June 15-18, 2017
The 2017 Clayton Cup New York Croquet Club
An intimate gathering...
This year NYCC celebrates its fiftieth year and maybe the smallest gathering of players for
the Clayton Cup, the club’s Spring invitational. It's no surprise though that the event was
modestly attended. It is the golden anniversary and the club has been touting its 50th
anniversary gala to be held during its Fall tournament, the Osborn Cup. In addition there
are also so many more American 6 wicket events around this time of year than there had
been 10 years ago when both NYCC tournaments were fully subscribed.
The 14 players who participated in this year's Clayton Cup are all NYCC members and their
loyalty was proven above reproach. Without their support we could not have such a
wonderful event, and wonderful it was. Social festivities were warm and welcome with the
opening reception at the lovely Upper East Side home of Templeton Peck and Carol
Shapiro, a Friday toast and tally in the downstairs lounge (basement) of Cafe Tallulah, and
the tournament dinner at the Sea Grill in Rockefeller Center. Daily lunches were provided
courtside by Le Pan Quotidien. Charts for two flights of singles and one flight of doubles
was provided by John Osborn with onsite management and direction by President Peter
Timmins and VP Timothy Rapuano.
Weather you like it or not...
The weather is always a factor and always discussed during NYCC tournaments because
the Central Park lawns sports center is infamous for receiving rain, and then puddling,
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pooling, and just not draining quickly enough. In the event of a heavy downpour, a red flag
may pop up which means the court is closed for the foreseeable future.
Monitoring weather in the week leading up to the Clayton Cup was a nail biting experience
as the forecast fluctuated for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. With dark skies and heavy
clouds looming on Friday, we felt just the briefest sprinkle. An extra celebration was had
during our toast and tally in that we escaped the deluge. Saturday's forecast for
precipitation was low as well, and everything went well finishing all of our doubles matches
and a couple singles games, until the skies opened up and everything went underwater.
Sometimes you just never know...
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Victories at hand
The intimate group allowed for some nice concessions. In addition to limited double
banking, we used one full size court and two smaller courts. Prior to Saturday's washout,
each doubles player completed the 5 scheduled doubles matches. In singles,
championship players completed 4 matches, while first flight finished 3 matches.
On Sunday our start was delayed and restricted to 2 courts, but we managed to finish all of
the playoffs planned for us under sunny skies. Almost all singles players were
automatically entered into the playoffs, with the top 6 advancing and the top 2 getting a by
for the semi finals.
In the Championship Flight Singles, both Norris Settlemyre and Timothy Rapuano, came up
from the quarterfinals to meet each other in the final. Norris emerged victorious, 18-10. In
First Flight Singles the ever advancing Chris “Khaaas” Kaas met his match in the final round
against the stalwart Ralph “the Man with 2 first names” Charles. With many opportunities
on each side, Ralph prevailed, defeating Chris, 19-11. This is Ralph Charles’ first First Flight
triumph in Central Park.
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In doubles the top 2 teams played for 1st and 2nd place while the 3rd and 4th teams played
for 3rd and 4th place. The full results are below:
Championship Flight Singles
1. Norris Settlemyre
2. Timothy Rapuano
3. Chris Patmore
4. Preston Stuart
5. David Isaacs
6. David McCoy
7. George Blake
First Flight Singles
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1. Ralph Charles
2. Chris Kaas
3. James Olcott
4. Temp Peck
5. Peter Timmins
6. Jeanne Branthover
Championship Doubles
1. Norris Settlemyre & Jeanne Branthover
2. David Isaacs & James Olcott
3. Tim Rapuano & Temp Peck
4. David McCoy & Chris Kaas
5. George Blake & Preston Stuart
6. Peter Timmins & Julia Wallace
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Applause all around
In addition to acknowledging all the club members who came out to play, there were many
others in the shadows who made the operation run smoothly.
THANK you to Jim Collins and Temp Peck for setting 18 new wicket holes in our full size
lawn and small lawns; THANK you to Temp and Carol for hosting our opening reception;
THANK you to David Isaacs for coming out early each morning to set up the lawns and
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staying late to take them down; and THANK you to all of the spectators, Rich, Stuart,
Dennis, Martine, Jim & Jonas, for making our intimate gathering much more special.
Timothy Rapuano
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