The annual renegade tournament was held at Kraft's lawn. This money tournament was structured to payout entry fees back to the winner minus exotic peelouts per the following schedule ($3 for triples, $4 for quad, $5 for quintuples, $6 for sextuples). The new schedule of payouts reflects the recent relative occurrences of the more exotic peelouts. Entries included: Paul Bennett, Rory Kelley, Ren Kraft and Stan Patmor.BOBBY JACK MILLER MEMORIAL CROQUET TOURNAMENT - 18 January 2003
The format was Association round robin level play.Kelley bt Patmor +15
Kraft bt Patmor +26
Kraft bt Bennett +4 on time
Bennett bt Kelley +3
Bennett bt Patmor +26 TP
Kraft bt Kelley +6Kraft 3-0 +46 $37
Bennett 2-1 +25 TP $3
Kelley 1-2 -4
Patmor 0-3 -67
Paul Bennett receives the new plate for the Memorial Tournament from Rory Kelley (tournament director and runner up in this best of three challenge).
The interest in the club has declined. B division entries included: Ray Hamm and A division entries included: Paul Bennett and Rory Kelley. The format was Association singles best of three level play. The tournament was attended by spectator Robert Florence, an Arizona winter resident from Minnesota.Bennett bt Kelley +9 TP
Bennett bt Kelley +14An 18 pt game followed the tournament.
Bennett bt Kelley +7
NINE WICKET STATE CHAMPIONSHIP - 8 February
2003
(contact Rory Kelley 480 990-1126)
The Nine Wicket challenge is a great opportunity for two clubs to share their common interest in the sport of croquet. For the second year, Mesa's Venture Out club members have come to Scottsdale to play against members from the Arizona Croquet Club. We divide Ren Kraft's lawn into four (42'x52') lawns and the setup nine wicket layout. The equipment is provided by Venture Out. The tournament director was Arnie Pankow and ran a well organized event.AMERICAN SING-DOUBLES TOURNAMENT - 15 February 2003 (contact Stan Patmor)Last year Venture Out got the upper hand, defeating Ray Hamm and John Fournier in the finals. This year, the ACC wanted to do better, but it wasn't an easy road. The courts were playing fast and it was easy to send a ball out of bounds when loading the outer hoops - these were only set in 1 yard from the boundary. (I am working on summarizing the rules since, although the similarities are quite striking, they are a bit different than Osborn's USCA version.)
The day started out grey and with a slight drizzle, we kept warm with a bonfire and coffee. The first round of games started in Venture Out's favor 3-1, Stan Patmor and Paul Bennett pulling out the first victory against Marvin Neadler and Bruce Van Leet.
During the second round of play, the sky turned blue over Camelback Mtn and the ACC was on the warpath with 4 victories, the count was now 5-3 in ACC's favor. During this round, Paul Bennett made a quintuple peelout of Ray Hamm's ball which was for 11 at the beginning of the turn. Arnie Pankow, our tournament director, commented that he had never been beaten in this way before. Bruce Van Leet agreed with Arnie's comment.
Each round, the players were reassigned new partners. The best records being paired up with the those with the worst records. Each player was awarded the points earned by the team's play. At the end of two rounds, Paul Bennett and Stan Patmor were the highest ranked players from Scottsdale and Vern Paulson, Rudy Pankow, Rodney Wayland and Marvin Gerdis were the highest ranked players from Mesa. After a brief lunch, these players shot off (nearest to hoop 4, the middle hoop) to determine high/low ranking.
During the third round, the sun was shining and Mesa mounted its comeback scoring 3 wins against 1. The balance had been struck, the count was now at 6-6. The best two players from Mesa would play those from Scottsdale in the finals.
The finals was Rudy Pankow and Marvin Gerdis against Paul Bennett and Pat Roach. Paul had the first break opportunity, after Rudy attacked opponent balls on the North boundary, got hampered on the takeoff by hoop 7, narrowly missed the balls on the boundary, and Pat set Paul an easy break. Paul went around easily until missing blue at 11. Paul should have 'tighted the striker ball' by holding the striker ball with the hand and croqueting black to 12. This would have kept the stiker ball much closer to the blue ball.
