Big Time Finish for Griffith

Griffith on his way to a sixth Pro Division tournament titleLEE'S SUMMIT, MISSOURI -- With the challenging turf at Howard Park, the Lee's Summit T-Bone Tournament lines out to be the MCA's equivalent to cycling's Paris Roubaix. On Saturday, the cool temperatures and steady winds added to the atmosphere as 25 dedicated croquet players took to the courts across four divisions.

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The Pro Division lived up to the epic conditions as Matt Griffith met Greg Clouse in the final. Griffith was looking for his sixth tournament win while Clouse continued his quest for his first title since the 2013 Stilwell Open. As the game developed, Griffith seemed to have the advantage, but Clouse carefully clawed his way back into the game and in the final minutes held a 20-16 lead off a break that ran out from the turn to 13PW.

As last turns came into play, Clouse's attempt to destroy Griffith's hot ball left a nine-yard must hit opportunity. Griffith took his time, lined it up and hit. From there he set up his partner and left Clouse with a long leave for the court conditions. In fact, with the court conditions, Clouse opted for a golf-style swing. The shot went airbourne and missed all targets. That left Griffith, for 12PW, with three balls to run to the peg for the win. It wasn't set up perfectly, but Griffith got a "good enough" pioneer set for 14PW, then made a strong rush to 13PW and scored.

At this point, he shed the object ball and concentrated on setting up a good rush on the 14PW pioneer. He had good results there, but opted to play through the wickets straight up, again leaving the object ball. He had no miscues. As he hit the peg from about two feet west, he let out a victory roar to celebrate a hard-fought 21-20 win.

Final Order
1. Matt Griffith (5-1) 2. Greg Clouse (3-3) 3. Ron Millican (3-2) 4. Dylan Goodwin (4-1) 5. Greg Adams (2-2) 6. Deborah Millican (1-3) 7. Jason Johnson (1-3) 8. Bill Berg (0-4) 

GOLD DIVISION

Steve Jackson (Click to Zoom)For the first time in several years, the Gold Division was able run as it's own division. In most of the recent events, Gold had operated as a consolation for the Pro Division. But on Saturday, six players battled in two blocks of three to reach the semifinal round. S. Jason Cole took Block A cleanly with a 2-0 record. Eddie Mondt nailed down second place and a trip to the semifinals with a 1-1 record. Mondt also had one of only two pegouts on the day.

In Block B, Nathan Oberg took first place with a 2-0 record as well. Steve Jackson secured second place with a 1-1 record.

In short order though, both first place finishers were eliminated as both second place finishers took wins in the semifinal round. Jackson beat Cole 24-17, while Mondt knocked out Oberg 28-26.

It was another close final, but Jackson was able to get his first Gold Division title with a 24-21 win.

Final Order
1. Steve Jackson (3-1) 2. Eddie Mondt (2-2) 3. Nathan Oberg (2-1) 4. S. Jason Cole (2-1) 5. Jodi Adams (0-2) 6. Ellie Kemp (0-2) 

SILVER DIVISION

The day started with a shift in the schedule as a no-show dropped the Silver group from six to five. A four-game round-robin was implemented and the group went into action. So, the day started with a repeat of the Justin Marciniak (Click to Zoom)MCA Silver final between Darin Watson and Brevin Millican. Watson took a narrow 16-15 win, but Di Berg fell to Trevor Adams 14-10. Adams then faced Justin Marciniak. Marciniak came out strong in his first game of the day and took a 16-7 win.

He then went into action against Watson who was looking like the favorite. Marciniak took a 12-10 win and all of the sudden found himself alone in front as the only undefeated player. As the afternoon rounds started, Adams kept the pressure on with a 20-15 win over Watson to get to 3-1, but Marciniak took down Di Berg 17-10 to clinch first place at 3-0.

In the final round of the day, he faced Millican and stayed undefeated with a 14-10 victory.

Final Order
1. Justin Marciniak (4-0) 2. Trevor Adams (3-1) 3. Darin Watson (2-2) 4. Di Berg (1-3) 5. Brevin Millican (0-4) 

BRONZE DIVISION

In Bronze play, the opposite scenario un-folded as Johnny Ray joined the line-up just prior to the start to give the division six players instead of five. It was Ray's first MCA Nine Wicket Series event, but he has experience Johnny Ray (Click to Zoom)on the old Missouri cutthroat circuit. So, the transition to MCA six ball was relatively comfortable. He took first place in the game one with 10 wickets to finish just ahead of Bronze veteran Renee Potter who had nine wickets.

In game two, he found his stride and scored 11 walk away from the field. Cade Millican and Patrick Fagan tied for second with five wickets each.

Ray took first overall with a total of 21 points, while Potter scored the second place medal with 12 points.

Final Order
1. Johnny Ray (21)
2. Renee Potter (12)
3. Cade Millican (10)
4. Shari Cullinan (9)
5. Gwyneth Bowen (7)
6. Patrick Fagan (7)