Lee's Summit T-Bone Pro Finalists Ron Millican and Matt Griffith
Matt Griffith made his way through the MCA's most challenging event to claim his ninth MCA Pro title this past Saturday at the 2018 Lee's Summit T-Bone Croquet Tournament at Howard Park in Lee's Summit, Missouri. He finished with a tight 16-14 win over Ron Millican in the final, which was a re-match of their block game where Millican took a a 24-13* win.
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The final kicked off with Millican winning the coin toss and electing to take red and yellow. Griffith tapped his blue ball at the starting line. When Millican asked if that was his shot, he said yes and added, "You only think you're playing red and yellow."
So there was a bit of an out game, which gave Griffith the early advantage. Millican did get an early three-ball break going, but over-rolled his approach to H6 and had to bail out to partner near H3. Despite the un-predictable turf, Griffith hit in with a six-yarder and attacked to red/yellow near H3, but ended up stuffing H5.
He kept control and through the next four rounds picked his way around the doubles and out to #11, but had to survive three stuffed hoops in the sequence.
It was Millican that eventually was able to run a break through the doubles to tighten up the game. But the deadness he took with yellow after a beautiful boundary attack near H11 to set up the break haunted him for the rest of the game. He collected his last bit of deadness for yellow on a west boundary sideline roquet, but elected the long split to break up Griffith's set up instead of a take off to H4 for an attempted clean.
Griffith leaned on that deadness the rest of the way. The game ended in confusion as Millican missed all three of the time warnings and the final time expired call.
NINE TITLES: Griffith has now won nine of the 23 MCA 9WS tournaments and he didn't start playing in the series until the eighth event. He's effectively won nine out of 16 events since coming on board in late 2014.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING: If you like stuffing, this was your day. The MCA has successfully solved inter-activity by combining the long grass on rough turf with immovable wickets. The new wings on wickets project was a success as the wickets experienced almost zero "loosening" throughout the day. For fans of stuffing and one-ball breaks, it was a beautiful day.
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF: Ron Millican's title game appearance was his first after playing in all 23 9WS events. It was his 77th game.
ONE PEG OUT: Greg Clouse actually found a way to his sixth career pegout as he took a 32-9 win in round one of the knock out against Steve Jackson.
DOWNCYCLE CONTINUES: The event had 14 entries which represents the lowest level since the Oklahoma 9W Open on June 14, 2014. In fact, only four of the players in the event could be considered "new" players --- meaning players that came into the sport after the launch of the 9WS.
PRO OR GOLD: Jodi Adams was looking at a move to Gold to start the 2018 campaign, but offered to play Pro when two players dropped out. It proved to be a productive move as she picked up two wins on the day and made it to the semifinals. A nice start after a winless year in Pro for 2017. Looks like she's where she belongs now.
UP NEXT: Sorting out the points race. Expect the standings to be posted later this week.
FINAL ORDER
01. Matt Griffith
02. Ron Millican
03. Greg Clouse
04. Jodi Adams
05. Greg Adams
06. Dylan Goodwin
07. Deborah Millican
08. Steve Jackson
*Provisional score