by  Dean Grattidge   District 7 Reporter

This Any Doubles tournament, hosted by Sierra Dawn South, evolved as a tribute to John McDonough, a valley icon of past years.

From April 16-19, 2018, 44 partners gathered at SDS to duke it out.

ATM’S were Helen  Noeltner and Carol Anderson as George Hayner handled the duties of head ref. Tootie Chittenden gathered and confirmed entries on the score cards. These three men kept the boards well-maintained: Howard Drake, Newt Ball and JR Ault.

Once again The Bank of Hemet sponsored this event. We thank them for their continuing support.

Alice and Howard Drake, first time hosts, put  a great deal of effort into designing the 50-50 drawing and distributing the many prizes in the door prize drawings.

All players received coupons from Carl’s JR and the Golden Ginger. Numerous businesses contributed to the door prizes; they included Stater Brothers, Tommy’s Car Wash and Weinerschnitzel and many others who are on my list that disappeared. Sorry ’bout that!

If you were not at the club on Thursday, you missed some real drama as two clubs had to break a 23-23 tie.  It took four frames to settle that stand-off and the game was decided by one point, 31-30! George Hayes and Ray Ackenhausen prevailed in this “nail biter’. D5 Palm Springs visitors, John and Linda Nielsen received a well-deserved ovation for their challenge.

I’m honored to list the 16 players who engraved their names into shuffleboard’s record book.  –  Championship:

Back row, first place,   George Hayes and Ray Ackenhausen (GVP) second,  Linda and John Nielsen (Desert Crest -Palm Springs D5)

 front row, third,  Roland and Ruth Schneider (SDSE), and fourth, Paul Epps and Ken Phipps (Hemet West)

Consolation round:

Back row,  first place, George Baslak and Alice Beers (Foothills of Hemet),  second, Betty Palmer and Debbie Buchanan (Heritage Ranch)

third, front row,  Ingrid Thomas and Charles Smith (Hemet West) and fourth, Karen Heape and Howard Harrell (El Grande Estates).

Thanks to all players and participants who made this such a successful tournament.