One of the best bits of fun I had was back in the early days of the "Predictions Competition"
Not sure how it works nowadays as I no longer enter, but in them thar days, everyone simply posted their predictions before the deadline on this forum, and someone added up the points after the weekend. (Is that still how it works?)
In this particular year (maybe the 2nd or 3rd year of it running), I (Cap'n Grumpy) was leading by just a few points from BogBoy/SamuelT (or whatever name he was using at that time) with just a few weeks of the season to go. We were both well ahead of the chasing pack, so it was down to one of us, barring a total collapse.
Obviously all I had to do to win, was to match or better his scores in the last weeks of the season, and the best way to do that was to see what his predictions were, and then post exactly the same. Shirley I had earned that by virtue of my superior guessing skills up to that point?
It turned into a stand off to see who could wait until the last possible minute before posting their predictions so that one could see the other's predictions before posting.
That was until another poster offered to act as "
honest broker" and both of us were to send our predictions to him in advance of the deadline, then
he would post both sets of predictions simultaneously.
Needless to say Boggy/Sammy went for it, and I
reluctantly agreed.
History will record that I did indeed go on to win the predictions league that year ...... and once it was all over, I magnanimously admitted to Boggy that the "honest broker" was actually myself using another nom de plume. He had been sending me his predictions each of those last few weeks and all I had to do was copy them.
Oh how we both laffed when I told him ....
(after a string of expletives from him!)
Funnily enough, only one person (that I knew of) suspected anything was suspect
* from the start and sent me a PM to tell me I had been rumbled - and that was cables. He was also quite friendly with old Boggy/Sammy, ....... but he didn't "grass" (grouse?) on me.
* a couple of confidants were in on the joke