Boasters League round
3~~
You can’t really blame the Nicker Ballers for dropping so dramatically this week considering
they had the bye. But the bottom did drop out rather substantially as they
plummeted to last on the standings, now 7 points 8th placed Foss Nation who, by the way, hardly
rocked the boat either this round. Bye weeks are a great opportunity for teams
to make up past (or even future) matches, but the Nicker Ballers failed to take advantage picking up a paltry 6
points. Silver lining is that there is still time… let’s hope it is used
wisely.
Over Served
increased their lead over all other teams with a league best 46 points this
week, a pretty decent effort. Rubbing salt into everyone else’s wound, they
also have the most bonus points so far as well. Funny how the two always seem
to go hand in hand. Mongoose are
sitting pretty tied for 4th place, performing the best of the teams
that have so far suffered through the bye week and they picked up 41 points for
the round. Their bonus point count is also very healthy, as captain Paul Huth is on the prowl for his team
members to show up. He will not divulge what he is threatening his players
with, but it must be nasty… a lecture on the ‘let’ rule maybe?
Activity was reasonably acceptable last night. Plenty of
eyes were on one of the early matches downstairs where Steve Brown (Vivio’s)
had to use all his skill to overcome the speedy Blake Ellis (Mongoose).
Obvious contrasting styles, Steve hand his soft hands and unexpected angles,
Blake with his quick feet and sudden counter attacks. Entertaining squash, Steve
took the result 3-0, but it was awfully hard work. I usually do not hand out
coaching advice in these articles, but to keep it simple here: Steve: a little
more patience at times before you shoot is needed. Some of those angles come
over as forced. And Blake: watch your cross-courts! Too many of them and Steve
was eating them up!
Paul Gormley (Over Served) picked up his second win
of the season with a 3-0 over Tripp
Kennedy (Paddy’s Dropshots). I’m
mentioning this because Tripp came off the court yesterday and (half-jokingly) said
I should move him down a spot in the league. For the first half of the season,
in position 16, Tripp went 8-0 and absolutely merited promotion. He is finding
it tougher now – as he should – but he is not
outclassed at his current level. Paul’s words after the match: “He’s good!” Keep at it Tripp, you are
improving and the wins will start up again.
Round 4 next week coincides with the “Meet the Candidates”
night for the DAC elections later this month. That means that most of you will
have a self-schedule match so you will need to be a bit more pro-active in
arranging when you play. Winky-Dinks
have the bye – can they minimize the inevitable damage in the standings with a
decent amount of make-up matches? Can Nicker-Ballers
dig themselves out of the deep hole they have made for themselves? Will Captain
Huth punish his 2 players that did not turn up last night with a public square lashing?
Will it ever get above freezing in Michigan again? What will the future hold…?
