Mission Hills GC Open — DAY 3 — PLAYOFFS

Day three of the tournament turned out to be an absolute stunner, a very nice level of croquet was on display on our lawns. The stand-out match of the Round of 16, was played between a very dangerous and competitive player in Karl-Heinz Kempfer & an up and coming player from Docepiedras Croquet Club in Giancarlo Ruiz. An instant classic of a match, clearing back and forth, consistent lay-ups by both players, and clean hoop running was shown in the first two very close matches. Best of three game matches are a whole different challenge, especially when stakes are high. In the end, Karl kept a cool head, his tournament experience showed, Giancarlo simply could not keep up, and broke down in the decisive game to a 7-1 scoreline sending him to the plate, and Karl into Quarterfinals.

The Quarterfinals, the 8 survivors in the main Knockout witnessed ZERO upsets. The top two seeds in both Blocks succeeded in winning their matches and earning the opportunity to play a semi-final of a championship on the legendary Mission Hills lawns. Two Block-Play Rematches were the highlight of the Quarterfinal rounds. Founder and President of Docepiedras Croquet Club— Rick Zazueta, found himself matched up against one of his Block-Play victims in Cameron Evans, whose had a phenomenal season this year. Rick took Cam down in the block round-robin, and was looking forward to consolidating that victory with a Quarterfinal upset (Cam finished higher in their Block), but the king of Hermosa Beach had other plans. Once again, experience prevailed and Cam didn’t take a single risk— he closed that match in two straight games, boom.

Another noteworthy match-up in the Quarterfinals was closely watched by several interested croquet players and enthusiasts; Mission Hills Pro Brian Lozano, against a very sharp and precise croquet competitor in Karl Heinz. An exceptional standard of play by both players, the only Quarterfinal to go to three games. Constant 20+ yard clearances, clean hoop-running down to the next hoop, this match could have gone either way. In the decisive game, Brian caught up to Karl’s 2-0 lead, from there, they exchanged hoops up until after the 5-5 at Hoop 10. Karl set up both his balls nicely at Hoop 11, maybe 2-3 feet away. Brian looked confident, and decided to play the penult hoop like an Egyptian, setting up his first ball, and clearing with his second which happened to have finished on the North boundary after running Hoop 10. He hits the hot ball quarter on the left of it, clears it to the West boundary and ricochets his own ball into the jaws of Hoop 11. Karl is left with about a 2.5 footer slightly angled jump shot— he missed, and peeled the opponent ball through, 6-5 to Brian, he lays up nicely to Hoop 12. Karl hit a couple good long distance clears, Brian comes right back, waiting for an eventual miss, he gets it, takes it down into the semifinals.

Stay tuned for Day 4 — MAIN KNOCKOUT SEMI-FINALS + PLATE QUARTERFINALS/SEMIFINALS — START TIME 08:30am

Brian Lozano