THE BEST 3RD PLACE EVER

McQueenie Cup – Apr 22-23

This was the 10^th running of the McQueenie Cup. We have never won it. We have come close a couple of times, but we are – in reality – our own worst enemy. It has nothing to do with lack of effort, as you will read about below, but it is a numbers game, and it seems every year we just cannot field a full eight-man team. I encourage everyone to chat to any of our representatives to see exactly what they are missing out on. It is definitely worth the effort. Chicago once again were the ultimate hosts, complete with deep dish pizzas, warm but windy weather, rain, awful traffic, and some out-of-control riot involving gangs of teenagers late on Saturday night right outside the club. The full Windy City experience. Perfect! 

Four clubs were involved this year: St. Louis, Toledo, Chicago, and the DAC. St. Louis were also a man down for the singles portion, so their chance of claiming the McQueenie Cup were basically the same as ours: none. As for the doubles portion (named the “Aubrey Cup” after the esteemed DAC Athletic Director, Rex Aubrey), all four clubs had their two teams entered, except for Toledo who for some inexplicable reason confused the number “2” for the number “6” and saturated the draws.

For those of you who have looked inside our trophy cabinet in the court area, the “Aubrey Cup” was the enormous silver piece on the middle shelf that could have housed a small family of pygmies. Our victory in 2019 was perfectly timed since we were able to keep it for 3 years after Covid nixed the past two. With Toledo’s six teams this year, one would think that no one else would stand a chance. However, Toledo doesn’t have a doubles court. (In fact, they really don’t have singles courts either, but their makeshift ones serve them quite well!) With practice lacking, and in some cases, non-existent, Toledo failed to win any doubles matches at all.

We had our chances. Our A team – John Mann and Corey Kabot. (Yes, our ex-assistant squash pro is now a DAC member and wasted no time jumping into the fray!) It was a sketchy start though. The 2-1 loss to the St. Louis team was disappointing. It would have been nice to play one of the Toledo teams first just to shake off the rust off. Getting used to the court would have been helpful since it plays vastly different to ours. Not that the St. Louis team weren’t in the same boat mind you, they simply handled it better. The next two matches went 3-0 for the lads which kept them in the hunt. However, another disheartening 2-1 loss to the Chicago team in their final match did them in. With 2 wins and 2 (close) losses, John and Corey ended up 3^rd. The St. Louis pair swept the category going four for four.

The B draw went one step better for the DAC. Joey Gaylord and Mike Petix. A comfortable first match: 3-0. The second match wasn’t as smooth. Losing the first game, they looked a little lost. Doubles is a game of power and angles. They were basically executing neither. Picking it up for the next 2 games, stronger hitting, better length, better coverage. The 2-1 win put them in for a chance to take the category. The final match was against St. Louis. A veteran team, they read the play well, know the shots. Joey and Mike were not outclassed by any stretch of the imagination, but they simply weren’t consistent enough to take a game. Losing 3-0, St. Louis had won the B draw as well. The Aubrey Cup was headed back to the Gateway of the West. It may fit under the Arch if they are careful. With Mike and Joey’s result, we ended up in second place.

As mentioned earlier, with only 7 (instead of 8) singles players, the chance of wining the McQueenie Cup is not impossible, but it makes it immensely problematic. It would be like trying to win a basketball game with just 4 players. Of course, with our super-stud Stefan Houbtchev leading the charge, he could almost make up for us not having a second A player. Almost. Untroubled, Stefan sliced, diced, chopped, mopped, flicked, nicked, blasted and flabbergasted all that dared step on court with him. His scariest time on court was in the final match when he was 6-10 down in the second game, only to drop maybe 3 more points for the rest of the match. His scariest time off the court was when the beer cooler was empty after his match on Friday.

B draw: Robbie Biskup and Steve Brown. (Yes! The same Steve Brown that moved back to St. Louis a few years ago but kept his DAC membership!) It was grueling for our lads. Robbie’s first match was a tough nut to crack. A nut, that may have been better suited one level up (?). Robbie didn’t play poorly, but anything loose was dealt with effectively and efficiently. It was a 3-0 learning experience. Now that Robbie is stepping up to this standard, he can no longer afford not to be tight enough. His second match was a tad strange. A good hitter, but appeared for the most part not overly interested in running terribly hard. An awkward style to say the least, Robbie has no issue pushing remorselessly to the limit and exhausting himself to the point of flat-lining, The attitude of simply prepared to work harder paid off, and he took a 3-2 victory. In his last match, he bumped into Steve. Donning his U of M polo, Steve clearly hasn’t lost his silky touch. A flick lob here, a deft drop there, a reverse boast just to be cruel… he relies on his accuracy. He does, however, struggle to maintain all of that the longer the match drags out. Just like Robbie, Steve lost his first encounter (3-1) and then won the second (also 3-1) so this match-up was a virtual yin versus yang. Like a couple of Kardashian sisters fighting over a selfie-stick, these two went at it and left it all hanging out. A long 5-setter, combatting the muscle pain, the lungs blazing, Robbie fell over the finish line first. Of course, being from the same team, the result made absolutely zero difference to our overall score. But, they were assassinating themselves for the love of the game. Troopers.

For the C’s, we had the pleasure of the dynamic duo in James Van Dyke and Brian Ellison. Once again, if awards were given out for effort, we’d be drowning in gold medals. These wonder-twins decided to emulate themselves in the first round. Both went to five. And it was here where those of us that haven’t yet shed those Covid pounds made our lads regret some of the dietary choices made in the past 2 years or so.  Brian tried the “point-on-point-off” tactic for a while, but it was to no avail and lamentably faded in the last half of the game. It appeared that James was suffering the same fate but at 5-10 down he mounted the most unlikely comeback to tie it. With all the momentum behind him, and an open court backhand dropshot for a winner to take a 11-10 lead, James instead sent it flying out of court to the back right. The pressure of the situation proved to be his undoing. He was so close, he deserved the win. But, it was a 10-12 loss. He did, though, deserve the beer afterwards. James then redeemed himself for the rest of the weekend to claim the next two matches and finish a respectable 5^th. Brian, for his part, decided to repeat his first round modus operandi and experience déjà vu all over again. Another agonizing 5-set loss in his second match. Then he redeemed himself. He took the final match 3-1.

