POETS members and guest attended the annual Summer Lunch at the amazing Da Franco Ristorante Italiano, served up some great food with the POETS second charity luncheon event for the year!

The POETS team and guests raised an impressive £1,010 for our nominated charities which are: Haven House Children’s Hospice, North London Hospice and Prostate Cancer UK. The POETS would like to thank Daniel and his amazing team for their hospitality and continued support.

POETS Chairman Chris Gardner raised a glass and wished a Happy Birthday to Steve  Beckett the POETS Vice Secretary. Steve organised the POETS FIFA World Cup 2026 Sweepstakes for the members, which created lots of fun and banter! The result: £150 to Wayne Lambert (Spain) - £50 to Ken Burgess (Argentina) - £40 to Vince O’Shea, well done to everyone who entered and big thanks to Steve!

2025/26 POETS FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE
As the FIFA World Cup 2026 comes to its disappointing conclusion for England fans,  we do have to talk about last season’s POETS Fantasy Football League. As a reminder, here are the winners of the much-coveted cup for the last 5 seasons:

• 20/21 Season – Steve Beckett
• 21/22 Season – Alex Herman
• 22/23 Season – Steve Barnett
• 23/24 Season – Daniel Di Landro
• 24/25 Season – Daniel Di Landro

I am delighted to announce that this season’s winner is Mr Andy Bigg with an impressive 2277 points. Here are your winnings Andy - £110 – more about the prize pot in a moment.

In second place was Daniel with 2200 points, and in third place Steve Barnett with 2147 points.

It was a very close season for many weeks at the top of our league with an ongoing battle between Andy & Daniel which to be fair was similar to last season, but Mr Bigg prevented Daniel from achieving the treble. (a bit like Arsenal trying to win the double)

Now let’s talk about the bottom of the league and in particular Mr Wayne Lambert who not for the first time was very vocal at the start of the season, referring to our trophy and the fact it was “coming home”.

In an unprecedented event Wayne managed to enter 3 teams in our league when only one is permissible, however he only paid for the one team so he owes the prize pot £20. Please hand that over immediately Wayne.

Now, not only did Wayne manage to enter 3 teams against the League rules, all 3 teams finished in the bottom 3, congratulations Wayne you are a tactical genius.
Without question you have taken the Crown away from Chris Gibbons and would you therefore now accept your prize.

Thank you everyone, I’m looking forward to the 2026/27 season, season 7 for the POETS League and is just around the corner!

The POETS next Luncheon is the Autumn Lunch on the Friday 9th October at our favourite Italian Restaurant Da Franco in Friern Barnet.
click the link for further details poetssociety.co.uk/events/poets-autumn-lunch

 

To find out more about Da Franco Ristorante Italiano
please click the link:

www.dafrancorestaurant.co.uk