An independent statistician using data to understand our world and to predict the future
Mark Selby has become only the 4th player in Snooker history to win 10 Triple Crowns after prevailing over Judd Trump in the 2025 UK Championship. Only Ronnie O’Sullivan (23), Stephen Hendry (18) & Steve Davis (15) have won more Triple Crown tournaments. Mark’s GOAThood is already confirmed as I wrote about last year but is he as dominant as the other GOATs (Greatest Of All Time)?
[Read more…] about Trophy Winners #4 – The GOATs in World Snooker (Mens) – 1969 to 2025
South Africa have won back to back Rugby Championships for the first time ever. That marks the last trophy to be won in the 2025 calendar year for men’s rugby worldwide and coincides with the start of the 2025/26 season in Europe. This makes it a propitious time to update my list of all trophy winners in men’s rugby worldwide since 1984,
[Read more…] about Trophy Winners #3 – Rugby Union (Men) 1984 to 2025
The 2024/25 football season is over and it is 76 days since my team Newcastle Utd last won a trophy! For the first time in my life, I am able to record Newcastle United in a winners column in my spreadsheet listing all English trophy winners (Men’s) since 1889. For the first time ever, Crystal Palace appear as a trophy winner.
[Read more…] about Trophy Winners #1 – England Men’s Club Football 1889 to 2025
The 2024/25 Women’s Super League (WSL) ended with Chelsea winning their 2nd ever Domestic Treble after their 1st in 2021 and Arsenal winning the Champions League for the 2nd time ever after their 1st in 2007.
If you are new to the women’s game in England (especially following the Lionesses winning the European Championship in 2022), why not download my spreadsheet listing all trophy winners since 1992 to find out which teams are the GOATs of English women’s football?
[Read more…] about Trophy Winners #2 – England Women’s Club Football 1992 to 2025
Judd Trump has won the 2024 UK Championship which is the 5th Triple Crown title of his career. Does that make him a GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in men’s Snooker? Using the criteria I recommend in this article, Trump will become a GOAT if he wins another World Championship.
[Read more…] about Trophy Winners #4 – The GOATs of World Snooker (Mens) – 1969 to 2024
Sir Donald Bradman is the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) of sporting GOATs. All cricket lovers accept the great Australian is the greatest batsman of all time but how many are aware he was 9 standard deviations better than the next best 166 batsmen of all time? I can’t think any other sports person who comes close to this standard which is why I say this 9 Sigma GOAT is the greatest sports person of all time.
[Read more…] about Cricket #1 – Sir Donald Bradman, the 9 Sigma GOAT
My team Newcastle United are also known as the Magpies but how much of a GOAT are they? In recent years, this acronym has become popular as a shorthand for Greatest Of All Time. Given that the Magpies have not won a trophy in the 40+ years that I have supported them, I know they are not the number 1 GOAT in English football but where would they sit in a GOAT table?
Ranking tables are extremely common in sport and sport analytics as they are easily understood by fans. If I want to compile a ranking of all English football clubs, there are two decisions I have to make:
In this post I will use 3 eras and 3 metrics to creating 9 GOAT tables in all. Read on to find out which club is #1 GOAT! [Read more…] about Sporting GOATs #1 – English football clubs
So the 6 Nations is underway again and the traditional rivalries are reheated. Who will win is once again on all the sports pages and there are no shortages of pundits willing to give their opinions. If you want a different way to predict what will happen, why not use the World Rugby Rankings?
Ranking tables play a big part in a number of sports but they are not widely understood among sports fans. At bottom though, rankings are intended to be used as a predictive tool for what will happen in a match. A good ranking system will be more accurate in predicting outcomes than a bad ranking system. However, a perfect ranking system is something we don’t want otherwise sport becomes boring as we will always know the outcome in advance. So as a forecasting tool, a ranking system is a curious beast. We want it to be good but not great.
[Read more…] about 6 Nations #3 – Who will win in 2017? – week 3