Will Markley took to the courts for us in the D’s. Now, here is a kid with potential. If only I was that fast… and fit… and light… and smiling… and just an all-round nice guy all the time… What he does need, however, is some coaching. A little structure to his game will go a long, long way. Being athletic (and friendly!) only gets you so far on a squash court. Especially when you come up against some very experienced opponents. Although Will did not win any of the matches, he improved with every outing. He was definitely very unlucky in his second match when he was 0-2 down and deep in the 3^rd set tie-break. It went On. For. Ever. Superbly entertaining, his opponent was seeing little birdies flying laps around his own head. Will never stopped running. Unfortunately, he lost it 19-21, but had he pinched the game, his opponent admitted that he was ruined. He could hardly walk straight. Mike Petix was our second representative and hats off to Mike for stepping up last minute to play singles on top of the doubles after a last minute cancellation. He wasn’t in singles shape, and even though he was rusty in his first match, he still managed the 3-0 win. The rustiness hadn’t completely vanished for his second match and the young whipper-snapper from Toledo had just a few too many retrievals for Mike’s liking. The third encounter went pretty much the same as the second, but a 4^th place finish was a decent effort.

So, as mentioned above, 7 players just doesn’t cut it. At the end of play on Friday, we had lost 5 of the 7 first round matches and were already out of contention. We do get an A++ for effort though. Here were the final scores:

1^st: U Club of Chicago – 144 points

2^nd: Toledo – 140

3^rd: DAC – 100

4^th: St. Louis – 86

(left to right) Joey Gaylord, Steve Brown, James Van Dyke,
Corey Kabot, Brian Ellison, John Mann, Robbie Biskup,
Mike Petix, Will Markley, Stefan Houbtchev

For the 10^th straight year, we have failed not only to win the Cup, but to actually finish ahead of Toledo. But, we are nothing if not persistent. We’ll get ‘em next year… Where, we aren’t too sure yet. It may be St. Louis, it may even be us hosting, although Chicago is a fun place to go…

Special mention to Yoni Ellous – the U Club squash pro for his efforts putting up with all the hooligans visiting his beautiful club. We know we are all a handful to deal with. And of course, a huge thank you to the DAC team. We had a great weekend on and off the court. Saturday night will stick in my mind for quite a while after entering an uppity night club called “Tao” … which if you looked up the definition of “Tao”, it had something to do with ‘harmony in the natural order’ and something, something, something about philosophical religion of Taoism… obviously concepts way beyond my mere mortal abilities of comprehension. Anyhoo, the “Tao” nightclub is anything but a “harmony of natural order” with it’s “Mmmpph, mmph, mmph, mmph” beat of techno music that rattles the deepest of bones at a volume that bleeds eardrums, the laser and strobe lights that would undoubtedly give you a seizure and send you into a catatonic state, and the cost of drinks that would fly me to Australia and back in first class. Of course, I was probably the oldest patron in the building as well, so like Lizzo’s wearing that outfit as she was boarding that plane… I didn’t exactly fit in.

Here's to an 8-man team next time… Cheers!

HOWE THE BLITZ WAS WON

Blitz Tournament - March 25, 2022 

A rally here, a point there... a mis-hit… a lucky framer… an easy unforced error… a fortunate bounce… an unfortunate bounce… a beer too many… a beer too few…? Just a handful of many factors that could / would change the outlook of a Blitz Tournament. An event where - by design - matches very often come done to the last couple of rallies, the desired scenario of that all-encompassing and exciting “sudden-death” rally!

Desperation often takes over. As does panic… and nerves… the overthinking… in some cases, the underthinking… the what-ifs… the “Oh-no’s!” … peer pressure… the nefariousness of these handicaps (as is typical, the first complaint of the handicap came even before the first ball was struck!) … the call of the keg begging to be consumed (“Paaa-uuul… driiiiink me…!!”) It is interesting the added stresses when a player is starting off a game either (up to) 13 points in the rears, or even that far ahead. Mind games. It’s borderline cruel. (“Muwahahaha!!”)

With 20 players, they were split into 4 groups of 5 players each. In the first group, it paid off to be fashionably late. Both Iain Prendergast and Schuyler Hamill made their entrance well past the start time and had to make up matches quickly. Iain took it all in stride, he lets his squash racquet do all the talking. A recent welcome addition to the DAC squash family, Iain is one of our top players and it appears there isn’t much that ruffles his feathers. As cool as the other side of the pillow, he systematically chopped through just about all 4 of his opponents. He lost only 2 rallies in three of the matches, but strangely stumbled against Schuyler losing 15-8 - Schuyler started with 11. Not that it made a difference to the results - both Schuyler and Iain advanced to the knock-out rounds anyway.

Group 2 was a toss up. Seven of the 10 matches were either 15-14 or 15-13. Every player in this group experienced at least one sudden-death point and won at least one match. This is where if we had just one different outcome in one of those matches, the winner of this tournament could have been someone else.  The two players that advanced int this group - Tom Howe and Alex Parker  - both won 2 matches 15-14. Alex actually ended up undefeated, not something I was expecting. It has been a while since I have seen him play, he has improved - where he picked up his backhand-volley-straight-drop half an inch above the tin and kissing the wall is a mystery! He needs to teach me.

