For complete finish order see http://www.croquetnc.org/news/234/2008-nc-singles-championship-results.

The Pinehurst Resort and Country Club did an exemplary job hosting the 2008 North Carolina Singles Championships. Lunches were served in the Members Club with an option to box up and take courtside. The food deserved to be enjoyed tableside but there were times when players-turned-spectators used the carryout option to avoid missing games of interest. The Friday evening dinner was served family style, capped off by a five dessert platter to die for.

A very aggressive schedule was planned for the 43 contestants, including 130 block and 42 playoff games on four courts, with the final matches starting by 1:00 Sunday. This required seven rounds of play on Thursday and Saturday, with only one game going beyond the scheduled time by 20 minutes. The players are to be thanked for always being available and the tournament administrators for staying on top of the schedule.

With severe weather expected from tropical storm Hannah Friday night into Saturday morning, plans were made to shorten the remaining block games and possibly the playoffs. Flooded streets and parking lots on Saturday morning were not encouraging. But, thanks to the superb drainage of the Pinehurst courts, play began on time. By the time the first round ended the clouds began dissipating and the sun began to shine, while the expected 30–40 mph winds never arrived.

3rd Flight – It was no surprise to see 9-year-old Matthew Essick, Danna Huneycutt and Rhonda Summer come out of block play as the top seeds. Matthew’s shot making was phenomenal. So was the progression of Brook Huneycutt, Will Looney and Robert Byrd in their first singles tournament. Will gave Matthew his only defeat going into the playoffs, Robert earned 5th seed in the playoffs, while Brook knocked off the 4th seed.

After 22-5 and 18-7 wins during the initial playoff rounds, it appeared that no one was going to be able to contain Matthew’s play. Rhonda, after squeaking out early round victories against Elaine Moody (16-13) and Danna (11-10), played the match of her life in the finals. After falling behind by a considerable margin in the early stages against Matthew, Rhonda held her composure, fighting heat, humidity and a human whirl-wind. In the end she used strategic maneuvers to shift the momentum and overtake Matthew 15-13.

2nd Flight – Block play was dominated by Marc (Soup) Campbell, Tom Yates, Billie Jean Taft and Bill Cooley, but Robert Roth, improving each game, earned a spot in the semi-finals via a 15-14 win against Billie Jean Taft. Soup, recently promoted to an 8 handicap, advanced to the finals with a win against Bill Cooley. Tom had a hard fought win against Robert Roth and earned a showdown with club-mate Soup Campbell. Soup, the superior strategist, defeated Tom, the best all-around player in this flight, 16-13.

1st Flight – Just by watching play during block play it would be difficult to determine who would be the favorites going into the playoffs. Becky Essick, being granted a 1st flight position after requesting to move up a flight, was absolutely the most consistent player. Mike Taylor, recently earning his 5 handicap, was probably the strongest player. Bill Taft and Mena Holloway used their experience to round out the top four playoff seeds.

Dick Johnston (7th seed) and David Collie (8th seed) decided that seeding was meaningless and upstaged all the favorites, marching over the higher seeds into the finals. Dick prevailed with a 9-7 win in a game much more exciting than the score indicates.

Championship Flight – Among the 14 championship contestants was a good mixture of nationally strong players, less experienced yet capable championship flight players, and players ready to test their skills in a more advanced setting. The flight was divided into two 7-person blocks, all 14 players advancing to the playoffs, with three players from each block receiving two lives.

Danny Huneycutt, Jeff Soo and Horace Hayworth advanced as top seeds from their block with 5-1 records, Horace on the strength of a proud 26-2 win against Jeff. Players across the country may not have heard of Horace, but his accomplishments during block play were not a surprise to the NC players. Ron Lloyd, John Knott and Bob Cherry received the extra playoff life from the other block. John Knott, while being a most gracious competitor with great composure, displayed a ferocious, never say die attitude throughout the tournament, earned the 2nd seed out of his block.

The playoffs produced many great story lines. Frank Thompson, inconsistent in the block, advanced through the first two playoff rounds before being overtaken by Horace. Eileen Soo, finishing at the bottom of her block, rolled through three playoff rounds, including a major upset against Bob Cherry, before succumbing to arch-rival and husband Jeff.

