LA CRÈME DE LA DOUBLES CRÈME

2022 DAC Club Championships

It’s like we are back to the good ol’ days. Covid is becoming just a fleeting distant memory and it won’t be long until we’ll be having the conversations and reminiscing… “remember – on pain of death - when we used to have to wear a mask, dress in a hazmat suit and keep a kangaroo’s leap away from any other human to go outside? That was awesome…”  It also brings back to normal the ineptitude of the Detroit Tigers, it’s May and we still have the heating on, my wife’s spring cleaning kick when she calls me at work to discuss if I still need that hand cream that expired 4 years ago or can she throw it away, and of course the DAC Club Championships, the celebratory event that signifies the end of the ‘busy’ season and honoring the conquerors of their respective categories!

Here is Part 1... Doubles…

Manny, Dave, Joe, John

60+… New kids on the block! No. no, not the players themselves, they have been around the block more times than a 5-year-old on a merry-go-round, but the category itself is new. I was delighted to see nine teams register, flaunting their youthful zealousness as if they had all discovered the fountain of youth. None more than the sprightly combination of Manny Tancer and John Roarty.A flawless performance through the entire draw, thwacking away their challenges like a couple of Aussies sitting on the back porch in the middle of summer fly-swatting all the mozzies away. Their opponents in the final were Dave Walker and Joe O’Connor who aren’t exactly push overs either, as they crept over the line in the semifinals against Ted Morris and Shail Arora 3-2. But Manny and John were taking no prisoners and took care of business 15-13; 15-11; 15-10 and awarded themselves with the first ever 60+ Doubles Club Championship title!

C Draw… I bow to the greatness of Renée Fershée! She has been a superstar this season with getting new members involved into the doubles league. She will email you, call you, wine and dine you, and if that doesn’t work, she’ll threaten you, kidnap you and chuck you onto the court and force you. If she could play doubles 25 hours a day 8 days a week, she would. From not even having a C draw last year, we managed 6 teams for 2022, and Renée was instrumental in arranging many of those players. Of course, she was also a victim of her own success since she teamed up the winning squad of Dan Pawlak (her own nephew as well!) and Spencer Roed. Dan and Spencer got to the final beating the DAC’s first ever all female crew of Sam Quilter and Ashley Thibodeau in an all-out 3-2 scrimmage. Word on the street from all involved was it was the best match they had ever played (win or lose). In the final, Renée and her partner Shane Wummel couldn’t quite come up with the goods and they went down 3-0. As expected, this hasn’t dampened Renée’s motivation, in fact it has no doubt stoked the flames… she is still on the warpath and throwing together a posse for the summer league that would have more players than in the winter. Unheard of and awesome!

B Draw… The largest of our doubles draws. Looming large and determined were the pairing of Jordan Dean and Colin Casey.

Jordan Dean and Colin Casey

The bridesmaids in 2021, that loss was still stinging deep into the veins. Like Frodo on a quest to Mordor, anything less than success would signify certain doom to the Colin Casey Shire. They reached the final dropping only one game and were preparing themselves to go into combat against the one and only team that had beaten them in the league since 2020… Mike and Alex Parker. However, Mike and Alex were upset in the semi-final against our tallest ever combined team of Andrew Miller and Will Owen. There aint no lob high enough, aint no crosscourt wide enough, it feels like you’re playing against two Dr. Octvaius’s. Undeterred, and with laser like focus, Colin and Jordan had nothing but eyes on the prize, and nothing – not even the supernatural wingspan of their opponents – was going to deny them victory. It wasn’t without complication or stress. Andrew and Will gave them all they could handle. At 1-game all and 14-14, the sudden death point fell to Colin and Jordan and that turned out to be the pivotal moment. That game loss took the wind out of the Miller / Owen sails and the 4^th was a little easier for the Casey / Dean team. The Shire was saved, Colin will be able to sleep nightmare free once again.

