And out the gate everyone sprinted, excited at the start of
the season, virtually not letting any court time go unused, and not letting any
beer go un-drunk (?). It was great to see the sizeable turnout, plenty of bonus
points from all teams (the least
amount picked up was 8), fair amount of matches, and a complete and utter annihilation
of the keg.
Even the team that had the unwelcome round one ‘bye’ picked
up a couple of points due to 2 of their players attending last week’s referee clinic.
In fact, for the first time ever, every team was represented in that clinic.
As we have become accustomed, the Butter Nutz are displaying their dominance early. Eight wins and
three losses so far for the round, Captain Sante
has again appeared to have done a terrific job with his draft. They were
lacking a little in the bonus points compared to the other teams, hopefully it
won’t be their Achilles heel. Mirroring the Butter Nutz was team Mongoose.
They picked up 14 of 17 bonus points, but only managed to complete 6 matches.
Bonus points are very important, but obviously getting results on the board is
more so.
It was tremendous to see some first timers out there. Tom Paglia (Butter Nutz) played his first ever squash match and can claim to
have a lifetime 100% victory record as he won 2-1 over Bill Rivard (Foss Nation).
It’s amazing what young quick legs can accomplish! Kevin Moore (Winky-Dinks)
also tackled his first match against Laurén
Kirchner (Nicker Ballers) but
was not as fortunate as Tom. Kevin lost 2-1 but he was very pleased that he
didn’t get bagelled. Peter Tallerico
(Wardogs) was the third total
greenhorn of the night and got the work-out he was after but failed to pick up
any games against Peter Huthwaite (Space Geckos).
Other noteworthy results for the evening include David Pontes’ (Mongoose) 2-1 victory over Kevin
Prather (Vivio’s). Kevin
admitted afterwards that he was shocked at how David would retrieve his
incredibly impressive ‘winners’ that would have no doubt made PSA’s “Shot of
the Month” list if only David had stopped and admired them as much as he did; Blake Ellis (Winky-Dinks) ran around more than enough to hold off Andy Adamo (Nicker Ballers) for a 2-1 win; and Ryan MacVoy (Wardogs)
started off his campaign well coming back from a game down to earn a 2-1 win
over John Perkins (Space Geckos).
With the rule this half of the season being
that all players
must play at least 5 matches to avoid being dropped for the second half, everyone
has less wiggle room. Don’t procrastinate. Keep on top of your schedule, there
really is NO excuse to not achieving the goal. The league has had an
outstanding start – let’s keep the momentum going.