Well, what can I say? It was another phenomenal day of pickleball at the King Kong Tournaments and we witnessed some really elevated level of play out on the courts today! And in the first time in six tries, Doug McClintock finally lost not one, but two games today! The man is human after all! Please buy him a beer to console him if you see him later!
It was a tight race in each bracket with only 1 team going undefeated and one team losing only 1 game. Among the undefeated, the top seed was determined by the Points Differential with the team of Karen Marlowe and Pat McCabe leading the way with a +41, followed by Sean Donnelly and Debbie McCarty at +28, and then Nancy Summers and Gary Jones with +27. The race for the best of the rest and the fourth seat in the finals was even tighter with Chris and Janna Armstrong at 52 Total Points and a +22 Points Differential, edging out Tony Chiravollo and Maureen Plainfield also with 52 Total Points but +20 in the Points Differential, and Sandy and Leah Tucker rounding out the contenders with 50 and +14, respectively.
That set up the Semis with Karen and Pat meeting Chris and Janna and Nancy and Gary against Sean and Debbie. Both those games ended with the same 11-6 score with Chris and Janna and Sean and Debbie coming out on top and setting up yet another revenge finals match, the third in 3 weeks, between them for the Gold and Silver. Sean and Debbie proved to be Chris and Janna’s thorn and taking the Gold as they won by the same 11-8 score as when they met in game 4 earlier. In the battle for the Bronze, Nancy and Gary kept ahead of Karen and Pat though their final, winning 11-7. Kongrats to all the medalists and all the participants for another exciting day of pickleball!
Thanks again to Charles (Chas Popplestone) and his angels, Sue Reich, Kathleen Banasahk and Diane Fuleky for managing the scoreboard, and Moon Toomey for being our number 1 Uber Eats driver!
Up Next:
-Mixed 8.0+, Sep 22
-Signups for the Mixed 6.5 and lower (9/29) opens Tuesday, Sep 17 @ 8:30p,
-Be on the lookout for the fall/winter schedule (awaiting confirmation of our court reservation)okout for the fall/winter schedule (awaiting confirmation of our court reservation)
Here is the link to the photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBHBJ2
Here is the link to the YT channel with replay of the live stream and the GoPro footage from Court 9: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy0MUnaQ-KX81iF1bQjOWzW0nlOfDfJb8&si=Sw2uH6AsUDypUYAH
These are the timestamps for the GoPro footage:
- Game 1 (0:00:00) – Karen Marlowe and Pat McCabe v Stephanie Dance and Randy Cummings
- Game 2 (0:13:36) – Sandy and Leah Tucker v Stephanie Dance and Randy Cummings
- Game 3 (0: 25:17) – Jim Faggianna and Marge Wilkerson v Stephanie Dance and Randy Cummings
- Uh-oh, technical glitch prior to the start of Game 4 (0:32:21) – camera has a ghost in the machine and develops a lazy eye. Games 4, 5 and the Semis on Court 9 are largely unwatchable but I’ve left the footage in so you can see for yourself. I hope it doesn’t mean the camera has gone bad!
- Game 4 (0:38:54) – Melissa and Kevin Terhark v Sandy and Leah Tucker
- Game 5 (0:52:02) – Karen Marlowe and Pat McCabe v Sandy and Leah Tucker
- Semis ( 1:06:50) – Nancy Summers and Gary Jones v Sean Donnelly and Debbie McCarty
- Bronze (1:27:04) – Karen Marlowe and Pat McCabe v Nancy Summers and Gary Jones. At about 1:31:20, the camera mostly snaps out of it but there are continuing hiccups where the frames literally jumps from time to time. Still mostly watchable through to the end of the game.