A Draw… A very competitive bracket. The first mega-result was in the first round. Rob Biskup and Robbie Biskup father and son combo went down to the wire against Charles Roby and Dewey “I-can-hear-you-before-I-can-see-you” Steffen. Maybe (maybe not?) a little controversial finish with the ‘let’ call on the do-or-die rally, but Roby and Steffen walked off the 15-14 in the 5^th as the winners. A confidence booster for the pair, they then took down the second seeded team of Dave Walker and Brandon Tasco 3-1. Dave tipped his hat to them and said that they were simply outplayed on the day. The unforeseen semifinal berth was as far as they would get however. Ian Edwards and Matt Paradiso were quietly making their way through the draw and very politely sent Roby / Steffen softly “Boo-Yah-ing” their way back to the locker room after a 3-0 victory. Meeting them in the final – Rich Stimson and John Roarty. The second mega-result for the category. In the semifinal Rich and John had a ding-dong clash against Patrick Petz and Manny Tancer. It what was one of the matches of the season no doubt, and nothing wrong with a little passion thrown into the mix, it was all in good spirits. It’s gut-wrenching to lose so close a match as well, but can be exhilarating winning one. Rich and John lucked out and pinched it 15-14 in the 5^th. An interesting final, it was a good showcase of the importance of playing doubles regularly and not just once year. Stimson / Roarty displayed the needed experience and kept their younger opponents off balance and frustrated. A well earned 3-1 win. This is Rich’s 3^rd doubles club champ title. His first came in 2009.

Open Draw… Probably the most tightly contested Open draw we have had in recent memory. Let’s start with Tom MacEachern and John Mann. Certainly (and no offense to them) not a team that was picked to reach the semifinals. Their run was impressive if not a tad unusual. In both their first 2 rounds, they were deep into the 5^th game when one of their opponents (Max Franklin in round 1 and David de la Torre in round 2) snapped their Achilles tendon. A horrible way to end any match and we send Max and Dave all the best for a full and speedy recovery (as much as an Achilles recovery can be quick!). That being said, not taking anything away from Tom and John, there was every chance they could / would have won anyway. Stopping them in their tracks was Stefan Houbtchev and Ryan Covell. Stefan and Ryan definitely looked like the team to beat in the final – cruise control up until that point. Meeting them there was Robin Basil and Vikram Chopra. No surprise there, but they almost stumbled in the semifinals against JC Tibbitts and Jason Currie. Currie / Tibbitts almost caused an upset as big as when the Australian army in 1932 declared war against an army of emus…. and lost (look that up – it’s actually true). They took Chopra / Basil to the brink only to fall short 15-10 in the 5^th. The final was the first 5-setter we’ve had since 2013. And it was a doozy. Stefan and Ryan were still in cruise control and motored through the first game 15-3 before Robin and Vikram even knew what hit them. But they got their mojo going in the second game and although they didn’t win it (13-15), they felt as if the tide was turning. It was as if Rocky Balboa had finally landed that one punch on that Russian drug cocktail and suddenly the match had a different vibe. The squash was high quality. Hard hitting, hard angles, hard running, hard drinking from the audience… enthralling, exciting, captivating…tasty. Down to the last couple of points in the 5^th game… 13-all… 14-13… Extraordinarily, from 0-2 down, Vikram and Robin completed the most improbable comeback to win 15-13 and with that, they retain the title for another year! Congratulations fellas!

LEAGUES ALL SUMMER LONG

 2021 Summer League Breakdown

I guess the one thing that will stand out in my mind this summer above all else was catching a fleeting glimpse of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics Skateboarding action. Not often am I left speechless, but for a sport that was favored to be worthy of Olympic status more than squash, I honestly couldn’t find the words to express my horror and unadulterated disgust at what I was witnessing. The IOC should be ashamed of itself. It literally puts a knot in my stomach whenever I think of it, and we repeat to ourselves the same question any human with any smidge of common sense does: why is squash not Olympic? The never-answerable debate rages on…

Apart from that, this summer has been pretty darn good.

