Blitz
Tournament - March 14, 2014
I was a
little disappointed with the amount of entries we received for this Blitz
Tournament. Two days before the event we had 20 players - which is average -
and by the time we started we only had 18. Nothing was taken away from the
competitiveness, but I would have liked a few more bodies. I wonder why more
people don’t take advantage of the opportunity to get on court with new people
- as a couple of members of the 2.5 level mentioned to me, it was a great
experience playing against the 4.0 (and up) guys.
Handicapping
this event involves a little guess work, a little luck, and a little bit of a
spine having to ignore all the complaints. The higher ranked players scream
it’s too much, the lower ones not enough. I try to make it relatively difficult
for the higher ranked players as they are supposed to win - force them to be very
careful on court. Every unforced error carries more weight, every ‘lucky’
winner from their opponent that much more valuable.
Mike
Counsman had a tough
time in the round robin portion and fell victim to a rough start. He lost his
first three matches, including going down to newcomer Steve Boloven 15-13. Steve did a magnificent
job at 14-13 digging out a deep forehand for a boast winner catching Mike
unawares. Mike did manage to win his last game against Josh Slominski 15-14, but only after saving 3
match balls in the process. Josh decided to live on the edge for his round
robin matches. He actually beat Steve Boloven 15-14, but went down to Chuck Doyle in the final match of the group
14-15. That loss forced a ‘drawing of straws’ between Josh and Bert Donovan to see who would advance to the
knock-out round. (Chuck won the group.) Lucky for Josh, his loss to Chuck
didn’t come back to haunt him - he won the pass ahead.
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| Matt and Kevin. Lovely. |
Matt
DiDio earned his
advancement winning all of his round robin matches. He escaped with a 15-14 win
over Kevin
Prather in one of
the matches, coming off the court a little relieved because he initially underestimated
the big man until he ripped a return of serve for an outright winner half way
through. Anil
Kathuria also
advanced from that group, but not before a close call against Kevin as well -
not on the score board (Anil won 15-11), but physically! After missing an
“easy” drop shot in the front left corner (no shots are “easy”, right?) Kevin
threw his racquet up in despair, only to have the unsuspecting Anil walk right
under it at the perfect time and have it clonk on top of his head! No damage
done (as far as we can see!), total accident. Good for a laugh, though!
Like Matt, Bob Rogers went undefeated in his group
too. Of the six matches played in that group, 3 of the them ended up 15-14.
Sudden death points are always exciting, even when the two players are not of
the same standard. The crowd certainly tends to get behind the underdog rather
strongly. Ted
Morris unfortunately
was on the wrong end of two of the sudden death rallies, and Sante Fratarcangeli was the winner of the third.
That proved to be an important winning rally for Sante - if he had lost that
point, Tom
Shafer would have
advanced to the knock out round instead of him.
Chris
Van Tol completed
his group going 4 for 4 as well. His was the only group that did not have any
matches come down to a 14-14 winner take all rally. The final match of this
group would decide who along with Chris would move on to the final draw. Dino DeMare and Dane Fossee battled it out with Dane taking
the honors 15-12 after having to give up 6 points handicap at the start.
Of the 8
finalists in the knock-out draw, 2 of them had won it before: Sante and Josh.
(Josh has actually won it twice!) Josh’s first opponent was Matt DiDio, I handed Josh 6 points head
start. I knew it would be tough for Matt, but as I said earlier - that was the
idea. It turned out the handicap was off by about 14 points - in the wrong
direction! Matt looked rather lost on court as Josh chopped him up 15-6. In the
quote of the day, Matt’s parting words were altogether humorous and
unprintable.
Sante’s first
game was against Chris
Van Tol. No handicap
was given here, they played straight up. Good thing too. It was a great game,
both players charged around the court not giving the other an inch. Chris kept
his nose in front (barely) and look poised to advance when he held a 14-12
lead. But that final point can be the hardest to win, and in fact, he couldn’t
win it at all. Sante bullied his way back and stole the victory 15-14.
He kept up
that attitude against Josh in the semi. Even with 5 points handicap, and
playing pretty solid squash, Josh couldn’t keep the now charging Sante at bay.
The rallies between the two were entertaining, quite a few of them were long,
but Sante just happened to be a little more steady and patient. He took the
game 15-10 and advanced to the final.
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| Bob and Sante |
On the other
half, Chuck
Doyle entered his
first match with 6 points on Dane
Fossee. Dane’s
tactic worked very well of keep running and force Chuck to keep hitting.
Consistency would get Dane through and he took the game 15-10. Dane then played
Bob Rogers who’s tactic was exactly the
same: Keep running and... keep running and... yeah - keep running. Between
them, they took more steps than the million man march. They started at 0-0 (no
handicap) and for some reason I forgot to write down what the final score was.
Bob got through, and I’m going to say it was a very tight game, could have gone
either way... :-)
Finalists
Sante and Bob played in the round robin. There, Bob took a 4 point advantage
and turned it into a 15-9 win. I wasn’t going to be any kinder to Sante, so I
kept the 4 point handicap. It was another impressive, absorbing game. After
trading the first half a dozen rallies, Sante caught up relatively quickly and
actually held a 8-7 lead. We all thought he would run away with it after that,
but stubborn Bob just doesn’t stop doing what he does best: Run. (And bounce
off the walls.) When the score gets tight, anything can happen. The two got
back to point-swapping. 8-all. 9-all. 10-all. 11-all. A fascinating duel, the crowd
was doing a McDonald’s commercial: loving it. 12-all. A 15-14 score line was on
the cards and on the hopes of all who were watching, but Sante decided enough
was enough. Crack, boom, bang. Thanks for coming. 15-12. Three quick points and
it was sadly over.
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| Most of the Blitz players! |
