THEN THERE WERE TWO…

“Bitter Lemons” left feeling sour
Just as I predicted it would be, the semi finals were close. Very close. The “Bitter Lemons” and “Sour Grapes” swapped results all the way. Each team won two matches 3-0, and each team won two matches 2-1. The difference? You guessed it: bonus points. One bonus point to be exact. “Sour Grapes” had 6; the “Bitter Lemons”, 5. The one result that sticks out as the ‘difference maker’ was the first result to come in. Todd Baker (“Sour Grapes”) and Tom Fabbri (“Bitter Lemons”) exhausted themselves in the three games they played, leaving it until the last rally to decide the winner. At 14-all in the 3rd, the sudden death point fell Todd’s way. Had it bounced in Tom’s favor, the 18-17 final score line would be reversed. But before Tom starts crying into his golf clubs that it’s his entire fault, I am sure his 7 team mates are also wondering where they could have picked up that extra point! A special mention goes to Mike Rock (“Bitter Lemons”) who is in his first league season. His initiation into the league was met with a resounding 3-0 loss in round 1 to Mike McCuish (“Sour Grapes”). Mike R. can be rather pleased with his improvement and progress and the proof in the pudding showed as he gave Mike M. back all the medicine he dished out by beating him 3-0 this time around.

“Pickled Onions” true to form
The “Pickled Onions” picked up right where they left of at the regular season: refusing to lose any (or very few) matches. Only one loss to speak of in the semi-final and that was Matt Jarboe going down in a rare “Pickled Onions” 3-0 loss (just the second of the season) against Jim Stroh (“Going Bananas”). A surprise result really, considering Matt beat Jim 2-1 in round 5. With 2-1 victories for Rich Stimson, Sean Moran, Peter Fortune and Brian Rosman, that the close results are all landing in the “Pickled Onions” favor are the saving grace for this team. Without these wins – or even if just three of them were reversed – relying on bonus points to get them through would be a failing tactic. Only four of their eight players showed up – something they better be careful of next week for the final.

Prediction
Even if the “Sour Grapes” get all 8 of their members to turn up, I still think the “Pickled Onions” will take the title. If you look back at the regular season result between theses 2 teams, the “Pickled Onions” won 6 of the 8 matches played. In fact they won with an overall score line of 19-9 – more than convincing. Given, four of those results were 2-1, but even reversing all of those wouldn’t make up the difference. I am more than happy to be proved wrong – in either case; I hope it’s closer than the first time around. Also, the finals are a funny beast. Winning when it really counts can have mysterious influences on people.