Boasters League semi
finals~~
I was a little bewildered at the lower participation level
for the semi final. Where we had all results recorded last week for the
quarters, this week we came up 5 matches short. Who knows if it ended up
hurting the teams that lost, but it certainly didn’t help them.
Winky-Dinks v
Mongoose
Only 10 matches of 17 were actually completed in this match
up. One match was nullified completely, and 2 forfeits were handed out (one for
each team). Only 10 players from each team turned up for their bonus points
which I suppose cancels each other out on that front, but that it still very
low for a semi final.
Less matches makes the ones that were played more
significant. Each 3-0 victory carries more weight and the “Winky-Dinks” came through with 3 of them: JC Tibbitts, James Stuntz
and Adam Burgess.
Two of those results were rather unexpected if you consider
that James and Adam lost 1-2 to the same opponents just 2 weeks earlier in the
final round of the season. “Mongoose”
scored two 3-0 victories as well with Sean
Moran and Brandon Linton taking
care of business.
At the top level, it looks like John Rakolta (“Mongoose”)
is starting to get some of his old form back (which is good timing with the
club champs just around the corner). John reversed the round 9 score against Robin Basil and took down the
racquetball-styled-squash-player 2-1. Paul
Flanagan continued the “Mongoose”
charge beating Brendan Fossee 2-1,
but from there on it was slim pickings and a struggle for the 6th
seed.
Squeaking out 2-1 victories the rest of the way, Mike Petix, Nick Cinqueranelli and Mike
Cooney slowly kept increasing the lead, and although the advantage never
reached an unattainable height, having four matches remain dormant as the
deadline passed was really the nail in the coffin for “Mongoose”. It may not have made a difference, but either way “Winky-Dinks” advance to the final doing
just enough for a 30-26 win. They will have to do a lot better job next week in
terms of bonus points if they want to give themselves a chance.
Butter Nutz v Space
Geckos
Last week, “Butter
Nutz” recorded all 17 bonus points. They failed to do that this time, but 14
is still a pretty impressive total. And it was 3 better than the “Space Geckos”. That’s a full match (3-0
win) to overcome. With 16 of 17 matches completed, it turned out the “Butter Nutz” didn’t need that 4 point buffer
anyway.
Both team captains led by example. Sante Fratarcangeli and Josh
Slominski won their respective matches 3-0. In fact there were a lot of 3-0 results all around. Only 5
of the 16 matches ended up 2-1, whereas when these 2 teams played back in round
two, 8 of 14 had that score line. And, only one of the results was reversed
from that day: Space Gecko Andrew
Walawender avenged his 1-2 loss to Andy
Combs for a 3-0 victory this time around. But of all the 3-0 scores, the “Space Geckos” only managed 2 others.
That meant the “Butter
Nutz” had a total of seven 3-0 victories, a virtual domination. Adding on
the 3 extra bonus points, that’s 24 points the “Space Geckos” would have to overcome. They didn’t. Sealing their
fate on Thursday afternoon was Matt
DiDio’s win over Chris Van Tol
and Marc Lakin taking all the games
from Andrew Spohn. By that time, the
differences in the scores was more than what was left on the table. The “Butter Nutz” definitely deserved the
win here as they took the semi final 42-31.
So we are left with a “Butter
Nutz” v “Winky-Dinks” final. The
“Butter Nutz” are going for their 3rd
straight Boasters League title, and for the “Winky-Dinks” it’s their second crack at glory since they went down
to “Mongoose” in 2011. These two
teams played in round 3 and it was “Winky-Dinks”
who scored a commanding victory 32-23. Only 4 matches weren’t played back then,
but neither team picked up that many bonus points either. Based on that, it
looks like “Winky-Dinks” may have
the edge. But they better turn up…
