This year’s field had twelve consistently strong players and ten up-and-coming players with limited experience in championship flight. The lower-ranked players showed quick learning ability, pulling off several major upsets. They also had no problem partaking from the coveted biscuit barrel. [The Biscuit Barrel is the permanent trophy for this tournament’s peeling contest, and it is kept stocked with “biscuits”, as the British call cookies—Ed.]

While there were no major upsets in the first two rounds of the “Main Event” elimination ladder, several matches went the full three games. The competition heated up during the quarter-finals, Danny Huneycutt, Stewart Jackson, Jeff Soo, and Brian Cumming advancing over Mik Mehas, Damon Bidencope, Ron Lloyd, and Bob Cherry, respectively. The last of these matches featured the most amazing series of shots of the tournament. Tripling to finish the match, Cumming made a highly creative straight penult peel and then got the straight rover peel, but when he ran rover he roqueted partner ball and was faced with a hampered long distance peg out. Much to the spectators’ surprise Cumming played a takeoff to one opponent ball, moving his partner ball directly in front of the other opponent ball. Three strokes later he roqueted the opponent ball, cannoning it into his partner ball and from nine yards away his partner ball struck the peg, an extraordinary shot. Cumming’s subsequent celebratory dance proved premature, as he then decided to “roquet” the roqueted ball again. Cherry objected and asked for a ruling, leaving Cumming to wonder if he had blown it. But after a brief delay, which must have seemed anything but brief to Cumming, the ruling was given in Cumming’s favor.

[In Association Croquet, unlike American rules, a ball does not become dead until after the croquet stroke—Ed.]

The semi-final match between Jackson and Huneycutt was in some ways the best match of the tournament. Huneycutt won the first game +26 tp, Jackson never taking croquet. Jackson finally got in after a Huneycutt error in game 2, and he triple-peeled Huneycutt’s forward ball out of the game. On his next turn he hit in and made a controlled three-ball break to tie the match. The roles were reversed in the deciding game, Jackson controlling the game early but stuffing a hoop on his second break, incidentally just after a large black dog had run across the court. Huneycutt declined the TPO but Jackson missed the lift and Huneycutt tripled to secure a spot in the finals. In the other semi-final match Cumming could not recreate his magic of the quarterfinals, and Soo played two error-free games to join Huneycutt in the final.

With severe weather in the forecast for Sunday (see photo above), Huneycutt and Soo decided to start the final on Saturday afternoon. Huneycutt won the toss and elected to play first with a deep standard east boundary opening and Soo playing his first ball outside corner two. Huneycutt missed his partner ball from b-baulk leaving a 5-yard join. Soo hit the short shot at opponents, but had to retreat to partner before attempting the first hoop. Several rotations ensued with Soo keeping the innings and subtly improving his advantage while Huneycutt looked for a free shot. He finally took a near-boundary to boundary double that he missed, and Soo went to 4-back with a perfect diagonal leave. Huneycutt correctly gauged the east boundary roll-off and hit in from b-baulk, made nine and set a new standard leave. Soo missed the short lift and Huneycutt finished game 1 with a triple peel.

The second game began with Soo setting a super shot [first ball to mid-court—Ed.] and Huneycutt rolling left of the peg while trying to roquet. Soo played an aggressive stroke and roqueted, leading to nine hoops on the game’s third turn. Huneycutt again hit the leave up the east boundary from b-baulk and took his nine hoops. Soo missed the long lift from b-baulk and Huneycutt finished his error-free performance with a delayed triple peel to win his first North Carolina Open Championship.

In the Plate event Ron Lloyd showed to the form that made him one of the pre-tournament favorites by completing three consecutive triple peels to win the hotly-contested Plate. The Biscuit Barrel went to Huneycutt for his six triple peels, his second time winning the trophy in three years.