DOING THE GREG JONES BLITZ

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!)

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 - !!)

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!

NICK AT NIGHT KEEP ROLLIN’

Boasters League Quarter Finals~~

Amazing how things change once the finals come around. Suddenly there is a level of commitment and interest not seen during the regular season, players actually going out of their way to get matches done, making an extra effort to get that bonus point (mostly), captains crunching the numbers, calculating their mathematical chances, communication amongst each team increases 100-fold, I’m receiving e-mails about future possible opponents… it’s certainly refreshing to see. I also think that if this level of dedication was demonstrated through the season, who is in the finals may be different…

I did hear one of the captains of one of the eliminated teams last night mention that if only 2 of his team members turned up twice on a Wednesday, they would be in the play-offs. That’s all it can take. Every point counts. Even that random bonus point that was missed from round 2 for example. But that’s all water under the bridge now.

For the teams that extended their season at least one more week, this is what happened:

Nick at Night v Foss Nation

Can anyone say “bonus points”? If anything was going to be Nick at Night’s Achilles heel during the play-offs, it would be their ability (or lack thereof) of collecting bonus points. During the season, the most they picked up in any one week was 9. But come play-off time… and last night they accumulate 13! Remarkable! Foss Nation matched them on this count, which is great news since the winner of this match-up would now be decided on court.

I did predict a Nick at Night victory this week, and based on win percentage over the season, they won 18% more often than what Foss Nation did. However, of the 16 matches played (out of 17) the two teams split the wins 8 apiece. The difference being was how many 3-0 wins one team had over the other.

In arguably the most exciting match of the evening, Tom MacEachern (Foss Nation) had his work cut out against Riley English (Nick at Night). Riley has beaten Tom 6 times in a row leading up to this encounter, the last time Tom actually won was in October of 2017. So a mental hurdle was securely in place, but Tom wasn’t having any of it. Although after the first game, he would have been getting the repeating familiar feeling of déjà vu all over again as Riley did his usual sprint from corner to corner, to mezzanine, to parking garage, to keg, to Tom’s drop-shot. Somehow, it didn’t discourage Tom terribly much and he took the next 2 games (was the 3^rd 15-14..?) and ended his losing streak. It was a reversal of the 3-0- pounding Tom took back in round 7.

There were 3 other reversals that took place. Renee Fershee (Nick at Night), took sweet revenge on her round 7 loss to Peter McGrath (Foss Nation) last night with a 3-0 win. Brendan Fossee (Nick at Night) followed very closely in Renee’s footsteps and did exactly the same thing against John Markus (Foss Nation). Turning 1-2 losses into 3-0 wins is in reality a 4 point turnaround. Makes all the difference. The third reversal went Foss Nation’s way this time, with Niko Ahee avenging his 1-2 round 7 loss to Tripp Kennedy winning 2-1 this time.

As I said earlier, it wasn’t the amount of wins overall that made the difference here, but the amount of 3-0 wins. Nick at Night had 7 of them. That’s a 21-0 deficit that is devilishly difficult to overcome no matter what way you look at it. Of the 8 wins that Foss Nation secured, they only had two 3-0 scores, it simply was not enough. Nick at Night keep their engine pumping at full speed and move onto the semifinals with a resounding 42-32 win.

Butter Nutz v Wardogs

So did bonus points make a difference in this one? Well, it didn’t exactly help the Wardogs as they managed to collect only 9 of them. That’s low for a final, but I suppose luckily for them, Butter Nutz didn’t take full advantage of it as they only picked up 11 of their own. If they could have hauled in 14 or 15, they would have put the result to bed early.

This turned into a struggle for the Wardogs from the get-go anyway. Four matches were played early and Butter Nutz won 3 of them, so by the time the quarter-final had officially started, Wardogs were already 4 points back. As it turned out this night for them, wins were difficult to come by, especially of the 3-0 variety. They had only one. Jordan Dean took care of business against Matt Peleman, with a much needed but awfully rare 3 game victory. On the other side of the field, 3-0 wins for the Butter Nutz weren’t exactly coming in thick and fast either, as they only mange to record two of them. However, Butter Nutz were on the positive side of the 2-1 results a lot more often.

Score reversals from the round 7 match-up… Peter Ulbrich (Butter Nutz) avenged his 1-2 loss to David Pontes (Wardogs) taking this one 2-1 – also making it the first time Peter has beaten David in 5 tries. (Must be those lessons…?) Scott Beals (Butter Nutz) shook off his 0-3 loss to John Perkins (Wardogs) with a 2-1 win here – this is also the first time Scott has bested John on the squash court – perfect timing I suppose! And Max Franklin (Wardogs) managed to get even with Jason Currie (Butter Nutz) winning 2-1 on this occasion, Jason doing his best Riley English impression of running from corner to keg to locker room to BAC to Max’s backhand rail… and then losing.

