Club Pickleball Mixer Tournament

Our Paso Robles Pickleball Club Website:  www.pickleballpasorobles.shutterfly.com  Join us for Pickleball anytime you are visiting the Central Coast of California.  Paso Robles was recently named the 2013 "Wine Region Of The Year" by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.  Pickleball and wine tasting.  Sounds great!!!! Happy Holidays and a Great New Year.

Our latest "rated, blind draw, differential" Club tournament seemed to be a success.  We tried a new format for the tournament which centered around giving each player a skill rating, doing a blind draw for teams and seedings, creating a point differential, and, adding in some Club rules like no overhead smashes and no lobbing.  Seemed to make the play a little more equitable....and, therefore, maybe a little more fun.  The point differential mentioned above refers to a system whereby a team with a rating of 7.0 (a 4.0 player paired with a 3.0 player = 7.0 rating), playing a team with a 5.0 rating (two 2.5 players) would start the game trailing 4-0 (differential is 2 X 2 = 4; we multiply the differential 7.0 - 5.0 = 2  by 2 = 4).   Highlights of this double elimination tournament included the newer, less aggressive team of Richard La Vine and Ellen Frost losing their first two matches, 11-9 and 11-4.  No fun losing, but decent parity.  We also saw the team of Robert Belmonte and Nevin Linthacum go undefeated in the tournament.  Each match was one game played to 11 points (except for the finals....15 point match).  They won their preliminary rounds 11-4, 11-0, 11-9.  In the finals, they beat the team of Alan Belmonte and Steve Sidwell 15-12.  Third place winners Tony Domingos and Carol Linthacum lost in the first round 8-11, and then won in the loser's bracket 11-8, 11-8, before losing to Alan Belmonte and Steve Sidwell 10-12.

Thank you to the following players for participating:  Brett Noel, Bill Joyce, Pete Gomez, Janice Van Bever, Robert Belmonte, Nevin Linthacum, Kathi Stanley, Janet Van Boxtel, Alan Belmonte, Steve Sidwell, Scott Ellis, Kelly Forrestal, Ellen Frost, Richard La Vine, Tony Domingos, Carol Linthacum, Dick Solis and Rob Martin.

L-R:  1st Place - Nevin Linthacum and Robert Belmonte; 2nd - Alan Belmonte and Steve Sidwell