SUMMER SQUASH SYNOPSIS

So Labor Day came and went. And suddenly, when we weren’t looking, the season crept up behind us, took a huge wind-up and drop-kicked us squarely in the gluteus maximus, the exact same muscles that will be screaming ruthlessly at many of you after the first time you venture back on the court.

The ones who will not be suffering through that pain will be the ones that kept their squash running all the way over the summer via the singles or doubles leagues. It was, undeniably, an excellent summer in terms of numbers, so I thought I would break down the stats a little and share with everyone what happened. Maybe it will encourage more players to join next summer as well…

Firstly, the singles league – or, the “Merry-Go-Round-Robin”. I really like this format as you can play as many matches as you please whenever you please, they all count, and you can play the same opponent over and over and over again. It ran continuously for 16 weeks, and was made up of 100 members (10 teams with 10 players each). Players earned individual points within their own team for each match they played based on the result – so they were competing against their own team-mates – and each team was competing against the other teams to see which one played the most matches overall.

• A total of 502 matches were reported. That’s outstanding. Last season (this is the second time we have run this format), we had 443 matches. For you non-mathematicians out there, that is 59 more matches overall. 
• Team 8 played 122 matches. 24% of the overall total. 
• Team 5 played the least amount of matches with 23. Strangely, Team 5 also played the least amount of matches last summer. 
• 6 players did not play any matches. For me, that is the most disappointing stat of all. I had a waitlist of players who could not get in the league because it was full… 
• Paul Gormley (Team 8) was a man on a mission. He scored by far the most points of any player in the league with 230. The next best achiever had 167 – Jon Diewald also from Team 8. Third best? Steve Smihal from Team 8 with 144. 
• Paul Gormley and Jon Diewald played each other 21 times. Jon won 12, Paul 9. 
• Sticking with Paul here, he is the only player in the league that managed to play each of his team mates at least once. He played 67 matches overall. 
• No Team completed a full round obviously. (All ten players played each other at least once). The most any team played in one round was 24 matches (out of a maximum of 45) and three teams did that: Team 8 (surprise!), Team 2 and Team 10.

Moving onto the summer Doubles League. We had 47 registrations this year – same as 2016 – spread over the 4 levels of play. We are all aware that the biggest issue we have with the doubles is the amount of subs we usually require week in week out. Rearranging matches is not an option, so late cancellations are particularly problematic, especially in the summer. That being said, I think we did a pretty good job anyway…

• Of the 64 total arranged matches for the season, only 4 of them did not get played. Two of them were because we couldn’t find a sub and 2 of them were because of no-call-no-shows. 
• The Monday A group played all their matches. But they did require a lot of subs. 41% of the players were subbed out for the season. Twice was the match played with all 4 players being subs. Of the 20 arranged matches, only 2 were played without a sub. 
• The Tuesday B group were better with their required subs. Two of their 22 arranged matches did not get played. 7 matches did not require any subs. Subs overall were need only 25% of the time. Only 5 of the completed matches ended up 3-0. Not bad! 
• Wednesday Open – 2 of the 11 matches didn’t require a sub. Two no-call-no-shows. 38% of the arranged players were subbed out. Only 2 matches were 3-0. 
• Wednesday C group – By far the most committed of the levels! All matches were played, of the 11 matches, 4 didn’t need any subs. Only 25% of the time was a sub needed. Again, only 2 matches were 3-0.

The doubles does appear to be getting more competitive, and it’s still an uphill battle to increase the amount of players when we only have 1 court to work with. But, slowly, it’s growing. There is still room in the fall doubles season for the Thursdays C league (5-7pm) and it’s a great place to start if you are looking at learning the game and getting involved – just e-mail me if you are interested in joining!

Congratulations to all the individual winners in the summer leagues – you can see who excelled on the pin-board outside court 8. Now, get back on court!