2017 DAC Singles Club
Championships
“May the 4th
be with you.” Our club championship night just happened to fall on ‘Star
Wars’ day, where fanatics of the saga literally cannot contain themselves. As
it so happens, and unless you were not present at the dinner, it was also my
birthday and I have to endure that b’day wish countless times every year. I
actually liked the Star Wars movie, but Yoda and his Jedi brethren are starting
to turn me towards the Dark Side. If Jabba the Hut was any indication, it looks
like their parties are more fun anyway.
Like a broken record, as I seem to mention this every year,
once again we had our highest court usage in a season. You’ve all heard the
saying that more is not necessarily better, but in this case, more is definitely better! We need to keep
filling them in order to increase them. And you are all doing a great job –
let’s keep that up! The Club Championships signify the end of the 2016-2017
season, let’s see who wielded their light-sabre the best:
2.5 – Han Goes Solo
As usual, this is the biggest draw of the championships, so
going by that number, the toughest to win, right? There were a number of tight
contests through the bracket, and it was pleasing to see a couple of younger
guys reaching the semifinals.
Jack Bernard was
one of them, and maybe he was a little underestimated as one of the possible
winners of this title. Looking over his results history dating back to
September 2016, he had only lost one
match in the boasters and ladders combined. A stat that had gone completely
unnoticed, which is why I was rather startled to see him take out Julie Vande Vusse in the second round
3-2. Jack’s run was stopped by another quiet achiever – Han Peng – but not without resistance going down 3-1. It was only
Jack’s second loss for the season, and it will be interesting to see where he’ll
be this time next year.
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| Han Peng and Gus Ploss |
The other “young gun” to reach the semifinal was Jordan Dean. Like Jack, Jordan has also
improved steadily over the past season and his win / loss record is likewise
healthy. Jordan battled through two 5 setters to reach the semis, where he then
went down to the audacious Gus Ploss
in 4 tough games.
The Peng-Ploss final was a tail of two styles. Han, who is
young, quick and fit, and Gus… who is not. Umm, I mean, experienced, quick
tongued, and has good touch. Both players started off a little tentatively in
the first game, but the rallies were what I expected: Gus working the corners
and Han running it down. Nevertheless, Han knew the longer the rallies took,
the better off he would be and he did make that extra effort to cover Gus’
short balls. Han also didn’t hit too many enforced errors which at any level is
a huge plus. It was too much pressure for Gus to handle and Han took all three
games, a credit to him since he has been working hard on his game.
3.0 – Adam’s Swan
Song?
What better way for Adam
Pabarcus to say goodbye to the DAC than with a club championship title?
Yes, we are unfortunate lose Adam this summer as he and his family move back to
Minneapolis, but at least he will have the 3.0 trophy to display on his
mantelpiece in his new home for prosperity and fond memories. It also means I
need a replacement for him for the 2018 Farris Cup team… I doubt we’ll have a
shortage of takers for that one.
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| David Pontes and Adam Pabarcus |
Adam won the final over David
Pontes in 4 games, but both players had to get through some very stiff
competition to get that far in the first place. Adam started off his campaign
with a 3-0 win before having to deal with top seed Mike Ottaway, a slightly unorthodox player, but quite the
determined competitor. This was one of a handful of matches in the 3.0 that
could have ended up either way, and of course we could have easily witnessed a
completely different final. This 3-2 win was Adam’s turn.
David Pontes had
two close encounters to deal with. The
‘easier’ of the two was in the very first round against David Zack, but he got away with the 3-2 win. The bigger scare was in the quarter final. Brendan Walsh pushed him all the way and more. A 5-set groaner,
nail-biting tie break, match-balls earned and saved and Dave poking his head up
after all that carnage with a 14-12 win. He was probably still recovering from
that match when he played the final!
