Wednesday, June 23, 2010

4.5 Wrap-up -> play-offs

But for the Lifetime v LBH score in flight C still not being posted, the season is over!

As it stands the QT will be contested between:
Royal Oaks
TBar
Las Colinas Herget

These should be closely contested matchups and it will not surprise me if all are tied on 1 win and 1 loss.

TBar are deep and James Warner is an excellant singles player but they lack a clear number 2 and that is their weakness. For dubs, Schnittker & Modic can play with anyone but after that, although very tough I don't see lines that can consistently beat LC or RO teams.

Royal Oaks questionable addition of Chris Bell gives them the edge. Not sure that he will not be DQ'd as he committed to TX Tech and (although I don't know how to verify? help....) have been told that out of Plano West he had some tournament and high ranking finishes when he was there as recently as 2008. Not sure that this makes him eligible for 4.5? If he's legit though, RO are the favorites.

Las Colinas have come out of a tough division and can't be overlooked. Unfortunately I don't know enough of there players so tough for me to handicap.

DCC qualifiers:
HP Nguyen
OC Branch
Garland Noel
Brookhaven
QT - Royal Oaks

I'll handicap that field next week.....

Thursday, June 17, 2010

3.5 Season Rap

I leave you this rap
to ends thing up;
and to summarize which teams
will fight for the cup.

I said it before
and I'll say it again;
the competition in 3.5
has gotten real thin.

My Flight A predictions
were right on the money;
with Garland taking first
and leaving others looking funny.

Flight B - I missed
with Brookhaven's blunder;
So hats off to HP
and the Village-just 2 lines under.

Flight C another given
with Bender on top;
and an end-of-season gift
to Bent Tree for a QT spot.

Oak Creek joins the QT
with the Fall's hall pass;
but that's all the post season they will see
so they better make it last.

City will come down to the two
of Sisk vs. Bender;
and most likely dueling again
as the Sectionals contender.

So that's it for me
as 3.5 comes to an end;
best wishes to all
and may the best team win.

4.0 final regular season matches

So it seems like we just started but we arrived at the end of the regular season.

Flight A:
High Point and Garland end with tough matches both looking for a win to get to the DCC and also in jeopardy of falling out of playoffs entirely if they have a really bad match. Most likely they will both win and then it will come down to style points to see who goes to the DCC and who goes to the QT. I have to go with High Point but I think it will be very close because I don't expect the big self rates out and risk being lost for the postseason.


Flight B:
Well I think this one is easy. Win or go home in the MOW between the SWAT team and Lifetime. Brookhaven just needs to mop up last place JCC to keep their hopes alive and pass the loser of this match to get into the QT. I won't make a prediction, I will leave that up to you all. I do like our chances better now that the teenagers are off the menu.

Flight C:
So it looks like Gleneagles v. Village for the QT spot. I am not sure who to pick but if you are forcing me I guess I will take Gleneagles just on the shear amount of depth but I will admit ignorance on these rosters.

Flight D:
Greenhill is in the clubhouse with a strong finish but their hopes lie in Stonebriar who have really nothing to play for but I know they are type of crew that will still bring their best if they are available that is. I don't see an upset here, Lakes will stay undefeated and head to the DCC.

Flight E:
JCC goes to DCC. Congrats! Canyon Creek heads to the QT, congrats to Mark's team for making it to the postseason, I will be honest I did not see that one coming. I thought 3rd or 4th at best.

Best of luck to all except for those Lifetimers.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mid-Year Ratings - Who get's bumped?

Mid-Year ratings will be out in a few weeks.

After the big move in December how will that impact Mid-year adjustments?

Mid-Year only accounts for league play. Mixed and tournaments only count for year-end ratings.

They normally come out before the QT, City and Sectionals so those only count for year-end.

Let's get started 4.5 bump ups to 5.0:
James Warner (TBar)
Nicklaus Clifford (Lifetime)
Kevin Durten, Mike Kelly, Justin Huffman, Paul Kiron, Dustin Viktorin & Chris Slezak (all Oak Creek Branch)
Chris Bell (Royal Oaks - probably won't but should never have self-rated at a 4.5!)
Craig Bell, John Ponder & Chris Walters (Royal Oaks)
Carl Sechen (BHaven)
Jean Nguyen (HP/ Nguyen)
Hans Oberg & Scott Pollock (Lakes)
Andy Xu (Garland/ Noel)


