5.0 and 4.0 Updates

5.0 playoffs will be the second place and third place teams from flight play meeting each other for the right to play the flight winner.  At this point, both T Bar/Bartzen and Prestonwood/Perkison remain undefeated.  Greenhill/Vahdat is at 5-1 and Lakes/Jannasch is at 4-2.  T Bar still has to play Prestonwood but their other two matches are bottom feeders.  Prestonwood has the T Bar tilt but they also still have to play SpringPark and Lakes so they need to stay sharp or they could go from undefeated to completely missing the playoffs.  SpringPark has the Prestonwood match and two lower end teams remaining, while Lakes still has to play Prestonwood and one more loss could leave them on the outside looking in.  Interestingly, the Royal Oaks/Stitt team started the season with five straight defaulted matches then they actually played Greenhill and lost 0-3.  How they were allowed to keep playing after five defaulted matches I do not know.

4.0 playoffs have the four flight winners headed straight to city playoffs.  QT will be comprised of four second place finishers and the two best third place finishers unless the fall wild card is used.  With McKinney/Kanchi holding the wild card, it is unlikely it will be needed.  The six QT contenders will be split into two flights of round robin and both flight winners will advance to cities.

Flight A – always the cream of the crop, an unexpected loss by High Point/Somabut has left them in a virtual dead heat with McKinney/Kanhci and High Point holding only a one line lead at this point.  Both teams could likely sweep the rest of the season if they really wanted to and HP has the head to head tie breaker.  Third place has Royal Oaks/Templeton and Eldorado/Browning tied at 4-2.  Eldorado has the far easier finish but they do still play each other so either could make it.

Flight B – Huffines/Ratcliffe has remained undefeated thus far, being chased by two 5-1 teams in Brookhaven/Bartlett and Lakes/Reifsnyder.  Huffines has already beaten them both so they should close out the flight.  Brookhaven and Lakes finish the season playing each other so their fate is in their own hands.  As importantly, with only one loss apiece so far, both have a shot at the third place advancement slot.

Flight C – Huffines has another undefeated flight leader in the Jayaram team.  These guys have been close a number of years and never closed the deal so maybe this is their year to advance.  They have two tough matches left versus Hackberry/Myers and Canyon Creek/Patterson.  Two 5-1 teams vie for the playoffs as well in Greenhill/Ohl and Hackberry/Myers.  Greenhill currently leads in the tie breakers and has a little easier finishing schedule.

Flight D – by far the tightest flight at this point, we have four teams sitting with one loss; McKinney/Bazan, Garland/Sisk, JCC/Schachter and Oak Creek/Iyer.  Garland/Sisk still has a slight mathematical lead but there are some big matches left for everyone.  Garland still has to play JCC and 3-3 Gleneagles; McKinney still has JCC and Gleneagles; JCC has the toughest finish with Garland and McKinney both yet to play; and Oak Creek finishes with the three last place teams in the flight, all with only one win a piece.  That leaves Oak Creek with the best possible shot at taking the third place QT spot because they could finish as the only one loss third place team.

4.5 Stretch Run

4.5 Flight A – Greenhill/Rossouw remains the only undefeated team but Samuell Grand/Hanna has surged into second place.  These two haven’t played yet but SamGrand has a two match lead in the loss column so they could lose to Greenhill in the season ender and still finish second if they take care of the Eldorado team (2-4).  The race for third pits three teams all with three losses; McKinney/Jett, T Bar/Fikes and Brookhaven/Bartlett.  Brookhaven still has Greenhill left, so they should be out.  That leaves McKinney and T Bar in the hunt.  T Bar has 1-5 Greenhill/Ohl while McKinney has 3-3 Brookhaven/Bartlett left.  Both are tied on lines won but McKinney holds the head to head tie breaker over T Bar so it’s down to the wire here and every line counts. 

