BRANDON BLITZES AGAIN

Blitz Tournament - October 11, 2019

As the day of the tournament rolled around, we had 24 players registered which was an acceptable number although I still can’t quite figure out why we don’t receive more. It’s an easy, quick event, doesn’t cost anything to play (except a couple hours of your time), there’s a great chance you will play against and meet new people, there’s a keg (you simply cannot argue with that one!) and it’s the perfect kick-off activity before hitting the weekend.

However, three cancellations came in over the day, whittling the number to 21, creating multiple scrambles to rearrange the draw. This seems to happen just about every single time, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is still somewhat irritating to say the least. They just miss out on all the fun I guess!

The players were split into 4 groups of four and 1 group of five. The top 2 players in each group then pass on to the knock-out bracket where then the they play out for 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The fate of the players very often lies in either the result of one solitary sudden-death rally, or completely with karma - meaning that if there is tie on the group stages, to determine who advances to the next stage is determined by pulling straws.

Let’s take Henry Gembis. Despite winning 2 of is 3 group stage matches, he failed to advance. He can blame Mario Ferrini for a third of that, given that if Mario had not won the 14-all sudden death rally against Jeff Rogers, Henry would have automatically have ended up second. A third of the blame can lie with Jeff Rogers as well after he won his sudden-death point against DJ Boyd. Had he not, Henry would have also qualified. Since Jeff and Mario squeaked out those victories, it created a 3-way tie for 1st place. Since only 2 of the players can advance, straws were then pulled. Henry can now blame Lady Luck for the other third, since he drew the short straw and was eliminated. I suggest Henry lay off playing the lottery this week.

DJ Boyd and Chuck Doyle

Henry’s brother Mack Gembis was a little more fortunate in his group. His 15-14 win against Chuck Doyle was the difference making point that awarded him second place and a place in the finals. Had he lost it, Chuck would have taken his place.

There was no need to draw straws in the third group, although each player did end up with one win. The Jon Diewald and John Rogers result was, however, the one 15-14 score that may have changed the outcome. Had Jon Diewald won it, it would have forced a 3-way tie just like the first group and who advanced to the finals would have been left to the stars once again. But it was not to be. Which makes me think… would a player prefer to be eliminated by simply not winning enough matches in their group, or be eliminated by drawing the short straw? Henry may have an answer to that…?

The fourth group had the 5 players, so they did have to work harder to qualify. Michael DiFrancesco probably was delighted that his path would be more strenuous, and he dominated the others taking all 4 games and not having the pressure at one single sudden-death rally. In fact, out of the 10 games in the group, there wasn’t one single 15-14 result. A little strange. Second place was not so clear cut. Paul Gormley and Brandon Tasco both ended up with 2 wins so the Squash Gods would have to make their choice. It appeared that Paul hasn’t been putting in the praying hours needed to curry favor, the Squash Gods clearly frown upon such misgivings and awarded the long straw to Brandon instead!

The fifth group ended up with two 15-14 results, both of which would have avoided the ‘agony’ of leaving the decision of who advances out of the hands to three plastic, cocktail stirring instruments of fortune. Peter Shumaker avoided that scenario by winning all three of the games, but the other 3 players all had 1 win each. Had Cathy Lysack beaten Han Peng - or had Ted Morris beaten Cathy Lysack - on that winner take all rally at 14-14, second place would have been clear. But back we were at the straws… only one would survive… Han takes the first guess and… loses! Cathy then takes a deep breath… it’s a 50/50 chance now… and… wins! The good news is that as the event moved along, Henry Gembis was feeling less lonely.

Knock out rounds where the handicaps are made up on the spot, bribes to the organizer are readily accepted, and the underdogs are clearly the crowd favorites. This also starts to test the fitness levels of the players. Even though it may not appear to be overly taxing, this event takes a little over 2 hours, by the end of the the finalists would have between 6-7 games. That’s actually a fair amount, especially since rest times between games in the knock-out round can only be a couple of minutes at best. Andrew Miller won group 2, which in reality doesn’t at all guarantee an easier run that what he would have received had he come second. His quarter final match was against Mario Ferrini. Andrew started with 8 points and held off Mario just enough to edge the 15-13 victory. His semifinal was just as difficult: Brandon T. Brandon - you remember - only qualified through his successful straw drawing and was only in the semifinal as well after beating Robbie Biskup 15-14 in the quarter final. Brandon likes taking things to the edge it appears. He was giving Andrew 8 points handicap as well, but by this stage Andrew was feeling the effects of all his previous matches. His legs wouldn’t cooperate as freely and Brandon took the match 15-10 earning is spot own the final. For Andrew, he wasn’t quite done either - he had the 3rd / 4th place to contend with still.

