It's my pleasure to introduce the inaugural Tyne-Wear Derby Prediction Game, hosted right here on Coming Home Newcastle, where a prize will be awarded to the reader that best predicts the on-field events for this week's match against Sunderland. Veterans of our Predictions League will know the format of the game, but you don't need to have participated in the past to be eligible to win our prize, which is a custom T-shirt from the CHN Official Store (2 quick notes on the shirts: Most of them have something on the back, which isn't readily apparent without clicking on them. Also, I'm happy to design you a new shirt if you win). Unfortunately for our many readers that live abroad, you must reside in the United States or Canada to be eligible to win, but don't let that stop you from putting your pride on the line to enter. For the rest of the Official Rules, click here.
For a practical presentation of the rules of the game, follow the jump.
Rules
- Before the game, predict the winner (or you can predict a draw), the final score, and goalscorers. The deadline will be 5 minutes before kick-off (1155 GMT on Sunday).
- Predicting the outcome correctly will give you 1 point.
- Predicting the exact score will give you 5 points. Failing to predict the exact score but getting the total number of goals correct will give you 1 point, as will predicting one half of the score. If you predict a total of 6 goals or more, you are ineligible to receive points for predicting the correct goalscorers (see below). However, if 6 goals or more are actually scored, the ineligibility will be lifted. This new rule is designed to prevent people from predicting an abnormally high score in order to better their chances of earning the bonus for predicting the scorers.
- For each goal scorer you pick correctly, you earn 2 points. You may not pick more scorers than you did goals in order to hedge your bets. (In other words, if you predict a 1-0 score, you can only choose one scorer.)
- The prize this week is a custom T-shirt from the CHN Store. See above for Official Rules.
- It would really help me out a lot if you would note on your prediction whether or not your eligible to win. I know where most of our regular commenters live based on conversations we've had, but let's just make sure.