Rudy got the next break but got in trouble at hoop 10.
Pat got the next break at hoop 5 peeled partner through 11 and rolled a ball out going to 14. Pat hit in on the next shot and made 14. Paul finished the game by peeling Pat through 15 and pegging both balls out. A wonderful 1st place trophy was presented by Arnie Pankow to Paul for individual achievement. All agreed to do this again next year. (For more photos click here.)
Arizona Team:Stan Patmor 32 32 7 = 71
Paul Bennett 32 32 32 = 96 + 32 = 128 (1st place)
Ray Hamm 12 32 7 = 51
Pat Roach 16 32 32 = 80 + 32 = 112
Rory Kelley 16 32 9 = 57
Sandy Brown 18 32 7 = 57
Don Stallings 18 32 9 = 59Mesa Team:Marvin Neadler 21 7 32 = 60
Bruce Van Leet 21 15 25 = 61
Terry 32 7 32 = 71
Arnie Pankow 32 15 32 = 79
Rudy Pankow 32 29 32 = 93 + 14 = 107
Rodney Wayland 32 29 25 = 87
Marvin Gerdis 32 29 32 = 93 + 14 = 107Finalists:Paul Bennett & Pat Roach 32
Rudy Pankow & Marvin Gerdis 14
In preparation for the upcoming AZ OPEN tournament, the club put on its first American rules tournament of the year. The format was American USCA 6-wicket rules with doubles mixed with singles matches. Each round new partners were assigned.Rory had double cut the lawn on Friday after a 2 day down pour of rain (yes it does rain in Arizona - but now that we have gotten our inch of rain, it is unlikely to have anymore during the Open - but you never know with El Nino.)
Rory Kelley/John Fournier bt Stan Patmor/Carter Crane 26 7
Paul Bennett/John Fournier bt Rory Kelley/Carter Crane 26 9
Ren Kraft bt Stan Patmor 26 3
Paul Bennett bt Rory Kelley 26 131. John Fournier 2-0 +34
2. Paul Bennett 2-0 +28
3. Ren Kraft 1-0 +23
4. Carter Crane 0-2 -34
5. Rory Kelley 0-3 -47
AMERICAN TWO BIT TOURNAMENT - 22 February 2003
(contact
Pat Roach 602 275-5551)
The format of the American Two Bit Tournament is American Rules Hi/Lo doubles by draw. Please contact Pat Roach to signup prior to the start of the tournament.ASSOCIATION SINGLES CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS - 17 thru 25 May 2003 (contact Rory Kelley 480 990-1126)
The format of the club championship is an Association Singles best of three round robin play over two weekends (plus play during the week to
best accomodate schedules). A finals will be held on Sunday May 26 between the two players with the best record.The Association Singles tournament started Saturday with the first two matches. Early in the morning, we diagnosed that the lawn has a fungus growth called mycellium which is leading to "brown patch", see our website on turf management. The turf committee plans on treating this disease with a fungicide, aeration, then an insectide for pearl scale.
Saturday, June 17
Paul Bennett bt Rory Kelley +16
Paul Bennett bt Ren Kraft 23-9 +14Sunday, June 18
Paul Bennett bt Rory Kelley +13 DP
Ren Kraft bt Rory Kelley +15
Ren Kraft bt Paul Bennett +20The standings are as follows, Paul Bennett with one match win against Rory Kelley, and is tied with Ren Kraft 1-1 in his remaining match. Ren Kraft is tied with Paul in his match 1-1 and is one game up against Rory 1-0. Rory is down one match to Paul and down the first game against Ren. Play continues Saturday June 25.
Ren pondering the possiblities.
Ren loading hoop 4 and going to his pioneer ball at 3.
Rory running a break in his first game against Ren Kraft.
ANNUAL MEETING - 7 June 2003 (contact Stan
Patmor)
Not quite a quorum, but we discussed the issues and came up with some old ideas that we will try next year.
SINGLES ASSOCIATION - 30 November 2003
1. Ren Kraft $30
2. Paul Bennett
3. Rory Kelley