Division A winners, left to right: Jim Lafferty, Jim Richardson, Jerry Killingsworth, Mike Conley, Cassie Richardson and Patrick Claytor
Division B winners, left to right: Janelle Roth, Sandy Welch, Paul Dorwaldt, Peter Waters, Mike Melo and Richard Goodwin
Division C winners, left to right: Glenn Kuykendall, Kawika Cotner, Jim Mitchell, Tom Roth and Mike Lock. Dave Parker is not shown.
Susan Parker
On Saturday, April 23, the Robson Ranch Denton Pickleball Club held a tournament named for a well-liked member who passed last year, the William (Bill) Girdwood Memorial. The format was A, B and CC/C/D divisions with a blind draw for partners.
In all 68 players entered, and the weather cooperated spectacularly to give us one great day filled with matches from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Thanks to support from the Tennis Club allowing us use of one court to transform into four pickleball courts, we were able to keep on and even ahead of schedule as we originally thought we would have to play on Sunday to finish.
Although everyone who played was a winner, we actually kept score too and awarded medals to the top three teams in each division. In the CC/C/D Division, Bronze went to Mike Lock and Dave Parker; Silver to Glenn Kuykendall and Kawika Cotner; and Gold to Tom Roth and Jim Mitchell. The B Division saw Bronze won by Sandy Welch and Janelle Roth; Silver by Richard Goodwin and Mike Melo; and Gold by Paul Dorwaldt and Peter Waters. Finishing the day in the heat, the A Division awarded Bronze to Cassie Richardson and Patrick Claytor; Silver to Jim Lafferty and Jim Richardson; and Gold to Jerry Killingsworth and Mike Conley.
The tournament would not have been possible without the team effort of many individuals. Cassie Richardson and her committee of Janelle Roth, Bev Dietrich, Mary Alice Benton, Lore Carr, Pat Sabo, Paula Monroe and Katie Brown did a wonderful job providing refreshments; Fred Thomson trained and Ford Roberson managed the referees including Charlie Cotner, Jimmy Burns, Bob Collins, Royce Rampy, Larry Dietrich, Art Lozano, Randy Johnston, Pat Claytor, Katie Brown, Pat Sabo, Mike Sabo, Jim Propes and Gary San Miguel; the court striping and net construction crew consisted of Ford Roberson, Tom Burke, Mike Conley, Mike Sabo, Katie Brown (wow – she’s everywhere!), Henry Moore and Pat Claytor. Finally, special thanks to Mike Conley for working tirelessly through several changes to develop the computer driven bracket application that we used to run the tournament!
At the end of the day we had tired participants, entertained spectators and relieved officials (whew!) and a wonderful experience for all that we will use to hold similar events going forward. Thanks to all who were involved in any way and “keep on dinking!”