Pat Petz has made a bold statement in naming his team this season “Threepeat”. As the current winning captain of the previous two seasons, his brash prediction of three in a row is simply rubbing salt into everyone else’s wounds and really designed to ruffle some fea
thers. However, his team already finds themselves in familiar territory: top of the standings.Of course, when you play 8 of 12 matches and pick up 9 bonus points in the first round then it’s not too shocking to see them in that spot. Their round one opponent – “Speed Ballers” – also picked up 9 bonus points and are second. So already, the rest of the crowd will be chasing Pat and his team down. I know, I know: the season is long and it’s early. But no team can afford to take it easy now and expect to make up ground later on, from experience, that usually never happens.
We had 3 matches t
hat literally went down to the wire. Pictured left, Brian Schrage (“Threepeat”) beat Doug Troszak (“Speed Ballers”) 15-14 in the 3rd for a 2-1 victory, as did Tom Fabbri (“Winky-Dinks”) over Terry Lang (“Mongoose”). Anil Kathuria (“Winky-Dinks”) and Bill Seymour (“Mongoose”) actually forgot about the no tie-break rule and played on in the 3rd until Anil took it 19-17. No wonder they crawled off the court close to tears. (Of course that feeling went away once they got their beers!)Just a couple of important points to make coming off some incidents last night:
1. CALL YOUR OPPONENT. I simply cannot say or stress this enough. We had at least 4 players who turned up without contacting or confirming with their opponent. You cannot expect your opponent to show if you do not communicate with them. It is a courtesy to everyone involved if you simply call and confirm (or if you have to, rearrange) your match time. Avoid no-shows at all costs.
2. Let Calls. This is an in-house social, friendly league. Yes, we all want to win. But arguing has no place on the squash court. If a disagreement occurs between you and your opponent, then compromise with a ‘let’. We are all here for the camaraderie, fun and healthy competition. Please keep that in mind.
So, don’t delay with getting any matches done that you may have missed. They pile up very quickly. Get pro-active, and do what you signed up in the league for: playing squash.
