It was the first event of even this magnitude that the Rincon Country West Pickleball Club had planned and executed. We did most things well, but with the exuberant volunteers and experience that most of the players had from larger tournaments we were able to keep things in line, as people picked up the slack for us as we went along.
We promise to do even better next year, and are grateful for all the support we received.
Women's
We had 8 teams for women's play, but there was not a good way to split them up into separate brackets, so we played them in two pools and then had playdowns to get tot the actual winners.
The team of Barb Didonato and Suzanne Nordhagen won first place as they prevailed over Carol Armstrong and Bernadette Bruner, who were second. Darin Frazier and Margaret Livingstone beat out Gina Riehl and Sandy Black for third place.
The picture below shows the champions in action.
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| Barb Didonato and Suzanne Nordhagen |
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| Sally Lyddon referees. |
Men's 3.0
In Men's 3.0 we had only 3 teams so all teams placed. Bill Weithern and Jim Craig of Rincon were in second in the Round Robin portion of the tournament, but Phil Wild and Duane Wonacott, who had failed to win a game in the Round Robin section found their stride and knocked Bill and Jim down to third place in the elimination round.
In the championship games. Curt Putman and Gaylon Waynar kept up their winning ways and knocked off the challengers in straight games.
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| Curt Putman returns a shot. You can see Gaylon's Right foot in the bottom corner of the picture. We wanted to show his best side |
Men's 3.5
Men's 3.5 turned into a Rincon tussle, as 5 of the 6 teams were in house teams, and the 6th team had signed up as 3.0s, but somehow the Tournament Director missed putting them in 3.0, so they had to struggle through the 3.5 pool. I have since given me a piece of my mind for that oversight.
The team of Ron Garwood and Rob Silver sailed through the Pool play wining all 5 of their games. Don Heimke and Randy Ferrell ran into only one wall, the aforesaid Garwood/Silver team, and they ended up meeting in the final match. John Grahame and Bob McCormick were only beaten by the above two teams, and ended up in third place.
In the final, Garwood/Silver took the first game of a 2/3 match 11-7, but Don Heimke and Randy Ferrell pulled off 12-10 and 11-3 victories in the end to take the title.
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| Randy Ferrell approaches the net after returning serve where Don Heimke is waiting. |
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| Ron Garwood hits a return with Rob Silver beside him at the net. |
Men's 4.0
Men's 4.0 play had 3 teams from Green Valley who ended up taking the top 3 spots. Mike Clemens won our Fall Shootout, and was not disappointed when he left on Wednesday as he and his partner Gary Stagner won the event.
Mike Didonato and his partner Bill McCartney, a fellow Canadian, sailed through the Round Robin undefeated, bust must have used up their Mojo, as they were defeated in the semi finals by Clemens/Stagner.
Lee Nordhagen and Doug Cook had lost only to Didonato/McCartney in Round Robon play, and beat Bill Reynolds and Rick Hanson of Saddlebrook Ranch in the other semi final, setting up the all Green Valley final of Nordhagen/Cook against Clemens/Stagner.
In the final, Mike and Gary won this time convincingly 11-2, 11-6.
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| Mike Clemens and Gary Stagner in action. Winners of thee 4.0 Bracket |
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| Doug Cook and Lee Nordhagen, second place finishers |
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| David Cooke practicing his ballet at the Non Volley Zone line. He actually did not fall into the kitchen area. |
Post Prandial Brats/Beer
When the games were all but concluded, the top notch chef team led by Allan Schreiber and Powell Clinton performed the manly ritual of burning meat on an open flame, while cracking open cold ones. Players and friends gathered around the barbecue on the putting greens and swapped stories of pickleball prowess and personal legendry.
As near as I can tell, we made limited errors in setting up and running the tournament, though we can do better and go bigger next year, and look forward to it.
I noticed that people were leaving with full stomachs and smiles, indicating that a good time was had by all.
Thank you one and all for your help in running the tournament and for participating in it.
Hope to see you all and many more next year for a bigger event.
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| This funny eared curmudgeon is Bert Coates, head referee and Vice President of the RCW Pickleball Club. We take pickleball seriously here at RCW. |
Regards
Michael Brandon
Tournament Director
Shootout at the Rincon Corral Part 1
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