Could it be that round 9 will only be played to see what seeding the 6 finalists will receive? Are the bottom three teams too far behind to even be considered? Going into the last week, the 20 point difference between 6th and 7th looks monumental. Especially when you consider everybody has 7 days left to get as many results in as possible. It has been a lackluster second half in terms of playing matches, and I fear “Destiny”, “Foss-ters”, and “WallEED” are looking at an early league end.
So more of the interest will be focused on which two teams end up first and second and therefore receive the first round bye in the finals. I’m going to put a “brave” prediction forward and say it will be “Winky-Dinks” and “Butter Nutz”. Even though “Mongoose” is tied with the league leaders right now, they must sit out week 9 with the bye, and I don’t quite see “Mercedes” closing the gap that much. But a lot can happen in a week, there are literally a ton of matches to be made up, and who knows, maybe “WallEED” have it all figured out and are on the brink of a colossal comeback…!
Activity was rather healthy last night, “Winky-Dinks” once again blitzed the bonus point count picking up another 10 and also playing the most round 8 matches up to date (along with “Vivio’s”). “Butter Nutz” had their quietest round of the season with only 4 bonus points and 4 matches completed – something captain Sante wasn’t particularly pleased about this close to the finals. Not that they won’t be playing in them, but finishing top of the standings is a minor victory.
A few tough, close matches to mention: Bruce Shaw (“Wardogs”) went down fighting 2-1 to Terry Lang (“Destiny”), both players coming off the court panting for survival, almost to the point of not being able to put a coherent sentence together; meanwhile on the court next door, Jay Poplawski (“Vivio’s”) and Kevin Kennedy (“Winky-Dinks”) where putting themselves through a similar punishment – with Jay taking the 2-1 win; Bill Rivard (“Vivio’s”) picked up his first win of the second half taking down the effervescent Britt-Marie (“Winky-Dinks”) 2-1 (notice how Britt-Marie doesn’t need a surname attached anymore. Just like ‘Madonna’. We all know who it is!!).
The last round is nigh. MARCH 7 (inclusive) is the deadline for all matches and scores to be in. The quarter final schedule will be sent out on March 8.