Ben Rothman is the 2010 North Carolina Open champion. The twenty-six year old Rothman (Orinda, CA) played Jim Bast (Austin, TX) in the final, winning +26tp, +26tp. This was a rematch of another Association Croquet singles final played on the same lawn a year ago, the 2009 USCA Association Croquet national championship, which Rothman also won.

Another young player, Charlie Gillmarten (Alexandria, VA), won the Plate. He beat Brian Cumming (Elora, ONT) in the final.

Rothman also won the coveted Biscuit Barrel trophy for best peeling performance. He completed one sextuple peel and seven triple peels during the four-day tournament.

The final began with a wrong-ball error by Rothman on the first stroke of the match. Bast graciously allowed Rothman to exchange balls. Rothman roqueted on the third turn for a break of nine hoops, making the defensive variation on the third-turn leave (partner ball has a rush on the opponent ball, striker’s ball near the west boundary). Knowing the unpredictability of the east boundary, Bast shot from a-balk at the west boundary ball, missing to near corner 2.

This gave Rothman the setup for a standard triple. He jawsed partner in 4-back after he scored 3, rush-peeled it after 4, did the Wylie variation on the penult peel after 6 (i.e., setting a deep ball and roqueting that first, then loading 2-back while approaching partner, peeling and then rushing the escape ball to 1-back), and finished with an Irish peel at rover from close range.

In game 2 Bast opened to the east boundary and Rothman laid a standard-length Duffer tice (slightly northeast of hoop 6). Bast played his second ball to near corner 2. Rothman hit the tice and made a leave. Bast finessed and Rothman scored a hoop and made a strong leave, forcing Bast to shoot. He took the more defensive but very long (32 yards) shot, just missing. Despite needing to roll to position at 2 from near the peg, Rothman built the break and laid a diagonal spread.

Bast lifted to b-balk and shot down the east boundary, shooting at the in-court ball in another attempt to deal with the difficult boundary. The shot missed to near corner 4, and Rothman finished game and match with another triple peel. He converted the delayed triple to a standard one when he was able to rush partner from 4 to angled peeling position at 4-back, and then again used the Wylie variation on the penult peel. He jawsed the rover peel going to 3-back, finally rush-peeling it and sending it to the peg before scoring rover.

Last modified on 4 March 2017