WOMEN’S SQUASH RISING

By Stu Hadden

Friday was one of the most fun evenings I have yet seen at the DAC as we hosted “Women’s, Wine and Squash” night which had a turnout of over 20 female members who all jumped on court and got involved. This included ladies who had been playing for years and around half who were picking up a racket for the very first time.

 

Nikki Todd (in the white) giving invaluable technical advice!

We invited the Canadian world class touring pro Nikki Todd to help host the night. Nikki was one of the top players that recently took part in our professional tournament last month, she is ranked in the top 65 in the world in singles and currently in the top 20 in the world in doubles. The ladies loved having her around and very much welcomed her expert instruction and tips, her ruthless enthusiasm, positive energy and incredible skill set were as integral to the evenings success as were the 10 bottles of Cabernet!

This event was a great way to kick off the new women’s squash program which will starting in the new year with the aim of increasing female participation in the game. This will include a box ladder which will be an excellent way for women’s squash players to get some match play and competition alongside getting to know other female players at the club, coaching clinics, and more wine and squash nights. If you are interested in taking up squash or being added to the email list for any of these exciting activities and events please email Stu Hadden at stuh@thedac.com

Cheers!

THE BEST OF THE BOASTERS

Boasters League Final round first half~~

It wasn’t the most impressive of first halves we have ever had on the Boasters League. It seems that every year it becomes harder and harder for members to find time to play their matches. The stats that you will see below show that participation was down, and we weren’t witnessing any type of panic or scramble from the players to get their final matches played, to reach that 5 match minimum… with the apparent popularity of the league amongst the members - registration fills up very quickly - I am at a loss somewhat as why some have such difficulty getting on court.

The final round didn’t produce any major surprises. Mongoose did take it easy and didn’t try too hard to pick up many points, making their margin of victory this first half closer than what it could really have been. Foss Nation made the biggest push to snatch second place, and the final round bye for Butter Nutz had them drop from 2^nd to 4^th.

Here are the numbers that I crunched for the half… we’ve seen better…

• Only 72.5% of matches were completed in this half. That’s 6% down from last year first half and way off the record of 85% set in 2016. 
• Round 1 had the most matches played – 86%. Round 8 had the least amount of matches played – 53%. 
• Foss Nation’s score of 244 would have been good for only 5^th spot last year in the first half. 
• Foss Nation also scored the most points in any one round – 42 in week two. The lowest was Nicker Ballers in round nine with 15. 
• Mongoose played the most matches with 79%. No prize if you guess the lowest… yep, Nick at Night with 59%. Last year, the lowest match percentage was 71%. 
• Mongoose also had the best win percentage with 57%. Which is not all that high which tells me the teams were pretty competitive. 
• The lowest win percentage was the Nicker Ballers with 39%. 
• Over Served had the most 3-0 wins with 27. Their 3-0 win percentage was 56%, meaning when they did win, they won 3-0 56% of the time. 
• Nick at Night and Wardogs had the lowest 3-0 win percentage with 29%. 
• The standings once again reflect the bonus points. Mongoose had the most (88), and Nick at Night (66) and Nicker Ballers (65) had the least. 
• 19 players picked up all 8 bonus points. Seven players did not pick up any bonus points at all. 
• Only 16 players played all 8 of their matches… ouch. Last year first half: 26.The year before that…36. What’s happening?? 
• Of those 16, none of them went through undefeated. 
• AJ Peleman (Vivio’s) picked up the most points for this half with 26.Two players had 25.

Not the most extraordinary numbers we have seen, but I am the ultimate optimist and we’ll keep pushing for bigger and better things moving forward. The second half of the league picks up again on January 8, I will go through the teams over the next couple of weeks and tweak the order here and there. I will do my utmost to keep you on your current team, but that will not always be possible. It’s all in the name of making the league – and your matches – as competitive as possible.

Have a great Holiday break, I hope Santa has you on the “nice” list, and we’ll see you all back on court in 2020!

THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS: SQUASH!

Julie Vande Vusse

By Stu Hadden

The DAC’s winter holiday squash fixture took place on Friday evening, whereby all participants bring a wrapped gift and play off through 4 rounds of Swiss format squash to have a chance at winning first pick of the gifts.

This year’s format was changed up a bit which proved to be a hit with the players. The layout was 4 games played to 5, with each game worth 1 point. At the end of 4 games, a one-point sudden death rally would be played for a 5th point. The match-ups were picked randomly out of a hat for the first round, with one player set to draw the joker (a first round bye due to an odd number of players in the event). In each subsequent round the players would be chosen to play other participants with the same point total as them. At the end of four rounds, the player with the most points would be crowned the victor and win first pick from the gift table.

Vikram Chopra

The evening kicked off with a wacky bit of mysticism from Julie Vande Vusse who arrived equipped with her crystal ball and successfully predicted both the order in which her name would be drawn from the hat, and who her opponent would be - the joker! This was to be the first of two Julie related scandals.

Derek Aguirre pitched up a little after the start time sporting sharp business attire and was mercilessly teased by our DAC squash captain in chief, Mick Joint, for his tardiness. After watching Derek’s first round I can only presume that he was late because he had been finishing up a block of top secret squash training at an undisclosed off-site location… he was on fire! It is widely believed that he turned up in a suit to show that he meant business since there was no messing around out there as he demolished opponent after opponent to finish second only to Vikram Chopra.

Midway through the second round a couple of the chaps wanted to demo rackets so I went up the stairs to grab them. Upon my return I was dismayed to discover Julie scandal number two: that she had taken over my job as the squash pro and was now running the tournament. Side note - If anyone knows of any job openings in the metro Detroit area please contact me directly.

 

Vikram proved to be in fine fettle, even after putting away many a beer, managing to hold his squash on lockdown and only dropped one point throughout the tournament. This occurred in the one point shootout where he was simply outgunned by Mike “The Cowboy” Wilson in an explosive sudden death finish. Everyone had a blast and the new format proved to be a huge hit with the players. If I don’t see you before, Merry Christmas to all of you and thank you for welcoming me to this amazing club in this amazing city.