By Eric Sawyer
Thankfully the winds were absent today, but the cold wasn't. Temperatures at the start of the matches were in the 40s. I was tempted to buy a pair of gloves and a white sweater, but I didn't want to break my karma. So I just froze until the sun came up. When it did, it turned out to be a pleasant desert day, which is what I expect when I come out here. But once the sun goes down, our friend the cold comes back. Like I say, expect the unexpected.
Speaking of the unexpected, today featured a number of unexpected results. In the Championship Singles, Paul Bennett beat Ben Rothman. Ben was the reigning national GC champ and he won the plate event at the recent world GC championships. I had to play Paul, which was a little intimidating because Paul has been named to a number of national croquet teams and is an outstanding player. For a guy who probably focuses on Association Rules and not a lot on GC, I was surprised how good his tactics are. Anyway, I beat him two games to one to move on to the semi-finals. I'm still not sure how I did it, but a few lucky long shots seemed to help. In an ironic way, truly world class players like Paul are at a bit of a disadvantage when they play a no-name like me. There has to be a bit of pressure to not lose to somebody that nobody has heard of. On the other hand, for a player like me, there's no pressure at all because there are no expectations. I was able to just fire away and see where the balls went. Tomorrow I will play the great Rich Lamm, another member of several national croquet teams, in the singles semi-finals.
Other good news for local players is that Mohammad Kamal won his quarterfinal match against Leo Nikora and he will play Danny Huneycutt in the singles semi-finals. Mohammad was playing on the court next to me when I was playing Paul. He complimented me on a hampered hammer shot I made from behind one-back to get to pretty good position near two-back. And I was able to say, "thank you, but you were the one who showed me how to do that shot." A pretty cool moment. Mohammad seemed like a proud teacher of a student who did something well.
Since Mohammad and I have made the semi's, that means two of the final four are from the Pasadena Croquet Club. Fifty percent. Not bad for a little club in the San Gabriel Valley.
Sadly, fellow PCC member Ahmed Elhadary was defeated in his quarter final match by Rich Lamm. No shame on that. Like I said, Rich Lamm is a world-class player. And this is all very concerning to me, because Ahmed routinely beats the stuffing out of me when we play pick-up games at our club. So if Ahmed beats me routinely, and Rich just beat him ....
Michael Rumbin and his partner Tom Huan we beaten in the First Flight doubles play-offs by Mission Hills veterans Mary Rodeberg and Jean Engebretson. But Tom has made the semi-finals of the First Flight singles, so let's cross our fingers for Michael's doubles partner.
We are still a bit behind schedule. But everything will be finished Monday, one way or another. Hopefully we are finished with the winds for a while too.