NO SURPRISES FOR THE FINAL SIX

Boasters League final round~

As the below statistics will reveal, one cannot be too shocked at seeing who made it through to the play-offs. The second half of the league season is typically not as active as the first half, and I was not particularly pleased with the percentage of match play for the most part. However, in the last couple of weeks there has been a flood of makeup matches pouring in and overall the numbers aren’t too shabby.

Wardogs were clearly the team that dominated the second half and deservedly finished on top despite a lackluster performance in round 9 (comparatively speaking). The more intriguing story line would be which team would earn the second place and thus the first round bye in the play-offs. It would be a battle between Butter Nutz and Winky-Dinks and for most of the final week, only a couple of points separated the two teams. Both teams did a magnificent job of playing makeup matches, but in this case, Butter Nutz were unrivaled. From round 8, they picked up a total of 64 points! The next best team of that span was – believe it or not – Mongoose with 58. Bothe teams can thank their respective captains for the last week push – Sante Fratarcangeli and Paul Huth.

Special mention to Fire Birds. They had the round 9 bye and really did not have much chance to finish on the top 2 spots on the standings. But, they gave it a pretty good crack. Just in makeup matches alone, they picked up 41 points, an amazing effort.

Here is how the second half statistics added up:

• Overall, 71% of matches were completed. That’s 13% down from the first half, but for a second half, it’s not terrible. 
• Butter Nutz played the most matches with 80%. Wardogs and Winky-Dinks played 78%. The top 3 teams… 
• The Nicker Ballers played the least amount of matches with 55%. Foss Nation played just a few more with 58%. The last 2 teams… 
• Not once were all 17 matches played in one round. 16 matches were played 5 times. 
• The most points scored in any round was the Wardogs in round 5 and the Winky-Dinks in round 3 with 42 points. 
• The least amount of points scored in any round was Paddy’s Dropshots in round 4 with 11. 
• The Nicker Ballers only scored more than 20 points in a single round just once. 
• Space Geckos picked up 96 bonus points. They also scored the most bonus points in the first half. Wardogs were also impressive with 88. 
• Least amount of bonus points went to the Nicker Ballers with 46. Less than 6 bonus points per round. 
• 11 players picked up all 8 bonus points. 4 of those players were from Space Geckos, 3 from Wardogs. 18 players in the first half picked up all 8 bonus points. 
• 28 players played all 8 matches. We had 50 in the first half. 
• Of those 28, four of them also went undefeated: Greg Allare (Wardogs); John Hanley (Wardogs); Ryan MacVoy (Butter Nutz); Bob Rogers (Winky-Dinks). 
• Ryan MacVoy (Butter Nutz) and Bob Rogers (Winky-Dinks) also picked up the most individual points with 29.

So the Wardogs look to be the team to beat for the finals. In head-to-head match ups, they only lost once during the second half and that was against Butter Nutz in round 1. The Wardogs will be waiting on the side lines for their opponents – that would be the Space Geckos or the Fire Birds. The Space Geckos will need to step it up somewhat, they were pasted 38-21 by the Fire Birds in round 3. I predict this time around to be a lot closer.

In the other side of the draw, the Butter Nutz are waiting for the winner between Mongoose and Winky-Dinks. These two teams met up in round 2, and it was the Winky-Dinks taking a 32-26 victory. Should be an interesting evening!