The currency blog

March wasn’t the best month for CD yielding 5 points from 4 games. This left us down in 3^rd place, needing to up our game drastically to keep pace. With 5 teams challenging now for the league supposed ‘6 pointers’ like will be coming thick and fast!

This week saw CD take on current league leaders and free scoring Mines a Pint FC. From the get go there was one team that dominated; fortunately that would be CD. Some patient build up created several chances but once again we found ourselves up against a keeper equal to the task. Whenever he was beaten the woodwork would come to their rescue. Despite this pressure Mines a Pint were not to roll over and a tidy breakaway allowed their forward to steal in and finish past Cat Cosgrave.

The second half led to further CD domination but again their keeper left us scoreless. Pressure was to finally tell with Merrick, Partridge and Watson combining twice in quick succession to reverse the score line and give CD the lead. Merrick and Watson providing the finishes both lifting the ball over the keeper with precision.

With their keeper lapping up the fact he was already crowned man of the match, some of his next saves were near on showboating as he tipped shot after shot away from danger. This left the game tighter than Jack Entwistle’s jacket but some sterling resistance and phenomenal work rate allowed CD to see things through and thus return to the summit of the table.

By Chris Partridge

We Are The Champions!

After a fantastic season of solid wins, the team finished top of the league with a  5 point strong  lead. The CD team not only beat the the banks on FX but also in football;  Deutshche Bank lost almost every game against the Currencies Direct boys so let’s hope next season is just as glorious.

All dues to the following players:

Dan Cronin, Matt Watson, Alistair Cotton, Chris Partridge, Harry Cosgrave, Aldrino Rodriques, Phil Mchugh, Tim Lewis, Reece Merrick, Lee Chappell,

Player of the season went to Dan Cronin after scoring 10 goals alone in the season, Matt Watson was joint top scorer of the season.

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Karl Sieha

Season 2 First Match - Deutsche Bank

Season 2 of Top Corner Old Street league saw Currencies Direct enter the newly formed premier league as champions and favourites for the title.

First opponents were previously conquered Deutsche Bank. Buzzing at the start, the kraut bankers were seeking to score one for the euro but there was only going to be one winner.

The line up consisted of Cat Partridge in goal, with Weasel Chappell, Dino-Tim, Fabio Cotton and Webbed Swanson.

The game started with the German money men kicking off and moving the ball around with plenty of verve but as soon as we gained possession a tirade of orange and black hit their goal. The post was rattled twice and their keeper was in great form to prevent CD taking the lead.

The deadline was then broken with Chappell finding Tim Lewis who finished with aplomb. Like the battle of the Bulge, this signalled the beginning of the end for the Germans. Chappell again provider found Cotton, tireless in his endeavours, finished strongly to double the score line.

The their striker produced a moment of inspiration and stunned proceedings by picking out the top bins to leave Partridge sprawled across the goal and pull a goal back. This rest bite wouldn’t last long.

Thanks to great pressure from Cotton, pouncing on a loose ball, Chappell swooped like a spitfire in the middle of a dogfight to destroy his target and add a third.  Half time 3-1.

The second half was as one sided as the first with CD dominating in all areas of the pitch and the sauerkraut eaters were struggling to get out of their half. Great work by all created several chances but it was left to goatman Watson to strike probably the best ball I’ve seen at this place and hit the upper echelons of the side panel from 10 yards out to make it 4.

T-rex Lewis, following assists from Swanners and Partridge, completed the scoring and settle the match, 6-1 to CD.

One game in and top of the Prem, get in.

Report By Chris Partridge

Today’s highlight is set to be the ECB meeting and subsequent statement and Q&A by ECB President Jean Claude-Trichet. As always the tone of his speech will be monitored extremely closely for any hawkish comments. In particular any mention of upside danger in relation to the inflation rate will be interpreted as hawkish given Mr Trichet went to extraordinary lengths last time to avoid commenting on the above target inflation rate in a hawkish way. This morning has seen Eurozone PMI data miss forecast slightly but any effect was more than offset by positive German retail sales and French unemployment data (which Trichet will undoubtedly cite when he talks about a broad based recovery in the Eurozone, laughable when you think about the state the periphery economies are in). With the large amount of data and the ECB meeting this mornings Euro trading has been volatile, with the single currency up around half a cent against Sterling and the Dollar.

Fed Chiarman Ben Bernanke had been the focus over the last few days with his statements to both houses (which we so similar he may as well had the first one taped and played back). The real interest was in the Q&A session after the prepared address, in which Mr Bernanke talked about further QE and the Feds plan regarding short term interest rate. The overall impression was that the Fed are not in a hurry to raise rates and that they will still not rule out further easing if the economic situation, especially in the labour market continues to deteriorate. For the Dollar this meant mild softening as the speech progressed but all of Sterling’s gains yesterday afternoon have been given back in early trading this morning.

That is because of a disappointing UK service PMI figure which sent the Pound down half a cent against the Dollar. Today concludes British data this week so the rest of the day should be reasonably quiet (unless Mr. Trichet shocks the market), but the big figure this week (which always moves the GBPUSD pair significantly) is the US non-farm payrolls due at 1.30pm tomorrow. Also worth noting is a speech by the Fed’s Kocherlakota later this evening which may give further insight into Fed policy moving forward.

Report by Alistair Cotton.