dafuge's FM11 challenge

[Annihilator666]

I just had my best win of the challenge so far, 3-0 away to Leeds in the league cup. It was also my first match against a team on the rivals list.

[Gypsum]

Got through the FA cup 4th round, beating Fleetwood 3-0. I've had an easy cup run so far aside from Peterborough, hopefully I get a big club or another weak team in the 5th round!

EDIT: Oh come on! Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs all in the pot and I draw... League 1 Swansea! I suppose it's our best chance of winning at least...

[foost]

First game in the BSP against Kettering end in a 0-0. Best part is I didnt concede a goal I guess

[Yidd0!]

Terk - I shall look forward to seeing you

Quavis - Yes, no more play offs - still alot of games to win, to get auto promomotion - but it will come, i will rather spend 1 or 2 seasons in L2 and my youngsters can become better, than go straight to L1 and get relegated Time will tell - just hoping to increase finances..

CONGRATZ YiddO!!!

Where are all Dafuge's updates? :O would have expected him to be in season 2022 by now..

Haha! True.

Was running off a dongle, now I'm not. I'll do a double season update in an hour or so, with goals. A 45 yarder to add

[spankie]

Wealdstone - Season 1 BSS 2011/2012

Just like most people in this challenge I was aiming for a top half finish, but secretly hoping for promotion. After a pre-season with only 1 win against the reserves (thanks to an OG at a corner) and a draw against a BSP side I thought that we would be in for a tough time and the first game of the season proved that with a 0-0 draw, with us lucky getting the nil.

Then things started to come together and during the season we went on fairly long stretches of undefeated and winning streaks, edning up winning the league by a comfotable margin.

We a;sp had a good cup run beating Barnsley in the 3rd round to get a televised game at Ewood Park where Blackburn proved how big a gap there is in the divisions. We got to the 3rd round of the FA Trophy, but I had to put a weakened team out because of injuries and tiredness amongst the players. At one time I had 8 players injured including 4 strikers, I think the lack of a proper fitness coach was the cause of that problem.

At least the cup run has put some money in the coffers so I might be able to splash out a little for the BSP.

Just like everyone else I made a shedload of transfers some of which had to happen because of the lach of fit players. The squad did well for the most part and unsurprisingly there are some familiar names amongst those.

I wonder if anyone will point out the strange thing about my squad.

At one point Tommy Amos was the king of Grosvenor Vale but the opposing managers started to single him out in press conferrences and he struggled to find form before his injury.

One of the people to gain from Tommy's misfortune was Raphael Duyile. He was an emergency signing who surprisingly stepped up, all for £5 per week.

Paul martin was the stand out defender. All of his goals and assists came from corners, so a useful player in both boxes.

Chris Anderson was a late comer to the squad and ended up forcing himself into the box-to-box midfielder role. He and Nathan Rooney seem to work well together with Alexis Nikolas backing them up.

Next season I need to get rid of some dead wood. I've already started and have released those who are out of contract and won't featyre in my plans and put those who still have a year left on the transfer list.

I also got veteren striker Scott Fitzgereald to sign as player/coach. he wanted to be a scout, but his JP and JPA atributes are rubbish. I also need to replaced some of the other staff, i have got in a couple decent scouts in and they're busy getting reports for the newly released players.

[foost]

Pff thought I would have an awesome team in the BSP. Just lost my 2nd game vs Darlington 3-2 :/

[Quavis]

Bartman: I was sort of surprised to see you struggle in league 2 after your great start. Did you change anything from the last 2 seasons where you saw back to back promotions? Your squad still looks really strong and it looks like you scored quite a few goals. Thanks for the update. I'm sure you'll bounce right back to success next season!

Spankie: Congrats on the incredible season. I'm amazed at how well Raphael Duyile did for you just looking at his stats. TBH I'm more than a bit jealous of your season. You've obviously got a great tactic, and are getting much more out of your squad than I possibly could.

[Gypsum]

What the hell!? My game crashed!

[Ridleys]

Happened to me as well Gypsum

Luckily i autosave every week \o/

[spankie]

I think one of the reasosn for my success is the tactics.

When I started I saw that I had no wingers at all and that reminded me of a tactic I used to use in CM93/94 with great success, a 41212 with only central midfielders instead of wingers. It does take an awful lot from the fullbacks, so they're nearly always rotated every match. But it seems to work and work well as the idfielders and anchor man to help out on the flanks to stop the fullback from being overloaded.

