Hope you all enjoyed the summer break but now it's time for the serious stuff to start again.

Eleven of the 12 teams that took part last season have registered to play this season - sadly Calluna Pussycats have had to call it a day with Graham unable to get sufficient numbers to ensure they could fulfill all their fixtures.  Graham will be joining The Men They Couldn't Hang to bolster Dave's squad.

With 11 teams rather than 12 there is no need for the 2 'sit out' weeks that were part of last year's programme of matches and thus the league season is 4 weeks shorter.  This coupled with the fact that we are starting 2 weeks earlier than we did last year means that we can be sure to complete the whole season, League and Cup competitions, by early May.

Other changes to the familiar routine to note:

• SPW have reinvented themselves as 'I Blame Smoke Fairies'

• The Charas have moved to the Turnpike as their home base meaning that the Turnpike will now host both the Charas and the Meat Raffle

In compiling the fixture list (now on the site) Roddy and I have borne the following in mind:

• In the second half of the season teams should not have the same setting team as they had when they played each other in the first half of the season

• Teams should have no more than 6 and no less than 4 home matches in each half of the season (last year some teams complained that they had scarcely seen their home venue until after Christmas)

• Teams sharing the same home venue should, as far as possible, not both be playing at home on the same evening.  This we have achieved for the Albert Club and Fletcher Moss teams but I did not brief Roddy on the fact that the Turnpike would have multiple home teams (the Meat Raffle and the Charabancs - with possible occasional use by the Historymen as a reserve home venue when the Red gets too football crazy).  I believe there are 3 Wednesdays when the Meat Raffle and Charabancs are both at home so they'll have to sort this one out between themselves.  The White Swan (with now only one home team) may well be a viable option in this eventuality.

With both United and City in the European Champions League this season there are likely to be a few Wednesdays when for some of us the call of football is strong.  However without knowing how each team will progress in Europe, nor, indeed, which quizzers will want to watch football we have ignored the 'football factor'.  Sorry but it just makes organising things too difficult.  Having said this there are plenty of precedents for delaying a particular fixture by a day or so providing the two team captains agree it and none of the players involved peek at the website.

Finally a reminder that on Monday September 19th (2 days before our first league matches on Wednesday 21st) there will be a friendly match between our own league and the Stockport League.  The match will be at The Albert Club and start at 8.30pm.  The format will be a mixture of Stockport style questions (first half) and WithQuiz style questions (second half).  There will be 6 players per side.  We can substitute players at half time so up to 12 can have a bash and get back into the swing of quizzing.  See you there.