Boasters League round
4~~
Definitely a step-up from last week, participation was better
last night. But before you all go and start high fiving each other, there is
still plenty of room for improvement – understand that (as crazy as this
sounds) next week is already the half-way
mark of this half and the vast majority of you have matches to catch up on.
All I am suggesting is that you start playing them now before you run out of
time and then no doubt start worrying that the 5 match minimum that is required
for you to stay in the league for the second half is suddenly out of reach.
Butter Nutz hold
on to the top spot although the chasing teams have narrowed the gap. Best performers
of the week go to Wardogs who picked
up 38 points and moved up from 4th to 2nd. Second best
actors? Nick at Night. They scored
33 points this round (so far) and flung themselves well out of the basement to
claim 6th spot. It’s not necessarily because they are winning – in fact
their current win percentage is under 50% - but they caught up on some matches
and scored a respectable 11 bonus points last night.
Speaking of bonus points, in a rare shocking display of
mutiny, Mongoose scored the least
this week (7) leaving all the experts and pundits stunned. Helen French messaged all the way from Ireland (from some ‘posh’ restaurant – her words –, which
probably means some local pub that serves cold beer) cementing her excuse and
avoiding the cane when she returns. If you thought Captain Huth was on the warpath before…
Biggest drop this week goes to Vivio’s, which since they had the bye isn’t headline news, but they
plummeted from 5th to last as they only scraped together 7 points in
make-up games. Foss Nation is also
struggling, they scored the least amongst the active teams this week with only
21 points, and they are also having a very difficult time winning the matches
they are playing. Up to date, they are winning just 25% of them.
On to some special mentionables in individual performables…
Firstly, congratulations to Spencer Eick
(On The Rocks) who not only managed
to walk off the court with his head still attached, he did it with the 3-0 win
as well! Playing Bill Largent (Winky-Dinks), rallies were hard fought,
so the score line is a little misleading here, and at one stage Bill’s reaction
volley almost decapitated Spencer who was standing at the front wall looking
back as if he was lining up for the firing squad. Luckily Spencer had shaved that
day so Bill missed him (but he did win the point!). Important lesson though for
all involved that calling “lets” is an extremely important skill to learn –
safety is paramount. I understand it was a ‘bang-bang’ play, and decapitation
is only a temporary injury (heads grow back, right?), but in dangerous
situations play should stop and the interference rule applied.
Haytham Hermiz (Wardogs) kept his undefeated record in
tact although he did drop his first game for the half as he scrambled,
stampeded, zipped, zagged, zigged, and breakdanced his way to a 2-1 win over
the more methodical Joe Leto (Nick at Night). Justin Jacobs (On The Rocks)
was relieved to snag his second win of the season over Peter Shumaker (Winky-Dinks)
2-1 who simply would not stop running the ball down making Justin every last
point. Never underestimate your opponent and never expect that your last shot
is a winner.
Next week may also be a tough one to get numbers up.
Although I am optimistic, it is Halloween and the allure of candy, strangers dressed
as monsters storming your patio demanding sugar does appeal more to some, but to
me nothing beats the allure of the keg, and playing familiar faces (not so
monstrous… generally) on the squash court.
Will Paul Huth drive around Detroit
personally and pick up every one of his team members? Will the shoes designers
at Salming ever hire a person that isn’t color blind? How many squash balls are
lost under the running machines in the fitness room? Much to discuss.