I don't know if the tactic will work all the way up to the EPL becuase by then the team will come up against quality wingers and fullbacks and that may be too much for my team to handle.

I've just made the fist signing a DC with potential Championship ability, although there's a couple of minor flaws that I hope his new traingin schedule will iron out, his marking is lower the I would have liked.

[Gypsum]

Happened to me as well Gypsum

Luckily i autosave every week \o/

Never thought to check, but it was only set to autosave every month. Set it to save weekly now. Got to go back and replay my FA cup match now. Ugh.

[PVentress]

Well i said draws were killing me,

After 40 games in League 2 i am sitting in 9th place 3 pts off the play offs,

I have only lost 8 games all season, 1 less than Notts County who are top and have lost 9 but i have so far drawn 16

Think i may pay the price for that

[Gypsum]

WHAT THE... So I had to replay my FA cup match, and won 2-1 (just). Now I progress to the 5th round draw, and I get... Swansea again! It's destiny!

[Quavis]

Happened to me as well Gypsum

Luckily i autosave every week \o/

o.O I didn't realize that the auto save feature could be set to every week. I've always just manually saved after every match (I use save 1, save2, save 3 to rotate), as I'm a bit paranoid of crashing. i will have to change this and then not have to worry about it anymore! thanks for the tip!

[foost]

Oh yeah looking up again! 3rd game in BSP we won! And how, destroying Barrow with 1-5!

[Quavis]

Well i said draws were killing me,

After 40 games in League 2 i am sitting in 9th place 3 pts off the play offs,

I have only lost 8 games all season, 1 less than Notts County who are top and have lost 9 but i have so far drawn 16

Think i may pay the price for that

3 points is still doable! I like draws, they mean I got at least 1 point, and usually mean I can avoid relegation. They also keep you in the playoff race even when your team is down and you can't buy a win.

[Jaffa]

Aye, regardless of the challenge Daf, post an update

[Yidd0!]

FC United of Manchester Season(s) Review 2012/13 & 2013/14

the journey...

Apologies for the delays ladies and gentlemen, but my internet is somewhat limited at home, so taking tonnes of screenshots, uploading them and putting them on here is actually quite a long task.

So we shall start with where it began: 2012/13 BSP

The season started off well, slowly building results until Christmas, where we were a respectable 4th. Christmas came and went, results went down, down, down, down and finally stopped completely; by gaining only 5 points in the last 3 months. Overall, we finished 15th. Shocking season, only improved by this one and only goal,

Transfers

League Table

Uneventful, all done with. Now to the exciting bit...

2013/2014 Season - BSP

Wow. We brought in some seriously good players to mount a proper challenge to the league (shown at the bottom.) I decided to change our tactics slightly, originally setting us up to play short passes between the midfield and attack was not getting us anywhere in a league with better players and managers - giving us a slightly more direct and aggressive approach.

So, the league. Well, we started off well winning our first 5 games. Big problems came after that, with Mitrovic and Saric both getting injured in the same game. Saric out for a month, Mitrovic for a staggering 6 months. Step back in, Montano - grabbing a fair few goals in the season and a great stand-in for Mitrovic.

We kept at it, making minor alterations to the tactics, giving me what I can only class as the ultimate set of tactics for the season (having one Direct and a Short passing tactic, along with a runner and poacher tactic set made things a hell of a lot easier.)

Our run of results didn't really end. I was sort of expecting a crash and loose 6/7/8 games on the trot. Instead we lost the odd game and we bounced back, winning enough to take the league and finish 1st! The FA Trophy went the same way too, winning that 4-2 against Sailsbury.

League Table

FA Trophy

Transfers

Squad

Star Players

Mat Mitchell-King & Stats

Nikola Saric

Finances

Finally, here is my current Manager profile. Not looking too shabby so far!!

Season predictions in League 2

Stability. It'll be a big step for the team but I think we are up for the challenge. It's a little tougher to bring in players for some reason; not that many available that can really add some power to our team. I aim to finish in the top 10, maybe a little higher. The target for next season is to push on and gain promotion, take our time and eventually get up to the top!! COME ON YOU RED REBELS!