4.5 B – This flight has also become a two horse race with both Brookhaven/Harllee and JCC/Reiman still undefeated but everyone else having at least two losses.  They have yet to play each other so that should decide the flight.  The race for third has Oak Creek/Herget-Clark at 5-2 and Lifetime/Arcaria at 4-2.  They have yet to play each other but OC finishes with winless Greenhill/Tucker while Lifetime finishes with 2-4 Lakes/Way.  So two head to head tilts to decide city playoffs, QT (not called QT anymore) and sitting home.

4.5 C – SpringPark/Aguilar is the only undefeated team but they finish wish second place and one loss Oak Creek/Probadi.   SP holds a substantial line lead though so first should be theirs.  Second and third then comes down to 5-1 OC, 4-2 Village/Valentin and 4-2 T Bar/McColpin.  Advantage to OC here.  They do have to play SpringPark but they finish with winless Greenhill/Alzuro.   T Bar is a line back of Village but they do have the easier finishing schedule.

As a reminder, the QT level of the playoffs is all three second place teams and either the best third place team or the fall W/C winner in a four team round robin format.  Third place in flight A can finish no better than three losses.  Flight B has a great chance to have a two loss third place team if Oak Creek/Herget-Clark can beat Lifetime/Arcaria or if Lifetime beats both Oak Creek and Lakes/Way.  Flight C has two chances to finish with a two loss third place team.  Best numerical odds at the moment is Village/Valentin with 21 line wins through six matches.  Since Greenhill/Rossouw has the fall W/C and they are winning flight A, it looks like the best third place team will advance to QT this season.

Still Waiting For Something To Happen

If you'd like to read more about my vacation you can pick up my memoirs from the trip in a Half Price Books near you.  Yes, that's me on the horse just before I fell off.

My apologies but I took a much deserved vacation across the pond.  I didn’t take my racquets and I didn’t think about tennis.  I’m back and refreshed but it doesn’t seem like much changed in my absence.

4.5 flight A couldn’t have been more predictable.  Greenhill/Rossouw is rolling and I’m not yet sure there is a second place team that would deserve a playoff spot.
4.5 flight B, however, could be its own city playoff by itself.  Brookhaven/Harllee and JCC/Reiman remain the dominant forces here having only dropped three lines between them in seven combined wins.  Both have already laid waste to some pretty respectable teams as well.  Brookhaven has already done all of its heavy lifting except for JCC on June 4.  JCC still has a little work to do before the title match.

4.5 flight C has fallen into line as expected.  I took a chance on the new kids at Springpark/Aguilar and they have not disappointed yet, sitting now as the only undefeated team in this flight and having already beaten all of the major contenders.  The close TBar match left a question mark on their depth but we’ll see when the playoffs arrive.

No 4.0 matches this weekend with Mother’s Day taking precedent.

4.0 flight A was a strong pick of mine when the season started and only four weeks in everyone has lost.  What do I know?  This flight still has six one loss teams but McKinney/Kanchi and Oasis/Moehler hasn’t posted yet so one of them is at two losses now.  McKinney also plays TBar on May 15.  High Point’s loss to Royal Oaks further underscores my earlier thought that there looks to be a real absence of dominant 4.0 teams this year.
4.0 flight B shows that the 4.0 world still remains somewhat upside down as Lakes and Huffines/Ratcliffe are both 4-0.  WTF?  The two flight leaders square off on May 15.
4.0 flight C has Greenhill/Ohl and Huffines/Jayaram both at 4-0 with Hackberry at 2-0.  That’s a little more like it.  Greenhill and Hackberry square off this weekend while Former Fretz/Jayaram plays the last team actually left standing at Fretz, the 0-fer life time Ward team. 
4.0 flight D has the retooled dirty Garland at 4-0 and 19-1 but also having only played one team with a .500 or better record.  Their next match isn’t until May 22 but it’s against second place McKinney/Bazan.

Maybe its jet lag or maybe the results to date really are a snoozer but I don’t think we see anything really interesting until the playoffs except for the 4.5 Brookhaven v JCC tilt.  And it’s a month away.  Plenty of time for a nap.