Blitz Tournament March
13, 2015
The sign of a successful handicap is the sniveling that it
creates from both players. One thinks
it’s way too high, the other no where near enough. They plead their cases from
current form, to past results, injuries,
how many beers they have drunk... If I were to take all that into consideration
when making the schedule, it would drive me to the nut house... “now, based on 3 and half beers, a slightly
sore knee, the fact that he hasn’t played well the past few days... and his
opponent is on fire has only had 2 beers but weighs 30 pounds less and is
injury free...” To save all the
nuisance, all you need to know is that I am easily bribed. Money talks, people!
That being said, I’m extending an apology to Griffin Wagner who I grossly
overestimated when dishing out the points. Sure, his money is as green as
anyone else’s, but I truly did get this one wrong. At least it’s encouraged him
to book in some lessons. At last. (Method to my complete madness.)
Group 1. It
has become an expectation that Sante
Fratarcangeli works himself through the early stages of each tournament and
we see him feature strongly in the finals. However, this time it started off
differently. Becket Marum was his
first opponent and with the 10 point lead to start held off Sante - barely - to
sneak the 15-13 win. Surely Sante would bounce back in his next match against Ashley Thibobeau... Nope. Ashley
decided that the best way to beat Sante was to let him get to 14 and play a
sudden-death rally. Nothing like putting undue pressure on your opponent.
Ashley survived 15-14 and suddenly Sante was 0 for 2. Becket on the other hand
relished under the tension of close encounters, beating Ashley 15-13 and Dino Ricci 15-14. His clean sweep of
the group had him in the finals. Joining him there was Ashley as she took 3
games from the lads. Sante did end up with 2 wins in the end, but it wasn’t
enough.
Group 2. The
finalist of the October Blitz Tournament, JC
Tibbitts, was attempting to go one place further. He started off
brilliantly against Andy Adamo as
his 7 point head start was - although warranted - unnecessary. He blasted Andy
of the court with a 15-6 victory. An important score as it turned out for later
in the tournament. JC went on to win 3 matches in the group, one of them being
a 15-14 against Paul Fershee, and
earned his way to the knock-out round.
The second player to move on from the group would be picked by chance. Ian Edwards started his campaign with
an almost upset over Josh Slominski, the two had some
compelling rallies, Josh playing a little too tentative at times, and Ian just
missed out on the final rally losing 15-14. He made up for it against Paul Fershee in dramatic fashion. Paul
headed into the game leading by 8 and had Ian by the short and curlies at 14-7.
As hard as Paul pushed himself, Ian matched it and managed to save himself from
elimination (for now) taking the game 15-14. Three players ended up on 2 wins
each only one could advance. Drawing straws, Andy Adamo lucked out.
Group 3. Can
anyone stop the human squash-cannon in Bret
Williams? He probably hits it harder than I do, and it is a formidable
weapon against lower lever opponents. Having the ball bounce around the back
corners with pace is a very difficult prospect to deal with, and adding in the
variation that he can hit it low and short as well, his rapid rise through the
squash ranks these past few months is understandable (and impressive). Bret
blasted his way through the group taking all 3 games, the closest being a 15-14
over Paul Gormley. The player to
advance with Bret was decided on the final match of the group. Both Jason Trombley and Andrew Walawender had picked up 1 win each, and the victor between
the two would guarantee safe passage. Andrew started off with 6 points
handicap, but it wasn’t quite enough. Jason took the close result 15-12 and
could breathe a sigh of relief as he moved on.
Group 4.
Arguably the toughest of the four groups, it was also the one group that failed
to produce a 15-14 score line. Phooey. It did produce three 15-13 scores, with Dane Fossee being on the receiving end
of two of them. In fact, Dane - who was touted as the strongest player on his
group - only managed to take 1 of his 4 games. Colin Bayer is another player that has been improving swiftly. He
is deceptively quick around the court and can also crack the ball rather
solidly. Colin won his first three games against the guys in his group before
self-destructing in the last game against Julie
Vande Vusse 6-15. Was it the female influence, Colin?? We would have to
draw straws again here as three
players ended up with 3 wins apiece. Since only 2 players can advance, this
time, the one drawing the short straw would be excluded. Justin Winkelman was too much of a gentleman and let the other 2
players draw first and through process of elimination was left with the rough
end of the pineapple (so to speak!) and was he quickly off to re-fill his beer
cup. Getting through was Julie and Colin.
The Finals. I
asked before who could stop Bret
Williams? The answer on this occasion was Andy Adamo. I let these guys play straight up (no handicap) as they
have played each other twice in box ladder before with Andy taking both matches
3-2. The “hoodoo” continued for Bret as Andy won the game 15-9. Colin Bayer’s run ended in riveting
fashion against Becket Marum. Always
fun to watch Colin bulldoze himself from corner to corner, no ball ever too far
away not to run for. Becket had a 7 point handicap which was, by the narrowest
of margins, adequate. A 15-14 win for Becket had him playing Andy in the semi.
Another nail-biting encounter, Andy had to give Becket 10 points head start. Once
again, I’m allowed to pat myself on the back as the game came down to another
sudden-death rally. Both Becket sand Andy are pretty cool customers, their
feathers don’t seem to ruffle terribly much, and Andy calmly swiped the rally
for a 15-14 win and a spot in the final.
On the bottom half of the knock-out draw, JC Tibbitts had to be very careful
against Ashley Thibodeau, who walked
on holding a 12 point advantage. With scarcely any room for error, JC wasn’t
about to let Ashley off the hook. Strong and safe length was the recipe of success, JC walked
off winning 15-13. Jason Trombley
recently lost to Julie Vande Vusse
in the box ladders. So based on that result, these two played from 0-0. I can
hardly give a handicap to a player that had won their last match, can I? Julie
thought I should, and maybe she was a right in hindsight. I must have used the
same crystal ball that I was looking into when I did Griffin’s handicaps... I
better get a refund on that one. Jason won 15-9, not so bad, but a 3 or 4 point
handicap would have made it a little more fascinating.
The semi final was close. Jason started with 8, JC started in
a similar fashion as he did with Ashley. Trying his best to eradicate any
unforced errors, JC closed the gap at a steady pace. But Jason wasn’t going
down without a fight and some nice winners put a sense of panic into JC as the
game drew a close. However, JC scraped up the final 2 rallies and took it
15-13.
The final was a rematch of the group match: Andy Adamo v JC Tibbitts. Based on JC’s convincing victory, I lowered his
handicap from 7 to 6. I was tempted to lower it even further, but I somehow
doubted Andy would be as generous this time around. His tactic of letting JC
hammer him first match, getting into the knock-out round with a 33% chance of
drawing the right straw, and beating Becket 15-14 in the semi final, paid off.
Brilliant strategy. But JC picked up his game and played very well indeed. It
wasn’t easy for Andy, JC made it tough and pushed him in the rallies. However,
Andy got the victory 15-12 and secured his first Blitz Tournament victory! For
3rd place, Becket beat Jason 15-8.
