YES, BONUS POINTS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT…

Boasters League round 2~~

It’s not quite the booming start I was hoping for in terms of squash. It doesn’t appear overly difficult to get people to turn up – that’s not the problem. But I fear there has been a little too much emphasis placed on the “bonus point”. The main reason that enticement was implemented in the first place was to encourage more play on the Wednesday league nights. The following stats may shock you from last night just to underscore exactly my concern:

In total – over the 8 teams that played last night – there were 86 bonus points collected. That’s a good number. BUT – there were only 14 scheduled matches completed (another 9 were played early) Let that sink in for a moment.

In 14 cases, both players of a scheduled match were here for their bonus point, but didn’t play the match.

Five of the 8 teams scored more in bonus points than on their actual squash scores, and one team scored the same. That means only 2 of the 8 teams scored more on the court, than off it.

Rearranging of matches is an understandable side-effect of a league so large, but it’s coming to the point that players are avoiding playing on Wednesday completely in favor of simply coming down, picking up their bonus point and having a few drinks. May as well get your match in since you are here anyway, right? I don’t have an answer, but a big part of the fix lies with you. It’s a Wednesday squash league, not a Wednesday “bonus point” league. Yes, get your point – but play your matches too.

And…. exhale. Something to think about there, but otherwise let’s move onto the squash that was played. Butter Nutz had a relatively successful evening against Winky Dinks. Of the 7 matches completed so far, Butter Nutz won all of them. Five of those results were 2-1 mind you, so it was closer than what it looks like on paper. No surprise that Butter Nutz lead the standings, considering they have not only played the most matches so far, but also have the most bonus points – which is the way to do it.

Not to be the soothsayer of doom, but Paddy’s Dropshots already appear to be in trouble. In 7^th position, and only ahead of the 2 teams that have had the bye, falling behind so early in the season is typically a recipe for disaster. And their off week isn’t until round 7, so they better pick up the pace immediately.

There have been plenty of close 2-1 results so far. Renee Fershee (Over Served) picked up her first win of the season beating Bill Largent (Foss Nation). Not to set off any internal (family) rivalries (cough, cough), but Renee may have had a few clever words for her husband Paul who lost 1-2 this week to Dave DeCew – also considering Paul plays on Foss Nation…

Also, solid 2-1 wins for Tom Pierce (Butter Nutz) over Drew Van Tongeren (Winky-Dinks), Peter Fromm (Nicker Ballers) over Helen French (Mongoose), and Chris Terry (Over Served) over Curt Pedersen (Foss Nation).

It’s not panic time yet, there is still plenty of time to get the matches in, but that time flits away pretty quickly. Before you know it, you’ll be eating turkey, watching the Lions create a new way to lose a football game on Thanksgiving, and wondering how you are going to get your make up matches in before the December 7 deadline…