[Jaffa]

Well done Yidd0. I'm currently top in the BSP myself (second crack at it) however I just lost away to bloody Stevenage..pff - hope it isn't a sign of things to come !

[PVentress]

3 points is still doable! I like draws, they mean I got at least 1 point, and usually mean I can avoid relegation. They also keep you in the playoff race even when your team is down and you can't buy a win.

Quavis, you couldnt be more right

Just played 41st game and won, everyone above me either drew or lost, so now i am 1 pt off the play offs but also now only 4 pts of automatic

What a difference a week can make in football

[Ridleys]

Lost on penalties in the playoff final

Management does not get any worse.

[Jaffa]

Ah ***** Ridleys, commiserations mate. I've had that agony in last years challenge. Lost about 4 cup finals aswell during that challenge (never did win anything despite reaching those finals and my best place finish in the prem 2nd). It's gutting.

[roseboy64]

Congrats! Won't take long for you to lose that grin though - I had the same double in season 1, and season 2 is a total washout!!

I have a tried and proven method of being a Redknapp in the lower leagues. Aim for every season is promotion. If that means offloading players at will I do it. Already made some good buys. Got in a few League Two quality players and potential League One quality players. Seems FC Utd is a good choice as I have a transfer budget of 40k though it probably helps that I somehow came out profitable last season. Went over wages by quite a bit though and bought way too many players.

[wriches]

He's good at that level - takes a while to get into the swing of it (or he did in my game) but a good player to have!

He was awful for me!

[dafuge]

Dafuge is taking some time away from this challenge at the start to try something new this year. I think hes trying the unemployed, go wherever your career takes you path this year. So far we haven't exerted enough peer pressure and/or great updates to get him back and re-addicted. So yeah, there is some more added incentives to make your updates nice long, high quality updates Bring back dafuge! (This may also be a shameless attempt at getting more people to post updates for me to read, but please ignore that part!)

Dafuge, if your out there and watching, pop us a link to your career story (if you are doing one). I'd love to give it a read

Here it is

Quite strange reading this thread while playing my game, I'm sharing loads of the same experiences but know I can't really post about them in here.

[jordanswinburn]

WHAT THE... So I had to replay my FA cup match, and won 2-1 (just).

Unlucky about the save loss, same thing happened to me. Least you won the replay.

[KLH84]

I go out for one evening and there are 1000 updates to read. Dafuge has even popped up!

I will update tomorrow but, as this is on my phone, it would take an age. I must say though that pre-season before my first league 2 game I am struggling to find the gems others have found. Piquionne did say he would join...for 64k a week - but that's about it. Other people have signed Harewood whereas I have signed a Madagascan international.

Coming in a few days - Hastings relegated to the BSP

[vikeologist]

It's a bit scary reading about people finishing 2nd and then losing in the playoffs. Barrow and Hednesford (my team) have been steadily pulling away from the rest of the pack, but there's only one automatic promotion place up for grabs.

So we came to the tie away to Barrow. Just after midway in the season. We're 4 points ahead with a game in hand, but it's the start of January, the players are tired, and if Barrow win this they're right back in the hunt.

Barrow 0 Hednesford 6

That sorts that out then.

Of course, there's still 18 games to go, but now we have a bit of daylight, and a 25 goal difference advantage over Barrow.

[Quavis]

Yiddo!: Much better mate, that is a proper update! Sorry about the crappy internet at home, that would likely drive me mad. Looks like you have put together a great squad. I noticed you have a media rating of 1%. You letting the assistant do all the team talks? If hes doing them all and not completely killing moral and making everyone unhappy it looks like they must have improved that module some. GL in league 2

Ridleys: Sorry to hear about your loss Those playoff games are such a coin-toss as it is, penalties just make it even worse. Looking forward to reading your full season review.

Dafuge: Sweet! Looking forward to getting caught up on your career as soon as I get home from work! Great to see your still reading this thread, we will make sure to keep the peer-pressure on you . Maybe you will start a challenge game after the January patch.

[wriches]

Congrats:

KHL84 - you got owned by Borini though

WillyWonka - very impressive first 4 seasons

spankie - I also had Amos, and no-one targeted him that I remember. Seems like he did better for you than me though.

Yidd0! - you're going down on Saturday

Dons - good stuff

Unlucky:

jack.browne - very decent start though

Terk - ouch, semis again What did you promise the board? And what are you gonna promise this time?

