DRAFT DOUBLES
May 16, 2015
By Pat Snelgrove
 
It was a great day for pitching shoes in Stuarts Draft– great weather, good clay, lots of sunshine for so early in the year.  There were a bunch of teams signing in, and the class line-ups looked really competitive.
 
The strongest team signing up to pitch was husband/wife  Paul & Kelly Campbell in A Class. They were facing off against 2nd seed team (and relatives) Junior- Dayton Campbell & Jimmy Campbell.  However, they were also up against the “wild card” team of Glen Stallard and Billy Breeden. Never having met before, not sure what the competition would bring, Kelly and Paul gave it their best.  Well it turns out that Stallard & Breeden are longtime doubles pitching partners, who know each other’s strengths & weaknesses and play very well together.  They took the class by storm winning all their games with 73/19, 60/27, 46/39 against Kelly&Paul, and 66/15.  Stallard & Breeden came out to play and get good competition. They got that and more – they smiled going home with 1st place trophies.  Great pitching guys.
 
 B Class ended up with a 4 WAY TIE for 1st place (6 teams in the class....) oh boy!  At the end of regular round robin games, team Campbell &Snelgrove had just played Jenkins&Jenkins from WV, and squeaked out a win 41/36.  In the ladder playoff, they faced off again. AGAIN Campbell & Snelgrove got the game, this time with a little more breathing room – 40/20.
 
In the meantime, Weakley&Weakley played against Guyer&Hansen.  The Weakleys won their game, setting up the final playoff -  Weakley&Weakley vs Campbell&Snelgrove !! As they went into the game, Betty & Granville both good naturedly said “do we have to?” Just as pooped as the Weakleys, we answered “if you’ll play we will too”. So off we all went.  It was not a glorious game. We all tried our best, and for me, well all I can say is... I’m glad my partner came through. Dean Campbell earned our win this day!
 
In  C Class, the FIFTH seeded team ended up winning 1st place. Team Danny Brooks & Jim Hartman saw just one loss, and that was in their final game against Eddie Gregory & Carrie Turner. It was THE game to see.  Such a tight one – lead back&forth, each team getting just one-up on the other. When the points rang up to 40, Gregory&Turner had the lead! – They won by 1 POINT with 40/39.  Great pitching all!!
 
It was a totally fun day. Great competition.
 See you all on the courts next time.  Pat