DECENT TURNOUT FROM ALL TEAMS

Boasters League round 4~~

It was a busy night on the league courts – I finally crept out the door just before 8pm last night and I believe 3 of the 4 courts were still in use. That’s a great sign and hopefully a trend that continues. Even better, was that the turnout was pretty evenly spread amongst the 8 playing teams. With the exception to Vivio’s who had the bye, all teams picked up between 23 and 29 points. Because of the parity, the standings this week weren’t all that affected (as in no one separated themselves) … except for the idle Vivio’s of course. They picked up 7 points in makeup matches, but dropped from second spot last week all the way to 6^th this week. That sounds terrible, but putting it into context, of the 4 teams that have had the bye so far, Vivio’s have the best score.

Mongoose have increased their lead to 15 points atop the ladder, Butter Nutz take over second spot, with Wardogs making the biggest move this week from 5^th to 3^rd. All at the expense of Vivio’s. But with all the teams pretty well bunched together, I expect the standings to be shuffling around rather regularly. As far as bonus points go this week, all teams picked up between 9 and 12 of them with Over Served being the outlier with just 7. Over Served has the least overall as well. They are last.

Some noteworthy results worth mentioning… John Mann (Over Served) somehow managed to beat Mack Gembis (Butter Nutz) 2-1, with the last two games being 15-14. John was delighted that it was a boasters league match and not a best-of-5 box match as he very much doubted he could have kept up the pace any longer. Mack for his part, went straight back on court to run some more.

Gordie Maitland (Nicker Ballers) took down Mike McCuish (Foss Nation) 3-0 which on the surface doesn’t sound overly exciting, but according to Gordie, he pulled out his world class backhand volley drop that was clearly unreturnable, even for pros. I suggested we film it and out it on You Tube for all the world to see, for no doubt it would instantaneously go viral, but he didn’t want to divulge his secret weapon to the world and future opponents.

Other commendable efforts to report…: Dewey Steffen (Nicker Ballers) picks up his first win of the season, taking care of business 2-1 against Ted Morris (Foss Nation); Andrew Peleman (Nick at Night) overcame the determined John Stelter (Wardogs) with just a little too much speed and took the 2-1 victory; and Jon Diewald (Winky-Dinks) gets his second win of the season, pinching 2 of 3 games from Kyle Keppen (Mongoose). So happy was Jon with his win, he rewarded himself with a new racquet!

Round 5 next week (yes – that’s half way through!) and then a week off as the Women’s Pro Squash Classic comes to town. Time to make up some missed matches,

numbers are picking up, but we still have 13 players yet to step on court. That’s down significantly from the 29 last week, (yay!) but this should be zero.

And any predictions on the Lions v Giants this weekend? I am still riding on the Lions wagon so I think they’ll win, but he wheels are starting to wobble a little. A must win as far as I see it…

MONGOOSE LEAP AHEAD

Boasters League round 3~~

As players ease themselves back into the season, the league hasn’t quite yet kicked into full gear. Some seem to be struggling to get the motor running and find their way to the courts. We are three weeks in and at the time I am writing this, 29 players are still yet to record a score. We also have 29 players that haven’t recorded a bonus point either. I am sure that will change quickly, right?

Mongoose scooted ahead this week, catapulting themselves into first place by picking up 38 points, 11 better than the next best Nicker Ballers. The rest of the field is keeping relatively tight quarters with one another, with the exception of Over Served that already need to be careful not to fall too far behind. Picking up a paltry 14 points this week is not a formula for success. Once again, just like last week, five teams scored more points for simply walking in the door than what they did for walking on the court. This also needs to change quickly, right?

There were some interesting results this week for the ones who did manage to play. Ryan Covell (Nicker Ballers) fell 1-2 to Brain Rassel (Wardogs) in a topsy-turvy match that had some good squash and some scrappy squash thrown into the mix as well. There still may be some rust to shake off, often the length was lacking here, but it was still competitive nonetheless. Shot of the match goes hands down, however, to Ryan who produced the overhead mid-court backhand volley into the front right corner nick. A shot that stopped him in his tracks, as he wasn’t too sure what he had just done. It may be the first backhand volley nick he had ever hit, he no doubt had blissful dreams about it last night as well! It was pretty, I must admit.

George Kordas (Foss Nation) stunned all the pundits by pinching a game off Jed Elley (Butter Nutz) with some old school sharp and low racquetball angles catching Jed a little on his heels. George of course, recognizing how successful that tactic was, employed it on the doubles court soon thereafter – with Jed as his partner this time – and the pair took down the current DAC doubles club champions Vikram Chopra and Stefan Houbtchev 3-1. Actually, Vikram and Stefan are 0 for 2 in the doubles league so far, but we since this is an article on the Boasters League, I won’t waste time and mention that.

Blake Roller (Mongoose) thought he was in for an easy ride against Matt Peleman (Vivio’s) after steamrolling through the first game 15-2. But Matt shook it all off for the second and third and made up for the slow start to sneak the 2-1 victory. In other tough matches, Jordan Dean (Nicker Ballers) handed Michael DiFrancesco (Wardogs) his first loss of the season with a 2-1 win; Jerry Rock (Mongoose) gets his third win in a row with a 2-1 victory over Tom Fabbri (Vivio’s); and Kevin Thomas (Nick at Night) is two for two after taking down Jay Poplawski (Over Served) 2-1.

As November creeps closer (yes, we are just over 2 months away from Christmas… Muwahahaha!) the stress of matches piling up on people is staring to become real. All players must reach the 5 match minimum mark in order to play in the second half, so you cannot afford to wait any longer. We need to pick it up.

And any predictions on the Lions v Vikings / Refs this weekend…? I am still optimistic that the Lions will win this one, so long as our defensive line play with their hands in their pockets.