Bartman - good season though, if you'd have been promoted 3 times in a row, we'd have been suspicious

[KLH84]

@wriches Don't say that name. It has been expunged from the history books

[wriches]

Is anyone else really struggling with morale? Not personally, but your players

After winning the BSS in my first season, my fans and players seem to have totally unrealistic expectations. If we lose to a decent side, our morale goes through the floor and the board aren't happy. It doesn't seem to be from my media comments, as I rarely see negative player reactions to those. In fact, I have a 100% media handling rating on my profile.

In particular, my captain Nathan Rooney is being a whiny little ****. Even when we win, he is at Very Poor morale :confused: He starts every game with Very Poor morale and "Playing without any confidence". I've praised him, given him a new shiny contract and it goes up to Okay for a day or two, then plummets down to Very Poor again.

He's my captain and I think this is probably what is affecting the rest of my team. Maybe Rooney is pulling a Rooney?

[wriches]

@wriches Don't say that name. It has been expunged from the history books

Heh. He was far too handsome for a footballer anyway. Bloody Italians.

Ignasi Miquel is starting to annoy me, with his chiselled features and perfect hair. Objectively, of course.

[Terk]

Terk - ouch, semis again What did you promise the board? And what are you gonna promise this time?

Last season I promised promotion (they asked for safe mid-table) and was getting close to a vote of confidence in the early weeks of the season. They seemed satisfied after the 16 game unbeaten run, even despite the end-of-season capitulation. This season they've asked for a top half finish and I'm not going to promise any more than that. I figure that our very worst case scenario this season is top half, so I should still be in a job even if we don't go up this season.

Having picked up a few more technically gifted midfielders this season I've decided to switch from the 4-4-2/4-2-4 that I usually use at this level to a 4-2-3-1. We kept possession well last season so I'm hoping that the players take well to the new set up this time.

[spankie]

Say hello to my BSP Striker

I've also strengthened my DM and DC and got in a versatile DRL and with a couple of newgens with potential in all for £1.5k less then my wage budget and without spending my £75k transfer budget. A couple of those newgens are pretty close to my first team.

[pickemgenius]

HENDON DONS MIDSEASON REPORT: 2015/16

npower championship

notes:

lol Saric is still our big threat apparently. sweet.

Games in which I describe:

Game #1: @Plymouth

Michael O'Connor scores off a rebound to make it 1-0 in the 37th.

penalty shot after a foul on plymouths Ryan Dickson. The GK guesses right on Lairds attempt.

1-0 half.

Hasmet Taskin on for Anduele Pryor in the 58th.

Greg Nouble on for Greg Halfor in the 64th.

Plymouth down to 10 men after a red in the 66th

Chris Garner on for Alan McCormack in the 77th. And is immediately shown a yellow

1-0 win. Good start.

Won LC round 1- 4-1

LC RD 2 DRAW. Home against Burnley.

Game #13 @Hull(2nd). I am 5-3-3

Michael O'Connor scorches one from distance to put us up 1-0 in the 7th minute.

1-0 half.

Jay Emanuel-Thomas scores for Hull in the 60th. 1-1

Franck Nouble on for Hasmet Taskin in the 63rd.

James Gray on for Abe Donzo in the 81st.

1-1 draw

Game #21- Sheff UTD(1st)- I am in 7th @ 9-6-5

Abe Donzo scores from just outside the box in the 25th minute to make it 1-0

1-0 at half.

DAnny Rose scores from a missed interception from a cross. 1-1

James Gray on for a sort of tired Abe Donzo in the 59th.

Sjoerd Winkens scores his first Hendon goal in the 66th off of a very well setup corner play. 2-1

Greg Halford on for Sjoerd Winkens(slight knock) in the 75th.

I soon set my guys to waste time, when James Gray scores from distance in the 81st. 3-1

Alan McCormack on for Michael O'Connor in the 86th.

Game over 3-1.

First Half Record= 10-7-6(9th)

[naylinski]

I have been an avid reader of these pages for a good few years, and very envious of many of the achievements I have seen. So finally I have decided to give this a go! So, bear with me if I get anything wrong, but here is my first attempt at any challenge!

Kendal Town is my club of choice, for no particular reason than... why not?!

My Profile

[Jaffa]

Good luck Naylinski!

