For complete finish order see http://www.croquetnc.org/news/231/2008-nc-club-teams-results.

The 2008 North Carolina Club Teams Championship was smaller than in recent years, with just 66 players. But it kept the features that make it the most popular annual tournament in North Carolina, eagerly awaited by its many regular participants. The high mountain scenery and cool summer weather, the hospitality of the clubs and the quality of the lawns, and the friendly competition and team camaraderie are a winning combination.

As at National Club Teams, there is no limit on the number of pairs a club may enter, so the format rewards participation. And no club has done a better job of this in recent years than Meadows Mallet Club. Last year Meadows outpaced the field, scoring 40 of a possible 78 points. So with twelve pairs entered, more than a third of the total entry, Meadows were strong favorites to win their sixth straight Penwell Trophy title.

Their winning formula is more than just entering lots of players. Meadows have also been uniquely successful at recruiting promising young players who pick up the game quickly. One of the newest this year was Jake Henderson, who has only been playing for a few weeks and started the tournament on handicap 16. By the end of the tournament his handicap had been adjusted to 12, and it would be no surprise to see him playing at 6 in a few more weeks. Henderson has outstanding hand-eye skills, honed by riflery and archery among other sports, and by the end of the tournament was routinely hitting cross-court roquets and clearing long hoops. He and doubles partner Brett Malloy (2007 Fifth Flight winner) are both sophomores at NC State, and they were undefeated in winning Third Flight.

Second Flight was especially competitive, all pairs winning at least two games and losing at least two games in the block of eight. Locals Marty Ormsby and Ruthie Windsor-Mann and Meadows players Jerry Tysinger and Marc “Soup” Campbell topped the block with 5-2 records, and each pair won through to the final. There Tysinger and Campbell pulled ahead in the final minutes after Ormsby and Windsor-Mann got stuck on six-ball deadness.

In First Flight the defending champions, Meadows players Andy Williamson and Jeff Brinkley, went through undefeated, but not without a few speed bumps along the way. After five comfortable block wins, their final block games were one-point squeakers against fellow Meadows malleteers Steve Summer and Bob Newburn, and then locals Sam and Jean Miller. In the semi-finals, Williamson and Brinkley again scored a one-point win against Summer and Newburn. The Millers claimed the other finalist spot with a one-point win against the Meadows pair of Jon Essick and Tony Reaves. Essick and Reaves played Championship-style croquet and pegged out in four of their seven block games, but got into deadness problems with their aggressive break play. Williamson and Brinkley got back into high gear to win the final 20-8.

Championship Flight was competitive throughout, with high-low entries the norm. The pair with the greatest handicap disparity were David Maloof, the local pro, and Bill Hartmann. Hartmann started the tournament on handicap 8, while Maloof is a 0 who should be -2 — he typically plays just one or two tournaments a year, including this one. Hartmann started stronger than his handicap would indicate and showed improvement throughout the tournament, while Maloof generally played error-free croquet, with perhaps the most accurate stroke play of any player in the field. While the pair finished the block seeded fourth, they scored at least 16 points in every game, better than every team except block winners Jeff Soo and Frank Thompson (Stoneridge), who won the block undefeated. The two pairs then met in the semi-finals, where Maloof triple-peeled to win 26-3 on the game’s twelfth turn.

Stoneridge’s other entry in Championship Flight, Andy Short and Eileen Soo, got off to a slow start, losing three of their first four games. But they finished out the block with two strong wins, including a 25-18 win over Maloof and Hartmann. Another comfortable win in the quarterfinals was followed by a 13-12 comeback against the top seeds, Danny Huneycutt and Hugh Barger, in the semi-finals. Short won the 2007 final with Thompson, while Soo was in her first Championship Flight final of any kind. The opponents had similar experience: Maloof had won here twice before with different partners, while Hartmann was a Championship finals debutant.

All four flights played their semi-final and final rounds on Sunday. At the start of the day Meadows were guaranteed to make at least 18 points in the Penwell Trophy competition; eight of the sixteen pairs remaining in the playoffs were Meadows players. High Country was the only other club still in contention, with three pairs still playing in three different flights for a maximum possible 18 points. While all three High Country pairs advanced to their respective finals, Meadows clinched the Penwell title by knocking out the remaining two Bald Head Island pairs in the semi-finals.

The Championship Flight final started with a three-ball-dead attack by Short to set Soo for a break. Hartmann cornered and Soo began her three-ball break, but her roll shot after 3 came up short and she missed the pioneer at 4. A few turns later Soo two-balled blue through 4 and 5, leaving black near 5; Maloof scored 3 and then used black to develop a three-ball break. He picked up blue from corner I after 5, loading 1-back and going to 6 with a highly accurate roll stroke. He continued his tightly controlled break to the peg, making a strong leave to set yellow for a break starting at 2. Short played black to corner I, and Hartmann started his break. Just as Soo had done earlier, Hartmann came up short out of 3 and missed the pioneer at 4. Soo roqueted red, then took off to yellow on the south boundary, sending it to 2 and joining black. Maloof played red to the treacherous corner III and now it was Short’s turn for a three-ball break.

Short got into trouble early and often. His initial rush on blue ended up too near yellow, so he sent it just a few yards toward 3. He recovered with a good croquet stroke after 2 to get a rush to 3. After 3 he sent the 5 pioneer long, but again recovered with a good rush and croquet stroke after 4. But then he sent the 1-back pioneer long, almost as close to corner II as to 1-back. After 6 he rushed yellow to 4-back, then took off to within a few inches of red in corner III. On the very wide-angle split to send red to 2-back and black to the deep pioneer at 1-back, red hit the peg and ended up near 5, while his ball ended up near 1-back. His approach to 1-back was played from near corner II, but he got good position and scored the hoop to continue. He played a good roll stroke to get a rush on red to 2-back, but then over-cut the rush. He took off to long angled position, and after a brief conference with Soo he scored the hoop.

From here things finally got easier for Short. He finished out the break, pegging out red and leaving yellow only a full-court shot at black on the boundary. There were only a few minutes remaining the in game, during which Hartmann had a few long shots at boundary balls while Short and Soo played defense. In last turns Short pegged out for a two-point lead, and when Hartmann missed his final long shot Short and Soo had won 18-16.

Meadows, with three flight winners and five other pairs finishing in the money, earned 30 of the total 52 points, outscoring the field for the second year in a row.