A couple of other close results to mention: Michael Parker refusing to play less
than 5 games per match just to get his money’s worth, firstly against Michael Craig and then against Michael Rock. He then beat Michael Fisher – but only 3-1 – before
having to bow out of the event, probably because his next opponent wasn’t
called ‘Michael’. And Dewey Steffen.
Now, I am going to call Mr. Steffen out here a little. I refused to enter Dewey
in the 2.5 category that he insisted on entering. Not to be critical, Dewey did
truly believe he should have been playing in the 2.5, but I actually had more
faith in him than he did in himself. Dewey won his first match against Michael Cooney (how many Michaels are there in this category??)
before losing 11-9 in the 5th to Michael (!) Fisher.
Dewey proved he belonged in the 3.0, and I’m sure he’s glad he played just
that.
Just another quick shout out to Adam – congrats on your
victory and best of luck with the weather in Minnesota!
3.5 – Justin Does Just
Enough
I had a couple of ‘dark horses’ for this particular race.
Firstly, John Rogers. One of many
intermediate members that has taken to the game and has progressed rapidly. Of
course, spending a lot of time on court helps, as does taking those lessons (hint, hint, nudge, nudge…). John is an
athlete though his vastly superior soccer skills (compared to normal people),
and can run all day and into next week if he needs to. Maybe we should nickname
him Forrest Gump? He reached the semifinal here getting through the second seed
John Perkins 3-0 which did surprise me a touch as I though Mr. Perkins was a
solid candidate for the category as well. John Rogers’ 3.5 crusade ended
against another ‘dark horse’ in Greg
Allare.
Greg’s athletic background is rugby, and is built as such. A
very “bulldoggish’ approach (and I mean that in the nicest possible way!), Greg
is one tough cookie. If I were to bump into the wrong crowd in a dark alley at
night I wouldn’t mind having Greg by my side. Of course I would scream like a
10 year old girl and run away, but I’m sure he could take care of himself. Greg
has been in form leading up to this tournament and although he lost to John
Rogers last time they played just 2 weeks prior, he reversed the result this
time around to take the match 3-1.
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| Greg Allare and Justin Jacobs |
His finals opponent did it the hardest way possible. Justin Jacobs has a knack of playing 5
games. He does this at the DAC Classic on a constant basis, surely just to
annoy the organizer and push the match schedule way back. Seeded 3, Justin
struggled to get past Sean Fossee in
the first round winning 3-2, and almost then lost to Maggie Durant in the quarter final – again a 3-2 result – before
having to thank the Squash Gods – who, as Squash
Gods, probably weren’t listening anyway because they were at the bar drinking –
for scraping by the skin of his menorah 13-11 in the 5th against Jay Poplawski.
An interesting final that on paper, I would have given Greg
the slight edge based on current form. I wasn’t convinced of that though,
Justin has proven to be a resilient customer at the best of times and was not
to be underestimated. And he stepped up big time for the occasion. For some
reason, he wasn’t interested in a 5-set marathon, and wasted no extra time
putting Greg away 3-0 to take his first club champs title. Great effort, but
now he has to step up to the 4.0!
4.0 – Gold Strike Van
Dyke
Hands up who thought that James Van Dyke was going to win this event… I see one... hang on –
James’ wife doesn’t count. To be fair, though, James has been playing well leading up to the club championships, and he has lost a decent amount of weight (It
is an amazing difference when you don’t have to carry around that spare tire!),
and he has been working with Corey regularly.
All of that adds up to… 4 + 3… carry the
2... multiply by 7… good squash! It’s a pretty simple formula.
Not that James had an easy run to the final. His hardest
opponent (or softest?) was his semifinal match again the “Big Mac” himself, Zac MacVoy.
If you recall, Zac recorded one of the most memorable club championship final wins
last year taking down his brother “Littler
Mac” Ryan in a 5-set tie
breaking racquet-splintering encounter. Zac is no stranger to laying it all out
on the court, and he pushed James and himself to the limit, begging for mercy
along the way, ignoring the pain, the impending heart attack, the unyielding lust
for a sandwich, only to go down in 5 brutal games.