On a personal note I just thrashed Fleetwood Town 8-2 at home. 5 games to go and I'm in first place 10 points clear. *keeps fingers crossed*

[wriches]

pickemgenius - Championship in 2015/2016?? What the hell?!

I have been an avid reader of these pages for a good few years, and very envious of many of the achievements I have seen. So finally I have decided to give this a go! So, bear with me if I get anything wrong, but here is my first attempt at any challenge!

Kendal Town is my club of choice, for no particular reason than... why not?!

My Profile

Mmmmmmmm, Kendal mint cake :D

Welcome and good luck dude.

[Gypsum]

Just beat Swansea in the FA cup 5th round 2-1, thanks to a goal in added time from Nikola Saric. Who has only just returned from 4 months out with a torn calf muscle, fairytale stuff... almost! The next draw should be very interesting, only one non-Premiership team left aside from ourselves.

I've got Liverpool in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, at home. Should still be fun though!

[Quavis]

Question of the Day:

Dafuge's Challenge has fairly few set rules. It is pretty much up to each individual to decide how hard/easy they want the challenge to be. Many things affect this, club reputation, loans, parent clubs, ect. What if any personal limitations/guidelines do you put on yourself to make the challenge more difficult/easy?

I'll start with some of the ones I am using. Most of these I've picked up over the past few challenges from others stories. I've attempted to make this challenge more difficult each year, even though I've never successfully completed it.

1) <1000 rep club - This one wasn't an issue for me this year as Chippenham (who I've used the last 3 years) is still sub 1000. It may cause a dilemma in the future if they become a >1000 club.

2) No Loans period - I've used loans in the past and tbh I think they just make it too easy. In past years, I've limited loans to only clubs within 2 divisions (which I felt was realistic). This year I've decided to take it a step further and not take anyone on loan at all. Loaning players to other club is fine. I'm actually surprised and quite pleased that probably the majority of you this year have also gone this route. I'm not seeing any teams of max loans ripping up the leagues.

If by some chance I'm unable to reject a parent club loan, the player will sit in the reserves until the loan finishes. I considered going with no parent club at all this year, but Chippenham town start with Swindon as a parent club. So far they haven't tried to send me anyone, and the financial aid they send me each year is only 6k, so it hasn't been a big deal.

3) No Signings over age 25. This rule probably has very little affect on my games anymore. I originally implemented it several years back when I was having a horrid time bringing through young prospects, both in the lower leagues and on my Manchester United games. I decided that the easiest way to learn was to force myself to do it. Its something that I've just continued to use because I enjoy bringing in prospects and watching their careers develop. Implementation of this one was really easy, I have a permanent filter set on my search screen that eliminates anyone over 25. I've probably limited it down even more than that now. I rarely sign anyone over 22 (this also speeds up scouting as I see loads less players). My average squad age is usually less than 20 until later in the challenge.

This does not mean that I never have anyone over 25 on my teams, just that I won't bring anyone in over that age (Player/coaches are not counted in this, but they also don't play). This does pose a challenge early on as it means I have no tutors to help the younger guys. It also means that my squads the first few years are VERY inexperienced, which probably hurts us in those big games.

4) Friendlies: In an attempt to both make the challenge harder, and to feel more involved in Chippenham Town, I've changed the way I use friendlies. When I first started they were a profit machine. I really didn't care who we played and regularly scheduled Prem teams, and big foreign clubs (and their reserves) to make loads of money. Last year I struggled feeling "at home" with Chippenham Town. Being in the US, I had no idea where Chippenham Town even was in England, much less anything about them. I did some research and used Google Earth to explore the region. I tried to make my friendlies more realistic, and played the local club sides. A Big money game is still sometimes necessary to try and balance the books, but instead of playing Manchester United or Real Madrid, I now play Swindon or Bristol City. The closer to home I keep the friendlies, the more realistic it feels, and that helps to keep my game interesting.

I probably have many more that I use subconsciously, but I can't think of any atm. Another one that I've seen other people use include not signing ANY foreign players. I've never used this as in years past its been virtually impossible to sign any decent English players at all (Last year our BSN/BSS teams were almost all Ex-Celtic/Rangers players). This year it seems much easier to sign English players and I may try and implement this one from the start either next year or if I restart after the January patch.

