For the 2nd time the owners gathered at Lee's for the annual draft. All owners were in attendance, including 3 (or should it be 4?) new owners. Rather shockingly the grim north weather held off allowing full use of the garden, with the occasional sound of leather against willow from the local cricket game providing the backdrop.

Following weeks of tough negotiations, Tim selected Ryan Mathews with the first pick. Not surprising really, however the deal almost never happened as Mathews requests for usage of Tim's golf clubs almost proved too much.

The second round began with Martin using a pick he obtained from Tim when he traded him Percy Harvin to pick... Percy Harvin! Four picks later Martin picked Brett Favre - who he also traded to Tim last year... The second round also saw a potentially significant moment in the new Manchester rivalry as Adam picked Reggie Bush, who has previously only ever been on Lee's roster. Will Lee now have to face the frustration of being on the receiving end of Reggie's punt returns for once?

The 2-headed beast that is the Funky Furbys found themselves reduced to adolescence as they struggled at times to agree on which player to pick. "But it was his responsibility to list the receivers" came the reply after the 1st protected player was selected.

The first cry of "bastard" didn't take long to fill the air as a coveted player was taken the round before another owner would have. In fact, it occurred several times.

Rounds 5 to 8 were highlighted by Lee's liking for bizarrely named pass-catchers, seeing him add T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Devin Aromashodu, Mohamad Massaquoi and Visanthe Shianco to his roster.

The eleventh round was notable for seeing some other than Wayne (Simon) drafting Tim Tebow.

Simon found himself sharked by Richard who took the 16th round pick as part of a trade when it should have been the 17th. Bet he won't be fackin' happy about that.

With the absence of the Masked Raider it was left to Lee's kids to perform the lap of honours. Yet no matter how hard they tried they failed to match the pizzazz. A few weeks of pre-draft training are perhaps in order.

There was one tradition which continued though - Gary's obsession with drafting retired players, namely Muhsin Muhammad (who announced his retirement a month before our draft) in the 18th round. This time he also tried to make up for it by going too far the other way and trying to draft a college player who wasn't even in the NFL yet.

The draft eventually drew to a close with the Clap making Damian Williams Mr Irrelevant. The prize - a night out in Manchester. His agent is currently not returning calls.

The drunken bowling followed the food break. The Tractor Boy had clearly spent the previous 12 months practicing solidly. For a while he played tag with Martin, until the pressure proved too great for the Athletics and Steve clinched the 1st free agency spot. Ian provided a spot of humour by taking over the centre's mic and gave a ball by ball account of everyone's effort. This lasted until the DJ switched the mic off.

Then back to Lee's where Richard resisted the urge to become intimate with a bowl. Gary was definitely pleased about that.