6 minute read
WHITE IS 9-WICKET CHAMPION
By Paul Bennett
The USCA 9-Wicket Nationals were attended by a field of players from as far away as New York, Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, Arizona and Colorado. The tournament was played in Denver’s public Pulaski Park. The grass was wickedly tall and uneven, presenting the players a true challenge and prompting changes in their strategies.
The field was divided into six courts measuring 50 by 100 feet. Tables, tents and chairs were brought out of a rental truck each morning and set up by local club members from Denver.
A special thanks to Doug Moore for helping set wickets into the rocky mountain ground each morning and to Ron Eccles’ granddaughter Sydney, who brought us lunch each day and helped with the dinners.
Two sets of rules were printed out and given to the players. The options chosen to play by were directly incorporated into the rules allowing for an easier read. The field of players were broken evenly into two flights: Championship and First Flight. The doubles teams were comprised from a mixture of both flights.
The Championship players played with a 9-inch boundary and carryover deadness while the First Flight players played with a 36-inch boundary and no carry over deadness. The other main rule was a ball had to score the first two wickets before being considered “in the game” when players may take croquet from it. Thanks to Todd Marshall for developing these two sets of rules. Eccles is also working with Marshall on an introductory set of rules that can be used for beginning players. Eccles has taken over as the 9-wicket committee chairman.
Because all the USCA certified referees were playing in the Championship Flight and I made teams with players from both flights, I decided to make doubles play by the First Flight set of rules. This would help the First Flight players figure out how to play and strategize using these rules and prepare the referees in case they got called out to referee a shot during a game in the other flight.
We started with doubles in the morning and transitioned to singles in the afternoon and this format seemed enjoyable to everyone.
The hurricane that came up through California and parts of Arizona the prior week dissipated and finally reformed in the northwest to bring us a good day of solid rain on Friday and predictions of continuing through Saturday. The tournament committee decided to push the schedule to completion on Friday and, with a bit of re-organization, we started early on Friday and managed to finish shortly before the meal on Friday night. The players in the tournament came from a variety of locations and while some were well-known repeats from the last few nationals, others were complete unknowns. Judy McKeon is a long time Denver Croquet Club member, but I had not met Steven Berry or Todd Marshall.
Kabe Erkenbrack is an elementary principal from Evergreen, Colo., and he could only play in the afternoons, thus was not able to play doubles. Erkenbrack came in from school, dressed in long pants, which for the first two days, was very hot. He played his three games and went back home for the evening. He entered the playoffs with one loss and prior to the finals, Russ Dilley and I figured out “that he had played some croquet in college.” Indeed! He was on the 2014 St. John’s croquet team.
Macey White from Virginia teamed up with John Warlick from Florida to defend their doubles championship from last year. Doug Moore partnered with his friend Lance Titus who had never played this type of croquet before. They won their first game being the first team to 32 points and managed to squeak out a few more victories to qualify for the First Flight doubles playoff.
In championship doubles, White and Warlick went up against the father and son team from Bowling Green, Ky., Dalton “Buck” Major and his dad Howard. White/Warlick won 22-16 in a final game that went to the 75-minute time limit.
In First Flight doubles, Lance Titus and Doug Moore went against Steven Berry and Jamie Grimm. Berry was filling in for myself because I got injured setting up equipment on Tuesday. Grimm and Berry led by narrow margins most of the game until Moore and Titus took control and did not look back for a 32-7 win.
In the semifinal of first flight, Dalton Major (the 4th seed) took out his father, then undefeated, 32-22. I overheard Howard Major comment that near the end of the match, he wanted to save his mallet for doubles.
This was a reasonable thing to consider. The tournament took a toll on both mallets and the Pro Baltz balls. The damage report at the award ceremony was five mallets and 14 balls — a new record!
Later in the day, Erkenbrack played his semifinal match against Marshall winning that game 25-14. This led up to the last game of the day, Erkenbrack versus Dalton Major. This game went to time while it continued to rain and temperatures plummeted. Erkenbrack kept control throughout and won 17-11. A couple of Erkenbrack’s friends, along with Russ Dilley who was capturing video for YouTube were there watching the game. Dalton’s dad, Howard, was watching from inside the car.
Earlier in the day, Macey White defeated Bill Trower in the semifinals in a very close game 19-14. In the other semis, Moore took out Warlick 32-21. Moore was runner-up last year and wanted to get even against White this year.
In the finals, the game was looking grim for Moore when White went to rover with his first ball, but Black was well back and Moore managed to tighten up the match, briefly taking a small lead. But White would not let Yellow get clean and managed to gain a 1-point advantage in the last turn 27-26.
White holds the championship singles and doubles (with John Warlick) 9-wicket title for 2023.
Congrats to Kabe Erkenbrack, First Flight Singles champion and Doug Moore and Lance Titus, First Flight Doubles champions.