James was to take on John
Mann in the final. If you also recall, John won the 3.5 final last year
(also in 5 games) and has also been displaying some very consistently decent squash
the couple of months leading up to April. He had won 75% of his recorded
matches so far in 2017, so he was heading into the final with confidence. He
had also dropped only one game on his way to meet James, and that was to Marc Topacio in the semi.
I expected the final to be a little longer than what it was.
After taking the obligatory pre-match photo, I then ‘raced’ upstairs to do the
same for the matches being played there, stayed to watch the first game of Gus
and Han, and by the time I got back down to the court area, John and James were
already sitting on the couch. All credit to James on his one, he took control
early and never let up. John could only react. It was a 3-0 well-earned
victory!
4.5 – Chris Van Tol On
a Roll
A decent sized draw for the 4.5 this year, dominated by
mainly younger players working themselves up through the ranking. It was also a
little controversial in the beginning when the bracket was released with the inclusion
(and allowing) of Eric Green. And,
understandably so when you consider Eric won the 5.0 division just 2 years ago and in 2012, and I did hear the
grumblings. But Eric has not been playing much squash at all since then (work
getting in the way of pleasure!) and I was confident I had made the right
decision.
Mark Gregory
proved me right. He beat Eric 3-1 in the second round and suddenly propelled
himself to be the favorite to win the category. Not that I thought he couldn’t anyway,
he was one of my ‘secret’ picks. Mark reached the final beating Jason Currie in the semi 3-1, more than
thankful that it didn’t go to 5 games as he readily admitted he wouldn’t have
been able to keep up if it did. Especially against a runner like Jason.
The other side of the draw was close in just about every
match. JC Tibbitts scraped by the
veteran Mike Eugenio in 5 games in
round 2, Mike LoVasco beat Colin Bayer 3-1 before going down in 4
games to Chris Van Tol also in round
2. The JC v Chris semifinal was one to witness no doubt. One of the unfortunate
drawbacks of running a tournament over a month and having the matches being
self-scheduled is that we miss being able to watch some of the more memorable results.
This was one of them. Beating each other senseless all match, it looked as if
JC was going to advance as he held a 9-6 lead in the 5th game.
However, Chris dug in his heels and refused to give up any more points and
rolled off 5 in a row to pinch the match away, setting up another unforgettable
match for the final.
And it was a match that should have been played downstairs
(hindsight is always 20/20). From the reports I heard, it was arguably the
match of the evening. The first 4 games all went to tie break, the fellas split
the spoils to set up a 5th game. Regrettably for Mark, having the
match stretch into that 5th set was one hurdle too many. Fitness
would be his undoing, Chris controlled the 5th the whole way and
took that game comfortably for a very impressive 4.5 triumph!
5.0 – Sweepstakes
Blake
We were treated to another blockbuster final in this
category. Top seeded Andy Adamo had
little trouble repeating his 2016 feat of reaching the final before he ran into
the Sante Fratarcangeli buzz saw (I
had to get Sante’s name in here somehow!) and was looking at going one step
better and finally winning the 5.0. Standing in his way would be Blake Ellis.
Blake is no stranger to competing in tough finals. Last year
he fell over the finish line 11-8 in the 5th in the 4.5 final over Chris Van Tol, and he also beat Chris
in 4 in the 4.0 final back in 2012. But he almost didn’t advance past his first
match this year. Brien Baker almost eliminated
him early as he stretched him to 5 games, an awkward customer with his wing
span and desire to use the side walls before the front walls ad nauseam! Happy
to get away with the victory, Blake then won his semi 3-0.
According to the records, Andy had his work cut out. He had
played Blake 6 times before this final and had only won once. That was way back
in October, and since then he had lost the next 2. But he could take a little
comfort in the fact that only one of those losses was a sweep, so they mainly
were close results and he certainly had a good chance to win here so long as he
played consistent squash. Fitness would be a factor too no doubt.
