The Beautiful Pool

In case you weren’t aware, the World Cup final was held today in a place called “New York New Jersey”. Which AFAIK doesn’t actually exist. Did anybody watch the match? I did, and with a remarkable degree of equanimity. Two of my favourite countries were playing, so I was equally happy regardless which team prevailed. I didn’t expect it to be so unbalanced, but then I am an awful judge of football talent.

Do you know who is a good judge? Richard H, that’s who. He trounced the rest of us by racking up 158 Beautiful Pool points, out of a possible 200. Kudos Richard H.

Second place was a surprise: Ana G wasn’t even on the leaderboard in any of the previous updates, but she weaved some strange magic to move from 7th place after the semis, to edge out Sherman H for the second place prize.

Here are the final top-ranking scores.

Rank	Name	Points
1	Richard H	158
2	Ana G	149
3	Sherman H	144
4	Tony D	143
5	Sandra MK	142
6	Jim R	141
6	Jim T	141
6	Ozgur T	141
7	Jason P	140
7	Phil A	140
7	Yukari S	140

And here is the money shot:

Prize	Name	$ Winnings
1st Place	Richard H	$620
2nd Place	Ana G	$310
Group Stage leader	Jim R	$290
Merci d’avoir joué	Chris H	$20

I had considered taking all your entry fees and buying into the SPCX IPO for the duration of the tournament. The huge profits might have made Richard H rich. Thankfully I am not stupid, and all of your prize money is safe. It will be disbursed in due course; i.e. when I get around to it.

On average, the Newbs did the best, but only Jim R and Chris H go home with a prize. Richard H is the most Grizzled of Vets. Ana G is a Prodigal and I was happy to see her return; I hope she is now glad to have done so.

	Newbies	Grizzled Vets	Prodigals
Avg Score	132.2	127.9	129.6

What now?

Barring exceptional circumstances, this is the last you will hear from me for a long time. I expect to revive the Beautiful Pool for the Euro Cup in 2028. Until then, I dabble in occasional blog posts at brannan.org, and you are welcome to visit there as often as you wish. You can even subscribe if you want. I get a little thrill whenever my tiny subscriber base of friends and family gets a boost.

It’s been fun running this 2026 Beautiful Pool (except for the crazy weekend where Knock-Out picks were due). I hope you had half as much fun as I did.

That is all.

The Gory Details

Download the complete standings here:

And see your final rank here:

The more things change, the more they …. you know the rest.

Richard H and Tony D are still tied in the top spot. Chris H is still defending his position at the bottom. In between, there were some slight changes but things are mostly unchanged.

Unfortunately for most of the leaders, their luck has run out. Only a few of them, and I’ll let you work out which ones, have a chance at snagging a prize. That’s mostly because so many of us picked FRA to win everything but, as we now know, ESP was clearly the superior side.

Rank	Name	Points
1	Richard H	143
1	Tony D	143
2	Jim R	141
2	Jim T	141
2	Ozgur T	141
3	Phil A	140
3	Yukari S	140
4	John N	139
4	Rachel P	139
4	Russ P	139
5	Sherman H	137
5	Theo L	137
⇣	⇣	⇣
27	Chris H	97

As for me, I have buyer’s remorse, big time. I paid for a one month subscription to Nate Silver’s fancy-dancy PELE model, and relied it for almost all of my picks. I only deviated to take a flyer on COL. For this, I am currently ranked in 20th position, with no hope of earning any more points.

I will post the final rankings for everyone after the final celebrations are complete.

The Newbies continue to impress. I think I must have single-handedly dragged down the Grizzled Vets by a point or two, or more. Sorry guys.

	Newbies	Grizzled Vets	Prodigals
Avg Score	129.8	126.4	127.8

Enjoy the final Beautiful Pool weekend. It’s the last one ’till 2028.

Download the complete standings here:

FRA beat MAR, ESP beat POR BEL, ARG beat SUI and ENG beat NOR. This last match up evens up the historical record for competitions between the Vikings and the Lions at 3 apiece.

	Winner
Raid on Lindisfarne (793)	NOR
The Battle of York (866)	NOR
The Battle of Edington (878)	ENG
The Battle of Maldon (991)	NOR
The Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066)	ENG
FIFA Miami Gardens (2026)	ENG

Among Beautiful Pool competitors, the race got even tighter, as Tony D now shares his first place ranking with one of the winners of the 2024 Pool, Richard H.

Rank	Name	Points
1	Richard H	140
1	Tony D	140
2	Jim R	138
2	Jim T	138
2	Ozgur T	138
3	Phil A	137
3	Theo L	137
3	Yukari S	137
4	John N	136
4	Rachel P	136
4	Russ P	136
⇣	⇣	⇣
27	Chris H	97

Ozgur T moves up a notch to join the two Jims in second place, and Phil A dropped to 3rd with Theo L and Yukari S.

As we expected, Chris H is still at the bottom of the rankings.

If your hopes of winning a prize have faded, you can always root for your team. The Newbies are putting on quite a show.

	Newbies	Grizzled Vets	Prodigals
Avg Score	127.8	124.3	125.3

There could be some fireworks this coming week as ENG and ARG relitigate the Falklands War, while FRA and ESP get a chance for a redo of the Franco-Spanish War of 1648 to 1659,

Should be fun.

Download the complete standings here:

My dream of sitting in a cafe in Bogotá and watching COL win the World Cup evaporated yesterday in the worst possible way; penalty kicks. So it goes.

Nobody picked the winner in all eight games in the latest round. The best result was 6 of the eight, which is still an impressive performance. Well done Jeroen B, Jim T, Joep B, Moniqe P, Ozgur T, Sadhana V, Sandra MK, Tony D and Yukari S.

And speaking of Tony D, he is now at the top of the leaderboard, all by himself. Also impressive. But his picks include BRA winning a couple more games, which of course is impossible now that they have been eliminated by, checks notes, NOR! Some of the other leaders have more opportunity to pick up points so Tony D is in for a rough ride.

Rank	Name	Points
1	Tony D	131
2	Jim R	129
2	Jim T	129
3	Phil A	128
3	Richard H	128
4	John N	127
4	Rachel P	127
4	Russ P	127
5	Adam LD	126
5	Ozgur T	126
⇣	⇣	⇣
25	Chris H	94

Chris H has carved out a comfortable position at the bottom of the rankings. The only team in his remaining picks that has not been eliminated is ARG. So I think he has a firm grip on the Mercy prize.

Here is the complete listing of results:

We are getting near the end now, and even if you are not in the running for a prize, I hope you will stick around for the next update, which will come after the quarter finals.

TTFN