Group 3 was also a competitive bunch. Once again, every player picked up at least one win. There were only 2 matches that ended up 15-14. Robbie Biskup picked up three wins and in doing so managed to blow out one of his squash shoes. Luckily for Robbie, we had some shoes in the pro shop that fit him - a rarity these days since the hardest item to find in the squash world are shoes - so Robbie was able to continue into the knock-out rounds without having to run around in socks. Mike Parker also advanced with three wins as well, his one loss was to rookie Brian Weitzel 15-13. Special mention to DJ Boyd in this group. He has been struggling to get on court over the past year or so with a persistent knee injury. It was great to see him back on court and getting involved again!

Group 4. Clear winner here - Henry Gembis. He went 4 for 4 in his matches, and is turning out to be a little thorn in my handicapping side. Once again, Henry refuses to acknowledge or respect the handicaps that I apply and swats them away with a subtle look of disdain - just like the look I get when my wife tells me we are having couscous for dinner. There were four matches that suffered through a sudden-death rally, Mike Jenkins won 2 of them, Viveka Mishra and Henry the other two. Jon Diewald lost two of them, and of course had he won them, he may have been in the finals. As it turned out, three players ended up with 2 wins and we were forced to rely on pure chance to see who would advance… the dreaded drawing of the straws! A 33% chance, Mike was very gentlemanly to allow Viveka to draw first. Not that it helped her. Whammy. Mike drew next and struck gold. His delight was short lived however - he had to play Iain in the first round of the finals.

Making up the handicaps now as we go along, the knock-out finals does turn out to be a drain on the fitness. Even though it’s just 1 game per match, once we stretch out into the 5th game and beyond, the legs and lungs start to protest. Naturally, the one (or two.. or let’s be honest 3+) beers that have been consumed by now aren’t exactly helping.

Henry Gembis once again didn’t care two hoots about the 8 points I gave him against Robbie Biskup, nor that Robbie had to break in his new pair of Stellar ‘Redback’ Squash Shoes (cool name). Thanks for coming, 15-9, is that all you have? He was taunting me.

Next in line for Henry was Schuyler Hamill. Schuyler, with a 9 point head start, did very well to eliminate the dark horse Alex Parker 15-11 in his quarter final. I had both players starting at scratch for this one. I figure that Henry cannot possibly make a mockery of a handicap that isn’t even there, right? Wrong. He’s an evil genius! Henry scored the 15-10 win and advanced to the final.

Henry Gembis and Tom Howe

The other side of the finals draw had Iain Prendergast take out Mike Jenkins 15-11 in the quarter final where he then met up with Tom Howe. Tom, for his part, squeaked past Mike Parker 15-13, a tough win in reality since Mike started with 10 and picked up a quick couple of points early on to really ramp up the pressure. Iain and Tom put on some great squash for the crowd. Tom’s seven point head start did turn out to be too big a hurdle to climb for Iain, he did close the gap by a couple of points but he needed the game to stretch a further than 15 if he was eventually going to catch up. Tom 15-10.

An exciting final. Henry v Tom. I gave Henry 9 points handicap wishing - praying - imploring - in fact genuflecting - for a close result. “Don’t make me look bad, don’t make me look bad…” Phew. I was saved. It did end up coming down to the last few rallies. Tom was catching up quickly, but the occasional point to Henry kept the pressure on just enough to cause significant tension. All the way to 13-all. Henry almost caused the upset, but Tom was simply too steady in the end. 15-13. Tom Howe takes his first Blitz Tournament title - winning 6 of 7 games, 2 of them 15-14, 3 of them 15-13. Henry for his part gets to the podium for the first time as well. Iain ended up winning the 3rd / 4th play-off. It was terrific to see many new faces to the event - let’s hope that trend continues!

BOASTERS BOSS IS FOSS NATION

 

Boasters League finals~~ 

Can you believe it? It’s the end of the league season! 21 weeks of battling it out, and it all comes down to one evening in March. Well, actually, that ‘one’ evening turned into an entire week as most of the matches were rearranged, spread out over 7 days. Only 6 of the 16 matches were played on the scheduled day which was somewhat disappointing since it does take away from the atmosphere that could have been.

Only three subs were needed overall which is not too bad, and each team collected 10 bonus points, which although for the final is very low, makes sure that the overall winner is determined on the squash court rather than who simply rocked up.

The first result came in on Monday. Evan Moore kicked off the Foss Nation campaign with a 2-1 win over Haytham Hermiz. Both Evan and Haytham are scramblers, I can only imagine the amount of running that was achieved in these three games. Evan has only been recording results since end of May last year, and this was his first match against Haytham.

Next in line was Tony Sorgi (Foss Nation) and Andrew Miller (Winky-Dinks) This would be their third meeting with so far one win each. Tony has been on quite the streak lately, winning 10 of his past 11 matches – a lot to do with his consistent lessons with Stu I’m sure – and he kept his streak alive here with a 3-0 victory. We were 2 matches in, and Foss Nation had already opened up a 4 point lead – a buffer that isn’t all that comfortable but would turn out to be consistent.

Two more off-setting scores were entered before Wednesday with each team taking a 3-0 win, allowing Foss Nation to preserve their margin. That lead fluctuated through the official league evening. A couple more 3-0 wins increased the lead to 9 at one point but Winky-Dinks did edge themselves back into contention with Will Owen picking up all of his 3 games against JB Peabody (an opponent he lost 1-2 to in December) and Matt Paradiso taking 2 of 3 games from JC Tibbitts who was subbing for the injured Dane Fossee. By the time Thursday morning rolled around, with 6 matches to play, Foss Nation was still 4 points ahead.

On Thursday, Nick Petcoff (Foss Nation) further helped out his team with a 2-1 victory over Landon Lefler. Nick has also been on quite the run, now winning 9 of his past 10 matches. It was now getting tight for Winky-Dinks. Five points to make up, five matches to play.

A little salvation though for the Winky-Dinks! Bert Donovan closed the gap taking all three games from Jonas Rodger who was kind enough to be subbing for the injured Robert Welch. It was now a 2 point difference and suddenly a very uncomfortable lead for Foss Nation. However, that 3-0 was immediately countered. Iain Prendergast has only lost one match since joining the league in January and he wasn’t about to change that stat on this occasion. His 3-0 win reinstated the 5 point lead once again, but now there was only 3 matches left.

