Another near perfect day in wine country saw all players getting into the win column and keeping their hopes alive for the championship going into the final day of singles play.

Karl-Heinz easily beat Jeff 26-1 in the first round as Jeff was tinkering with different mallets. In the other first round game Bob and Ian went into last turn tied. Bob made a hoop on his last turn to take the lead only to have Ian hit in and make two hoops to win 14-13.

In round two games, Ian set the stage for another last turn win. Karl-Heinz, after trailing the entire game had finally taken a one hoop lead on his last turn, but in the process had given Ian a lift. Ian again hit in and had all the balls on the court. Lady Luck however ran out this time as he slightly over-rolled his hoop shot and missed a near impossible angled jump shot to give Karl-Heinz the well earned win 15-14. In the other game Bob comfortably beat Jeff 15-3 as Jeff continued to try alternate mallets.

In the 3rd round Jeff finally seemed to settle on a mallet and played aggressive breaks throughout to beat Ian 16-7. In yet another barn burner, Bob, down 2 hoops on last turn, ran his ball to peg to take a 3 hoop lead. Karl-Heinz hit in and also ran his ball to peg on his last turn to tie the score. Both players were for hoop 3 in sudden death. While pegging out his back ball, Karl-Heinz had croqueted his front ball to a position near hoop 3. On Bob's first extra turn, Bob hit this 12 yarded and was able to run the hoop for the exciting 16-15 win.

Quite an exciting first day of play!

Jim Hanks