Waynesborough completes its third consecutive sweep this week against Martins-1, and has now only lost 3 courts in their last 8 matches. A highly contested match between Vlatko Nadjek vs Scott Falatek with Safford and Korfmann by their sides was won by Vlatko and Safford in the third set. Captain Tom stated “at this very moment, I could not be happier with how my guys are playing. This may be one of the best teams that I assembled since the 1978 UMLY Red team.”
Falatek after the match went on to say “How can I take down my own partner (Vlatko)? His confidence is always very weak and I did not want him to lose it before the PA States this weekend where we go in as the #1 seed.”
Also at Martins Dam, Wallingford pulled out a victory over Martins-2 by a total of 3 games. The final match came down to the undefeated #1 court of Mikes McGrath and Furman playing Captain Dan and Aiden. All Captain Dan and Aiden had to do was to win 7 games in their 3 sets to clinch a victory but unfortunately came up 4 games short, giving Wallingford the Victory.
Captain Dan stated: “While I was disappointed in my performance this week, this team has only been shut out 2 times the entire season and we now have a commanding 2.5 point lead over MD1. The teams turnaround from last season is now legendary and I think we can pull at least 3 victories out of the final 5 weeks”. Sounds like a tall order, let’s see where he comes in with that prediction.
In another thrilling match, Aronimink bounced back from their 2 week losing streak to take down P-Country by a tie-breaker of a single game. This loss coupled with the H-Valley win, places P-Country in the bottom 2 at the split. Captain Hocker has been placed on the hot seat for his team’s performance this season and the P-Country board has stated that they will be watching this team closely for the final 5 weeks.
An anonymous board member apparently stated to Mr. Hocker that “we (the Board) have been duped into this significant upgrade that we have made to the paddle facilities over the past few years, first the new hut and then the fourth court. If a change is not made on the court, it certainly will be made off the court.” The remaining D1 players around the league certainly appreciate the Boards efforts and investment in the P-Country paddle facility. Stay tuned to this hot topic in the weeks to come.
Picket Post was looking for their second win of the season with this week taking on Merion. Three of the 4 courts came down to the final set with Merion winning 2 of them and proving to be the difference in the contest. Court 2 came down to a tie breaker between the father and son Chip and Doug Morrow winning 7 to 3 over Justin Harper and Matt Detiger. Fortunately for PP, they are only 2 points behind the third to last place team and the final 5 weeks will make or break them to play with the big-boys again.
Once again the Board chimed in, this time for Picket Post who apparently is also not happy with the season’s performance. Rumor has it that they approached GM Yost to see if he would travel up 252 and take over the squad next season. “He seems to have a remarkable way of building teams with limited to no budget and does not get involved with the country club crowd.” No word yet of GM Yost has accepted the position.
The upset of the week has to go to H-Valley which defeated Greenville by a total of 3 games and for the first time in a long time, takes them out of the bottom 2. This is also H-Valley’s second consecutive victory and breaks Greenville’s 4 match win streak. Greenville was Zinkless this week and H-Valley took full advantage of it and also had a huge victory on court 1 where Sean “I am not too competitive” Seese and Rodney took down the perennial President Cup teammates Simon and Todd Marvin in three straight sets.
Captain Rodney stated after the match: “I am not surprised at all in this clubs performance. We have had a taste of D1 a couple years ago and felt like with a few huge breaks, we can compete in this league year after year. If they feel like they did not need to bring Zink to our match, then they will have to rethink that next week which is the next time that we play them.” Watch what you wish for Captain Rodney, I suspect a potential different outcome a week from now.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Overbrook vs. P-Cricket match was not completed and we will report the outcome of that match next week.
If you are not playing this weekend, make sure you make it out to watch the PA States and see if anyone even has the outside, remote chance of taking down the # 1 seeds of Vlatko and Falatek. If you are free and have nothing else to do (meaning the grass has stopped growing and there is no more paint left to dry) the triple loser back draw is going to be played 25 miles south of Wilmington at a small club near the refinery and they always appreciate a crowd. Talk with the Tournament director Andy Sorrentino for directions.
We start the second half of the season next week, as the Top 6 is playing for their seeding spot or at least wanting to get into the Top 4 and guarantee a spot in the year end tournament. The Bottom Six are playing to get out of the bottom 2 so that they can get written up in this article next year.
In a final note, is Waynesborough-1 possibly the best team ever assembled? We researched Captain Tom’s statement from the available records maintained by MAPTA and what we found out may astound some and piss off many others.
When we looked back at the records of the best teams at the end of the 11 weeks, we discovered the following. Below is the #of loses of each team at the end of 11 weeks (44 total courts).
2010/11 – Aronimink – 14 losses
2008/09 – Waynesborough – 13 losses
2011/12 – Waynesborough – 12 losses
2009/10 – Waynesborough – 7 losses
2012/13 – Waynesborough – 6 losses
Captain Tom was absolutely correct in his statement but how large is the bulls-eye that he just placed on his players back will be seen in the upcoming 5 weeks.