NOTE: THESE ARE NOT DAFUGE'S CHALLENGE RULES! YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO READ OR FOLLOW ANY OF THESE. I have only posted this get some conversation going and share ideas.

[Jaffa]

You live in the US or you are American Quavis? Sorry had to ask

EDIT: I should actually reply to your post!

I have ignored any reputation score to be honest, I wanted my home town club Northwich, and I didn't really care what rep that have. Loans I have had to use this season (3rd season) as I literally spent my transfer budget (and 2K over it) and still left myself without a backup DR and DL. I had to loan these in. The age limits a non-starter for me, your good enough I ignore the age! Friendlies I've never tampered with, always set it to assman to arrange and never think about it again (he takes control for them too).

[Gypsum]

I don't really do much beyond the basic rules, although I like to keep things reasonably realistic so I avoid any exploits/bug in the game such as big money friendlies etc. An added challenge I considered in FM09 with Merthyr Tydfil (once I became an established big club) was to make a team entirely of Welsh players. Unfortunately I never got around to it, but I always liked the idea. I think the initial challenge is tough enough, but having something extra once you've achieved your main goals seems like a good idea to retain interest. Maybe if/when I complete the Challenge with Chippenham i'll phase out any bought players and just use my own youth players until my team consists purely of them. But doing things like that from the start of the challenge would be hardcore!

[Jaffa]

Champions!! and promotion to L2 achieved with 2 games to spare with a 2-0 home victory over AFC Wimbledon.

*phew*

[Jaffa]

Gonna play all my ressies now

[wriches]

Great question, Quavis.

Just like Jaffa, I don't follow (1), since Tonbridge is my home town.

I don't follow (2) as a rule, but I try to be realistic. I haven't made any loans yet this year, but I'm happy to have a couple of realistic ones if I find them.

I don't follow (3) or (4), but I think I'll take up (4) from now actually.

My biggest and perhaps most unusual rule is that I don't research players outside of my game. I read everyone's season reviews, but I never click on player profiles as I want to discover them myself. I scan over names of players when reading season reviews, just to see if they've bought the same players I have, and if it's not my player I make a conscious effort not to remember the name or read anything about him. Does anyone else do this?

My general aim though is to unrealistically rise to the top via completely realistic individual events.

[wriches]

Great stuff Jaffa. Two promotions in two now?

[Jaffa]

Wriches, my rationale on spoilers is as follows: In real life people talk to each other about players, even at Sunday league level "lets try sign him from them, he's good" etc etc. I'm sure managers, scouts, coaches do this to, so I just think of player naming like that.

EDIT: No wriches, I finished 7th last season in BSP. Missed out on playoffs by a good few points iirc

(just had a look - I was 7 points off the playoffs)

[Terk]

My biggest and perhaps most unusual rule is that I don't research players outside of my game. I read everyone's season reviews, but I never click on player profiles as I want to discover them myself. I scan over names of players when reading season reviews, just to see if they've bought the same players I have, and if it's not my player I make a conscious effort not to remember the name or read anything about him. Does anyone else do this?

On this point, I do read other people's updates, click on profiles, etc as I'm interested to see how other people are building their careers. However, I do not use that information within my own game. For example, if someone has a great experience with Player A, I won't go into my game and search him or sign him based on that. If I come across him within my own game (play against him, read a news report about him, etc) I may choose to have my scouts look over him, but I would treat him like any other player I was scouting.

In FM I've always been someone who plays along the principle of trusting the word of my scouts. I generally start in about March planning for the following season, sending scouts out en masse to look at players and have a couple of plans of attack based on what level I may be playing at or what budget I think I might get from the board and so on. I don't like using the player search screen, although I do on the odd occasion submit to temptation, but even if I do identify someone in that method, I still won't sign him without a positive scouting report. I guess that's my biggest self-imposed rule.

Like many others in this thread, although what we're trying to do is essentially unrealistic, I try to play the game in as realistic a manner as possible. So I'm not going to go after unrealistic loans that wouldn't happen in real life, but if the opportunity comes along to take one that I judge within the realms of reality, I'll happily take it. Given that this challenge is based in the English leagues and feeder clubs are banned in English football, I have imposed a no domestic parent/feeder club rule on myself for the duration of this challenge.

[Jaffa]

Review to come tomorrow - too late now I'm cream crackered!