SQUASH, SUDS, AND SANTA

Holiday Tournament December 2

Chuck Doyle, Patrick Petz (awesome sweater!), Sante

Nothing pleases me more than having a full contingent of players for a tournament! We maxed out with 24 registrations and not one single person cancelled during the week. It appeared we were heading into a true Christmas miracle, uncharted waters, smooth sailing… Of course, no tournament ever runs that way… The 5pm start time was strictly adhered to and since everyone turned up ‘on time’ we only started 25 minutes late with 2 players missing. Luckily, Colin Bayer had brilliantly foreseen this exact scenario and even though he didn’t enter the event, was ready to play - gift and all. Michael Craig was also aimlessly wandering the halls of the DAC and volunteered to step in for the other M.I.A. member. Ah, yes… perfect planning!

Randomly drawing matches adds a little to the excitement of the evening, and everybody had a chance to play against somebody that they had never competed against before. All of the matches were 3 games to 7, the shorter scoring system makes all points more valuable and evens the playing field just a little too. Of course, randomly drinking beers also adds to the excitement of the evening, or to the fuzzy haze of it depending on how many trips to the keg one had made.

It’s always a pleasure to see new faces at these events. Nathan Marsden was one of them and he went home no doubt thinking that he could have won all 4 of his matches rather than displaying a bagel in the win column. He lost each encounter 1-2. At least they were all competitive! Nathan’s partner in crime - Jeff Gembis - also had a bagel on his score sheet but it was in the loss column instead. You would think a 4-0 record would secure a top 2 spot at the end of the night, but such the nature of this event, Jeff only managed a 3rd place finish. That was due to the fact that 3 of his wins were 2-1, those lost games cost him. The 2nd place finisher actually had a 3-1 record…

The ‘Impressive Performer’ award I am going to give to Haytham Hermiz. Haytham went 3 for 4, all three wins were 2-1 scores, including a couple of opponents that I didn’t think he would beat. He was initially disappointed at his only loss - an 0-3 pounding from Jeff Gembis - but once I explained to him that Jeff plays in the #2 spot on the Boasters League, he didn’t feel so bad after all! A close second for this award goes to Jeff Rogers. His tactic of just popping the ball back, running down everyone else’s winners, would even be a lot more effective if he actually discarded his soccer shoes for squash ones. All of his matches were 2-1, he ended up winning three of them, and the more I look at who he played, the more those results confuse me! Talk about playing to the standard of your opponent!

JC Tibbitts and Sante

Every player in the tournament won at least 1 game. Of the 48 matches played, 25 of them were 2-1. I don’t know how many games ended up 7-6, but it was a decent amount. In fact, the first result of the event was Brian Bartes beating David de la Torre 2-1, all three of the games were 7-6! There is nothing more exciting in squash than a sudden death rally. I think it should somehow be reintroduced at the pro level.

The final match of the evening would decide who could select from the gift table first. Our good friend, and last year’s winner, Sante Fratarcangeli versus our other good friend and no year’s winner JC Tibbitts. Both players had won their first 3 matches 3-0. As the match started, my wife - as always - times these things perfectly and decided she had to call me. I managed to keep the conversation under the obligatory 30 minutes (love you, honey!) to witness the 3rd game between the 2 players and see that Sante ended up taking the match 2-1 and with it his second consecutive Holiday Tournament title!

He chose his prize - a bottle of Vodka (I think…) and a jar of olives. Wouldn’t have been my pick, I find olives repulsive. Amazingly, most of the gifts were alcohol themed - who’d have thought? Patrick Petz once again managed to select the strangest of all, sparking up haunting memories from 2005 when he selected half-chewed muffins inspiring the start of the ‘banned substances’ list, with what looked to be flower of some sort. I will have to find out exactly what it was, maybe that list will have to be expanded!

A wonderful evening was had by everyone, and the best gift of all was that the keg miraculously didn’t go dry!

Great crew for the 2016 Event!