Jolly-Fields win Fall Classic

Top AB team Aiken/Casey go down in defeat

It took all day, and much of the night, to finally crown this year’s Fall Classic Champions.  Most prognosticators in the Club marked this, the “Year of the Middies”, and they were rewarded with the perfect Middle line up of  Nick Creten (#33 aka Johnny Jolly) and his partner Bob O;’Neil (unofficially ranked #50, aka Justin Fields) that won the day…defeating the top AB team of Mike Aiken (#3) and Will Casey (#82).

Aiken, playing some of the best paddle we’ve seen, while his partner, Will Casey, did yeoman’s work in taking care of his little slice of the court, but in the end, the strong and well placed drives from Creten and the steady play from O’Neil proved to be too much ground for Aiken to cover.

“We knew we had a good chance since they were just a point away from losing their semi final match (vs. Vertacnik/Seefeld)” commented O’Neil, with Creten chiming in… “but it was when we saw that Mike was looking for his inhaler, we knew we had it in the bag.”

With Aiken needing oxygen after the match, partner Will Casey summed up the tournament, stating, “All I know is it’s definitely Miller time.”

Here are the official results of the Fall Classic:

Fall Classic Gallery:

TCC Awesomeness:

Being the premier platform tennis club in the nation takes hard work.  From Dan Einhorn shovelling off the slush at 7am to paramutual work by Ryan Oakes to the delicious sandwiches prepared by Miss Molly’s — all carefully orchestrated to provide an exceptional tournament experience. The addition of Red Zone play made things even more interesting with shoutout outs to both Creten and O’Neil’s “matching” uniforms — only to be outdone by Team Hickory (Steve Mandella and Joh-Michael Fleming).

TCC TV:  Teams that had matching uniforms were given a 30-love lead to open their match. Team Hickory pulled out the “picket-fence” to start their matches. As the cool mist persisted through the day, the heaters were needed from time-to-time to dry up the court.  Sometimes to dramatic effect, in this case, for the eventual champs.

See more videos on our Gallery Page >

Thank you’s to Commissioner Einhorn and Draft Kings Special Event Coordinator Ryan Oakes for hosting the tourney. They both would like to thank Brad Seefeld for choking in the semi finals, saving them both from ending up in the poor house.

The feud between Mark Mentzer and Mike Farley continues, as Farley claimed the Consolation title with his partner Kurt Doman. Mentzer took offense, “The court does not recognize self appointed champions… there were no title belts awarded other than main draw.”

There was one thing both agreed upon… a newly formed Cedar Club title for Wife of the Month Club. Said Mentzer, “Oakes wife, resupplying the troops in a time of trepidation like that late in the tourney was impressive.”