DOWN TO THE FINAL SIX

Boasters League final round~~

Well, I have to admit, I was quite impressed with the last week scramble to get boasters league matches in. Years past has yielded somewhat – and strangely – “lazy” attitude towards make-up matches, but this season it was the opposite. I only wish that this mindset was present from week 1, and not week 7 and a half. Just to give you an idea, just from last Wednesday, Vivio’s picked up 67 points, Butter Nutz 58 and Mongoose 50. In fact, the top six teams that advanced to the finals picked up at least 48 points.

The second half of the season is always less attended than the first half as we have to deal with school and winter breaks, and somebody always seems to be on vacation somewhere, but – thanks to the big push of the last 10 days or so – the stats for the half didn’t come out too badly…

• Overall, 75% of matches were completed, actually pretty darn good and a lot better than I would have predicted just 2 weeks ago. (The first half had 85%.) That’s up from the second half last year (71%). 
• Butter Nutz lead the charge with 85% of matches completed. 
• Wardogs brings up the rear with 66% match completion. 
• Mongoose had the best win percentage with 65% 
• Space Geckos suffered with only a 35% win percentage. Despite playing 79% of matches, they miss the finals. 
• The top 4 teams on the standings were the top 4 teams who picked up the most bonus points. Once again, this statistic should make you stand up and pay attention. 
• 6 players did not pick up any bonus points at all… ! 
• The team with the least bonus points? No prize if you guessed Wardogs. 
• 12 players picked up all 8 bonus points. First half there were 18. 
•  All 17 matches in any one round were completed just twice. 
• 3 players played all 8 matches and went through undefeated: Dewey Steffen (Foss Nation); Tom Paglia (Butter Nutz) and Michael Craig (Nick at Night). Michael also scored the most points of the second half with 27. 
• 29 players played all 8 of their matches. (First half had 44).

So now the business end of the league starts. Head to head results for the week are now the priority. The first quarter finals has Foss Nation v Winky-Dinks. These two teams played in round 5 with the Winky-Dinks having the skin of their nostrils in front 27-26. Understanding that 6 of those matches were not played at all, this one is a complete toss-up. Bonus points may play an important role… The other quarter final has Vivio’s against Nicker Ballers. Their round 4 result saw Vivio’s with a 6 point advantage 33-27. Only 2 matches were not played, so on paper it appears Vivio’s would be slight favorites. But, there is a reason we play the game, right?