Firstly, congratulations to Al Sellers and his Quincy team for winning the Big 8 Conference. Three sessions ago I had to choose between the TMVL Cup and the Conference championship. We were level with Quincy but hadyet to play them at their place where they were likely to slightly stronger.

That was likely to be a toin coss so I decided to play for the TMVL, even though it was against Baton Rouge. The difference between 1st and 2nd in the Conference is 25 RP. 3rd place in the TMVL Cup is worth 30 RP. As it happens we still had a chance of catching Quincy by beating them, and maybe settling for that 3rd/4th place game. After all we had the 25 RP as a certainty so financially t didn't matter. But being the Cup holders I decided on trying to retain that. It also means we keep our unbeaten neutral court record. We will have our best ever record in the conference win or lose, but we have never lost to Ames.

We're in the Nationals final thanks to a fine win over Quincy - the stats would suggest a much closer game but everything went wrong for them in the 4th set. Columbia have never made it past the first round before so I'm delighted at that. Also although Baton Rouge have beaten Columbia twice in our history, both were in season 1. I personally have never lost to Baton Rouge.

And even better news: I don't have to play any of my weaker players in the final session - T7 all the way. I even am thinking of using SET on OH, Smalls so as not to waste 4 CP that won't carry over.