It was possible now for Foss Nation to lock in the win with one more positive result. Standing in their way was Winky-Dink Sandy Selinger having to take on a tough opponent in Shail Arora. These two had played twice before in boasters league, both taking a 2-1 win. The first game was all Sandy – he rolled it 15-5. It was the wake-up call Shail apparently needed and with renewed focus he steadied himself, found his line and length and managed to take the next 2 games. And with that, Foss Nation had achieved their first Boasters League title! With 2 matches to go, they now had a 6 point lead. But even if Winky-Dinks were to win those 2 matches 3-0 and even up the points, the tie break would fall to the team with the most bonus points – which as mentioned above is also tied – so the second tie-break would be the team with the most wins on the day and Foss Nation already had nine of the 16 – an unassailable advantage.

The final two matches were completed over the weekend and Foss Nation cemented the win with Joe Schmidt picking up his team’s 10^th win. The final score: 37-31! Congratulations!

For the record, I picked Winky-Dinks to win last week. Clearly, my predictions are turning into the “kiss of death” but of course that won’t deter me from continuing to do it! I will try to learn from my misdeeds and improve my divination techniques next season… maybe go into witchcraft… or voodoo… black magic…? Can’t be any worse I guess!

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!

FOSS NATION DOMINATION

Boasters League quarter finals~~

Activity a plenty! The buzz of league finals makes it one of the more enjoyable evenings of the season. It never ceases to amaze me how everyone (most!) players are suddenly available to play on Wednesday, whereas during the regular season, it’s feels like pulling teeth to arrange the matches. I guess it is something to discuss with the captains over the summer: how to encourage regular participation from October onwards, not just March onwards.

Good news is that the quarter finals were decided on the court. Meaning, that most of the matches were completed. We aren’t left wondering about different outcomes (the could-haves!) because half a dozen contests didn’t manage to play. My crystal ball prophecies from last week once again prove that I have utterly no idea about such witchcraft. If I forecast that the sun would rise tomorrow morning – it wouldn’t. So I won’t.

Foss Nation v Butter Nutz

The first result to come in was 14-15; 15-12; 15-14. Brian Rassel (Foss Nation) squeaked past Ryan Covell (Butter Nutz) in what clearly was an epic encounter, worthy of a separate paragraph, photos and interviews, but since no one witnessed this blockbuster, we can only imagine the level to which these two performed. It also set the tone for this quarter final – Foss Nation never looked back.

The rout was on early. Greg Jones, Spencer Roed, Joe Schmidt and Iain Prendergast all recorded 3-0 wins and the only scoring that Butter Nutz could manage at this stage was their bonus points. However, no amount of bonus points were going to make up for this large deficit- they desperately needed some wins.

Mike Jenkins was the first winner of the night for the Butter Nutz. After losing game one to Shail Arora, he steadied the ship to roll out the next two. Scott Beals also took two of three games from John Roarty, and follow that up with another 2-1 win for John Perkins, the outlook was improving, but too slowly. Butter Nutz needed 3-0 victories. And fast.

Jack Bernard heard the frantic calls and stepped up to record the first straight sets victory for their team to give them just a glimmer of hope, They were mathematically still in it but the margin of error was decreasing with each passing match. And the glimmer of hope faded shortly thereafter.

Foss Nation’s Matt Buslepp was having none of it. Determined to stop any more talk or thought of a comeback, he took down Gordie Maitland 3-0. Tony Sorgi then picked up a game from Matt Moore, followed up by Matt’s identical clone Evan, who dampened the hefty cries of “Boo-Yah!” from Dewey Steffen with his 3-0 takedown, and suddenly Foss Nation could start thinking about next week. It was over.

A dominating performance, Foss Nation are looking like a tough opponent. Overall score: 43-29. My prediction last week: “Foss Nation by a hair.” I was right about the winner here, but waaay wrong about the hair! 

Vivio’s v Cadiuex Café

Motivated by my audacious announcement last week that Cadieux Café would be struggling to compete against Vivio’s, Patrick Petz inspired his team to greater heights. Determined to make me look like a babbling ignoramus (not that difficult apparently!), Cadieux Café gave Vivio’s everything they could handle. From start to finish, there was never more than a 3 point margin between the two teams, and the lead changed numerous times over the course of the evening.

Subs would play a part in these results. We needed five, found four, and three of them won. We had one forfeit for each team as well. Surprisingly, Vivio’s only managed 8 bonus points, which for a final is worryingly low. Cadieux Café picked up 11. Would it be the difference? It certainly helped to keep it close. 

The two teams traded wins all week long. A Mark Gregory (Cadieux Café) 2-1 win would be quickly countered with a Rich Stimson (Vivio’s) 2-1 win as well. And back and forth it went. Only 6 of the matches were played on Wednesday – eight of them were re-arranged (2 were not played), so by the time Thursday morning rolled around, no one really had any clue where the teams stood! We would have to wait until Friday morning to find out the final victor here. And it would come down to the number 2’s: Blake Ellis (Cadieux Café) v Derek Aguirre (Vivio’s).

Every match is important of course, but the fact that this one will make or break the season, the pressure was on, the focus intense. In round 6, Derek beat Blake 3-0. In fact, Derek has a solid record against Blake winning ten of their recorded twelve matches. But they haven’t played a lot in recent times. Outside of round 6, the last result was in February of 2020 and, notably, Blake actually won that encounter. Could he go against the trend again? Ummm, no, he could not. Derek seems to be in form and did not concede a game – a good move for his team because if he had done so, Vivio’s would have lost the day. I know there will be some mutterings and mumblings about this overall result: Vivio’s 32 - Cadieux Café – 31. I did predict a Vivio’s win here, but not one that came down to the wire. I got my ‘hairs’ crossed last week!

