By Eric Sawyer
More clouds, brisk wind and cold in croquet paradise. Hey, isn't this the desert? When is the weather going to get nice. The winds are really bad for people that cast, like myself. My mallet is buffeted so much by the wind that I can see the shaft going back and forth as I follow-through. It is no fluke that I played my best games in the morning and late afternoon, when the wind was calm or light, and my worst games in the height of the gusts. Excuses, excuses.
This morning the final preliminary matches were completed. Then the play-offs began. Since we have been double-banking, we are gradually catching up. But there aren't many breaks in the action to hang out or eat. We are all basically playing game after game. In the Championship Flight singles, the four number one seeds at the start of the playoffs are Ben Rothman, myself, Leo Nikora, Danny Huneycutt and Rich Lamm. All of the number one seeds have advanced to the quarter-finals, except Ben hasn't completed his match against Paul Bennett and he is down one game to none. The plan is for the singles play-offs to continue Sunday, with the Finals Monday morning.
The Championship Doubles play-offs start Sunday morning. All teams qualified for the play-offs except Rich Schiller's team. Sorry, Rich.
Since I played all day today with one small break to eat lunch, I don't have a sense of what is happening in the first and second flights. Sorry, this report is heavily skewed toward the Championship flight.
As for our local heroes, I'm thrilled to report that all three of the Pasadena Croquet Club players who are in the Championship flight have advanced to the final 8 in the play-offs. I was able to squeeze by Ahab Dincer, who is Sherif's brother, two games to one, by a very thin margin. Mohammad Kamal beat Ron Hendry. Ahmed Elhadary beat Rich Schiller. Sorry, Rich. That means three of the final eight players in the Championship Flight play-offs are from the PCC. Or put another way, more than one-third of the Championship Flight in singles are PCC members. As Michael Rumbin says, "Pasadena is becoming the golf croquet capital of the world."
Speaking of Michael, our local hero from Simi Valley, I have mixed news. Michael was knocked out of the First Flight play-offs by Nick Gray. I personally think that Nick should be in the Championship flight, so losing to Nick is nothing to feel bad about. And it just gives Michael fuel to practice and come back next year to take the First Flight title. But Michael is still alive in the First Flight doubles with his partner, Tom. So let's keep our fingers crossed for Michael.
Tomorrow is a big day. The meat of the tournament occurs. Will there be some shocking upsets? Or will it be the same old players making the finals and winning? More details to follow. Thanks for reading this update.