Blitz Tournament March 15, 2019
A lower than expected / wanted turnout for the 22nd running
of the bi-annual Blitz Tournament. Unlike October’s event where all 28 players
registered actually turned up, this one was a roller-coaster of entry numbers.
On the morning of, there were 22 players. By lunch, we were down to 20. A half
hour before the start, another cancellation had us at 19 and my patience fuse
was burning hot and getting rather short. When the official start time was upon
us, we had an extra person who thought they had registered - but didn’t - turn
up, bringing the number back up to 20, and defusing my frustration-bomb
somewhat, happy to re-organize the draw (again) to end up with 4 even
groups of 5. Phew!
It is surprising more players do not take advantage of this
format, you are guaranteed games against members who would normally never step
on court with, and everybody does have some chance of winning because of the
handicapping. But maybe the low numbers this time could be attributed to the
fact that the Edge Challenge - “The Gauntlet” - was scheduled early the
following morning and a handful of squash players were taking part in that
torture obstacle course. (Helping out for that event, I have never been so many
people so miserable yet having a blast at the same time!)
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| Greg Jones, Greg Allare, Mike Parker, Tony Sorgi, Sky Hamill |
The measure of the perfect handicap is of course when the
score ends up as 15-14. It would be utopian to expect every single match having
to finish with a sudden-death rally as there is nothing more exciting in
sports. Of the 40 group matches played, 8 of them (20%) ended up with that
scenario, so I can’t be too upset with that number. Another 16 of them ended up
15-13 (40%) and that is also more than acceptable as even the underdog still thinks
they have a chance of victory when the score is 13-all, just 2 points away.
It’s amazing that with this format, so often the result of
just one rally can change the entire outcome of the tournament. Greg Jones
kept to that script beautifully in his group as all 4 of his matches ended up
15-13. He won 3 of them to advance to the finals round, his only loss came at
the hands of Greg Allare. Greg, however, only managed 2 wins, faltering
on his last match against Sky Hamill where - lo and behold - he lost the
14-all sudden death rally. A point, if he had won, would have had him in the
finals. The pressure of a do-or-die rally I believe is greater on the higher
ranked player as the underdog doesn’t have any pressure on them - they aren’t
expected to win anyway. That can make them throw caution to the wind, whereas
the higher ranked player may tighten up, get a little tense and nervous and
play overly cautious… just what Greg seemed to experience here! Sky’s win
forced a 3-way “drawing of the straws” to see who would end up second in that
group (behind Greg Jones), and his good fortune continued. He drew the
lucky straw, rubbing that extra salt into Greg Allare’s already
festering wounds.
David de la Chapo-Nacho-Guapo-Torre
also squeaked by the group session with 3 wins. One of those was also a 15-14
defeat of Jeff Jorge where had Jeff not whiffed on the return of serve
at 14-all, we may had seen Jeff advance instead of Dave. I think Jeff had 3-4
chances to take the game as well. Jon Diewald is clearly not Irish as on
this St. Patrick’s Day weekend, he had zero luck closing out any games.
He went 0 for 4, two of those were 14-15, the other two were 13-15. Again, if
he had won both of those sudden-death rallies, the finals list may have been
different. Next year he may change his name to Johnny O’Diewald.
The third group seemed to have some whacky results. I’d
probably blame the handicapping here, but it can’t possibly be my fault, so I
won’t even consider it. Kevin Prather seemed to get the worst of it, but
in true Kevin form, he took it all in stride. Not even 4 back-to-back spankings
can wipe that smile off his face. And where one suffers, one takes the
advantage. Henry Gembis plowed his way through his first 3 matches,
completely disrespecting the handicaps and trying (successfully) to make me
look bad. He did lose his last match
against Steve Smihal 15-13, so I did gain a little reverence back on
that one. Speaking of Steve, his 15-14 win over Andrew Peleman was
another rally that changed the finals contenders.
The fourth and final group was also decided through a
couple of sudden-sudden-death rallies. Mack Gembis had both of them, and
on both occasions he ended up on top as well. Losing just one of them would
have had him eliminated from the finals round. Brian Bartes was the
second player to get through this group, but he also earns the “Sante"
award, a new title to the one that complains about their handicapping but wins
anyway! I presume since Brian lost his first game to Blake Roller 15-10,
it was incontrovertibly the poor handicapping against him that caused it, so
all future handicapping was without doubt there to ruin his chances as well! I
wonder how he won the next three games then? (All in good fun, of course - !!)
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| Han Peng, Jeff Jorge, David de la Torre |
On to the knock-out finals round. Let’s stay with Brian for
now. His first match was up against Henry Gembis. After I asked the
question out loud to the crowd what Henry’s handicap should be, in perfect
protection of her husband, Heidi Bartes suggested a modest 6. She was of
course thoroughly and one hundred percent wrong, and the 9 I was going to give
Henry suddenly turned into a 10. And it was spot on. Henry made Brian work hard
for the 15-14 win. Next challenge for Brian was Sky Hamill. Once again I
asked the crowd for the handicap, and suddenly there was a loud silence coming
from the Bartes camp. I wonder why that was…? Anyway, Sky received 11 points head
start and again it was on the money. Another exciting down to the wire
exchange, and once again Brian scraped through 15-14. He was on to the final.
On the upper half of the bracket, David de la Torre
started his campaign with a crushing win over Steve Smihal. Steve’s 10
points did make any dent into Dave’s psyche as he rolled to the victory losing
just 1 rally. Seeing that emphatic result, for Dave’s semifinal against Greg
Jones, I handed Greg an 11 handicap. Now I have no idea what happened
during the few minutes between the games, but Dave went from channeling his
inner Egyptian against Steve, to channeling his inner Muppet Movie against
Greg. It what was one of the fastest ever results ever to be recorded, Greg won
his four straight rallies in probably less than 20 seconds to claim the 15-0
bagel and send Dave packing. In fact, Dave must have been so shook up, he also
lost the 3rd / 4th play-off to Sky 15-13. One cerveza too many, Dave?
 |
| Greg Jones and Brian Bartes |
So we were left with Brian Bartes v Greg Jones
for the title. Greg walked on with a 10 point lead, again not hearing any
objections about that either… It was another barn burner for Brian, he again
was forced to work very hard, Greg inspired by the fact he could see and smell
the finish line even before the game started! Brian never stops hustling - he
is by all means a vicious competitor. As much as Greg made him run, Brian was
more than happy to oblige. No easy points either way, Brian slowly closed the
gap. And just when you thought he was inches away from completing the comeback,
Greg snagged the final couple of points needed to snuff out the challenge. The
15-13 win was well deserved! So Greg Jones is our new Blitz Champion -
one step better from his second place finish from just 12 months ago! He won 6
matches, 5 of them 15-13 (one of them 15-0…!) and lost just 1. And Brian takes
second place, he no doubt covered the most miles on the court of anyone else
this evening, a true fighter to the end. He also got up at the crack of dawn
the next day to take part in the Gauntlet… I guess he is a masochist at heart!