I feel it was a little hodgepodge of results for the 2021 summer singles and doubles leagues. I am not sure whether to be astonished or not that court numbers during this season eclipsed the (pre-covid) 2019 numbers. By a significant margin as well. The indoor mask mandate was lifted at the start of May, which of course was a major factor bringing members back into the fold. I guess many were simply itching to get back on court regardless of the outside temperatures. As far as the statistics for the leagues go, some areas struggled, some were outstanding. Overall though, I was rather content with the activity level.

The doubles league runs for 10 weeks. We were down slightly on registrations with only 41, compared to the 47 we had in 2019. We still managed to arrange 4 divisions but had to cut down a couple of time slots so we ended up with 6 scheduled matches a week. Finding subs proved to be harder than usual, many players that registered also found it difficult to commit at all. I have to admit it was at times frustrating to constantly have to cattle prod for help. That being said, we managed okay.

•          There were 60 matches scheduled overall. Only 4 matches were not completed due to not being able to find any subs. That’s 93%, which actually is pretty good for the summer.
•          The Monday A League played all of their 20 matches. Only 3 of the matches didn’t require any subs at all. Overall, subs were needed just under 29% of the time. Not great, but we didn’t have too much trouble finding the subs when they were asked. Shail Arora played 12 of the 20 matches, and therefore had the most points. He also had the best average which is impressive.
•          Tuesday B league played 18 of their 20 matches. Again, 3 matches didn’t need any subs, and overall subs were needed 39% of the time which is quite high. (Over the last 3 weeks, it was 58%.) It was difficult finding subs at this level which was a little unusual. Drew Creamer played 11 of the 18 matches and had the most points. Colin Casey and Jordan Dean played as a team and had the best average – in fact they didn’t drop a game in their 5 matches.
•          Wednesday C League was the easiest to manage. All 10 matches were played, 6 of them were 3-2, and only 3 of them ended up with a 3-0 score so it was the most competitive as well. Only 1 match didn’t need any subs, 11 subs were needed overall (or 27.5%), and finding them was a breeze. Shout out to Earle Spohn who broke his Achilles tendon halfway through the season, we hope his recovery is going well and we’ll see him back on court in 2022! Renée Fershée ended up with the most points in this groups – she did play 7 of the 10 matches. Only 3 players reached the minimum 5 match requirement to qualify for the best average – Kurt Hielscher squeaked a win there. In fact, this group was so keen to play, they asked for an extra 8 weeks of scheduled play… it didn’t count towards the league stats, but can’t knock the dedication!
•          The Friday Open League was the least committed. Possibly because it was on a Friday afternoon (!?) but in my defense, the players themselves requested that day. Eight of the 10 matches were completed, finding subs was an arduous task. Subs were needed 47.5% of the time… ouch. (that jumped to 62.5% in the last 4 weeks). David de la Torre played 7 of the 8 matches, and consequently had the most points. Only 2 players qualified for best percentage, Dave also took the honors in that… by .09 points!

The Singles league ran for 16 weeks and, remarkably, we had 100 players – 1 more than the Boasters League that ran from February through March earlier this year. Expectations were high that we were going to eclipse match numbers set in 2018… but as you will see, it was close but no cigar… 

• We had 578 matches reported. That’s 58 matches short of the record. I was a little disappointed in that to be honest. The first 8 weeks of the season we averaged 44.5 matches / week – on course for over 700 matches. The last 8 weeks, the average dropped to 27.5 matches a week.
• Legs Miserable played the most matches with 158 – or 27% of the total. They also completed an entire box (i.e. – each player on the team played each other at least once) and earned the 10 match point bonus. They were also the only team to play at least 1 match every week. Great effort!
• Hats off to Ted Mabley. He entered the league at the request of the Legs Miserable team when one of their players had to drop out due to injury. Ted only had 3 weeks to play all of his teammates.
• On the other end of the spectrum, Agony of Da Feet only played 6 matches… what the…?? They did not play any matches after the 4^th week.
• The Rally Criers played 110 matches. It was an admirable achievement, and at one point were leading the league in matches played after 10 rounds. However, they let themselves down after that because they only played 20 matches in the final 6 weeks.·         Most matches were played in week 5 with 64.
• Most matches were played in week 5 with 64.
• Least matches were played in week 10 with 14.
• The disappointing stat overall was the number of players who failed to play even one match: 18. Way, way too high – it’s also a summer league record.
• Matt Paradiso (Court in the Act) picked up the most points overall with 314. Of course, that was helped almost entirely by playing Ian Edwards 46 times. He won 44 of those matches. Those matches accounted for 63.5 % of their team’s total. Matt basically owns Ian now, so if any of you wish to speak to Ian, you must ask Matt for permission first.
• 12 players scored at least 100 points. Not bad!
• There were only 2 weeks where all 10 teams played at least 1 match.

