Nationals 2021 - Nov 5-7

11/10/21

Paul Bennett

The results for the 2021 USCA National Nine Wicket Tournament are as follows:

Championship Flight Doubles:
1) John Warlick and Macey White
2) Sherif Abdelwahab and Sandra Knuth
3) Thomas Tribby and David Ekstrom

Championship Flight Singles:
1) Sherif Abdelwahab
2) John Warlick
3) Macey White
4) Jeff Morrison
5) David Ekstrom
6) Sandra Knuth
7) David McCoy
8)Thomas Tribby

First Flight Doubles:
1) Jeff Morrison and Priscilla Flowers
2) Gail Warlick and Marianne Davidson
3) Glenn McAndrews and Randall McAndrews
4) David McCoy and Suzanne Turner

First Flight Singles:
1) Glenn McAndrews
2) Gail Warlick
3) Priscilla Flowers
4) Randall McAndrews

TDs John Warlick and Macey White

Florida Regional - Oct 7-9 2021

11/10/21

Paul Bennett

The USCA 2021 Florida Regional Nine Wicket Tournament was held early in October on the “Palm Courts” in the back of the National Croquet Center. The event was hosted by the National Croquet Club over three days with both championship and first flights. The turnout was fairly light due to short event notice and the ongoing covid situation. However, a sufficient number of players stepped forward to bring a competitive and challenging atmosphere in both the singles and doubles competition.

Thursday was doubles play all day. A round robin established the playoffs for Saturday morning in the two flights. The team of Tom Tribby and Priscilla Flowers got the championship flight bye and waited to play Gail Warlick and Linda Grady after they overcame a large deficit to beat John Warlick and Marianne Davidson. Tom and Priscilla remained consistent and outlasted Gail and Linda for the championship flight win. First flight doubles was hard fought with the team of Clint Fowlkes and Caryl Firth besting
Nanci Hunt and Lou Tyrrell in the flight finals.

Friday was all singles play with competitive battles on the four longer grass “Palm Courts”. Flight play sorted out the Saturday semi and final games. Linda Grady won first flight in a close battle with Priscilla Flowers on Saturday. Tom Tribby fought off John Warlick in the rain delayed Championship final that ended on Sunday.

Steadfast support from USCA representatives Ursula Peck and Johnny Mitchell was greatly appreciated.

Thursday and Friday lunches at the NCC were provided by the fantastic SandyJames catering crew. Friday evening players enjoyed an early dinner on the outside patio at The Raindancer Steakhouse in West Palm Beach. Beautiful trophies created by George Fiegel were well received by all players. Congrats to all participants!

Championship Doubles:
1) Tom Tribby and Priscilla Flowers
2) Gail Warlick and Linda Grady
3) John Warlick and Marianne Davidson

Championship Singles:
1) Tom Tribby
2) John Warlick
3) Gail Warlick
4) Clint Fowlkes

First Flight Doubles:
1) Clint Fowlkes and Caryl Firth
2) Nanci Hunt and Lou Tyrrell

First Flight Singles:
1) Linda Grady
2) Priscilla Flowers
3) Nanci Hunt

“Good Sport” awarded to Suzanne Turner
“Best Sport” awarded to Marianne Davidson

— John Warlick, TD

2019 Big Oyster Tournament Report

10/06/19

Macey White

The 2019 Big Oyster at the Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club was a unique and interesting experience. This was Chesapeake’s first one-day tournament and turnout was good. 22 players total. 8 came from St. John’s College in Annapolis, 7 from West River Wickets in Maryland, 5 from Chesapeake Bay and 2 from North Carolina.

This 6-wicket tournament was conducted in a modified-Swiss format. The Swiss is a non-eliminating tournament format. This tournament featured five rounds of competition. In round 1, competitors played opponents of similar estimated handicap. In later rounds, players were paired based on win-loss records and players did not play the same opponent more than once. Starting in the third round, there was a standard 8 person knockout embedded in the Swiss which was used to decide the top 8 places. Players were selected for the knockout based on their performance in the first two games. Interestingly, 7 of the 8 were from the original top 8 seeds. The surprise was beginner, and bottom seeded Steve Thurston made it in with two wins and no losses.

The Swiss-system is a great format for a tournament that does not want to eliminate players when they lose, allow a wide range of handicaps and allow players of similar ability to play one another while still doing a good job of determining the overall winner. In this tournament there were 22 players and 5 rounds of competition. Any player wanting to win the tournament simply had to win 5 games. All players were assigned 4 matches and given the option of playing a 5th. Other than the two players in the finals (who had to play a 5th) about half of the participants decided to play the 5th game which counted for the overall standings. After each game, playing assignments were made for the next game, based on win loss record, avoiding repeat matchups, and minimizing matchups between players from the same club. It was a big task for the tournament directors to get these matchups made between games but Macey White did it and everyone had a good time.

One thing about this format is that there must be an even number of participants to make it work and all games need to start on time. Thanks go to all of the players for helping to make this work!

Lee Jorde, was the tournament director and he came up with the idea for the tournament. Macey White was the assistant TD and did the pairings. The idea behind the one-day was to attract players who are otherwise busy during the week. People who work, students and players who just didn’t want to tie up a whole weekend to croquet were happy with the format. In addition, it seems to be easier to encourage new players to play in a one-day tournament than in a longer tournament. This tournament had 8 players who had never played a sanctioned 6-wicket tournament before.

CBCC charged only $25 to enter the tournament and provided lunch. In the future CBCC will probably charge $40 to allow for better trophies and have a discounted price of $25 for students.

