FREE-FALLING NICKER BALLERS

Boasters League round 3~~

You can’t really blame the Nicker Ballers for dropping so dramatically this week considering they had the bye. But the bottom did drop out rather substantially as they plummeted to last on the standings, now 7 points 8^th placed Foss Nation who, by the way, hardly rocked the boat either this round. Bye weeks are a great opportunity for teams to make up past (or even future) matches, but the Nicker Ballers failed to take advantage picking up a paltry 6 points. Silver lining is that there is still time… let’s hope it is used wisely.

Over Served increased their lead over all other teams with a league best 46 points this week, a pretty decent effort. Rubbing salt into everyone else’s wound, they also have the most bonus points so far as well. Funny how the two always seem to go hand in hand. Mongoose are sitting pretty tied for 4^th place, performing the best of the teams that have so far suffered through the bye week and they picked up 41 points for the round. Their bonus point count is also very healthy, as captain Paul Huth is on the prowl for his team members to show up. He will not divulge what he is threatening his players with, but it must be nasty… a lecture on the ‘let’ rule maybe?

Activity was reasonably acceptable last night. Plenty of eyes were on one of the early matches downstairs where Steve Brown (Vivio’s) had to use all his skill to overcome the speedy Blake Ellis (Mongoose). Obvious contrasting styles, Steve hand his soft hands and unexpected angles, Blake with his quick feet and sudden counter attacks. Entertaining squash, Steve took the result 3-0, but it was awfully hard work. I usually do not hand out coaching advice in these articles, but to keep it simple here: Steve: a little more patience at times before you shoot is needed. Some of those angles come over as forced. And Blake: watch your cross-courts! Too many of them and Steve was eating them up!

Paul Gormley (Over Served) picked up his second win of the season with a 3-0 over Tripp Kennedy (Paddy’s Dropshots). I’m mentioning this because Tripp came off the court yesterday and (half-jokingly) said I should move him down a spot in the league. For the first half of the season, in position 16, Tripp went 8-0 and absolutely merited promotion. He is finding it tougher now – as he should – but he is not outclassed at his current level. Paul’s words after the match: “He’s good!” Keep at it Tripp, you are improving and the wins will start up again.

Round 4 next week coincides with the “Meet the Candidates” night for the DAC elections later this month. That means that most of you will have a self-schedule match so you will need to be a bit more pro-active in arranging when you play. Winky-Dinks have the bye – can they minimize the inevitable damage in the standings with a decent amount of make-up matches? Can Nicker-Ballers dig themselves out of the deep hole they have made for themselves? Will Captain Huth punish his 2 players that did not turn up last night with a public square lashing? Will it ever get above freezing in Michigan again? What will the future hold…?