2013 MCA President's Awards

KANSAS CITY, MO -- The 2014 MCA AGM held this past Saturday in Kansas City, MO kicked off with a new wrinkle. The MCA announced winners of four President's Awards. Bill Berg of Cleveland, MO took the Rookie of the Year Award and the Off-the-Court Award. Jodi Adams scored the Most Improved Player Award and Deborah Millican received the Groundskeeper of the Year Award for her extraordinary efforts in prepping the turf at the 2013 Lee's Summit T-Bone Tournament.

No awards were announced for best player. MCA President Dylan Goodwin said, "I think winner's of the points races in each the division's is pretty much the prize for best player, so it would have been a bit redundant to add awards there."

Goodwin said that he ultimately determined the winners in each category after consulting with the MCA board.

MCA Members at Selections Eights

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Two MCA members participated in the 2013 US Selection Eights event held October 24-27 at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, FL. 

Billy Bob Breeden competed in the fourth eight and took third place with a 9-5 record. You can see the standings and full game results for his group on croquetscores.com.

Dylan Goodwin played in the fifth eight and tied for third place with an 8-6 record. You can see standings and full game results for his group on croquetscores.com

Selection Eights is an Association Croquet event utilized to both develop and evaluate US association players for international events and team play. Players are grouped by "eights" according to their international grade. So, the top eight ranked players available will play in the first eight. Players ranked nine through 16 play in the second eight and so on.

A player will play each player in their group twice, so it ends up being 14 games played over four days. And that pretty much means starting at 8:00 a.m. each day and playing until dark.

"Since I figured out the landscape of croquet," said Goodwin. "This is the national event I've always dreamed of playing in. And it definitely didn't disappoint. I would have liked to have finished stronger, but I learned a lot in just a few days."

2013 MCA Championship: Miller Sweeps the Pro Division

BELTON, MO - It didn't necessarily come easy, but Paul Miller from Eldorado, KS finished strong to claim both the 2013 MCA Pro Point Series and the MCA Pro Championship. As the number one seed, Miller started off with a 26-24 nail-biter against number eight seed Jodi Adams. A loss there would have certainly damaged Millers chances in the overall points race.

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2013 MCA Championship: Early Report

BELTON, MO -- A full report will be available later this weekend. Today's winners:

MCA Pro Points Race - Paul Miller
MCA Championship - Paul Miller 

MCA Gold Points Race - Jason Johnson
MCA Gold Championship - Jodi Adams

MCA Six-Ball Championship - Dylan Goodwin 

2013 MCA Championship: Pro Division Bracket

The match-ups and times are set for the Pro Division Championship Playoff to be held Saturdary, September 14 at Markey Park in in Belton, MO. The play-off is single-elimination. Lunch is not included, but there will be a gap provided for all players and there plenty of restaurant options near the facility. The event is free for qualified MCA members. Non-members that have qualified will simply need to join the MCA and can do that by paying the membership fee of $20 Saturday morning.

Quarterfinals - 8:30 a.m.
#1 Paul Miller vs #8 Jodi Adams
#4 Robert Fournier vs #5 Ron Millican
#3 Dylan Goodwin vs #6 Greg Adams
#2 Greg Clouse vs #7 Deborah Millican 

Semi-Finals - 9:45 a.m.
1-8 winner vs 4-5 winner
3-6 winner vs 2-7 winner

Pro Division Final - Noon

A six-ball (cut-throat) will run during this event as well. The first match in six ball will start at 10:00 a.m. and will include Bill Berg and Keith Berg. Debbie Millican will also be in this match if she is available. The rest of that match will be filled with losing players from the first round of the pro bracket. The second six ball match will be scheduled as players are available with the six-ball championship taking place at 2:45 p.m.

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Miller Leads the Pro Division

With Saturday's win at the PeakVision Leawood Challenge, Paul Miller moves into the pole position for the MCA Nine-Wicket Series. The top eight for the Pro Division will be invited to the MCA Championship on September 14. The Pro Division singles championship will be a single elimination bracket and seeds are based on the current point rankings.

With her eight place position, Deborah Millican will have the opportunity to play in both the Pro bracket and the Gold Division tournament.

Rank	First	Last	GP	Wins	Losses	Total Wickets	Wicket Average
1	Paul	Miller	14	10	4	309	22.07
2	Greg	Clouse	13	9	4	282	21.69
3	Dylan	Goodwin	14	9	5	272	19.43
4	Robert	Fournier	13	7	6	261	20.08
5	Ron	Millican	12	6	6	235	19.58
6	Greg	Adams	8	3	5	133	16.63
7	Matt	Smith	4	4	0	103	25.75
8	Debbie	Millican	5	3	2	99	19.80
9	Jason	Johnson	5	1	4	91	18.20
10	Carl	Distefano	5	0	5	77	15.40
11	Jodi	Adams	4	0	4	66	16.50
12	Bill	Berg	5	1	4	55	11.00
13	Keith	Berg	3	0	3	41	13.67
14	S. Jason	Cole	3	1	2	40	13.33

PeakVision Leawood Challenge - Saturday, July 20

Official Sponsor of the Leawood ChallengeLEAWOOD CHALLENGE CONFIRMED - SATURDAY, JULY 20

Hopefully, everyone kept this on their calendar. We have confirmed a location for the next event in the Nine-Wicket Series - The Leawood Challenge. The event will be held at the Mission Trail Elementary Soccer Field at the corner of 133rd St and Mission in Leawood, Kansas. More details:

Start time: 8:30 a.m.

Entry: $20 regular entry or $10 for MCA Members

Format: Singles 9W. Divisions dependent on number of entries.

Lunch: Lunch is not included, but we will give a longer lunch gap and restaurants are located nearby at 133rd and State Line and also on 135th Street.

