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Holiday Open 2004 Story

Director: Jack Scott
Assistant Director: James Cummings, Bill Rice
 

    Thanks to all who attended.  We were very proud of the 64 players making their 1st trip to the Open.  We were especially proud of the fact that we had so many 3s and 4s competing in their first major tournament.  These people are the future of Shuffleboard and we will continue to promote events catering to these players.  See Pictures - Tounament  See Pictures - Winners

    With 27 boards, play moved fast and we kept very close to schedule getting 14 events in in 5 1/2 days.  Thanks to Champion Shuffleboard for their 23 boards, Shuffleboard Federation for the wax and the silicone, Replay Amusements for 4 boards and juke box.

    Attendance was down a little this year.  It seemed like the cold snap and winter conditions that grabbed a hold of the Midwest and Northern states and the slow economy kept attendance lower than normal.  Given that, we still had 180 players playing their hearts out between Christmas and New Years.

    In our continuing efforts to keep the tournament on schedule and reduce waiting time, we experimented with having the Sponsor Sale the night before for two events.  It actually worked quite well as far as schedule was concerned but was not as successful in participation as we had hoped for.  As with any change, we got many comments both positive and negative.

      Bill Melton, Jim Tribble, Cliff Visel and Jesse Luehr won their divisions singles events.  The Missouri group, as they came to be known, had an impressive performance throughout the week as did the group from Cedar Park, TX.  In the finals of the Bring Partner Add to 4, Mickey Moy lagged a 4 that defied gravity to take 1st Place for her and Lorraine.     See Pictures - Winners for other events.

    Once again the 6 Man Draft event was a favorite.  Most of the Pros attending were captains and did a great job guiding their teams and helping the new players.  What a great opportunity for the Pros to promote the sport to the newer players.  Two 1's, Gerald Wood and Dale Williams ended up being captains and took 1st and 2nd.  Many of the 3s and 4s joined in on the Bring Partner add to 6 and the 4 Person Team add to 12 events. 

    With the reduced attendance and early Sponsor Sales, we had extra time for the players that were eliminated early in their events.  I do believe that we ran a record number of $10 handicapped and $20 round robins this year.  It was a lot of fun and kept the boards busy until late in the evening.

    The New Years Eve Party was a smash hit.  Great bar, food, music and dancing.  Several players pitched in and helped Mollie Cravey bring in a great DJ.    The cucumbers (a Holiday Open ritual) were not passed this year.  We need to find out from Diana (the cucumber coordinator), what happened.  Could there be a cucumber shortage?  Linda Nobles, Dar Cummings and a few others danced with every willing male.  They had to be tired.  In addition, line dancing and The Cotton Eyed Joe seemed to have excellent participation.  Around midnight there were ample amounts of champagne to welcome in the New Year.  SEE Pictures -New Years Party

    A tournament of this size takes a lot of  hard work.  Fortunately we have a great staff and volunteers that make this tournament possible.  The 27 boards were unloaded and assembled December 23rd. Unloading, placing, assembling and adjusting 30 boards is no minor task.   Did you know that each board consists of  4 legs, 8 adjustable feet, 2 cradle halves, center section / scoreboard and the 500# board itself  as well as 16 bolts nuts and washers and power cords for assembly? 

    We have a crew of 4 that helped run the desk taking care of registrations, entries, sponsor sales and payouts.  Two auctioneers ran the sales with help from several spotters.  Four people helped run the bracket boards during the week.  Two ran our pari-mutuel sales.  Every morning we had a man cleaning and vacuuming the boards and another preparing the wax and putting it out on all the tables.  During the evenings we had 4 waitresses, working for tips only, serving the players.  This is no small task with the players constantly moving from board to board.  After the tournament and the party, 14 volunteers disassembled the boards and loaded them onto the trucks.   Without the staff and volunteers the Holiday Open could not operate.  SEE Pictures - Board Setup - Staff

Thanks to all who attended and Special Thanks to all who helped make this tournament possible.

See list of staff and volunteers below.

James Cummings

Thanks for dropping by
Designed by James Cummings  Email Phone 281-550-5011
Copyright © 2008 Cummings Shuffleboard.. All Rights Reserved.
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