40s Playoff Schedules Are Out

No, it's not an action shot.  I'm stuck!

 

In case you’re interested, next Friday and Saturday the 40s playoffs will be held at Brookhaven Country Club.  The teams looked close enough during the regular season that some of these matches should be pretty good and just one or two players missing could be the difference.

I think one of the interesting storylines will be how the mini-me flight does versus the big flight in 4.5.  I don’t expect a lot of blowouts but with all the discussion we had on the fairness issue, it will be interesting to see how they fare.

The 4.5s begin the festivities at Brookhaven with the flag dropping on 6:00pm matches.  We’ll have SpringPark/Sweeney versus Greenhill Red/Rossouw and JCC/Reiman versus Greenhill Blue/Rossouw.  Red was flight B, the small flight with JCC.  They tee off again at 9:00am on Saturday with Springpark and JCC trading Greenhill opponents.  The last match will kick off in the 1:00pm slot with SpringPark versus JCC and the Greenhill border war.  We can think all we want about which flight was better and whether it was all done in the most equitable fashion, but we’re going to find out a lot more in 7 or 8 days.

On the 4.0 front, they have the first pitch at 8:00pm next Friday with Huffines/Clark versus McKinney/Peterson and Greenhill/Kayser versus Brookhaven/Bartlett.  They regroup for an 11:00am tip off on Saturday with Huffines versus Brookhaven and Greenhill versus McKinney.  The final stone will be delivered beginning at 3:00pm with Huffines versus Greenhill and Brookhaven versus McKinney.  Ok, ok, I ran out of sports analogies so I had to go to curling.

Say what you will about 40s but it’s a pretty evenly matched affair and should be fun to watch.  Good luck to all the participants.

 

And Results Keep Coming In

4.5 Flight play

4.5 over 40 flight play has now wrapped up and, as it looked last week, Flight A was won by an undefeated SpringPark/Sweeney team with Greenhill/Rossouw in a clear second place.  Flight B- had JCC/Reiman leading with one loss and Greenhill/Rossouw in second with two losses.  The continuing issue is the three 5-3 teams left out of the playoffs in Flight A.  If they constituted a QT playoff I’d be willing to guarantee that the advancing team would not finish last at cities. 

Mixed flight play

In a shocking 9.0 mixed final result, Brookhaven beat Brookhaven and Brookhaven will advance to sectionals.  Brookhaven A took Brookhaven B by 20-1 in lines.  Evidently the one line that lost will not be invited to sectionals. 

Then there is the Groundhog Day result that was the 8.0 mixed flight.  SpringPark won again.  No Kelly.  No Davis.  Just another city championship.  The real mystery is why were there only three teams in this level?  Word was always that no one wanted to play because SpringPark winning was a given.  If 8.0 was ever an open playing field, this year was it.  Still very few takers.  Brookhaven and SpringPark did take it down to the last match of the season so at least it was a lot closer than in years past.

Fort Worth mixed

In another shocking result, Zkry swept zackry again.

 

Time For The Way Too Early 18 S/S Predictions

Looks like everyone is as bored with 40s/55s as I am.  Nothing wrong with being over 40, but everyone knows everyone and there isn’t a lot of mystery.  Luckily for some of us, 18s flights just came out so let’s take an early look.  The biggest thing I saw looking at everything was that the 4.5 Flight B is BRUTAL .  Time for the way too early 18 and over predictions.  All of these picks are subject to the rosters actually filling up.

5.0+ - ten teams so it looks like only one flight but we have: JCC/Reiman, Greenhill/Vadhat, Royal Oaks/Stitt, T Bar/Bartzen, Prestonwood/Perkison, Lakes/Jannasch, Brookhaven/Harllee, Cooper Fitness/Noel, Greenhill/Rossouw and Oak Creek/Fleming.  With only three lines playing one player can make a huge difference so I’ll reserve judgment on these teams until the rosters fill up. 

Last year’s playoff teams were, in order of finish: Village/Perkison, T Bar/Bartzen and Lakes/Jannasch.  Village/Perkison finished second at sectionals.

4.5 Flight A – Brookhaven/Bartlett, High Point/Somabut, Samuel Grand/Hanna, Eldorado/Browning, Royal Oaks/Brauer, Greenhill/Rossouw, Greenhill/Ohl, McKinney/Jett and T Bar/Fikes.  Some of the easier 4.5 flight play matches to be had will be in this flight.  Rossouw waltzes to the playoffs and whoever finishes second got a gift.

4.5 Flight B – JCC/Reiman, Lakes/Way, Seay/Schober, Garland/Sisk, Greenhill/Tucker, Brookhaven/Harllee, Lifetime/Arcaria, Stonebridge/Anderson and Oak Creek/Herget-Clark.  Let the complaining begin.  Five of the eight best teams are all in this flight.  Clearly this year’s flight of death.  Flight B and Flight C need a reshuffle.

4.5 Flight C – Hackberry Creek/Myers, Gleneagles/Juhn, Oak Creek/Pribadi, Greenhill/Alzuro, Fair Oaks/Valentin, SpringPark/Aguilar, Huffines/Hammond, Canyon Creek/McHugh and T Bar/McColpin.  This flight is really a mystery and I really want to wait for more roster sign ups.  It doesn’t have the low end of Flight A but it doesn’t have the high end of Flight B. 

Last year’s playoff teams were, in order of finish: (QT) Fretz/Noel, Oak Creek/Pribadi, Greenhill/Rossouw and Lakes/Way; (city playoffs) JCC/Reiman, Oak Creek/Herget-Loose, Fretz/Noel and Brookhaven/Harllee.  JCC/Reiman made sectional semi-finals.