HOW TO ENTER:  Contact is Dylan at kccroquetclub@gmail.com. Please indicate preferred division.

JOIN THE MCA

MCA members enjoy discounts on entry fees for most of the MCA Nine-WIcket Series events and free entry to the MCA Championship on September 14 for players that qualify. Click here for more details on MCA membership.

Update on Friday, July 12, 2013 at 9:05PM by MCA Website Admin

Players committed to date:

PRO
Dylan Goodwin
Ron Millican
Greg Adams
Paul Miller
Greg Clouse 

GOLD
Bill Berg
Carl Distefano
Keith Berg
Debbie Millican 

Update on Wednesday, July 17, 2013 at 9:16PM by MCA Website Admin

PRO
Dylan Goodwin
Ron Millican
Greg Adams
Paul Miller
Greg Clouse
Robert Fournier
Jason Johnson 

GOLD
Bill Berg
Carl Distefano
Keith Berg
Debbie Millican
S. Jason Cole 

MCA Members Travel For AC In Minnesota

MCA members Billy Bob Breeden and Dylan Goodwin recently travelled to Edina, MN to participate in the Minnesota/Mosquito Open. The Association event was held June 19-2 and featured nine players. Breeden tied two other players for the Sunday wildcard game at 6-2, but the tie-breaker knocked him out of the chase for the overall title. He finished with a 7-2 record. Goodwin had a 5-4 record. 

FINAL ORDER

1. Jim Hanks

2. Mike Weimerskirch

3. Rick Sheely

3. Billy Bob Breeden

5. Dylan Goodwin

6. Mickey Huttenhoff

7. George Funk

7. Jeff Lee

7. Mary Rodeberg

Goodwin Jumps Ahead in the Pro Division

With a win over Greg Clouse in the quarterfinals at Lee's Summit, Dylan Goodwin was able to leapfrog Clouse in the standings for the overall lead. Goodwin now has a 199 points in 10 games. Paul Miller stayed in second with 171 points in nine games, but is closer to the top position. Clouse follows closely in third place with 166 points. We now know that 30 or 40 points is easily made up in this race, so that means Robert Fournier (145) and Ron Millican (135) are still in contention. The race is on.

Rank	First	Last	GP	Wins	Losses	Total Wickets	Wicket Average
1	Dylan	Goodwin	10	7	3	199	19.90
2	Paul	Miller	9	5	4	171	19.00
3	Greg	Clouse	8	5	3	166	20.75
4	Robert	Fournier	8	4	4	145	18.13
5	Ron	Millican	7	3	4	135	19.29
6	Matt	Smith	4	4	0	103	25.75
7	Greg	Adams	4	2	2	66	16.50
8	Jodi	Adams	4	0	4	66	16.50
9	Carl	Distefano	2	0	2	33	16.50
10	Debbie	Millican	2	1	1	32	16.00
11	Jason	Johnson	2	0	2	22	11.00
12	Bill	Berg	2	0	2	14	7.00

Update on Friday, July 12, 2013 at 9:28PM by MCA Website Admin

The Pro Standings and standings in this post have been updated. For some reason, the 12th place player, Bill Berg, was cut off.

It's Miller Time

Paul Miller won the Pro Division

Lee's Summit, MO - Paul Miller of El Dorado, Kansas battled through a full day of Pro Division action at the Lee's Summit T-Bone Tournament in Lee's Summit, MO to win the overall title. He beat Dylan Goodwin in 17-15 in the final.

PHOTO GALLERY | OFFICIAL SCORESHEET

The Pro Division had eight players and utilized three rounds of a random draw that matched up players with equal wins in each round. Matt Smith took the top seed out of the draw with a 3-0 record. He defeated Jodi Adams in round one of the playoff then withdrew. Miller was the five seed on that side of the bracket and advanced with an 18-17 win over four seed Greg Adams. The withdrawal of Smith gave Miller a bye to the championship.

On the other side of the bracket, Goodwin was the two seed, based on a 2-1 record with the loss being 22-21 nail-biter against Matt Smith. He played Greg Clouse in round one, after finishing the draw with a narrow 16-15 win over Clouse. The playoff went a little better as Goodwin won 28-9. Robert Fournier was the three seed and defeated six seed Ron Millican 22-17 to advance to the semi-finals against Goodwin.

Click for full photo galleryFournier had a last turns opportunity after going cross court to roquet his own corner ball resting in corner two. He tried a long peel at the 10PW that failed and left himself with a tough hoop shot and Goodwin prevailed 21-18. 

In the final, Miller took early control when he stole an early break from Goodwin by placing his blue ball between red and black near wicket wicket three. Red was dead on blue and it reversed the set up and made a break for Miller.

Goodwin picked his way around the court to get back into the game and during last turns set a break for red near the 11PW that could have been the winner, but he left an opportunity for Miller to hit yellow. He ricocheted off the center wicket but did indeed hit yellow and gave red a tough hit-in on black back near the turning steak. Goodwin missed and Miller celebrated the 17-15 win. 

JOHSON WINS GOLD
In the Gold Division, Jason Johnson now has a two-tourney win streak going as he defeated Bill Berg 18-10 in the final to take the title. The win gave Johnson a chance to avenge a 20-16 loss to Berg earlier in the day.

FINAL ORDER

Pro Division

1. Paul Miller (3-2)
2. Dylan Goodwin (4-2)
3. Matt Smith (4-0)
4. Robert Fournier (3-2)
5. Greg Adams (2-2)
6. Ron Millican (1-3)
7. Greg Clouse (1-3)
8. Jodi Adams (0-4)

Gold Division

1. Jason Johnson (4-1)
2. Bill Berg (3-2)
3. Deborah Millican (3-1)
4. Keith Berg (1-3)
5. Justin Marciniak (0-4)