Signs are pointing in a positive direction for the upcoming season. We feel excitement for a ‘normal’ season has been bubbling on the surface for a while now and hopefully we can get through it without any major interruptions. Most important to keep in mind however: there are several you that haven’t played much (if any) squash since the lockdown started in March 2020. Jumping straight onto a squash court and running around like you did 18 months ago may be an awful shock to your system. We do want to avoid any injuries, so please ease yourself back into it. Make sure you get some practice in before hopping into your first competitive match. Stretch, warm-up… warm-down afterwards… let’s be smart about the approach!

SUCCESS! DOUBLES LEAGUE COMPLETE!

 Doubles League February – March 2021

Can you believe it? We have actually completed a half-season of a squash league. Who would have thunk that not even 4 months ago? We could rant and rave until the cows come home about what consequences the pandemic has had on all our lives, but being able to get back to the DAC and participate in an organized event does bring some level of sanity back into the psyche. And it gives me a chance to dust off the keyboard, fire up the blog, and splatter some words on a page.

Understandably, not everybody was comfortable returning. Because of that, numbers for the doubles league were less than normal but all things considered, I thought the quantity of players was somewhat decent. Hopefully, we will see everyone back on the court at the start of next season in September. As is customary, we dissect a little of the league stats and celebrate our top performers. Keep in mind this was just an 8-week season as opposed to the normal 10…

Monday A league.

•       15 players signed up. We usually get 24.
•        From the total of 16 matches, only 6 of them ended up 3-0. 4 of them were 3-2
•       Only 4 of the matches did not require any subs.
•       A sub was required 31% of the time. Not too bad really.
•       Patrick Petz played 9 of the 16 matches. He stepped up to sub 5 times, which is very helpful.
•       Newcomer to the league Tom Howe ended up with the most points and the best average.

 Tuesday B league.

•       23 players in this one. We normally get 24, so I was delighted with this!
•       24 total matches were scheduled. One was not played because we couldn’t secure a sub.
•       Subs were required 33% of the time.
•       Only 4 matches did not require any subs.
•      14 matches ended up 3-0. That’s rather high. Only 3 matches went to 5 games.
•       Jim Fair ended up with the most points, Tom MacFarlane played the most matches with 9.
•       Kyle Keppen had the best average. (Minimum 4 matches to qualify)

 Wednesday Open league.

•        Only 10 players made themselves available. Normal count is between 20-24.
•        This was the level that the players seemed most eager to sub. The answer to the sub email   would come back to me almost immediately every time.
•        Only 1 match of the 16 organized matches didn’t require any subs.
•        33% of the time, a sub was needed. Still not bad.
•        Robin Basil made a statement by scoring the most points and having the best average. It’s a little easier to score the most points when you play 11 of the 16 matches.
•        The return of Zac MacVoy shocked everyone. He made a guest appearance for the last match of the season and won 3-2 with Robin as his partner. He’s still hurting.
•         5 matches ended up 3-2. 7 of them were 3-0.

Thursday C league.

•                   Only 5 players for this one. Normal is around 12-14.
•                   8 matches were scheduled (one a week). One wasn’t played because we couldn’t secure the sub. I’m quite happy with that stat- with just 5 players, this was my biggest concern.
•                   4 of the 8 matches didn’t need any subs.
•                   In fact, we had only 4 subs all season… remarkable. (Not counting the week we couldn’t get any.)
•                   3 matches ended up 3-0. 1 went to 5.
•                  Jim Fair dominated the level winning the most points and having the best average. He played 6 of the 8 matches.

