PIPPED AT THE POST

Boasters League first half final standings~~

Persistence paid off. This is a perfect example of the value of an active captain. Going into the final week, “Winky-Dinks” were 13 points behind the league leading “Butter Nutz” who had occupied that spot since round 4. A determined Justin Winkelman then not only started to e-mail his own team to get matches completed, but also the opposing players to play as well. Now, that’s not to say that other captains weren’t active. Sante Fratarcangeli was also a great communicator with his “Butter Nutz” team, and a major reason they did very well this half season, but Justin has raised the bar.

That one point loss will be a bitter pill to swallow for Sante and his team, which should make the second half even more competitive. When these two teams played each other this half, “Butter Nutz” won 28-25, a close result no doubt. So has a rivalry been created here? And what about Patrick Petz and his team “Mercedes”? He always seems to be lurking nearby and his 3^rd place finish won’t satisfy him much so we can anticipate better performances come January.

As for the teams that finished 5^th -9^th , they were miles behind the top four and will need to turn themselves around to have any chance of making a statement for the finals in March. An energetic captain makes all the difference – pushing their players to get on court, to turn up for the bonus point, to communicate and be positive. Your players want to know they are part of a team.

The half season statistics reflect rather accurately the final standings:

• Overall, 76% of the matches were completed. One of the highest half season percentages ever.
• Round 2 had 88 ½ % of matches completed, or 46 of 52 matches.
• “Butter Nutz” played the most matches completing 87% of them. “Winky-Dinks” completed 86%
• On the other end of the scale, “WallEED” completed only 69% of their matches.
• “Destiny” had the lowest match completion with 66%.
• “Butter Nutz” also had the best winning percentage with 60%. “Mercedes” also had 60%. “Winky-Dinks” won 55% of their matches.
• The lowest winning percentage was 38% by “Mongoose”.
• Overall, 57% of the matches ended up with a 2-1 score.
• The reason “Winky-Dinks” still ended up on top? Bonus Points. They accumulated 74 of them at an average of over 9 per week – a remarkable achievement. That’s fifteen – yes, 15 – better than the next best “Butter Nutz”.
• “Destiny” picked up the least amount of bonus points with 28. In week 5, only 1 player of the team turned up. (It was Halloween mind you. “Foss-ters” didn’t have any player show that night, “Winky-Dinks” had 9.)
• Eight players picked up all 8 bonus points.
• 26 players completed all 8 matches. That, I think, is a record.
• Only one player played all 8 matches and went undefeated – Hans Flick (“Destiny”). He scored over 18% of his team’s total.

Not that the league is supposed to be an individual one, we do reward the best point getters at each level for the entire October – March duration. We call these players the “All Stars”. At the half-way mark, below are the 13 players who currently lead their level. As teams will be rearranged for the second half, anyone moving up or down will carry their first half points with them to add to the second half. Scores include all bonus points as well.



Hans Flick



1. Manny Tancer (“Winky-Dinks”)
2. Al Iafrate (“Winky-Dinks”)
3. Sante Fratarcangeli (“Butter Nutz”)
4. Greg Baker (“Winky-Dinks”)
5. Tom Healy (“Winky-Dinks”)
6. A 3-way tie! Chuck Doyle (“Butter Nutz”); Dane Fossee (“Foss-ters”); JB Peabody (“Mercedes”)
7. Elliot Shafer (“Vivio’s”)
8. Brian Bartes (“Destiny”)
9. Ted Morris (“Wardogs”)
10. Tom Delaney (“Winky-Dinks”)
11. Tom MacEachern (“Mercedes”)
12. Chris Moyer (“Butter Nutz”)
13. Hans Flick (“Destiny”)

The second half will start on January 9. All teams start from scratch and will be fighting for the 6 play-off spots, meaning the bottom 3 teams will be eliminated. I was very pleased with the attendance for the first half and hopefully we can keep the momentum rolling.