QUIET WEEK HELP THE WINKY-DINKS

Boasters League round 7~

A relatively lackluster Wednesday night saw a push from the teams on the lower half of the standings as they closed the gap on the leading teams. The biggest performer of the week were the Wardogs and although they still find themselves in 7^th position on the ladder, are only 26 points behind the second placed Butter Nutz, whereas last week, they were 48 points back of the second team. A league leading 42 points this week was a huge boost, it was 8 points better than the next best Winky Dinks, who, by the way, now have a comfortable 16 point buffer on top.

Butter Nutz survived their bye week picking up only 5 points in makeup matches but because of the feeble outing from Space Geckos, only dropped one spot to second and are still within striking distance of the Winky-Dinks. The Space Geckos came off last week with the league’s best numbers, this week it’s the opposite. A paltry 16 points, only 5 matches played, and the lowest bonus point total with 8. With the bye week looming for the Geckos in the final week, their aspirations of finishing first for this half of the season has taken a major blow.

Bonus points were spread about pretty evenly this round. Three teams picked up 11, three teams picked up 10. But – and a little disappointingly – three teams also scored more in bonus points than what they scored on court. It just means that matches are not being played as much as they should. It’s great to support your team by turning up and drinking your beer, but getting on court is really what the league is about, right?

Still, we did have some great, memorable contests played: Mike Rock (Wardogs) went the ol’ tag team tactic on poor Kevin Prather (Vivio’s). Mike made sure his dad Jerry ran Kevin around for a game or two before turning up, tagging in, and then taking him on. The strategy was effective as Mike took the match 2-1, which was his fourth 2-1 win for the season. James Van Dyke (Nicker Ballers) had to play well and consistent as he took down John Perkins (Space Geckos) 2-1 in an excellent standard match.

I’ll also like to mention Sante (Butter Nutz) here as he had the highly challenging task of battling our club number 1 Vikram Chopra (Mongoose). Vikram did win this match 3-0, but Sante held his own very well, especially in the second game and the squash was at a high, entertaining level. Sante should be pleased with the effort, a good boost for his confidence.

Thanksgiving is next week, so the league is having a ‘rest’ week. This gives everybody a lot of time to makeup some matches, which with all the eating and drinking that will be going on is not just a recommendation, it’s a necessity. There are still a large percentage of players that haven’t reached the minimum 5 match rule, I don’t want to hear all the complaints and excuses if you are dropped for the second half… you don’t have any.

WINKY-DINKS LOOKING HEALTHY

Boasters League round 6~

Probably the team that ended up in the best position after round 6 was the one that didn’t even play! Winky Dinks had the bye week which means everyone else had the chance to catch up – which they did, but not by as much as they needed to. In make-up matches alone, Winky Dinks picked up 19 points, which keeps them in second place tied with the Space Geckos. Now, they are the only team in the top 4 that have suffered through the ‘bye’ week, putting them squarely in the driver’s seat to end up on top of the standings after the first half of the season.

Space Geckos performed the best on the score board this week picking up a total of 38 points and closing the gap to the league leading Butter Nutz to just 13. Just a hair behind the Geckos were the Nicker Ballers with 37, and on the other end of the scale, Vivio’s were this week’s slackers with only 23 points. Bonus points overall were down for round 6, and I’ll attribute it to the election hangover. A large percentage of players apparently watched all night as CNN tortuously, minute by minute, covered the voting numbers of every single county in the country… fascinating viewing no doubt. Some members still hadn’t reached the hangover stage however, not sure whether they were celebrating or drowning sorrows, but either way in no condition to grace the squash court!

For those that did, it was a competitive evening. Dewey - Nana-nana-nana-nana, Nana-nana-nana-nana... Batman! -  Steffen (Space Geckos) had to deal with not only the crafty placement of his opponent’s shots (Gus Ploss -Vivio’s) but also the ear splitting “encouragement” of Gus’s team captain. Maybe the cheering wasn’t quite loud enough (or too loud?) but Dewey kept his calm just enough, throwing in his good deal of “Boo-Yahs!” along the way, to take the 2-1 victory. 

Andy Adamo (Nicker Ballers) was surprised to see how much JC Tibbitts (Nick at Night) has improved recently and was pushed all the way as he worked a lot harder than he was expecting to, earning his 2-1 win. Tom Bejin (Butter Nutz) picked up his first win of the season with a steady enough display, taking out Mike McCuish (Mongoose) 2-1, and handing Mike is 3^rd 2-1 loss so far. Another first win of the season goes to Patrick Petz (Nick at Night) who found himself moving more freely which allowed him the place the ball more consistently, as he pulled the 2-1 upset over Maggie Durant (Nicker Ballers). 

Round 7 has crept up on us very quickly. The good news is that the league takes a rest the week of Thanksgiving, so it will give everyone a chance to get a good amount of make-up matches in, and make sure you are covered in your 5 match minimum in order to play in the second half… right? Butter Nutz may have a difficult time holding on to top spot next week as they will be sitting this round out, can the other teams take advantage? Complacency is your enemy.