DECIDED BY BONUS POINTS… AGAIN?

Summer League round 7~~

Firstly, well done to the top 3 teams in the standings. From round 3 onwards “Serves of Steel”, the “Court Jesters”, and the “Volleybrawlers” did not relinquish those positions. That’s a tough thing to do in the summer where playing consistently is the biggest challenge most players face. The fourth and last play-off spot was really the one that was up for grabs. The next three teams – “Sure to Shank Redemption”, “The Balled and the Beautiful” and “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” – had the best chance to capture it, but neither of them really took command. It wasn’t as if they all piled on points in the last couple of weeks to make a statement, but it was more ‘business as usual’ as they ambled along. Consequently, it stayed a tight race and once again it was the bonus points that made the difference.

“Sure to Shank Redemption” and “The Balled and the Beautiful” both ended up fourth with 74 points. However, since “Sure to Shank Redemption” collected 3 more bonus points, they will be moving ahead. One again, the team looking from the outside in must be left wondering how they possibly could not have picked up one more point somewhere along the line. If they really want to see where they let themselves down, they only need to look at round 5 – they only played 1 match.

The video you see is the first half of the second game between Bruce VandeVusse (“We Got The Runs”) and James Van Dyke (“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”). James has improved markedly over the past 8 months but on this day he could not get the better of Bruce who beat him 2-1.



As usual, I like to go through all the results of the season and pull some interesting statistics:
• 56 players were in the league this year. That’s down from 64 last year, and down from the all-time high of 72 back in 2007.
• 64% of matches were played this year. Even though it may not seem like it, that’s only 3% down on last year. It certainly felt less attended.
• In three of the rounds, “We Got the Runs” picked up more points by turning up than winning games. They finished second last, but had the most bonus points in the league which made up 47% of their overall total. They only won 31% of the matches they did play. The lowest by a long way.
• One player from the “Alcoballics” made up 37% of their team’s total. They finished last. They only collected a total of 13 bonus points for the season, averaging less than 2 a week. With 29% of their season total coming from round 1, they averaged just over 6 points per week thereafter.
• Keeping on the “Alcoballics”, even though they played the least amount of matches with 59%, their winning percentage was the highest with 70%. That’s 7% higher than the next best team. Imagine if they played more often!!
• Three players from “The Balled and the Beautiful” made up for 78% of the team’s total.
• In round 3, not one player from “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” versus “Alcoballics” turned up. I believe that’s a first.
• Each team match-up consisted of 7 matches. All 7 matches from one round were completed only once.
• Only one player in the entire league picked up all 7 bonus points – Jim Kelly (“Court Jesters”)
• Seven players played all 7 matches. None of them went through undefeated.
• Manny Tancer (“The Balled and the Beautiful”) and Jeff Jardine (“We Got the Runs”) collected the most overall points with 23. Doug Troszak (“Hit Me With Your Best Shot”) and Steve Murphy (“Sure to Shank Redemption”) both accumulated 22. Only Steve's team advanced to the play-offs.

The semi-finals – on paper at least, and if everybody plays – looks like it should be close. During the season, “Serves of Steel” beat “Sure to Shank Redemption” by 1 point, and the “Court Jesters” and “Volleybrawlers” actually tied back in round 1 (although the “Court Jesters” had more bonus points). Hopefully, it won’t be decided on the dreaded bonus point but rather on the court… we’ll see!