Michael DiFrancesco and Andrew Miller

The other side of the knock-out draw had the ‘dark horse’ of the event Jeff Rogers frustrating his opponents. Easy to underestimate, Jeff is proving to be quite the bit better than he looks (no offense intended of course!). His first match was against Mack Gembis and I offered Jeff 9 points head start - which to Jeff was a clear insult and he insisted on taking just 3 instead. I was somewhat surprised but if that is what we wanted to do, then he would have no one else to blame but himself. Three it was. And three was all he needed. He proved me totally incompetent by pulling out the 15-14 win! A great win to say the least. His next match, the semifinal, was against Michael DiFrancesco. I wasn’t about to make the same insulting move here - not with these two - so the match would start at 0-0. Both readily agreed. A scrambling feast had Jeff take the 15-7 win. In my mind I wasn’t surprised with the score, I may have offered Michael 4 or 5 points to start, but knowing he probably wouldn’t have taken it…

Brandon Tasco and Jeff Rogers

The 3rd / 4th play-off: Andrew Miller v Michael DiFrancesco. Straight up. No handicap here. I would like to see these two play when both are fresh. I think it would be a ball-buster. However, Michael was holding the fitness edge after all the games over the evening and although Andrew was pushing himself hard, he fell just a few pints short. Michael takes 3rd place with a tough - and overall terrific performance - 15-10.

The final. Jeff Rogers v Brandon T. In my head I was leaning towards 6 or 7 points for Jeff, but before I could even start to announce it, Jeff was walking on court declaring it would be a straight up contest. 0-0. He wanted not part of any help. The crowd tried their best to influence him to take at least some handicap but Jeff was defiant. Nope. Not happening. Brandon - for his part - wasn’t about to argue! The game started off point for point - to 4-all. Up to that stage, it looked like Jeff would once again prove all the critics wrong. But then it was pretty much one way traffic for Brandon who grabbed the momentum and wasn’t letting go. He rolled the rest of the game and walked off the 15-6 winner. This would be Brandon’s second Blitz title - he won this event in March of 2018. Congratulations to all who competed, maybe you could influence your fellow members into playing the next one!

QUIETER NIGHT, NO BIG MOVERS YET

Boasters League round 2~~

There was just a little shuffling with the standings this week, as no one team has stood out just yet. Not a lot of action, being proved by the fact that the most points picked up on Wednesday was just 32 by team Vivio’s. That’s not very high, but good enough to give them top billing after 2 rounds. It is nice to be first, but I wouldn’t be pumping the fists too much considering the 4^th placed team is just two 3-0 wins behind them.

As far as bonus points go, five teams picked up more of them than what they scored on court! I get the importance of the bonus point – since I say often enough that the teams that turn up are more successful – but let me also add that getting on court as well and actually playing the match is in reality priority number one. We are two weeks in, and we have 51 players that haven’t yet completed a match… Good news is that we are only 2 weeks in. Plenty of time. But let’s not wait around too long to get the motor running, okay?

A number of 3-0 results have come in so far, but that’s not to say they haven’t been competitive. I managed to sneak a peak of the final game between Brady Savage (Foss Nation) and Will Markley (Wardogs) and since I wasn’t following the score too closely, from the back and forth these two were displaying – impressive court coverage to say the least (how I long for the days that I could move with… let’s call it “careless” speed without any thought of crashing head first into a wall) – I couldn’t tell who was winning. In fact when they walked off, it was Brady who appeared in the most discomfort whereas Will was smiling despite the deep, heavy breathing, and when I asked what the score was, Brady couldn’t even talk! Will happily divulged he had lost 3-0. Could have fooled me, Will! If you had said you had won, I doubt Brady had the energy to correct you. Of course, after a short break, they both went back on the court to continue annihilating themselves.

