What a show! In my eight or so years of playing American 6-Wicket, I have never seen a player finish a game with a triple peel, and yet this past weekend, Matthew Essick finished three of his last four games with a triple. In the semi-final match against Zack Watson, Matthew won both games by scoring all of the hoops with his second ball while peeling (scoring his partner ball) through the last three hoops and then pegging both balls out on the center stake winning 26tp-0 and 26tp-13. Essick did the same in one of his games in the finals against current American 6-Wicket National Champion, Randy Cardo, winning 26tp-5 and 26-0. The winning paycheck for Essick was $4075. Randy Cardo won $2037.50 for second place. Sherif Abdelwahab won $1018.75 for 3rd and Zack Watson went home with a healthy $509.38 for fourth.
All players in the tournament won prize money. The following won $119.38 for tying for 5th :
Stuart Lawrence
Stephen Morgan
Rick Sheely
Macey White
The following players won $3.96 for tying for 9th place:
Calvert Chane
Tom Cooper
Doug Grimsley
John Priest
Donna Dixon
Mark Fields
Adam Lassiter **
Jay Hughes
These players won $1.00 for finishing tied for 17th :
Randy Lassiter **
Steve Thurston **
Mary Rodeberg
Joahua Lassiter **
Linda Trifone **
Rich Laging **
Rodney Lassiter
Pete Bowers **
David Trigiani **
Ed Becker
Ken Kniceley **
Gil Rocha **
Bill Sullivan **
Vickie Johnston **
Rick Darnell **
Lee Jorde **
The players with ** next to their name “played into” the round of 32 and are now Pro Tour Qualified for American 6-Wicket. Other players in the tournament who competed for the round of 32 and earned a $1 check include: Marty Karel, Karin Karel, Jane Koziol, Doug Murphy, Sue Laging, Margaret Jefferies, Dick Jefferies, and Steve Shultz.
The plate was run by modified Swiss rules. Once bumped out of the money knockout, all players were allowed to enter the plate. In this style of play, players with a similar number of wins were paired. All wins were used for pairing purposes but only wins in the plate were used to choose the top two seeds for the plate finals playoff. Top seed Rich Laging played Vickie Johnston for the plate trophies and Laging won the plate by a margin of 21-20.
The tournament was sponsored by PFC Hoop Maker Mallets and was the first Professional Croquet Association, American 6-Wicket event ever held. The games were played by experimental advanced play rules which included, 1) all balls are automatically in the game from the start, and 2) players get to start their next turn with either of their balls after their opponent scored four-back. The first rule eliminates the “out-game” and the second keeps a player from capturing the opponent’s spent ball and setting up an automatic 3-ball break for themselves after running their first break. Both rules were well accepted by the players and the consensus was they were a great improvement to the American game. There was a sentiment that the game starting rule gave an advantage to the player of blue and black. It was suggested that the “Bamford substitution rule” be used at the start. The proposed rule is paraphrased; “After the first shot of a match (blue ball), the player playing second can then make an election to play their red ball or to take over the blue ball played first by the opponent as their own. If the swap is chosen, the players swap colors, and the first player plays red and yellow and the original owner of red and yellow takes over blue and black. It should be an interesting experiment for the next time around.