North Carolina players Paul Scott (Raleigh) and Jeff Soo (Chapel Hill) have kept the USCA’s top honors in NC for another year. At the twenty-sixth annual USCA National Championships, held October 14–20 at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, Scott and Soo successfully defended their national doubles title, and Soo won his second national singles title.

Though not quite a repeat of last year’s sweep, in which both players were undefeated for the week until Scott beat Soo in the singles final, this year’s performance affirms the pair’s position among the elite of American-rules croquet. The two players account for the last three national singles titles and three of the last four national doubles titles. They also won the 2002 USCA international-rules national doubles title earlier this year.

Soo now joins Scott as one of seven players to win both the national singles and doubles titles in the same year. Soo also becomes the sixth player to win more than one national singles title. His first was in 2000, at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. Soo is the current holder of three USCA national titles, and he and Scott are the only players to have achieved this feat a feat first achieved by Mik Mehas in 1999, then matched by Scott earlier this year.

Scott and Soo have entered five national doubles events, reaching the final every time and winning four of them. They are the winningest doubles pair in USCA national championship history.

Last modified on 27 September 2006