After the second round, seedings were made for the embedded 8 player “knockout” which decided the top 8 finishing positions. Players who got knocked out of the “knockout” continued to play in the tournament like everyone else. It was no surprise that upcoming star Tom Balding from St. John’s was 1st seed. Local favorite Rick Darnell was seeded 2nd followed by Sean Miller (St. John’s), Carl Johnson (CBCC), Steve Thurston (CBCC), Rodney Lassiter (NC), Jared Bassmann (St. John’s) and Lee Jorde (West River and CBCC). In the first round of the embedded KO Lee Jorde had a surprise upset over Tom Balding in a game that featured several long breaks and few mistakes. Carl Johnson bested fellow CBCC’er Steve Thurston in a close match, Sean Miller beat Rodney Lassiter by 1 point Jared Bassman beat Rick Darnell. So in the first round or the embedded KO, the two favorites were defeated. In the Semi’s, Lee Jorde beat Carl Johnson and Sean Miller beat Jared Bassman by one point to set up the Jorde/Miller final. The final game was a spectators delight with the lead going back and forth until Sean Miller finally prevailed in the end.

Everyone had a great time and all are checking their calendars to select another date to do this again. The order of finish was decided by the embedded knockout and then by win loss record for those not in the “knockout”.

FINAL ORDER OF FINISH

• 1 Sean Miller (Champion)
• 2 Lee Jorde (Finalist)
• 3 Carl Johnson
• 3 Jared Bassmann (Top Finishing Rookie)
• 5 Tom Balding
• 5 Rodney Lassiter
• 5 Rick Darnell
• 5 Steve Thurston (2nd Finishing Rookie)
• 9 John Lassiter
• 9 Ryan Eberlein
• 11 Susan Koepp
• 12 Doug Murphy
• 12 Jay Graham
• 12 Rodney Calver
• 12 Cynthia Chess
• 12 Noreen Rice
• 17 Isaac Hoke
• 17 John Rice
• 19 Angelika Alberstadt
• 19 Chris Musick
• 19 Jill Murphy
• 22 Mia Kablyski

2019 USCA 9-Wicket Nationals Report

10/06/19

Macey White

Do you remember that backyard game with nine hoops and two stakes? Nine wicket has been played in America for over 100 years. The USCA holds Regional and National championships in this historically backyard game. It’s played a lot like 6-wicket but there are slightly smaller and lighter balls, more hoops and more choices of what to do when you roquet a ball. After a roquet players have a croquet shot and a continuation shot, just like 6-wicket but the croquet shot can be played in 5 different ways. It can be played in contact with the roqueted ball just like 6-wicket. It can also be played that way with either a hand or foot holding the striker ball in place. It can be played anywhere within 9 inches of the roqueted ball or even played from where it stopped rolling. With all of these choices, 9-wicket can be a slightly more complex game than the 6 hoop variety.

This year the 9-Wicket National Championship was held at the Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club in Virginia. It was not played on their 8 laser leveled lawns but on yard quality zoysia grass. The tournament attracted 17 competitors and lasted three days. All players started in the same flight and after a round-robin, players were separated into two flights, Championship and 1st, for the playoffs. Of the 17 players, all were seasoned croquet players but 8 were playing in their first ever USCA sanctioned 9-Wicket tournament. First timer, Lyle Browning made it to the 1st Flight finals to face off with seasoned pro Gail Warlick. Gail won the spirited battle to capture the National 1st Flight crown. In Championship Flight, partners Macey White and John Warlick faced off for the singles championship. In a tightly contested match, where the lead went back and forth several time, Macey White finally emerged as the winner in the end.

There were 8 teams that sparred for the doubles championship. In doubles there was a round robin with the top 4 teams advancing to the Championship Flight playoffs and the bottom 4 advancing to the 1st Flight playoffs. Brothers Carl and Conor Johnson bested Greg Clouse and Jane Koziol for 1st Flight Doubles honors and Macey White and John Warlick defeated John Priest and Gil Rocha for the doubles championship.

Rumor has it that a 9-Wicket Regional will be held in Louisiana in February 2020 and another 9-Wicket Regional at Chesapeake Bay in the spring with the Nationals being held in Louisiana near the LSU campus in the fall. More details to come later.

2019 USCA 9-Wicket Nationals Order of Finish

Championship Flight Singles

• 1 Macey White
• 2 John Warlick
• 3 Gil Rocha
• 3 Greg Clouse
• 5 Bryan Christiansen
• 5 Tim Hasty
• 5 Conor Johnson
• 5 John Priest

1st Flight Singles

• 1 Gail Warlick
• 2 Lyle Browning
• 3 Carl Johnson
• 3 Doug Murphy
• 5 Jill Murphy
• 5 Suzie Beer
• 5 Jane Koziol

Championship Flight Doubles

• 1 Macey White & John Warlick
• 2 Gil Rocha & John Priest
• 3 Gail Warlick & Doug Murphy
• 3 Bryan Christiansen & Tim Hasty

1st Flight Doubles

• 1 Conor Johnson & Carl Johnson
• 2 Greg Clouse & Jane Koziol
• 3 Suzie Beer & Lyle Browning
• 3 Pam Viens & Leo Viens

Nine wicket 2019 Nationals, Hartsfield, VA

09/20/19

Paul Bennett

Round Hill Croquet championships - local interest is good

06/10/19

Paul Bennett

2018 USCA 9-Wicket Nationals Results

12/26/18

Paul Bennett

2016 9-Wicket Nationals Results

06/24/16

Generic Staff Writer

Adel Kamal takes the 5th Running of the Kamal Cup

06/03/15

Michael Rumbin

2005 Useppa Island Tournament

12/13/07

Bob Kroeger