All in all, I was thrilled with the participation of the league. When we started this in February, I think many of us were skeptical at how this was going to turn out. With everything we do, Covid adds that unwanted weight of anxiety but we got through unscathed. The excitement around the club is slowly building again and I really look forward to next season.

Don’t forget: we will be running a summer doubles league starting in May. So make sure you let me know if you wish to keep active and be a part of the action!

MARCH MADNESS MAYHEM

By Stu Hadden

March Madness Doubles Tournament – London, Ontario, Feb 28-29

As many of you may be aware, Mick and I are far from doubles specialists. But, we have recently made the decision to work on our doubles game. Last weekend Haytham Hermiz, Mick and I traveled to the 'fake' London (Ontario) in search of glory and silverware at the hardball doubles event appropriately named “March Madness”… even though it was in February for some strange reason.

Friday night’s match for us was anything but straightforward as we had only ever played one doubles match together and were struggling at the start to get to grips with the very different tactics of this type of squash. Our opponents on the other hand almost exclusively play doubles and were, for want of a better turn of phrase, crafty little scoundrels. We slowly but surely adapted our strategies throughout round 1 and by the end of the match had hit decent form. I was playing mainly high and deep, generating loose balls for the Australian sniper waiting on the right wall to shoot the lights out.

Haytham, as per usual had brought his running shoes with him and picked up far too many balls for his opposition to be in with any reasonable shout of winning. In the bar that evening he and one of his opponents for the semifinals – Owen - produced one of the finest displays of Jamison drinking and smack talk that I have ever witnessed, the kind usually reserved only for Australia vs England cricket matches. When I am king of England, I fully intend to offer him honorary citizenship for his efforts both in the bar and on the court where he miraculously turned up for his at 9am contest the next morning and duly backed up the trash-talking with a 3-1 shellacking over Owen.

In our semifinal we were up against stiff opposition in the 2 seeds who are serial winners of the DAC Classic A doubles draw. Unfortunately for them we picked up where we left off at the end of our last match and I had finally figured out the technique for putting the ball away on the backhand side. Ultimately we trounced them 3-0 in just shy of 45m, putting on a clean and crisp display of doubles.

We then watched the other semifinal and realized we were in big trouble. The left wall in our match would end up looking like Harry Potter vs Hagrid as the left hander from Toronto (Will Byrick) had me by well over a foot. The oak hit the ball like an absolute rocket and had a polished classic forehand technique. Surveilling his first game was pretty amazing as he rolled out nick after nick beating Brad Hanebury and his partner Derek Moore almost single handedly 15-2. On the left wall, Mick was also clearly going to be in for a bit of a night. His opponent (Chris Boden) not only hit the ball harder than both of us but had a real set of wheels on him, regularly throwing out full length splits, dives and pirouettes.

After watching Haytham claim victory in the C doubles we felt inspired (pressured?!) to go and do the same. A late start at 9pm, but the time came around quickly and suddenly we were up. As expected our opponents got off to a good start, slotting winners and trying to hit the ball through the front wall. I hadn’t found my range on the cross court nick yet and gave away a bit of a lead which we would eventually peg back. We made it to 14-14 before Mick’s opponent jumped about 3 feet in the air and rolled out a nick to give them the first. Bugger.

The second was one of the worst games of squash I personally remember playing, with yours truly missing the ball on three serve returns in a row. Mick was probably getting ready to bury me in the hill out back – or make me walk back to Detroit in my squash shorts in the 25 degree weather.  Needless to say with my “scintillating” form we were quickly 2-0 down.

We were far from done though.  Coming out guns blazing in the third, we caught them off guard with a far more aggressive style of play. Comfortably taking the third. The fourth game was solid but at the back end of it, Chris suddenly caught fire and had a patch of about 5 mins where he simply couldn’t and wouldn’t miss – which made him shoot even more - and was completely unplayable. Even Mick’s last ditch dive (old-man stumble?) wouldn’t be enough to keep us in the match and our Canadian contemporaries ran out a 3-1 victory in over an hour.

