2023 Southeast Regional Golf Croquet Championship Belvidere, North Carolina | September 7-10, 2023
32-player SOUTHEAST Golf Croquet REGIONAL UTILIZES SWISS FORMAT Championship won by Jeff Soo while Kim Allen takes the First Flight honors The Albemarle Croquet Club is only two years old but has already hosted two USCA Regional Championships. The club is located in rural Perquimans County, home of many beautifully preserved historic buildings, not to mention the hometown of Jim “Catfish” Hunter and the gravesite of Robert “Wolfman Jack” Smith. The club, with four full-size courts, is the creation of the Lassiter family, recognized as USCA Croquet Family of the Year in both 2021 and 2022. A small army of family volunteers extended a warm welcome and took care of the players throughout the event. The entry limit was set at 32 players and the tournament quickly filled. Southeast region players came from North and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi. The field was filled out with several players from Florida and one from Missouri. There were many requests to “play up,” so the flight divisions were set at 24 for Championship and eight for First Flight. First Flight played a conventional block-and-knockout format in both singles and doubles. Shep Slater and MaryCarol Stearns won all their doubles block games by comfortable margins. John Graney and Bob Smothers finished second in the block, and both teams won their semifinals for a rematch in the final. The game, which took well over two hours to finish, was close throughout, Graney and Smothers winning 7-5.
First Flight Singles started with a full block of eight, the top four advancing to the knockout. Slater tied with Kim Allen at 6-1. Smothers finished third in the block at 5-2, and Stearns took the final spot in the knockout at 4-3, no need for block tie-breakers. Slater and Allen won their single-game semifinals to advance to the best-of-three final. Allen’s clearing and jump shots made the difference in her 7-5, 7-5 victory. With 24 players and only four days to play singles and doubles, Championship Flight was too large for block-and-knockout formats without compromising on block size or best-of-three knockout rounds. The Swiss format was the solution, giving all players a set of meaningful games and leaving time for best-ofthree matches from the singles quarterfinals onward. This format does require active management throughout the day, hard to do well when the TD is playing in the event. Fortunately for this TD, tournament guests Elaine and Rocky Smith jumped in as assistant TDs, recording scores and game times, and assigning courts on the fly to get the games in as efficiently as possible. The doubles were played as a straight Swiss, all pairs playing in each of the five rounds. At the end of those five rounds, three pairs were tied for first at 4-1: Kim Allen/Billie Ray; Bo Prillaman/Marc Stearns; Danny Huneycutt/Rodney Lassiter. This triggered a playoff, Allen/Ray earning the bye on their strength of schedule rating. Stearns/Prillaman edged out Huneycutt/Lassiter 7-6. Allen/Ray jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the final, winning 7-3. Championship Singles started with an elimination Swiss: keep playing until you have three wins or three losses. With 24 players, this worked out perfectly to ensure exactly 12 qualifiers with three wins, no tie-breakers needed. The first knockout round only had time for single-game matches, so getting a bye to the quarterfinals was especially valuable. The three players who qualified with 3-0 records earned top seeding: Danny Huneycutt, Jeff Soo and Cecil Creasey. The fourth bye was decided by a playoff between Adam Lassiter and Tate Russack, the two 3-1 players with the highest strength of schedule rating. Lassiter won 7-1 to earn the bye. The Swiss continued as a consolation event for all players who failed to reach the quarterfinals. Rodney Lassiter took advantage of the opportunity and finished 4-2 in the Swiss, good for ninth place overall in the tournament.
www.croquetamerica.com | 43
