We won the quarter final!

Congrtulations to my teammates who carried us to the semi final of Manhatan league.

The match took place at the Westside Tennis Club. Upon enter, the receptionist directed us to the main lounge instead the second floor one we usually used. There were four teams from our Divsion I. I had brief conversation with Stephanie Vogt regarding the impending match:

As previously indicated, this playoff will be played as an extension of the local season. The winner of each quarter-final will advance to the District Playoff’s on March 3rd.

PAYMENT: All playoff teams must pay $180 into match pay by Monday at 3pm.
BALLS: Home team is responsible for providing the balls
POINTS: The standard point system will be in effect for these matches

Unlike other playoff matches, this one would follow the format of the flight: 1.5 hours instead playing to the completion. My next question was

What about the split set? Who’s the home team?

The answer:

The home team is listed first. This will also be indicated on the score card.

Points are handled exactly as they have been during the season. This is an extension of the local season, so all of the rules that you have been following all season apply to this match also.

Hmmm .. who would be the winner should the two teams split all 3 courts, each earns 6.5 points? This has never happened before but possible statistically.

Watching your teammates play can be gut wrenching and nail biting. I left the courts for a little while. When I came back, a Div II captain was there and we talked about the confusion. As usual, no one in the league expected such short season, 8 matches only. Why didn’t the league tell us before hand: all we need was an extra team to make it 10 or 12-match season. There are teams with 18 or 20+ players and they certainly didn’t mind to shed few players to form the extra team. .. .. As for playoff points, here is the reply from our league coordinator:

The points earned during the Quarter-Final will be added to the season’s points to determine seeding.
So if team #4 had 60 points during the season, and earn 13 — they are at 73.
If team #3 had 61 points and earn 10 at playoff’s, they have 71.
Then team 4 would be #1 and team 3 would be #2 seed.

Huh? Since when the points-continuation is mentioned? IF I knew this, we would have played hard for our last match instead goofing around. I was bit dumbfounded.

Then it’s 9:30pm, the matches were over. The mates on the courts found out other courts scores and began to high five each other.

All timed match
1D: 6-4, 4-4
2D: 6-4, 4-1
3D: 3-6, 3-4

I felt guilty and .. .. sick. Hey, the late night light dinner at Asian Cafe on Main Street was great. [To pay for the dinner I took out a Benjamin Franklin thinking it’s Alexander Hamilton. Man I’m old and senile. Ya, I’m loaded in the winter time because my teammates like to tip me in 100. Good to be their captain!]

“As previously indicated, this playoff will be played as an extension of the local season. The winner of each quarter-final will advance to the District Playoff’s on March 3rd.”

So kids, we’re going to Washington after all.

Lesson learnt: Golfer always tells me, read it myself. I guess I was swayed by previous conversations without really reading.

Deb put me on a diet:
no more dumb questions from me for 3 months.

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