Onto the semifinals! First we have Foss Nation v Mongoose. Their round 4 meeting was close – 28-26 in favor of Mongoose. Twelve of the 16 matches were completed, Mongoose won 7 of them, only four of those were 3-0, and both teams picked up the same amount of bonus points. So it should be tight again, right? Well, one would think that from last week’s pathetic attempt of being a soothsayer, I would pack up my tea leaves and exit the building, but obviously I don’t learn from my own nitwittedness so here goes… the winner will be… and the team I therefore condemn …Foss Nation!

The other semifinal is Winky-Dinks v Vivio’s. They met way back in round 2, and Vivio’s pulled out the win 32-29. All but one match was played, only 4 of those results were 3-0, Vivio’s won 9 of the 15 matches both teams picked up the same amount of bonus points. Another anyone-can-win scenario it seems. In the spirit of keeping up with my shameless divinations, my tarot cards for this contest are telling me… to stop trying to predict results… not to complain about the broccoli in my dinner tonight… and that Vivio’s will be in the final!

NEVER IN DOUBT FOR MONGOOSE

Boasters League final round~~

During the entire second half of the season, for some reason it appeared to be a struggle to get the boosters matches played. And I found that strange because overall court usage has been particularly healthy. So people are playing… but just not their league matches? In either case, the last couple of weeks were an improvement on the first 7, however as you will see below, the stats are still somewhat unsightly.

The fact that Mongoose ended up on top should not be a surprise to anyone – comparatively speaking to other seasons, their stats aren’t off the charts by any means, they are simply better than the rest of the teams. Conversely, Nicker Ballers position shouldn’t be a shock either. The top six teams that are advancing to the play-offs were pretty much set weeks ago.

Biggest push of the last round came from Winky-Dinks with 47 points which was an important effort as they were chasing down Vivio’s for the coveted second spot on the standings. Their endeavors paid off as they overtook Rich Stimson’s team in the last few hours to grab that spot and be rewarded with a first-round pass in the finals.

Here are the stats for the half. They aren’t pretty…

·         Overall, 60% of matches were completed. Yeah, that’s very low. Up until the start of round 9, we were sitting under 50%. We had 72.5% of matches in the first half.

·         Mongoose won the half with 217 points. In 2019 second half (the last pre-Covid season) that would have been good enough for only 4^th. For the first half this season – 6^th.

·         Mongoose not only played the most amount of matches (66%), they also has the most bonus points by a wide margin – 79. The next best? Winky-Dinks with 63.

·         Two other teams also played 66% of their matches: Winky-Dinks and Butter Nutz.

·         Overall, 60% of the results were 2-1. This is my favorite stat – shows the competitiveness

·         Least amount of matches goes to Nicker Ballers with 50%.

·         Nicker Ballers also had the least amount of bonus points – by far. Only 29. The most players that turned up for them in any given week was 5. If they picked up as many bonus points as Mongoose, they would be in the play-offs.

·         Only 4 players picked up all 8 bonus points. And an amazing 14 players didn’t pick up any.

·         Vivio’s had the best winning percentage with 64%. Wardogs the lowest with 29%.

·         Winky-Dinks won the most 3-0 matches with 20.

·         Only 8 players played all 8 matches. None of the 8 went undefeated. (We had 27 players in the first half that played all 8 matches.)

·         Matt Paradiso (Winky-Dinks) picked up the most number of points for the half with 25.

·         Most points picked up in any one round is 39 by Vivio’s in round 3. Least amount of points was 10 – achieved by Nicker Ballers in round 1 (!).

·         All 16 matches in one round were not completed once. 15 matches were completed just once.

·         Most matches completed in any one round was 79.7% in round 2. Very low.

The quarter finals are upon us! The matches should be an interesting affair:

Vivio’s v Cadieux Café. Nothing like matching up Captains Rich Stimson and Patrick Petz for some friendly trash-talking! These 2 teams met in round 6 – one day before the start of the DAC Classic. Only 8 matches were completed, so it’s difficult to tell from only 50% of the results who the favorite should be here, but on that day, Vivio’s ruled the roost with a comprehensive 25 to 13 win. In fact, Vivio’s won 7 of those 8 matches. I guess it’s not too much of a stretch to predict that Cadieux Café will be in for a tough week.

The other quarter final we see Foss Nation tackling Butter Nutz. Their round 5 meeting was a lot closer: 24-23 to Butter Nutz. They played 13 of those matches and although Foss Nation won 8 of them, they strangely still lost. Bonus points were scarce that day as it was the evening of a big snow storm that kept all sane people at home. This one is a complete toss-up. But, as always, I’ll chuck some pressure on somebody here anyway and forecast a victory by a hair for… Foss Nation. (I’ve probably just doomed their chances!)

CLASSICALLY NORMAL

DAC Squash Classic Feb 10-13, 2022

Two years removed. Covid killed just about all squash tournaments in 2021, and as we were preparing to run this year, we were somewhat worried that Covid would claim us a second time as the Omicron variant was spreading and Ontario was once again in lockdown. Fortunately, the world was starting to open up as the start day approached and although we did not reach our usual maximum number of participants, I’ll take the 137 players we did get any day of the week. 

The worry was that the Canadians were not going to be able to cross the border at all, but with the contingent from London, Toronto, Sarnia, Chatham, and Windsor, we still managed 22 overall as opposed to the usual 40 or so. I was very pleased they made the effort and it was wonderful to see their familiar faces back at the DAC. That’s not to downplay the non-member entrants from the US either which included Chicago and Toledo, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and our friends from the BAC, Life Time Fitness in Troy - without each and every one, the tournament would simply not be the same.

The event felt very much that we had returned to ‘normal’… whatever ‘normal’ is these days I guess! Missing the one year actually felt like we had missed 10, so much has changed. Except the DAC Classic. I try to stick to the formula that seems to work and I hope that all the competitors felt very welcome and at home during the 4 days.

