A relatively lackluster Wednesday night saw a push from the
teams on the lower half of the standings as they closed the gap on the leading teams. The biggest
performer of the week were the Wardogs and
although they still find themselves in 7th position on the ladder,
are only 26 points behind the second placed
Butter Nutz, whereas last week, they were 48 points back of the second team. A league leading 42 points this
week was a huge boost, it was 8 points better than the next best Winky Dinks, who, by the way, now have
a comfortable 16 point buffer on top.
Butter Nutz
survived their bye week picking up only 5 points in makeup matches but because of
the feeble outing from Space Geckos,
only dropped one spot to second and are still within striking distance of the Winky-Dinks. The Space Geckos came off last week with the league’s best numbers,
this week it’s the opposite. A paltry 16 points, only 5 matches played, and the
lowest bonus point total with 8. With the bye week looming for the Geckos in the final week, their
aspirations of finishing first for this half of the season has taken a major
blow.
Bonus points were spread about pretty evenly this round.
Three teams picked up 11, three teams picked up 10. But – and a little
disappointingly – three teams also scored more in bonus points than what they
scored on court. It just means that matches are not being played as much as
they should. It’s great to support your team by turning up and drinking your
beer, but getting on court is really what the league is about, right?
Still, we did have some great, memorable contests played: Mike Rock (Wardogs) went the ol’ tag team tactic on poor Kevin Prather (Vivio’s).
Mike made sure his dad Jerry ran Kevin around for a game or two before turning
up, tagging in, and then taking him on. The strategy was effective as Mike took
the match 2-1, which was his fourth 2-1 win for the season. James Van Dyke (Nicker Ballers) had to play well and consistent as he took down John Perkins (Space Geckos) 2-1 in an excellent standard match.
I’ll also like to mention Sante (Butter Nutz) here
as he had the highly challenging task of battling our club number 1 Vikram Chopra (Mongoose). Vikram did win this match 3-0, but Sante held his own very
well, especially in the second game and the squash was at a high, entertaining
level. Sante should be pleased with the effort, a good boost for his confidence.
Thanksgiving is next week, so the league is having a ‘rest’
week. This gives everybody a lot of time to makeup some matches, which with all
the eating and drinking that will be going on is not just a recommendation, it’s
a necessity. There are still a large percentage of players that haven’t reached
the minimum 5 match rule, I don’t want to hear all the complaints and excuses
if you are dropped for the second half… you don’t have any.