Cheers to London squash club for having us down and to Rob Doherty for organizing the event. We are really looking forward to going back next year, hopefully with a large contingent of DAC doubles players.

MASTERS OF THE DOUBLES UNIVERSE

2019 DAC Doubles Club Championships

Ever wonder what the Squash Doubles Universe would be like? Probably full of eternally frustrated players spending inordinate amounts of time on their e-mail and I-phones, trying to arrange a time to play a match, virtually never coming to a consensus, and if they happen to find a convenient settlement  - which would only be possible through massive sacrifices of everybody’s personal schedule – the court would either be already booked, or, someone is bound to have to cancel last minute due to an illness or injury or last minute work trip or family vacation and the entire process would start over. All the while, the local squash pro would be cc’d every single correspondence, and then some extra ones from those exasperated players complaining about the lack of flexibility of everyone else…

Of course I am exaggerating (although I am positive many of you can relate). Matches do actually get played, our doubles court usage is up, and for this year’s Club Championship, not only did we have record numbers (again!) with 80 players, every single match was played (no forfeits!) and it was kept relatively on time. My poking and prodding to meet deadlines was kept to a minimum for which I thank you for making my job easier!

Doubles C

A surprisingly small draw of just 4 teams this year. I was a somewhat disappointed that more of the C doubles league players didn’t bother entering. Two of the 4 teams in the draw weren’t even in the league! The “non-league” teams fared better in the two semifinals, and put this down to youthful exuberance overcoming the knowledge and wisdom.

I don’t think Spencer Forester and Tony Sorgi had terribly much familiarity with the doubles court before this tournament, and playing against Renée Fershée and Sue Kessler in the first match, they probably didn’t know much of what was going on either. But, that doesn’t stop them from running, and conceptually, if you can run the ball down enough, you are going to win. They did. 3-0. The other side of the draw had the effective father-son pairing of Rob Biskup and his son Rob. Or Robbie. Or Junior. Daddy Rob has some doubles education already and he could rely on Rob Jr. to do a lot of the running for him. It was a successful operation and they passed their first test against Jim Palmer and Bruce Greening, also 3-0.

Rob Biskup Sr, Robbie Biskup Jr, Spencer Forester, Tony Sorgi

An interesting final match up. And since I have never seen either of the 4 play doubles before, my prediction of a winner is based purely on gut. And my magic 8-ball. I’m picking Biskup / Biskup… just based on the fact that Rob Sr. has played more often than the other 3 players combined. Experience helps. For once, I was right! And it wasn’t because I took the advice of the 8-ball since it told me “better not tell you now” (it was mocking me, I’m sure). Daddy Rob and Robbie Jr. proved to be too strong for the Sorgi / Forester team taking all 3 hard-fought games and earning what I believe to be the first ever DAC father / son club championship combination.

Doubles B

10 pairs in what was a competitive field, very few easy passes were handed out, and a couple of upsets would create a very different final than what we had just 12 months ago. Top seeds Joe Moran and Ken Katz were chasing their 4^th Club Championship title, building on their success from 2018. But things did not go according to plan. They met their match early on in the tournament – in their first encounter in fact – against Colin Casey and Jordan Dean who upset the current title holders 3-2. Joe and Ken were as shocked as anyone but I am sure they will be back in 2020 to make amends, defy the odds, and once again be a threat.

Colin and Jordan were probably a little stunned if not bemused as well to be advancing to the semifinals. Meeting them there were David Pontes and Steve Murphy. David and Steve also scraped through their first match, fortunate to get away with a 3-2 victory over Bob Garvey and Joe Leto. The lefty-righty combination of the Pontes / Murphy team was a valuable asset tackling the somewhat younger Casey / Dean unit. It is tough playing against a pair that hits everything forehand and although Jordan and Colin put up a decent resistance, it wasn’t sufficient to win the 3 games required. They got 1, and should be pretty satisfied how far they reached in this tournament.