The squash…

In the lower categories, DAC members make up the bulk of the players. So, our odds of winning those categories is significantly higher. In the 2.5, all but 2 players were from inside our walls. AJ Peleman led the way with an almost perfect record to claim the title. His one ‘blemish’ was in the semi-final where he dropped a game to Matt Thatcher. AJ’s opponent in the final was a little surprising to me - Joe Schmidt. Joe had a terrific upset win in his second match taking out AJ’s biggest threat in Paul Gormley in 5 games. Joe’s run continued through the semis with a 3-1 win over Niko Ahee. AJ beat Joe 3-0 in the final, but to place a little perspective into Joe’s effort, Paul Gormley beat AJ last week in the boasters league. Naturally, AJ refused to hand over to Paul his winning Classic trophy… So standard-wise, based on that, one could claim they all are rather even!

Matt Wilson can claim the “Iron-Man” of the weekend. Entering 2 categories, he ended up with 8 matches. In the 3.0 a clean sweep. All four matches were a 3-0, including the final against Andrew Peleman. Matt is another one of our young members that has improved quickly over the past season. Mainly through athleticism and essentially being on court and playing countless matches, he does have an awkward style but so far it has been effective. It will be interesting to see how far he will be able to take this way of plying into the higher levels. We had 26 matches (including consolation) in the 3.0 draw, strangely, only one of them went to 5 games.

In the 3.5, Matt almost did the double-double. All but one of his matches were 3-0. His first round was the anomaly, he beat Tom Fabbri 3-1, and then matter-of-factly swatted away the next 2 opponents 3-0 to once again reach the final. It is unusual for anyone to reach the final of the main draw in 2 categories. If a player reaches the final in the 3.5, what is he doing in the 3.0? This is not Matt’s fault - if anyone is to blame, it’s me. Typically, the DAC Classic would be a stronger field than our club championships based on the non-members that enter. But this year, we just didn’t get as many of them. In fact, all players in the 3.5 category were DAC, and only 4 players in the 3.0 were not. Matt’s 3.5 opponent in the final was a new kid on the block, in fact had just been declared a DAC member 2 weeks before the tournament started - Sean Abelarde. His timing was perfect. I had just received a cancellation in the draw and Sean’s email reached my desktop not 10 minutes later asking if there was room in the same category. Sure enough, I slotted him in, and sure enough, Sean’s first DAC squash experience was a golden run to the title! He stopped Matt’s 7 match win streak with a 3-0 victory.

Now it starts to get tough for our lads. The 4.0 draw had some new players to the Classic, many of them were worthy to take the winner’s trophy. An extremely competitive field, only 3 of our members reached the quarter finals, and only one of them survived for one more match. Dark horse of the tournament was a veteran to the game - Dominic Carroll from Life Time fitness, who actually learnt his squash way back in the day in Zimbabwe / South Africa.  Dominic did it the hard way and maybe - just maybe - he has recovered by now. A quarter final win over our good friend and supporter Jay Nash from London, he then had to turn back the years to tackle a young set of legs from the Racquet Up Detroit crew - Antwan Ramsey. Using all the experience he could muster, somehow Dominic held off the whippersnapper for an 11-9 in the 5th victory. And just a few hours later, he had to play the final. If it was me, just thinking about backing up a match like that on the same day is enough to give me an aneurysm, make me curl up in the fetal position and wish myself off to my happy place… But for Dominic… Bring. It. On. Jeff Wong (Sarnia) was his opponent, and luckily for Dominic, Jeff hardly had a breezy walk through for his semi either. Jeff was taken to the brink by our Tom Howe before squeezing the 3-2 win. Somehow, some way, Dominic pushed Jeff to the limit - although most likely it wasn’t how he would have wanted it on paper - to another 5-set match. But in the end, finally, it caught up with him. Jeff breathed a sigh of relief with his 3-2 win. I bet the beer never tasted so good to both players!

Matt Paradiso continues to impress. In 2020, he won the 3.5 category. Now he was competing for the 4.5. He had a pretty straightforward run to the final, not dropping a game. His opponent in the final was another youthful spring chicken from Chatham – Gabe Van Moorsel. Tall with reach. And doesn’t know what tired means. And too young to drink - which for the DAC Classic can be a monumental advantage! Gabe’s run to the final was not as elementary. JC Tibbitts tested the lad in the quarter finals and took him to a deciding set but couldn’t finish the job. And Gabe had all he could handle against Matt. It was anyone’s match for the taking. Especially when it gets to 9-9 in the 5th. Who can hold their nerve more? Who can frame that lucky winner? Anything can happen. Unfortunately for Matt, luck was not on his side this time around. Gabe was just a couple of rallies too good in the end, negligible really, but enough to take the 11-9 in the 5th win!

The DAC had little representation in the 5.0. All quarter finalists were non-members, and 3 of the 4 semifinalists were from the BAC. Competitive matches throughout however, I can always rely on Brad Steel (BAC) to completely mess up the scheduling and push the matches way back since he insists on playing 5-set matches every time. Okay, okay, his first match was 3-1, but it still went past the allotted time! His semi was against Avinash Gali (Life Time). Similar playing styles, long rallies to length with the occasional boast, less- occasional drop, and the even less occasional winner. Of course, the 5 set match seemed to take all of Sunday morning, one would think they were playing a best of 9 games, not 5, but Avinash ended the marathon 3-2. His finalist was Jack Parks (BAC). Jack had an even tougher morning since not only did he have to play his semi (he won that 3-1 against his club compatriot Zach Edinburgh) he also had to play his Doubles A final - which will be mentioned shortly. The doubles seemed to take a lot of the skip out of his step, and he reluctantly made his way to the singles court. He still put up a decent resistance, but he couldn’t stop the Avinash freight train from winning 3-0. Avinash has been supporting the DAC Classic since 2015 where he won the 4.0 division. Dare he try for the Open in 2023?

