MORE ACTION, MORE LADDER CHANGES

Boasters League round 4~~

Definitely a step-up from last week, participation was better last night. But before you all go and start high fiving each other, there is still plenty of room for improvement – understand that (as crazy as this sounds) next week is already the half-way mark of this half and the vast majority of you have matches to catch up on. All I am suggesting is that you start playing them now before you run out of time and then no doubt start worrying that the 5 match minimum that is required for you to stay in the league for the second half is suddenly out of reach.

Butter Nutz hold on to the top spot although the chasing teams have narrowed the gap. Best performers of the week go to Wardogs who picked up 38 points and moved up from 4^th to 2^nd. Second best actors? Nick at Night. They scored 33 points this round (so far) and flung themselves well out of the basement to claim 6^th spot. It’s not necessarily because they are winning – in fact their current win percentage is under 50% - but they caught up on some matches and scored a respectable 11 bonus points last night.

Speaking of bonus points, in a rare shocking display of mutiny, Mongoose scored the least this week (7) leaving all the experts and pundits stunned. Helen French messaged all the way from Ireland (from some ‘posh’ restaurant – her words –, which probably means some local pub that serves cold beer) cementing her excuse and avoiding the cane when she returns. If you thought Captain Huth was on the warpath before…

Biggest drop this week goes to Vivio’s, which since they had the bye isn’t headline news, but they plummeted from 5^th to last as they only scraped together 7 points in make-up games. Foss Nation is also struggling, they scored the least amongst the active teams this week with only 21 points, and they are also having a very difficult time winning the matches they are playing. Up to date, they are winning just 25% of them.

On to some special mentionables in individual performables… Firstly, congratulations to Spencer Eick (On The Rocks) who not only managed to walk off the court with his head still attached, he did it with the 3-0 win as well! Playing Bill Largent (Winky-Dinks), rallies were hard fought, so the score line is a little misleading here, and at one stage Bill’s reaction volley almost decapitated Spencer who was standing at the front wall looking back as if he was lining up for the firing squad. Luckily Spencer had shaved that day so Bill missed him (but he did win the point!). Important lesson though for all involved that calling “lets” is an extremely important skill to learn – safety is paramount. I understand it was a ‘bang-bang’ play, and decapitation is only a temporary injury (heads grow back, right?), but in dangerous situations play should stop and the interference rule applied.

Haytham Hermiz (Wardogs) kept his undefeated record in tact although he did drop his first game for the half as he scrambled, stampeded, zipped, zagged, zigged, and breakdanced his way to a 2-1 win over the more methodical Joe Leto (Nick at Night). Justin Jacobs (On The Rocks) was relieved to snag his second win of the season over Peter Shumaker (Winky-Dinks) 2-1 who simply would not stop running the ball down making Justin every last point. Never underestimate your opponent and never expect that your last shot is a winner.

Next week may also be a tough one to get numbers up. Although I am optimistic, it is Halloween and the allure of candy, strangers dressed as monsters storming your patio demanding sugar does appeal more to some, but to me nothing beats the allure of the keg, and playing familiar faces (not so monstrous… generally) on the squash court. Will Paul Huth drive around Detroit personally and pick up every one of his team members? Will the shoes designers at Salming ever hire a person that isn’t color blind? How many squash balls are lost under the running machines in the fitness room? Much to discuss.