The most important games often seem to be the most routine, but two games late in the tournament were among the most entertaining. The double-life bracket final was between undefeated Ron Lloyd and block winner Danny Huneycutt. Danny played his usual aggressive game, lighting-up the deadness board and digging a deep hole for himself. With 35 minutes remaining he was 5-ball dead. With 24 minutes remaining he was 6-ball dead, his blue and black going for hoop 3, while Ron’s yellow was a rover and his red was for 1-back. Red had just made hoop 6, roqueted black from in front of hoop 3, removed blue from jaws of hoop 3, and turned down an opportunity to run a game ending break.

It all seemed very simple for Ron, roquet partner with yellow (rover ball), and send blue and black to other side of hoop 3, setup at hoop 3 to clear and possibly block hoop 3, repeat until time runs out. After 18 minutes had gone by, a couple of spectators commented that Danny should concede. With Ron positioned 10 inches in front of hoop 3, desperate and in need of doing something different, Danny shot for the jaws from 60-70 feet with blue and, amazingly, succeeded. With the hope that Ron’s yellow ball could not clear, Danny played black 1 foot behind yellow, forgetting that this was the only ball yellow was alive on, the second time in the game he had made that error. Ron tapped black with yellow, intending to cannon blue from the jaws and clear by running the hoop, all so simple. Except that Ron overhit the cannon, black rebounding off blue back into yellow and then into the jaws while yellow went 6 inches beside the hoop. To make matters worse, Ron then shot yellow 10 inches behind black. With less than five minutes remaining, Danny sent blue to hoop 4 and red shot to corner 2.

Danny shot black through hoop 3, back through the hoop to roquet yellow and ran the break to peg. During the break he picked up red from corner 2, peeled blue through hoop 3, pegged out yellow, and set a break for blue. Ron could only watch as Danny stayed on court and began blue’s turn. Danny played the break through 3-back, when, leading by two points, he croqueted blue and black off the court. Ron missed his last-chance shot, putting Danny in the final and Ron in the single-life bracket to fight it out with Horace and Jeff. Jeff prevailed through 3 games to earn a battle with Danny in the finals.

In the championship game Jeff entered blue and black while Danny kept red and yellow out. Jeff took the line rush with blue from corner 1 to about 18 feet from hoop 2. With Danny lurking behind hoop 1 Jeff made a nice rollup, ran hoop 2, rushed to hoop 3, made the hoop and retired to the east boundary. Danny played red into the jaws. Jeff joined on the east boundary, giving blue a line rush to hoop 4. Danny’s jump-drag attempt didn’t quite work, knocking red through but not yellow, yellow ending just out of the jaws to the left of hoop 1. To plenty of oos and ahhs Jeff played a 3-ball break, cannoning yellow into position before hoop 2-back and then cannoning it through hoop 1 after blue scored 2-back, getting perfect rushing position on yellow. It’s always amazing how Jeff can make the most complex plays look so effortless.

The rush to 3-back was 11 feet short but Jeff made a nice split for a 1 yard hoop shot, trickled through the hoop but was unable to roquet yellow. He missed the shot at red (near hoop 1) to give Danny some hope. Danny proceeded to make hoop 2 and after a couple of maneuvering turns Jeff was joined on the south boundary in corner 1 while Danny had a rush near the north boundary behind hoop 2. Danny attempted the rush to hoop 3 but only nicked the ball and so reverted to attacking blue and black with a full-court take-off. Coming up short by 6 yards Danny took the shot, hit and set a leave for his partner ball. Jeff retired to corner 1 and Danny ran the break, straight-peeling partner through hoop 3, picking up the 4th ball from corner 1, and setting a partially defensive leave to finish the game. Jeff took and hit the shot with blue (4-back ball) from slightly northeast of hoop 2 at Danny’s balls just south of hoop 4 and four feet from the east boundary. Rather than doing a short take-off to set a rush toward 4-back, Jeff set a rush toward black which was just slightly, if at all, behind hoop 4. Jeff’s rush on black to 4-back was off and he roqueted black out of bounds. The door was open and Danny finished the game on next turn, 26-10, to become the 2008 North Carolina Singles Champion.