In the Open, a smaller draw than previous years, but a strong level. Our 2019 club champion - Stefan Houbtchev - had his work cut out for him to win the category with David Mill (Windsor) in the draw. Stefan and David grew up together in Windsor and have been playing against each other not only through those junior years bit also at college in London Ontario. David has also won the u/23 Canadian championships a few years back, so he knows how hit a ball - hard. Both reached the final without drama. In the first game, it was Stefan who was the steadier of the two, David was uncharacteristically clipping the tin on a regular basis and it cost him. But he found a better line and pace in the second and forced his way back in the match. The next three games had the pace and level that we were expecting from the two, and David was the one who managed to keep his nose in front for the most part. It was a 3-1 win. We hope to be seeing more of David in the near future as he has applied to join the DAC!

On to the doubles. In the C, we had a full 16 team draw. Once again, the most shocking standout here was the lack of 5-set matches - there weren’t any. In fact, there were only three 3-1 results - out of the 15. I’m not sure I can remember ever seeing such one-sided looking results all the way through a draw - not to say that the matches were not competitive, they were just sweeps. Dominated again by our members, three of the four semifinalists were DAC. Rich Stimson and John Roarty were always going to be competing for the trophy and no exception here. They reached the final taking out the Canadian pair of Jess Wilken and Joe Longo to meet up against Jeff Rogers and Brian Ellison. On paper, this should have been down to the wire. Anything but a 3-0, right? Don’t tell Rich and John. It’s not the victory itself that was an upset, it was the 3-0 score line.

Closer matches through the B draw. Local favorites JC Tibbitts and Jason Currie were my pick to reach the final and they proved me right. They had a ding-dong semi against fellow members David de la Torre and Scott Beals - who by the way, made up a t-shirt with the name “de-la-Beals!” - and took a gritty 3-1 win. For the final they had the arduous task of playing Rory Bradd (Sarnia) and Gabe Van Moorsel (Chatham). It was a great match, JC and Jason doing all they could to keep up and for the most part they did exactly that. Overall though, the constant pressure ended up being a little too much to handle and the Canadian pair took a spirited final 3-1.

Doubles A. One of the most exciting draws we’ve seen for a while. Jed Elley and Ryan Covell won this category in 2020 but were agonizingly close to being eliminated in their first match this time around. The team of Max Franklin and Jess Berline (BAC) gave them everything they could handle and then some. At 2-2 and 10-14 down in the 5th it looked all but over. Miraculously, they found a way and came back to snatch victory 15-14! It was a short-lived joy though, they were then beaten soundly 3-0 in the semis by Stefan Houbtchev and David Mill. Peter Logan came all the way from Montana to team up with legend John Seidel (Toledo). The veteran team of the draw, but hardly push-overs. A rusty start to overcome the power of the father-son combination of Kevin and Carter Furmanek in 5 in round 1, they almost upset the second seeded team of Robin Basil and Zach Archer (Chicago) in round 2 to go down 15-12 in the 5th. It’s a thing of beauty to see experienced doubles players execute the angles so effortlessly on the doubles court. We hope to see John again on our courts, he is moving to Colorado later this year. Mark Eugeni (Windsor) is another staple feature of our tournament. He has won our singles and doubles titles multiple times over the years; he has enough steins to open his own coffee shop. His usual partner in crime is Jon Uffelman (BAC) but Jon is recovering from injury, so Mark teamed up with Jack Parks (BAC). Jack is not known for his doubles prowess, but he should be now. Impressive. He’s fast, he hit some wicked backhand angles to boot. They beat the Basil / Archer team 3-1 in the semis, to reach the final. However, it was always going to be difficult against the Mill / Houbtchev combination. Relentless power hitting, David’s balls sound different coming off the front wall. So exhausting to defend against, Stefan and David took the riveting final 3-1.

We look forward to 2023. I am expecting to be back to full capacity - barring any world-wide disasters! - so mark this same February weekend on your calendar. Thank you all around to all the sponsors, all the DAC staff and managers: Rob Barr, Nick Peet, Ryan and Val and all their locker room staff. Shout out to Josh Slominski and Morgan for their help with registration. And to Stu Hadden, our mercurial assistant squash pro.

CRUISING TO THE FINALS

Boasters League round 7 

Not much going on this week. Of course, a major reason for this would be the DAC Squash Classic that took up 4 days of the week, so court availability was scarce at best. Winky-Dinks put in the best performance this round with 25 points and with that, they now have jumped into 6^th position, currently holding on to the final play-off spot. It’s all pretty bunched up from 2^nd to 6^th, but Over Served in 7^th are in reaching distance. They failed to play any make-up matches in their off week, something they will need to change if they want to reach the finals. Mongoose still hold a commanding lead, extending it to 26 points over second placed Foss Nation.

It will be interesting to see if we see a mad scramble in the last couple of weeks. History would suggest that it’s a crap shoot if that happens. Based on how this half has been going, I’m not holding my breath.

Of the handful of matches last night, the closest result of the night was Salam Chaudhary (Nicker Ballers) over Blake Ellis (Cadieux Café). Salam took the match 2-1, but came back from 10-14 down in the 3^rd to pinch it 15-14! Clearly that stress wasn’t enough, Salam immediately took on Paul Ward for an encore and they played for what seemed like hours. Another 8 games? Or was it 10? I lost count.

A bruising affair upstairs between AJ Peleman (Butter Nutz) and Paul Gormley (Vivio’s). At times it was “who-can-hit-it-harder?” as both of them would slam a length, get an opportunity to attack to the front part of the court, but then slam another length. It did make for entertaining squash. I will, however, save AJ from the embarrassment of the complete whiff from a meat-ball in the middle of the court as I will neglect to mention it. I’ll also neglect to mention he whiffed the ball in the next rally as well, just to prove the first whiff wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t the cause of AJ’s loss in the match – Paul took the 2-1 win. In all seriousness though, it was a great battle.

