After a suitable pause, it’s time for the knockout phase! Thanks to The Harbinger of Nothing for the suggestion for the title of the round.
We have 32 qualifiers, so the first thing to sort out is a suitably complex way of doing the draw. As there turned out to be a William Hill sponsored race at Newton Abbot today, it seemed a shame not to use that.
Here are the rules for the draw…
…and here is the draw it produced.
| Everything’s AOR | v | Midnight Mass Murder |
| Eno Collaboration | v | We Built This Village On A Trad. Arr. Tune |
| The Trumpton Riots | v | Terminus |
| For What Is Chatteris… | v | Twenty Four Hour Garage People |
| Them’s The Vagaries | v | Oblong of Dreams |
| Irk The Purists | v | Restless Legs |
| National Shite Day | v | Outbreak of Vitas Gerulaitis |
| Dickie Davies Eyes | v | Tending The Wrong Grave For 23 Years |
| Rock And Roll Is Full Of Bad Wools | v | Bottleneck at Capel Curig |
| 99% Of Gargoyles Look Like Bob Todd | v | Joy Division Oven Gloves |
| When The Evening Sun Goes Down | v | She’s In Broadstairs |
| Look Dad No Tunes | v | Bob Wilson – Anchorman |
| Evening Of Swing (Has Been Cancelled) | v | Time Flies By (When You’re A Driver Of A Train) |
| Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus | v | All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit |
| Every Time a Bell Rings | v | Paintball’s Coming Home |
| Knobheads on Quiz Shows | v | The Light at the End of the Tunnel (is the Light of an Oncoming Train) |
VOTING IS NOW OPEN. Click here to vote in the second lot of eight matches above.
Chris The Siteowner
I think we may see one or two mighty fallers!
22 August 2023
Billy Webfoot
Them’s the Vagaries V Oblong of Dreams, Ouch!
24 August 2023
No chi(m)ps allowed
Tough draw for Bottleneck!
24 August 2023
BAD LOSER
There’s only Look Dad No Tunes v Bob Wilson where I’m not sure how I’m voting yet but will nervously awaiting the fate of some others which may not make it. Brutal draws for MMM, Eno, Vitas and 24HGP who I expect will all be unlucky losers.
25 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Voting on the first eight matches is now open. See above. Please remember this is just a bit of fun to find out what people think. Don’t try to “fix” it. It’s not a competition between your children. If you think it is, just give this site a swerve for the next few weeks and let the rest of us enjoy it. Cheers.
25 August 2023
brumbiscuit
Chris, I’m a tad confused. I’ve clicked on the relevant songs’ links, but that hasn’t created emails in my Yahoo app on my Android phone. Should it have?
25 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Yes, it should. There’ve been votes coming in steadily all day, so it should work. Another way would be to copy the link and send a blank email to that address, it’ll do the same thing.
25 August 2023
Two fat feet
Some real tricky ties there. I’ll be back later with my predictionszzzzzz
25 August 2023
The harbinger of nothing
That method of producing the draw is brilliantly bonkers! I can imagine Lammo having a laugh about that on his show – perhaps after the overall winner has been announced, on a Tea Time Theme Time special where the only rule is you can’t suggest an HMHB song. (Said winner would also be played too, of course.)
Perhaps the only way to surpass it in 2027 would be to hold your own race. Perhaps “run” by snails with Post-It notes on them… or something.
26 August 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
Loyalties tested but votes cast. Perhaps “Escolado” could feature in 2027 ?
27 August 2023
Third rate les
I find myself generally favouring the ones with an original tune rather than the jokey hymns or the spoken rants, although NSD vs Gerulaitis is a tough one.
I seem to have missed the intrugue of the pool games, through my own flakiness. Some big, big names fallen by the wayside there.
27 August 2023
Bad loser
Thanks to the vagaries of the Sky emails outbox on IOS, my votes had to be submitted from another email address. Playing fair so won’t be voting off the other account as well.
27 August 2023
Just another lackey
Self and teenage son have just voted and independently chose the same song six times out of the eight. Only matches 3 and 4 resulted in a difference of opinion which we’ve agreed to differ on as it could have gone either way. System working well CtSO!
27 August 2023
gipton teenager
I THINK I’ve voted in the TP32IABR Round (part 1), but I’m not sure. Is there a way of checking?
27 August 2023
THE BASTARD IN THE HAT
I assume that it works to send one email to 8 recipients? That’s what I’ve done, though I suspect I’m swimming against the tide in more than half of them. In my world, Bottleneck has got an easy draw, and Look Dad No Tunes v Bob Wilson Anchorman is a straightforward decision (for LDNT, *obviously*). I agree that NSD v Gerulaitis is a tough choice, but if I’m not in the mood for NSD then it goes on too long, so it’s OOVG for me. Looking forward to seeing the scores on the doors.
28 August 2023
RHOMBUS of nightmares
Of the 32 songs, interestingly 6 are opening tracks and 6 closing tracks. That’s quite a percentage.
Of the first half of the draw, on the battle of the openers – Purists v Restless – gave me any cause to think. The others were simple decisions, even if I’m sure I’ll end up on the wrong side of things.