On the bottom half of the draw, I seeded last year’s finalists Justin Winkelman and Tom Bejin third. They were slightly rusty it appeared and struggled to get past their first round, but a 3-1 win put them into the semifinal. The second seeds were Ian Edwards and Bruce Shaw, another right-lefty combo, but also a youngie-oldie (sorry Bruce!) one and that can be very helpful for extra court coverage. Ian and Bruce won their first match 3-1 to take on Justin and Tom. As this match was on, I was giving a lesson a couple of courts away and the acoustics of the court area carry and echo pretty far. Suffice to say, I didn’t have much problem discerning who was winning. I didn’t think Justin could be so loud! He wasn’t happy with his form, it seems the rust hadn’t escaped him. Ian and Bruce won 3-1.

Another final that was difficult to prophesize. But that hasn’t stopped me in the past… so I going to lean to the Edwards / Shaw team. I think Ian’s speed may make the difference here. Even though I picked wisely for the Doubles C final, I so often demonstrate when it comes my witchcraft skills of foretelling the future, I am generally terrible at it. And once again, in this case, I condemned the chosen, there was no escaping their fate. Try as they might, mind you.

Ian and Bruce started off well taking the first game 15-7, but the cookies didn’t crumble their way in the next two and Steve and David headed into the 4^th with a 2-1 lead. Very little separated the teams from here on out, and in fact the Murphy / Pontes team held a match-ball before succumbing 14-15, Ian and Bruce dragging this into a decider. But, thanks to my pre-match premonitions, this result was apparently already written in the stars. It was close. Steve and David claim their first DAC Doubles title with 15-13 in the 5^th victory! Great game fellas - !

Doubles A

The biggest draw of the tournament, we had 15 pairs fighting it out. When I did the bracket, my money was clearly on Scott Beals and John Mann taking the honors – considering that I had them seeded one. By the way they were (trash) talking, they also considered themselves favorites to win which can be a dangerous approach to have, but no one has ever accused John Mann of not being confident! My mother always told me to let my racquet do the talking, (amongst many, many other things that still bounce around my brain to this day!) but it can be rather humorous to read the e-mails between the teams well before the first serve is even in play!

Scott and John reached the semifinal comfortably enough but their dreams of stardom came very close to crashing down around them when they stepped on court against Brian Ellison and Patrick Petz. Brian and Patrick stepped up to the challenge and slapped around the favorites for the first 3 and a half games. The 2-1, 9-4 lead for the Ellison / Petz team must have sent shock waves of panic through Beals / Mann who were shockingly on the brink of tragedy. But, apparently, this is what it took for Scott and John to see the light, and heave themselves out of the ditch they were mercilessly thrown into. A comeback of epic proportions, Beals and Mann turned it around and to put it rather bluntly, “got their s**t together” in the nick of time to pinch the 4^th and keep that momentum up for the 5^th as well. A fortunate escape, would the final be a different story?

The story of the bottom half of the draw was the Rogers brothers. John and Jeff are not overly experienced on the doubles court, and rely an awful lot on retrieving. And no one can argue the fact they can do that. All. Day. Long. And probably all night as well if you asked. (They don’t sleep-walk either – they sleep-run.) Jeff (strangely) takes the left wall where it appears he’s terrified of hitting a backhand, so he often wallpapers himself back-first into the side wall to swing forehand… yes, it’s odd, but weirdly effective. Still, I wasn’t holding my breath that they were going to be a threat for this event, but to quote the famous Manuel character from the British ‘Faulty Towers’ comedy series... “I know nothing!” Team Rogers defied the bookies knocking out second seeded Dane Fosse and Ryan MacVoy 3-1 in the first round, then sending the 2016 finalists in Chris Van Tol and Matt DiDio packing in the second round 3-2, finding themselves in the semifinals and me chewing some humble pie (again). Could they take it one step further?

No. They couldn’t. But only by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin. Marc Topacio and John Perkins had cruised to reach this far, and probably somewhat astonished to see who they were playing. They were no less astonished I am sure to see that they had a dog-fight on their hands as well as the match stretched deep into a 5^th game. To 14-all. Sudden-death. Now, I don’t know how the point was decided (Winner? Error? Stroke?), but Marc and John were the ones who won it. They sat outside court 5 for some time after the match, contemplating what just happened, counting blessings. Jeff and John ran off.

