Will the history from last year repeat itself? Well, it sure looks like it will.
Skoghall has a four point lead over Uppsala after the first round of Elitserien. It was enough last year but the next round will take place in Uppsala. Uppsala played 4 solid games on Saturday and started with a win on Sunday morning. After that they loosed two games in a row. First they lost to Kungälv (the surprise of the weekend) and they lost to Skoghall as well. It is not the start that they wanted but I am pretty sure that they will win all games in the next round.
Skoghall was undefeated which means that they won all seven games just like they did last year. And once gain they grabbed a four point lead. Their team looks strong and include names like Lars Kvael, Filiph Svensson, Ulf Kristiansson and Fredrik Tagesson to name a few of their players.
But the team of the weekend was without a doubt Kungälv. They won 5 games (including one against Uppsala). I am the first one to congratulate because it did not look that good after the first two games. But once they took their first victory they just kept on going in a steady pace.
On fourth place with eight points we find Tyresö. Not too bad and they are still in a good position to fight for the medals. But will they manage the next two rounds on eternit and concrete? Well, I would not be surprised if they do manage the harder surfaces. They have a a lot of experience and they will most certainly try to grab a place at the podium at the end of this season.
Tantogården was the biggest disappointment of this round. I expected a lot more from the "young guns". They have such a talented team including Elias Zackariassen, Alexander Dahlstedt, James Lindström and Dan Trulsson. Dan was the best player of the round with an average of 31,1. They only managed to win three games but they are lethal when the harder surfaces comes into play.
With four points you find my team, Haga. We are not completely satisfied with the weekend but it could be worse and we are still in the race for a top-6 finish. We won the first and the last game of the weekend.
With two points each it is easy to say that the weekend was a disaster for Jönköping and Örebro. Jönköping will do it better on the harder surfaces but they must have been expecting more than 2 points. The same goes for Örebro, they had the advantage of playing at home but only won one game.
The best players of the round was:
Dan Trulsson, Tantogården (average 31,1)
Magnus Westerlund, Tyresö (31,6)
Anders Olsson, Uppsala (31,7)
I was thrilled when Haga asked me if I wanted to join their team for this season. At the age of 33 I felt that I needed this challenge to help me improve my game. After this weekend I can't say that I am less excited. I loved playing as the last man and having the privilege to play with names like Carl-Johan Ryner, Dan Trulsson and Lars Kvael.
My game was pretty solid BUT I am really disappointed with one lane. I felt pleased with the german ledge (lane 16) on the training sessions and decided that I should play a straight shot. On the first round my shot was perfect but then it stopped working for me and I ended up with 4, 6 and 3 on the following rounds. After the missed ace on the fourth round I decided that it was time to practice a wall shot. Said and done, a few minutes of practice and on Sunday I had three aces.
What a waste of shots...
Despite my failure with the german ledge I managed to perform seven good rounds even though I'm not completely satisfied. The same goes for my team. Four points is good but we really hoped for six.
But I had a great weekend with a lot of laughs, bad music (Eurovision was on the television) and some world class minigolf.