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| Blake Ellis and Andy Adamo |
The match went back and forth. Andy always appears composed,
smooth technique, never panicky. But that can also be a negative as on occasion
he doesn’t step up the attacking squash when the opportunity presents itself.
Blake is a hustler and the longer the match progressed, the more it would lean
to his favor. Or so one would think. When the 5th game came around,
Andy seemed all but spent. A little flat footed, he had to slow the game down.
It worked. Softer length, timely drops. Blake was left to keep on scrambling, hoping
Andy would eventually run out of energy completely. A broken string to Blake’s
racquet with just a few points to go looked like it broke Andy’s momentum more
than it did Blake’s. Fitness does play a part at this stage of any match, but that
being said, it really was anyone’s for the taking. One error, one miss-hit, one
momentary lapse of attention can make the difference. Blake made one last major
push, and with it took the 11-9 in the 5th win for his 3rd
club championship title and left Andy pondering the what-ifs for the second straight
year… already focusing on 2018!
5.5 – Return of the
Jed-I
For the third straight year, Jed Elley and Vikram Chopra
would be playing off for the DAC Club Championship title. In 2015, Jed stole
the show and clean swept Vikram 3-0, and in 2016 Vikram would reap his revenge
with a 3-1 win. So, for club championship finals between the two, the tally was
1 win apiece. Overall though, counting boasters league results, Vikram was holding
a 3-2 advantage including the most recent match-up just 3 days before the final
took place – a 2-1 boasters league win. Also, Jed won the title in 2014, but
that was before Vikram came aboard.
Both players reached the final comfortably enough, Vikram
dropping one game to Jamie Shea in
the semi, Jed beating Robin Basil
3-0 in his semi, although 2 of those games were 11-9. Laying all the cards on
the table, Vikram was carrying a lingering ankle injury into this match, but I’m
not letting him off here allowing him to use this as an excuse. After all, he
just beat Jed 72 hours prior. And, if you’re on court, you’re fair game.
This first game was a dominated by the South African. Every
point Vikram won was counted by 2 or 3 of Jed’s. It was clear Jed was ready to
go from the first rally, Vikram appeared he was still feeling his way, trying
to get himself some rhythm. He really couldn’t get himself into the game and
Jed quickly wrapped it up 11-5.
But the second game was the opposite story. Vikram came out
firing, Jed was now on the defensive. Maybe he felt a little too comfortable from the first game,
maybe overconfident now and Vikram would catch him flat-footed multiple times. Vikram’s
quick racquet was too much to handle and just like in the first game, the
momentum of the leading player was too great. Vikram 11-4.
But then… Poof! Another
turnaround. Search parties were sent out to look for the real Vikram as the one
who stepped on court for game 3 was a shadow of the one we had just witnessed
in game 2. And of course, Jed took full advantage. He was now a rampaging South African, choc-o-bloc
with confidence, could do no wrong. From 0-1 down in the third, Jed grabbed the
next 10 points, winners flowed, head was up, he was already sniffing the
victory.
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| Vikram Chopra and Jed Elley |
Could Vikram mount another reversal? Almost. The closest
game of the match, we were now enjoying the longer rallies, desperation, and
nervousness starting to creep in. Point for point, the game was poised at 6-all
before Jed ripped off the next 3 points and looked to have it in the bag, 2
points from victory. But not yet. A couple of unforced errors let Vikram back
in and quickly it was back to 9-all. However, Jed recovered his composure, and
with a couple of fine finishing rallies, took the game 11-9 and his 3rd
DAC Club Champion title!
Our 2018 (singles) Farris Cup team stands before you. The BAC
will need to put forward a strong team! It was an excellent evening of squash,
terrific sportsmanship was displayed by all. This technically signifies the end
of the season, but make sure you keep your game up over the summer. Leagues
will be in full swing, as the ladders. That rust is always difficult to brush
off come September otherwise!
