Day Two Block Action (Photo by Bill Bromley)
Sunday, 2/26 -- It was an absolutely beautiful warm day during this last week of summer here in Melbourne. USA players had a good day on the lawns with Sherif Abdelwahab posting his third win (and currently in the middle of his fourth match at the time of this entry [He won -- DG]).
Matt Griffith notched a win against Sweden's Joakim Norback and, in an exciting three-game match, Mohammad Kamal took down Australia's John Arney to add another win to his record. The photo above shows Kamal's hampered jump shot attempt at the 13th hoop in game two. (His last match of the day was still being played at the time of this entry).
I had a respectable day with solid play against Egypt's Mohamed Karem - one of the favorites in this event. Unfortunately, my late surge against Australia's Gail Hopkins wasn't enough to take it to a third game in my second match.
One of the big rulings of the day was a match-winning jump shot that hit a scoring clip and therefore did not earn the hoop. Here's the background on using scoring clips. At the start of all the matches each player is given a set of six colored "clothes pins" corresponding to the color balls they are playing. After a hoop is scored, you place a scoring clip on that hoop so that players and spectators alike can see exactly what the score is. However, the WCF rule is that if you hit the clip with your ball you cannot score the hoop. The best thing to do is to remove the clip before your shot to avoid this fateful consequence. Lesson learned the hard way in that match!
Tomorrow we will reach the halfway point for block play!
The original caption on the lead photo was incorrectly identified as Mohammed Kamal. The player is unknown.