THE HALF –WAY WINNERS

Boasters league round 9~~

It didn’t take a genius to see that Butter Nutz were going to end up on top of the standings this half. It did, however, end up a little closer than I thought it would. The idle Wardogs for round 9 did a fairly decent job in picking up 24 points in makeup matches keeping themselves within arm’s reach but in the end that’s all it was. In a bizarre twist, the team that actually picked up the most points in the final week? Foss Nation. Not that it helped them. Way too little way too late – but at least they didn’t end up last.

Below are the stats for the first half. They will show that play was down noticeably this first half compared to previous seasons. I do not have any clue why that would be the case. Let’s hope that this is only an anomaly and not a trend going forward.

• Only 78% of matches were completed. Way down on the record set 2 years ago of 85%. In match terms, that’s 43 less matches played.
• Four teams played over 80% of their matches with Wardogs leading the way. They played 87% - actually not too far off the league record of 91%.
• On the Rocks played the league amount of matches with 71%. The lowest percentage of matches played last season first half was 76%
• Foss Nation played 76% of their matches – good for 6^th in the league. But their winning percentage was by far the lowest with just 34.6%.
• Nicker Ballers had the best winning percentage with 63%. But they played just 72% of their matches which is why they only ended up 6^th.
• Butter Nutz’ score of 280 would have been good for just 3^rd on the standings last year first half. Wardogs would have been 4^th.
• Butter Nutz picked up the most bonus points for the half with 91. Nowhere near what the most a team picked up last year first half – 108.
• Least amount of bonus points was On the Rocks with 67. That’s an average of less than half the team per week showing up.
• Only 14 players picked up all 8 bonus points. 7 players didn’t pick up any.
• Only 26 players played all 8 matches. Last year first half – 36.
• Of those 26 players, 4 of them went undefeated: Matt Paradiso (Mongoose); Chris Ferlito (Nicker Ballers); Brandon Tasco (Butter Nutz); Jason Currie (Winky-Dinks). Of those 4, Matt Paradiso (Mongoose) scored the most points overall with 31. 
• Most points scored in any 1week was 43 by the Butter Nutz in round 6. Least amount of points scored in any week was 14 by On the Rocks in round 9.
• Not once were all 17 matches completed in any one round. 16 matches were completed 7 times.
• Round 2 had the most matches completed with 89%.

As you can determine, the numbers are not exactly outstanding. Hopefully we will see an uptick for the second half that starts on January 9. A couple of things to remember and take to heart in order to help the league be a great success for all involved: Firstly, it is a Wednesday league. It should be on your calendar automatically that this evening is put aside for the boasters. Yes, things come up. Yes, half of your matches are self-schedule. But please make every effort to make Wednesday night your squash league night. And secondly: communicate. I hear all too often that some players are simply not returning e-mails and / or phone calls. It is simply courtesy to respond and reach out to your opponents. Let’s make this the greatest league in the history of squash! (I’m not asking much!!). That being said, I hope you all have a great Holiday season and I look forward to seeing everyone swinging their racquet come January!