August 2023 Newsletter - To Printer

CROQUET NEWS – BRIAN LOZANO

It is hard to believe that August is here! The first half of the season has been a blur and we had a great July in our croquet program. We kicked off the month with our 4th of July Patriots Play Croquet Mixer. An enthusiastic crowd all dressed in red, white, and blue took to the lawns and enjoyed connecting with friends and family while exchanging friendly shots through our not so friendly hoops. The Patriots Croquet event was followed by an away Interclub match against Country Club of Sapphire Valley. Our members were welcomed to two beautifully manicured lawns and very solid competition. After three hard fought rounds, our Cullasaja team came out victorious! Our doubles teams showed great composure and effective communication to ensure the win on that day. After the match, the CCSV members invited

Brian Lozano Croquet Director

us to their new outdoor veranda for a nice afternoon lunch. We look forward to welcoming them to Cullasaja Club next season. Interclub matches are great opportunities for new and experienced players to visit different Clubs and make new friends who are also croquet players. July was also a big month for our competitive players. Our Club Championships have produced some very exciting matches and absolute classic match-ups. The Ladies’ Singles Championship gave us a final between two members that we’ve all been secretly wanting to see happen, or maybe not so secret. Reigning champion Julie Wright fought her way through her group and back to the final to attempt to retain her title. On the other side, a very dedicated and determined Jacquie Harris earned herself the opportunity to stamp her name for the first time on the Champions’ Board. A crowd came out to see this match, and we were all very entertained by some impressive shooting, risk taking, and execution. Jacquie knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, so she went for it all by taking the longer shots, the higher-risk shots, and it paid off big-time, winning with the tight scoreline of 7 to 5. The next Club Championship was the Men’s Doubles, which turned out to be a well contested tournament. The first round gave us a few unusual results (on paper), when favorites for the title, Tim Wright and Dennis Howard, were served a hard loss against a team

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