Paul Huth (Mongoose) gets a special mention this week. Not because he lost his match to Matt Wilson (Winky-Dinks) 2-1, but because of the unending smile on his face. Say hello to the new Granddaddy in the DAC, Paul’s daughter Holly is the proud mum of a new baby boy! Paul is in heaven! We wish them all the best!

Two weeks before the play-offs. I am hoping for that mad scramble… with the standings as tight as they are, every match you play will make a difference. The top 2 teams will get the first round bye, the last 3 teams will be watching and pouting from the sidelines. Keep in mind that March 3 is the deadline to have all of your scores in to me. Once the scores are tallied the morning of March 4, any results that are reported afterwards will not be taken into consideration.

ALL CHASING THE MONGOOSE

Boasters League round 6 

Matches did pick up this week. Not to the level that is needed but it is an upward trend and hopefully we continue to see the rise for the remainder of the season. Mongoose once again is leading by example. They have extended their lead over the pack to 23 points, helped enormously due to the fact they have the most bonus points. As always, the team that turns up the most ends up right at (or near) top of the standings… and the team with the least… well that honor is currently being held by – you guessed it – the Nicker Ballers. And by a large margin.

The good news is that the standings are very close from second to sixth – just 10 points separate them. The Winky-Dinks are sitting in 7^th, just 7 points further back and are presently out of the play-offs. There should be a lot of shuffling going on. Remember, only the top 6 teams will advance and there are only 3 more weeks to go. The deadline for all the scores to be reported to me is March 3 (inclusive).

A couple of weeks ago Rich Stimson proclaimed his team - Vivio’s - to be the one to beat. They were 4^th on the ladder back then. They are now sitting pretty in second. They have only closed the gap by 6 points on Mongoose mind you, but his cheeky prognostication is heading in the right direction for now.

Match of the week must go to Gordie Maitland (Butter Nutz) and Julie Vande Vusse (Mongoose). They split the first two games 15-14 and it looked like they would be repeating the score line in the third until Gordie took a very ungentlemanly turn and decided to take the game 15-13 instead. It certainly was a move that lacked all civility, I mean it would have been the gallant thing to do to let Julie reach 14 at least. Right?

Another entertaining clash was Jason Currie (Mongoose) and Ryan Covell (Butter Nutz). It’s fun to watch two players of a similar level and style run themselves into the ground rally after rally. And, they appeared to be enjoying the torturous running as much as we were watching it. Jason ended up taking the match 2-1, a great win for him as he has only beaten Ryan 5 times out of 16 matches previous to yesterday.

Jake Whately (Wardogs) improved his second half record to 3 and 1 with a solid 2-1 victory over Will Markley (Over Served), and Matt Paradiso (Winky-Dinks) squeaked out a 2-1 triumph over new-comer to the DAC squash family Salam Chaudhary (Nicker Ballers) 2-1. Salam’s deft backhand hold drop wasn’t quite enough to overcome Matt’s youthfulness!

We move onto week 7. The round after the DAC Classic - which is usually quieter but I’m hoping to buck that trend this year. It will be an interesting tournament that starts tonight. We will be missing many Canadians, so the question remains… who will make up for their shenanigans? Who will replicate the Rob Doherty take-your-shirt-off-dancing-to-Michael-Jackson at the dinner / dance on Saturday? Or Gary Sullivan’s all nighter on Friday and Saturday… oh, actually, that will be Gary himself. Gary is coming. Should be a great weekend!!

SLUDGING ALONG

Boasters League round 4 

It feels like moving through week old molasses while wearing one of those atmospheric deep diving suits (you know, the ones with the metal helmets?) and pushing a block of concrete… uphill. With one arm. And ankles tied together. Such is the speed of which these boaters league matches are being played. Okay, okay, I am being a tad over-dramatic, and we can use the excuse for yesterday’s participation on Tuesday’s election. From what I heard it was a very successful day at the DAC, and celebrations went far into the wee hours, and no doubt the Wednesday morning was greeted with a few fuzzy-eyed headaches. But, believe it or not, we are just about half way through the second half of the season, and we’ve had a whopping 21% of matches completed so far.

Mongoose have increased their lead over the rest of the field, picking up the most points this week with 32, 9 better than next best Foss Nation. It’s not looking very promising for the Wardogs or Nicker Ballers, some dramatic improvement will be needed if they want to give themselves any chance of reaching the play-offs. The Nicker Ballers have the added dilemma of getting the bye week in the final round, so their situation is even more desperate.

All of this isn’t distressing Vivio’s captain Rich Stimson, who confidently announced that his team is the “team to beat”. A brazen if not brave statement considering they are 4^th on the standings and currently 29 points behind Mongoose. However, he may not be far off the mark if you currently look at the stats – They do have the highest win percentage – albeit it’s just 0.24% better than Mongoose – and they also have the best 3-0 win percentage, but they have the second lowest number of matches played so far. Like always – and with every team – it all comes down to who will turn and play.

Stand-out performances of the week: Mike Parker (Cadiuex Café) had the quick feet of Haytham Hermiz (Winky-Dinks) doing the double-two-step-tango-do-so-do as he boasted and angled and cross-courted and flicked and hit maybe a couple straight shots as well for his 2-1 win. I think Haytham’s head was still spinning in circles for at least 2 beers afterwards. Alex Parker (Vivio’s) followed in his father’s footsteps as he also recorded a 2-1 win over Kevin Thomas (Over Served) although his game style is a little more traditional.

But without a doubt, accomplishment of the night goes to John Mann who devoured an entire pizza while watching Jed and Vikram go at it. John’s form was flawless, poetry in motion, it’s beautiful to watch someone perform such feats as nature intended.

So, we are getting into the business end of the league season. Keep in mind that only the top 6 teams will reach the play-offs. Time to get busy. It’s also time for another coffee… one with a little extra ‘kick’ maybe…