WINKY-DINKS IN CHARGE

 Boasters League semifinals~~

The business end of the season. All the work during the season comes down to just a couple of matches in March. Of course, there is the added pressure – whether the players realize it or not – of my foretelling which tends to spray undetectable pixie dust randomly into the atmosphere and seems to demonstrate week after week that I’m utterly dysfunctional at it. This time, I got one right and one very, very, wrong.

We had six subs this week. For the league finals, this actually causes me the most stress. While they are unavoidable, finding the just the right level of sub is not easy. So far, the subs have a pretty good winning record if you count the quarterfinals as well, which depending on who they are subbing for isn’t a negative thing. But every now and then, I get it wrong. I’d like to apologize to Bert Donovan (Winky-Dinks) since the sub I arranged to play against him was a lot stronger than the player he was replacing. Definitely an oversight on my part, a momentary episode of carelessness…

Winky-Dinks v Vivio’s

True to form, the top teams always seem to accumulate bonus points. Winky-Dinks almost swept the table on Wednesday collecting 15 of 16, four more than Vivio’s, which is significant. First match of the evening we saw Henry Gembis (Vivio’s) and Will Owen (Winky-Dinks). Henry got off to a textbook start, building an early and considerable lead in the first game. It took Will a little time to find his feet and although he crawled back to even the score later on, it was tough to keep that run going and Henry managed to finish him off. However, Will had gained some confidence and took control for the rest of the contest. A 2-1 win for Winky-Dinks, and the catalyst for the rest of their team.

The wins kept coming. Sandy Selinger, Matt Paradiso, Vikram Chopra, Colin Casey…  none of these were upsets, but were extending the lead at a steady pace – and keeping in mind the bonus point advantage – Vivio’s task was becoming more daunting with every passing match. A little success for Vivio’s came after Alex Parker took a 2-1 win over Matt Wilson and then Brian Schrage also picked up a 2-1 victory over Glen Milligan, but Vivio’s couldn’t afford to lose any games at all, and this was slipping out of reach rapidly.  

Winky-Dinks captain Justin Winkelman was the final result to come that evening and his 3-0 win sealed the deal. It’s not often the result is settled with 4 results still to play (three of them were still completed on Thursday), Vivio’s was toast. It was an unassailable lead, even if Vivio’s would have managed to win all of those matches 3-0.

The final score: 42-29. Of course, last week I picked Vivio’s to win. Couldn’t have been more incorrect. Par for the course I guess.

Mongoose v Foss Nation

Down to the last match – again! Mongoose captain Paul Huth was on the prowl making sure his players – on pain of death - were turning up for their bonus points. They collected 3 more than Foss Nation, and those extra 3 points kept Mongoose in the hunt all the way. As close as the scores stayed between the teams, only 6 of the 16 matches were played on the Wednesday – 9 of them were completed early. There were eight 2-1 results and surprisingly, Foss Nation won 7 of them. The most notably was captain Dane Fossee who took down one of his Achilles heels in Greg Allare 2-1. Talk about winning when it counts. It was Dane’s first official recorded win over Greg… ever.

Mongoose did record one more 3-0 win than Foss Nation though, which was noteworthy considering they had only won 5 matches overall. With the bonus point advantage, at the end of play Wednesday, the scores were tied 33 apiece. It was coming down to the final match which was to be played at 6.45am on Friday: Mack Gembis (Mongoose) v Iain Prendergast (Foss Nation). No pressure fellas!

Iain is new to the DAC – he came on board this year – so he doesn’t have a lot of match history to go by. He and Mack have one result – with Iain taking a 2-1 win back in January. So this could go either way. My presumption was that the match was nothing short of legendary, a match where both players equally deserved to be the winner, a match that we all wish we could have witnessed. It was also a match that Iain won 3-0 and with it, advanced his team to the final!

Foss Nation take the victory 36-33! Keep in mind I actually picked this one last week. I think the ‘blind squirrel’ tactic is more successful for me!

The final next week! Winky-Dinks v Foss Nation. These 2 teams met in the final round of the season. Only 8 matches were played, each team won 4 of them, Winky-Dinks picked up 4 more bonus points (no surprise there!), and therefore ruled the day 21-19. So it was close, but 8 matches not played is a lot. Unfazed by my completely woeful record of being a clairvoyant, I once again gaze into the stars with a look of reverence, pretend to know what I’m on about, and announce that the winner of this year’s Boasters League will be… Winky-Dinks!