Second half the draw is much trickier for me. Only have a couple with an easy decision.
28 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
@Gipton Teenager: the only way of checking is to ask me, I guess! (Yes, the votes did arrive!)
@TBITH: Yes, you could load up all your chosen songs’ email addresses into the to: field of a single email…
Heading towards 300 people having voted. At the moment, most ties have clear-cut results, which isn’t surprising as we seeded the ties in this round. But one is 56–44 (%) and could easily still have a late swing.
28 August 2023
schoon
This is fantastic, thanks, CtSO.
However I am surprised Le Federation International Songs d’HMHB (FISH, I could probably have done better) aren’t milking it more and running a cup for those that didn’t qualify for the LFC.
28 August 2023
gipton teenager
Thanks for that, Chris.
28 August 2023
Huddersfield’s Very Own Steve Malkmus
Will there be any dubious VAR calls favouring the so-called big teams? And will those same so-called big teams find that the boot is on the other foot in the latter stages? Not drawing any parallels with real world events of course…
29 August 2023
Dick Quax Running Shoes
Oh man, it never even occurred to me to just send one (1) email to eight (8) recipients. Call me Incapability Brown.
29 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
For most people* there isn’t any copy and pasting of addresses involved, just clicking on the link should generate a blank email, then you just need to click “Send”. Two clicks.
For those who do need to copy and paste the addresses, sure, pasting them all into one email can possibly save a bit of effort.
(*Looks like about 95%+ from what I can see.)
29 August 2023
parsfan
Deed done – all one email, hopefully that works.
Looking back I’ve gone for the older one five times and reckon I’ve backed the loser 4/7 times. The remaining one I suspect might the swingable one, the one Rhombus puzzled over but was the simplest decision of the lot for me.
29 August 2023
AudreY s. EuphemiSMS
Bugger! I missed the deadline!
30 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Only if you’re in Australia or New Zealand and are working to local time there. The deadline for the first set of voting
iswas 11pm tonight UK time.30 August 2023
D list paul ross
@ctso because I’m a bit of a tit I have voted in the second set of ties from a different address to my normal one (it’s a Junior football team I’m on the committee of and I didn’t notice Gmail had defaulted there). I assume that makes no difference as long as I don’t vote from my personal as well?
31 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
No problem at all! You can vote from anywhere.
31 August 2023
two fat feet
Finally got round to it, First Round predictions based on past performance
AOR 61%
Trad Arr 79%
Trumpton 54%
Chatteris 56%
Vagaries 55%
Purists 55%
NSD 76%
Tending 61%
Bad Wools 61%
JDOG 78%
Evening Sun 68%
Bob Wilson 69%
Evening of Swing 68%
DPAK 74%
Bell Rings 72%
LATEOTT 64%
Tricky with little or no past form for several songs, either through having never qualified previously or being too recent; none of those appearing for the first time have been predicted to win but hopefully if any of them do make it further, I’ll have a bit more to go on.
31 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Six out of the first eight, @TFF. Three out of six within 5%.
31 August 2023
two fat feet
He’s still got it
31 August 2023
Chris The Siteowner
Four voters got eight of their eight choices through.
Twelve voters managed to lose six of their eight choices.
31 August 2023
Jeff dreadnought
@ctso Is the deadline for voting in the second set of matches Tuesday 5 September or Wednesday 6 September? At the moment it says Tuesday 6 September.
(Aaargh! Tuesday 5. Thanks – CtSO)
2 September 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
Some tough choices there. Like choosing which of your kids should be sold off for medical experiments.
2 September 2023
No chi(m)ps allowed
@ML! For love nor money? You could sell ALL the kids off and take the money. Or, love your kids and abstain from the vote. Now THAT’S a tough choice.
2 September 2023
Huddersfield’s Very Own Steve Malkmus
Feels like TLATEOTT always seems to get a favourable draw. Surely I’m not the only one who wants to see a new name engraved on the trophy every four years?
3 September 2023
Chris The Siteowner
To be fair, the songs were ‘seeded’ this round (and this one only) to keep the top 16 songs (from the Baguette Dilemma Round) apart. So we’d expect to see fairly decisive results. It’ll all change in the 16 Camps Of Hope round.
4 September 2023
dr DEsperate
AKA the 16 Coaches Long(ing for success) round.
4 September 2023
MULDOON LIVES!
@NCA, the thought of abstaining from the vote. I understand the words but shudder at the concept they suggest. How much was it again?
5 September 2023
No chi(m)ps allowed
Like you @ML!, I relish the opportunity to exercise our democratic right to vote. Gives us a feeling of purpose, a meaning to our humble lives, the chance to be involved in the important decision making process. And no sign of Russian cyber interference to be be seen. Say, £32.50 per child
5 September 2023
dr DEsperate
As Steve Earle said (quoting George Carlin) “If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch”.
5 September 2023
No chi(m)ps allowed
Obviously my reference earlier to “be be seen” is is no reflection on our glorious BBC, Birkenhead Biscuit Corporation, rather a faux pas on my part concerning 2 be’s or not 2 be’s
5 September 2023
Sean
Off to see the lads in bristol tonight…”operators manual” will get a shout out.
15 September 2023