Submitted by Hugh Duffy
On Sunday, October 21st, the 4th Annual CT Shoreline Men’s C Tournament was held at Essex Paddle Club in Essex, CT. The tournament fielded 16 teams including teams from Boston, Newport, Long Meadow and the Connecticut Shoreline. Between the 60 degree weather and beautiful fall foliage, the day could not have been more enjoyable.
At the current moment, this is the only APTA sanctioned C Tournament in the country, although the participants would love to expand this format to other paddle clubs throughout New England in an effort to grow the game of paddle. The tournament is designed to attract players who struggle to compete in a full draw B Tournament along with C level players and new paddle players. There were several teams competing in their first ever paddle tournament along with some players that played in the Patterson Club B but did not advance very far in the draw.
The finals matches were the most spirited. In the main draw finals match, TJ Riggio and Hugh Duffy managed to defeat John Paternoster and Brent Dickman in three sets. Paternoster and Dickman were defending champs and will now have to hand the hardware back to Riggio and Duffy, who won the inaugural C Tournament.
In the Consolation Finals, Warner Swain and Sam Webster managed to beat Chris Kilbourne and Jack Mara in a slugfest. The game scores were 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
In the Quarter Reprieve, Jed Gilfoy and Nate Gilfoy from Boston managed a comeback victory over Gary Weiner and Kent Griffiths from the Field Club of Long Meadow. The games scores were 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
In the Consolation Reprieve Draw, Peter Evans and John Jibilian managed to beat Nick Sapia and Dana Strom 6-3, 6-2.