In another entertaining affair, Tony Sorgi (Butter Nutz) and Matt Peleman (Vivio’s) seemed hell bent on destroying the other’s physical well-being. I watch some of these rallies and think to myself that at some point I would simply just stop rather than risk structural collapse. But the younger crew haven’t learnt that life lesson yet (or so it seems). Tony picked up his second straight 2-1 win. Matt picked up his beer and will fight to live another day.

In other matches that make this week’s newsreel: Han Peng (Nick at Night) scored his first ever win in 4 attempts over Sandy Selinger (Winky-Dinks) with a 2-1 victory here; Jon Diewald (Winky-Dinks) played Steve Smihal (Nick at Night) for the 24^th time in recorded history and the 2-1 win here gives him a 16 to 8 advantage in that little rivalry; and Mike Rock (Mongoose) played the late show with Dewey Steffen (Nicker Ballers) and took a 2-1 win in their first ever meeting.

So moving to week three, we already have a 1^st v 2^nd as Vivio’s take on Mongoose and actually the 2 captains are scheduled to play each other. We also have a 3^rd v 4^th (Butter Nutz v Foss Nation), so maybe this is the week that the top teams start to separate themselves from the rest? Exciting stuff to say the least! Almost as exciting as the Gaylord / Thomas v Tibbitts / Currie doubles match last night. Almost… but not quite.

AND AAWAAAAY WE GO!

Boasters League round 1~~

 

Finally, the squash season has blessed us with its presence. After a summer that kept more than most of the players away on the golf course, on the lake, up north, standing at the BBQ, and not watching the Tigers, it was refreshing to see that you still remembered where the DAC is located, where the keg stands in the court area, and where the Handballers located their taco bar.

Timing was perfect for those of you celebrating week 1 as we introduced our new squash pro into the squash family mix. Stu Hadden is still trying to let it all sink in as he tries to recollect the 100 plus names thrown at him (and forgetting most, if not all of them!) and icing and massaging his hand from all the handshakes. He is of course not the only one sore from all the activity. I am going to imagine that a decent portion of you are suffering with some sort of muscle tightness in the legs, shoulders, back and derriere areas… actually, some of you probably are sore from the tips of your toenails to the flaps of your earlobes. Our morning porter that sweeps the court is sore from cleaning up all the rust particles as well.

The top team out of the gates this season was Mongoose. A tally of 31 points, helped along not just by winning 7 of their 9 matches (so far) and picking up an acceptable 11 bonus points, but having 4 of their team members attend last week’s referee clinic. Just 3 points behind are the Wardogs, who actually scored exactly the same amount of points on court and amount of bonus points as Mongoose, but only had 1 player at the referee clinic.

Slower starts for Over Served and Winky-Dinks, completing just 4 matches and also receiving the fewest bonus points for the week. We are only 2 days into the season, so I wouldn’t be reading anything into the standings right now. But that being said, a good start is very helpful.

We have over 30 bodies in the league this year that are new to us. Many of those very new to squash as well. Aaron Haubert (Vivio’s) and Landon Lefler (Wardogs) were 2 of those, and as Aaron ventured out for his first ever match he declared that he was setting his expectations rather low as not to disappoint himself! Well, he actually exceeded those expectations, he didn’t win, but a 1-2 result for him was a good start to his very young squash career.

Another first-timer, Will Owen (Butter Nutz) actually won 3-0 in his opening contest against Spencer Forester (Nicker Ballers), but of course when you are over 6 foot 5 and Will is, there isn’t a lot of balls you can’t reach.

Michael DiFrancesco (Wardogs) started off his 2019 campaign against his good friend (and squash nemesis) Max Ritter (Vivio’s). Max had beaten three times in a row leading up to this match so he had the mental advantage. However, Michael isn’t one to shy away from a challenge and up to the task, he broke the streak with a 2-1 victory. In probably one of the best matches of the round happened later in the evening when (I guess) no one was watching. Blake Roller (Mongoose) bragged it was a ‘really good match’ even though he lost 2-1 to Schuyler Hamill (Foss Nation). When the loser of the match compliments the standard, it must have been worth something!

The race has started. Don’t let your matches pile up. Don’t fall behind. Don’t be surprised at how much food John Mann can eat in one sitting. Don’t give up on the Lions just yet, they have actually been impressive so far (even though there are many weeks left to change that fact!). They can’t lose this week, so how often in the history of the franchise have you been able to boast that after 5 weeks, they have only lost once? Be proud!

And play more squash.