As the Thursday sun up (an hour late again), we still did not have a clear winner. With 3 matches still to be completed, Butter Nutz held the advantage but Wardogs were mathematically still within reach. Although that reach was at the very tips of their fingers, and wouldn’t take much to have it be completely out of their grasp. In the spotlight first was Josh Gershonowicz (Butter Nutz) and Joey Gaylord (Wardogs). Josh beat Joey 2-1 in round 7, Josh’s only win in 4 attempts. Joey needed to win 3-0 to keep his team’s hopes alive, but none of his victories over Josh in the past were 3-0. It certainly didn’t help matters for Joey that he also carried a dodgy knee into the match. Taking nothing away from Josh, the result could very well have ended the same way, but Joey couldn’t keep up with the pace required and had to regrettably bail half way through the second game. Josh’s 3-0 win gave Butter Nutz the unassailable lead and the ticket into the next round. Final score: Butter Nutz 38 to Wardogs 26.

Semi Finals… We have Nick at Night v Winky-Dinks. A round 3 match-up had the Winky-Dinks on top 34-29. All but 2 matches were played, but neither team picked up many bonus points so that could be a factor. I’m leaning Winky-Dinks here, but Nick at Night are clearly no push-overs. Should be close either way.

Then we have Butter Nutz v Mongoose. Back in round 4 Mongoose squeaked out a 31-30 victory. All but 3 matches were played and all but 2 results were 2-1. On this occasion and Butter Nutz picked up 3 more bonus points. I’m predicting a Mongoose win here as well, but I also think they will win by a greater margin – maybe by 6 or 7 points. Of course, now that I have said that, it won’t happen.

THE ROUND NINE DEADLINE

Boasters League final round~~

The overall effort to play make-up matches in the last 10 days or so was by all means praiseworthy. It certainly boosted the statistics for the second half, and thankfully so. Now they only look somewhat disappointing as opposed to downright awful. I am aware I have been a little harsh about the participation, but you will understand why once you see the numbers below.

Of course the final round push to make the finals can make it exciting. There was no drama, however, of who was going to end up in first place. Winky-Dinks made sure of that at least 2 weeks ago. As usual, the attention is focused at the bottom of the ladder and which 3 teams will be eliminated. Vivio’s, Nick at Night, and On the Rocks were all looking down the barrel after round 8, and by the time the day of round 9 was upon us, that hadn’t changed. In fact, due to some make-up matches, they were actually even further behind.

However, an impressively strong showing from Nick at Night propelled them up the standings and from being in last place 9 days ago, they find themselves in 4^th place now and in the play-offs. That’s a 64 point boost – great stuff! The team that suffered the consequences because of that? The Nicker Ballers. They picked up by far the least amount of points in round 9 and now have to pay the price with elimination.

Let’s gloss over the stats for the second half and see just how ‘yucky’ they really are:

• 69% of matches were completed this half. Down from the 78% in the first half, and down from the 72% from the second half last season. So, in the end, it wasn’t as disastrous as first predicted, but still not great. 
• Mongoose and Winky-Dinks played the most matches with 76%. 
• Least amount of matches…? Nick and Night with 61%. 
• Nick at Night reached the play-offs anyway because they had the best win percentage with 61.45%. They also tied with most number of 3-0 wins. 
• On the Rocks had the worst win percentage with 38.95%. But when they did win, they won 3-0 46% of the time – 4^th best in the league. 
• Bonus points. Hardly groundbreaking stats here once again. Winky-Dinks collected the most (89). The top 4 teams are in the top 4 for bonus points as well. The bottom 3 teams are in the bottom 4 for bonus points. The outlier: Nick at Night. They picked up the least of any team with 56. It’s actually not a trend you want to carry forward into the play-offs were bonus points are even more important. 
• Only 13 players picked up all 8 bonus points. 12 players didn’t pick up any. 
• 21 players played all 8 matches. There were 26 players who did that in the first half. 
• Nobody played all 8 matches and went undefeated. 
• The most overall points any player picked up in the second half was Fred Fordon (Winky-Dinks) with 26. The maximum would be 32. 
• Most points scored in any one round was the Winky-Dinks in round 2 with 40. 
• Least amount of points scored in any one round was 12 by the Nicker Ballers in round 8. 
• Not once were all 17 matches completed in any one round. 16 matches were completed just twice. 
• Round 2 had the most matches completed with 78%. That is very low.

We now look to next week and the quarter final match ups. Foss Nation take on the surging Nick at Night. These 2 teams played each other not too long ago in round 7. Ten of the 17 matches were played, Nick at Night won 7 of them, but had a very low bonus-point turn out. Still, Nick at Night won 25-19, so the edge for this one leans that way, this could come down to who actually turns up next Wednesday.

The second quarter final sees the Butter Nutz battle the Wardogs. In almost identical fashion to the previous paragraph, this match up was again on preview in round 7, 10 of the 17 matches were completed, and Wardogs won 7 of them. On this occasion however, Wardogs also outscored Butter Nutz in bonus points, and won the round 28-20. Vegas odds are leaning slightly towards Wardogs here, but it would be no surprise to me if Butter Nutz end up on top. Nine of the 10 matches they played in round 7 were a 2-1 score line – so it’s competitive.