4.0 Flight A – McKinney/Kanchi, High Point/Somabut, Eldorado/Browning, McKinney/Berman, Oasis/Moehler, T Bar/Snow, Garland 2/Sisk, Royal Oaks/Templeton, Oak Creek/Wei-Ben and  Greenhill/Parga.  Kanchi and Somabut should have the two best teams in 4.0 and they square off in the same flight. 

4.0 Flight B – Brookhaven/Bartlett, Huffines/Ratcliffe, Canyon Creek/Nolen, Lifetime/Heflin, High Point/Gardner, SpringPark/Walters, Greenhill/Davalos, Oak Creek/Rich, McKinney/Jacobson and Lakes/Reifsnyder.  An unspectacular flight but two playoff contenders.

4.0 Flight C – Hackberry Creek/Myers, Stonebridge/Cummings, Stonebriar/Dickey, Fretz/Ward, McKinney/Oh, Greenhill/Ohl, Brookhaven/Tarangioli, Huffines/Jayaram, LB Houston/Montalvo and Canyon Creek/Patterson.  Don’t see a lot of playoff muscle in this flight but I’m picking anyway.

4.0 Flight D – Seay/Jacob, JCC/Schachter, Las Colinas/Otey, Greenhill/Alzuro, Garland 1/Sisk, Oak Creek/Iyer, McKinney/Bazan, LB Houston/Gordon and Gleneagles/Miller.  Well, we really ran out of steam after Flight A.  Flights C and D both just trailed off.

Last year’s playoff teams were, in order of finish: (QT) Oak Creek/Head, Oak Creek/Lai, Greenhill/Wendelken, Greenhill/Ohl, Oak Creek/Ramasami and Fretz/Noel; (city playoffs) High Point/Le, Oasis/Moehler, Oak Creek/Lai, Oak Creek/Head, Brookhaven/Bartlett and Garland/Sisk.  High Point/Le won the national title.

 

More Old People (and some of them in skirts)

Over 40s 8.0 mixed finals action.

 

It’s a little hard to get excited about updates when everyone had a bye last week, but here you go.  Since mixed is still pulling over half the posts I did include a little update there as well.

40s

4.5 Flight A – SpringPark/Sweeney is the only undefeated team in 4.5 over 40s.  They have the Lifetime/Arcaria (5-1) makeup match and a season ender against Oak Creek (2-5) to go into the playoffs as the #1 seed.   Greenhill/Rossouw sits at 6-1 but has Brookhaven/Harllee (6-2) still to play.  This is likely an elimination match in this tough flight.  Lifetime has the toughest finish with SpringPark and T Bar (4-3).  Brookhaven remains a very viable wildcard here.  If Brookhaven beats Greenhill and Lifetime stumbles they can still sneak in.  This will be SpringPark and the winner of the Greenhill versus Brookhaven match.

4.5 Flight B – JCC/Reiman sits atop this flight with one loss.  They only need to beat either Gleneagles (3-3) or McKinney (2-5) to wrap up a playoff spot.  Greenhill/Rossouw has virtually clinched a playoff spot, needing to only beat last place Brookhaven to finish its season in at least second place.  This will be JCC and Greenhill.

4.0 – this level is finished.  The seeds in order look like flight winner Huffines/Clark (6-1, 29-6), flight winner Greenhill/Kayser (5-2, 22-13), Brookhaven/Bartlett (5-2, 23-12) and McKinney/Peterson-Frick (5-2, 21-14).  Interestingly, no team got through the 4.0 flights undefeated and only one team failed to win at least two matches.  As usual, 40s seems to be more evenly matched than 18s. 

55s

9.0 – this level is finished.  In order of finish we had Brookhaven/Goswami (9-0, 25-2), Wagon Wheel/Gradick (7-2, 22-5), Oak Creek/Beckner-Sweeney (4-5, 13-14) and T Bar/ Hackett (4-5, 11-16).  That’s some pretty impressive numbers from Brookhaven.

8.0 – this level is finished as well.  In order of finish we had SpringPark/Blesi (7-1, 19-5), Brookhaven/Bartlett (7-1, 19-5), Greenhill/Kayser (6-2, 17-7) and Canyon Creek/Rainwater (6-2, 16-8).  Another very tight level. 

Mixed

9.0 – in a two team race, Brookhaven/Ware took this level at (7-0, 20-1) over the Brookhaven B team.  Now who would create a second team just so the first one could qualify for sectionals?  Well….see below.

8.0 – in a much more crowed three team level (heh, it’s 50% more teams), Brookhaven/Bartlett is tied with SpringPark/Abbruzzese at 3-2 but Brookhaven has opened up a three line lead over SpringPark.  No matter, the last match of the season has Brookhaven and SpringPark playing for the title.  In the first match, Brookhaven swept Springpark but in the second match SpringPark pulled out a 2-1 win.  Let’s see if SpringPark has lost its luster in mixed or if it can rally.

Fort Worth (Dallas West) 8.0 – in the ever popular zakry versus zacry flight we see that Zkry holds a 4-0, 12-0 record with one match left to play.  At this point I have to like zakary in this flight.  Is it just me or can nobody spell this guy’s name?

 

I think kudos have to go out to Bartlett, Rossouw and Kayser for fielding multiple quality teams.  Let’s see how many playoff spots they can turn them into.  It also looks at this point like Brookhaven, as a facility, is poised to take the Old Guys Cumulative Title with Greenhill and SpringPark receiving honorable mentions.