Day One Player Journal
The 2023 edition of the USCA Selection Eights kicked off yesterday with three groups. It’s definitely a smaller overall group than expected, with five groups of eight being more of the standard.
I suspect the recent AC Worlds and next year’s GC Worlds set for October in the U.S. are having an impact. Top players might be looking to shift more playing time and travel budget to GC to prepare for next fall.
Looking through the groups, Doug Grimsley and Randy Cardo are at the top of the First Eight with matching 3-1 records. All players in the group have at least one win. In the Second Eight, Chris Percival-Smith and Paul Neubecker are leading the way with 4-0 records. Again, all players in the group have at least one win.
In the Third Eight, David Isaacs is leading the group at 4-0 and has pegged out his four games. I am in this group and it’s my first time back to the event since 2015. Our group is mostly players with a Dynamic Grade of 1532, but I see a lot of players in this group that can finish turns.
NOTES
Games started at 8:00 a.m. and with 2.5 hour time limits in the Third Eight, we went to about 7:30 p.m. In my game with Arlene Parker, Doug Grimsley and Stuart Lawrence came out to walk around and shine smartphone flashlights on balls to help us avoid a pegged-down game.
The courts were a bit slow on day one as no mowing occurred in the morning.
I started in AC early on, so I only learned yesterday that in American Six Wicket you can rush your partner into the peg and still have a shot nine inches from the peg with the striker ball (after removing the pegged ball). Unfortunately, an American style player in our Third Eight just learning AC found out the hard way that rushing partner into the peg in AC ends your turn.
—Player Journal by Dylan Goodwin