Picking a finals winner doesn’t get easier here either. My gut tells me to go with Scott Beals and John Mann. I think their semifinal scare may straighten them out for the final and they’ll step it up from rally one. Of course, now that I have said that will it actually be the kiss of death? Apparently not this time. I was spared the humiliation of looking like I have no idea what I’m talking about, John and Scott saved my bacon. Mann / Beals certainly bolted out of the gates as I predicted they would and dominated the first 2 games. But Marc and John managed to settle down after that and pick up their play taking the third and shifting some of that pressure back onto the other side of the court. It was a tight 4^th game, John and Scott having to fend off the impending comeback, they kept the ball tight and waited for their opportunities to open. A few well timed drop-shots from Scott at the end of the game secured the 3-1 victory, giving John Mann and Scott Beals their first Club Championship title and – no doubt - 12 months of John constantly reminding us of that fact…!

Doubles Open

The big one. The bracket that eternally immortalizes the winners into DAC history. Eleven teams vying for the accolades, only one will be left standing. Top seeds were last year’s winners Jed Elley and Ryan Covell and it would be difficult to see them not reach the final. Their most demanding trial would be their semifinal against the never to be underestimated team of Robin Basil and his partner, 4-time DAC Doubles champion Peter Logan.

Did Jed and Ryan actually commit the sin of taking this match too easy? One could argue that after the first 2 games because before they knew what had hit them, they were in a deep 2-0 hole, scratching their heads wondering what in Hades was going on. A monumental task to fight back, but Jed and Ryan got to work immediately at the start of that 3^rd game and turned it around. As quick as they had been pummeled in the first 2, the next 2 games was a mirror image and it was now Peter and Robin’s turn to try and figure out a solution to the onslaught. And suddenly, at the start of the 5^th game, the momentum changed again. The Logan / Basil team reignited their game 1 and 2 form, and raced off to a 9-3 lead. It was enough – just – to hold off the last ditch effort of the Elley / Covell unit that were in desperation mode to hold onto their title. At 7-14 down, they got it back to 13-14 before a tin ended their 2019 campaign. We would have a Doubles Champion this year – Peter and Robin moved onto the final.

Second seeds this year went to John Rakolta and George Kordas. Last year’s finalists and based on their DAC Classic performance this past February, John and George deserve that position but they would be tested tremendously in the semifinal against Vikram Chopra and Stefan Houbtchev, the new ‘power couple’ in the doubles world of the DAC, but still yet to really prove their mettle. As it turned out, it didn’t take long for Stefan and Vikram to stamp their authority over the 2016 champions. The first game was a tight 15-14, but then they were overly threatened the rest of the way home. It was a 3-0 victory and they were looking hard to beat.

Robin Basil, Vikram Chopra, Stefan Houbtchev, Peter Logan

For the final, my money was certainly on the Houbtchev / Chopra duo. I think Peter and Robin will undoubtedly provide the biggest challenge for them, but I don’t see enough arsenal in their bag of tricks to outlast the court coverage and hard hitting of Stefan and Vikram. The first game proved that to be true, the Houbtchev / Chopra team kept their noses in front by 3 to 4 points pretty much the whole way and took it 15-12. If Peter and Robin were to make and type of waves in this match, they could not afford to go 2 games to love down. They came out in the second game strongly, steadier, less unforced errors and suddenly the pressure was on Stefan and Vikram to shoot. Mistakes started to appear, giving Logan / Basil the jump they were looking for, and they held the advantage until late into the game. Unfortunately, they couldn’t maintain that tactic and they faltered, letting Stefan and Vikram to catch up and get to 14-all, where they needed just one serve to convert. It was a gut punch. The third game was a facsimile of the first, except that it ended up 15-11. A good quality final and the 3-0 win gives both Vikram and Stefan their first DAC Club Championship Doubles title! Well done guys!