PICKING UP THE PACE

Boasters League week 3~~

Mongoose are on the move. It’s tough having the first round bye because you have pretty much resigned yourself to playing catch up the whole way, but Mongoose aren’t particularly interested in playing that game. They jumped 3 spots to 6^th on the standings this week picking up a league best 41 points – which included the highest bonus point total of 15 (from a maximum of 17). This ‘attitude’ puts them in a pretty good position. All the teams above Mongoose still have to sit out a week.

Last week I hopped up on my soap box and lectured about not playing matches on Wednesday and putting too much emphasis on bonus points. This week was a vast improvement. Only 2 teams picked up more points off court than on it – surprisingly, one of those teams was Mongoose. But it would be hard to criticize them for it. Against Vivio’s, they have played 11 matches so far for round 3 – the most of any other match-up – but it just so happened they only won 4 of them.

I’m sending out a shout-out to the Wardogs team as well this week. After 3 rounds, they have completed the most matches overall, and picked up 40 points this week, jumping to equal 3^rd on the standings. I’m very pleased to see the amount of play and the tightening up of the standings.

The busy night didn’t allow me to watch a lot of the matches. I did get a peek of Justin Winkelman (Winky-Dinks) and Curt Pedersen (Foss Nation) upstairs though. Battle of the giants, we need a heads-up next time these 2 get together, we may need to raise the ceiling a foot or two or install a basketball hoop. For the record, Justin ended up with a 3-0 victory. The always smiling Helen French (Mongoose) has been enjoying her summer break and was happy to take a game from the very experienced, “I-know-exactly-where-you-are-hitting-it” Jim Miller (Vivio’s). Never have I seen someone relish a beer so much after a loss!

JC Tibbitts (Butter Nutz) picks up his first win of the season taking down fellow captain Paul Ward (Wardogs) 2-1; Tom Fabbri (Mongoose) is 2-for-2 this season as he outlasted the younger legs of Kevin Thomas (Vivio’s) for a 2-1 victory; and Michael Rahaim (Foss Nation) scores his first career (!) win in his third match ever with a 2-1 triumph over Kevin Butler (Winky-Dinks).

Hopefully this trend will continue with the amount of play we experienced this week. It’s all a matter of keeping on top of the schedule and not falling behind. Play the matches early if you have to. There is already one player in the league that has reached the 5 match minimum rule – and we’re only 3 weeks in!