4.0 to 4.5:
Masayuki Tada (HP/ Nguyen 4.5!)
James Taylor, Sam Shichijo, Mike Pearson, Thuan Duc Nguyen(HP/ Somabut)
Bobby Smith, Bill Mattes (BHaven/ Bartlett)
David Downs, Nick Toth, Brian Morrison, Robert Wertz, Bill Hopping (Greenhill/ BMO)
Blake Wittacker, Blake Sinclair (Lakes)
Mitchell Fix, Michael Reiman, Justin Lutes (JCC)
Vijay Singh & Both Odulios (Garland/ Breukner)
Zack Courtney & Leonard Hutchison(Garland/ Sisk)
Trae Bowman (HP/ Bazan)

I am sure there are more but I am losing focus..... help?

I'm sure someone would also like to start a bump-down list?

Monday, June 14, 2010

Ft Worth End of the Season


The Ft Worth Men's League will be wrapping up this week.
In a questionable decision by the league Coordinator there will be no play-offs in 3.5 or 4.5.
The winner of the 3.5 (Winner: Southlake Smashers 2nd Place: TCU Toads) and 4.5 (Winner: TCU Luningham 2nd Place: Southlake) regular season will advance directly to sectionals and the second place team will receive the sectional wild card if available.
(Also, 4.5 had the asinine "Pre-season" matches that did not count towards anything)
In my mind this does not help Ft Worth at all in terms of being able to compete at the sectional level.
These teams will miss out on valuable experience playing multiple matches in play-off format and in the heat.
Fort Worth league already starts a month before Dallas, now these teams will take almost a month and a half off then show up at sectional and get fleeced.

Ft Worth 4.0 will have their play-off this week end at Arlington Tennis Center.
The top 4 teams from each of the two 4.0 flights qualified.
These 8 teams are divided into 2 round robin flights.
Flight A
1 Shelingham
2 ATC Hammers
3 TCU Cowtowners
4 Denton Country Club

Flight B
1 Old Gang
2 Flower Mound LJP
3 RTC Flores
4 TCU Armadillos

Out of Flight A I see ATC coming through, Shellingham has really been leaning on 4 or 5 players all season to get their wins, I see it catching up to them here in the play-offs.
In Flight B, The Old Gang ATC will be hard to beat, they seem to be there every season and their players seem to always avoid the bump (Guess it helps then your Capt is the league coordinator, conflict of interest?)
But Flower Mound has a deep team and is upset minded. I'm sure as always, it will come down to some 3-2 wins and some third set tie-breakers.

Go Tennis.
Fort Worth, Out!!!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

4.0 Week 7

At least I think it is week 7... I have been meaning to post something but as my team can attest I have been out of the loop for a little but thanks to them for posting a strong result this past Sunday without any help from me.

The season is winding down and still other than flight C everything is up for grabs so the next two weeks should be "hotly" contested. Sorry I couldn't help myself on that one.

Flight A:
The flight of death has really shown to remain very strong although HP/Bob's thumping of Greenhill trimmed this down to a 4 horse race. The MOW for sure is Garland v. Brookhaven. Will Brookhaven bring their best or relax knowing they are headed to the playoffs. I am picking Garland either way, I just think they seem to be having the type of season that surprised me a little and I don't see any reason for it to end now. OC Smith is off this week and faces HP next week to try and save their playoff hopes. HP has tricky DCC team which can be trouble at times but has not quite lived up to last season 's results.

Flight B:
Not much to talk about this week but last weekend was very important in this flight as Lifetime took down Brookhaven and the SWAT team swept TBar to move up into a tie for first with Lifetime and make next weekend's match between us very important. Brookhaven will have to sit and watch and post a strong last match and hope the loser will fall past them.

Flight C:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I guess the snooze isn't on full sound because although Garland clinched when the schedule came out, the race for 2nd is actually very tight with Gleneagles controlling their own destiny but there are 3 teams with 3 losses right behind them that could all move up and take over that spot.

Flight D:
Lakes controls their own fate for first place but does face off against Stonebriar next week. (MOW?). They do have to get past HP who upset Stonebriar in the rain delay match. Greenhill has righted the ship after the Lakes loss and just has to sit and wait to see if they are QT bound or not.

Flight E:
This flight has tightened up in the race for 2nd place. The JCC v. Village match has not been posted yet but would clear up things a lot. This flight actually finishes up this weekend and the top four teams are all still in the hunt for the top two spots.

Good luck to all, well almost all....