NORMAN GILLER’S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 123
Submitted by Norman Giller

Quiz League Tiebreaker time!

We can take refuge from the wreckage of yesterday’s disappointing defeat by giving all our concentration to our own title race for the Spurs Odyssey Quiz League championship. Today is Tiebreaker Time!

So put the neurosis of having to take goals to Newcastle to one side for a while and focus instead on playing the great Spurs selecting game.

All season, a bunch of you have been running head to head on the Tottenham knowledge trail, and as we come to the final bell it is anybody’s race for the title.

There are more than twenty contestants on the maximum 117 points, and a cluster on their heels who could yet come through to snatch the title. The winner receives a huge, personally autographed photograph of Spurs legend Jimmy Greaves, plus a signed, framed certificate announcing them as the Spurs Odyssey Quiz League champion 2015-16.

This is the man you are all out to beat, defending champion David Guthrie, of Wokingham in Berkshire, formerly of Wood Green and a Spurs disciple since the Glory-Glory days of the 1960s.

David is putting up a strong defence of his title and is among the leaders as we arrive at the section of the quiz in which I lose a lot of my Spurs Odyssey friends. All season you have been proving yourself infallible on facts, but now it is as much about opinion as knowledge.

To try to break the log jam at the top of the table, I am going to take us all back to our school playground days. Remember when it was team-picking time and two captains took turns in selecting their side from a bunch of clamouring mates?

I am going to give you (in alphabetical order) a list of 20 all-time great Spurs heroes. You have to pick just FIVE in 1-2-3-4-5 order for your team, plus one substitute.

So, eyes down, here are the 20 players you must choose from (imagine them jostling in front of you demanding to be picked):

Dele Alli
Gareth Bale
Danny Blanchflower
Eric Dier
Christian Eriksen
Paul Gascoigne
David Ginola
Jimmy Greaves
Glenn Hoddle
Pat Jennings
Cliff Jones
Harry Kane
Ledley King
Robbie Keane
Jurgen Klinsmann
Hugo Lloris
Dave Mackay
Luka Modric
Steve Perryman
Martin Peters

You get three points for every selection that agrees with mine, plus an extra five points for naming my substitute. So there are a maximum 20 points to be won. If you pick a player that is in my team but not in the same order as me, that earns one point. So please put your choices clearly in 1-2-3-4-5 order, plus your substitute.

You have until midnight on Friday (13/05/2016) to get your choices into me, and I will announce the winner in my next Spurs blog … hopefully one that is rejoicing in Tottenham clinching runners-up position in the Premier League ahead of that lot down the road.

A couple of ground rules: 1) You must include a goalkeeper, but not necessarily your first choice; 2) I am the sole adjudicator, and will not enter into correspondence with anybody who wants to dispute my selection (welcome to the Trump-era of justice!). I will build a wall to shut out anybody who disagrees with me.

E-mail your submissions here - SOQL40@normangillerbooks.com

Last week's answer of course was French-born Nabil Bentaleb who has won his international caps with Algeria.

I hope this helps take your mind off thinking about the trip to Tyneside.

COYS!

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