Minor premier Reg was crowned the league’s Best Official Champion of Champions (or Grand BOCCE) for the third time on 28 November 2022. The finals, postponed from their original date to allow as many tossers as possible to be present, were held again at Minim Cove Park, in sunny conditions. Digger, attending a flower-arranging workshop in Kigali, was the only absentee.
The day’s results were quite bizarre, in that, for the first time in finals history, no entity defeated one that was placed above it on the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season.
When first-placed played fourth in the day’s first game, it seemed that Reg was setting tone for the day, swiftly dispatching Two Fingers of Scotch 8-0.
In the same vein, but arguably with some subtlety, Motherchucker put his best foot forward from the outset, eclipsing the Psychoceramics (Brad and Serge without Digger), 7-4.
When the fifth-placed Stingers took on the cellar-dwelling Big Pineapple, the ladder once again predicted the result – a 7-0 victory to the Stingers, sending BP to the Asti play-off.
In the day’s fourth game, the CBGBs had no trouble consigning RE to the Asti play-off, beating him 7-2.
The battle to avoid the bottle was hard-fought and was won by RE, 7-3.
By the time the semi-finals had come around, Two Fingers had warmed up, hatched a plan, or in some other way managed to find their mojo, as they made short work of the Stingers, taking a comfortable 7-1 win and a berth in the prelims.
The other spot in the preliminary finals from the semis pathway was secured by Psychoceramics, taking down the CBGBs 7-4.
For what it was worth to the CBGBs’ game, Banker even decided to let rip with a little opera. He’s pictured here in full flight. While some commentators claimed he was singing Le Nozze di Figaro, others suggested that it could have been Shaddap You Face.
The prelims ushered in a higher-quality game and the contests were somewhat closer. It was postulated that Banker’s operatic efforts might have put Brad off his stride, as the Psychoceramics also seemed to lose their own rhythm after their win in the semis. The first prelim saw them go down 5-7 to Reg, who thereby locked in his grand final berth.
The second preliminary final was the day’s closest game, an epic tussle between Mochu and TFOS. Eventually, Motherchucker snaffled the win by the narrowest of margins, 7-6.
When Motherchucker took on Reg in the grand final, it was a battle of wills and skills, with each player reverting to his chosen piece of turf time and again. The strategy proved to be more successful for Reg than it was for Motherchucker, and Reg’s initially narrow lead blossomed to a 7-4 victory and sporting glory.
