Erling Haaland. Tims Fantasy Football begins its 30th season. To Celebrate this occasion we have splashed out on New Trophies to replace the old Subbuteo ones (OK, maybe not New, they came from an Antique/Junk shop and the bases from ebay). They are more robust and, strangely, cheaper than replacing the plastic ones (which we've had to do a few times over the years!). I know many Managers don't bother to put a Trophy on their shelf, but if you want me to send it please let me know.