CPQ Cup Finals

The morning of Saturday, November 11th dawned cool and bright on Hollywood Beach's Historic Garfield Street Paddleball courts. For those not in the "know," the pennants flapping in the gentle eastern breeze gave a little hint that it was to be a special day on the Courts- and the banners so proclaimed it. This was the weekend fans and players of our modality of paddleball had been waiting on all year- the CPQ Cup Finals Tournament  weekend! 

People slowly arrived and as such events go, it didn't quite start at the announced 10am time- it was more like 11:30am but the wait was definitely worth it. Prior to the tournament matches, Juan delivered a pronouncement: Exhibition matches were to take place. Spectators and players were anxious to get the tournament going and I could hear grumblings among everyone but then Juan came through with a "twist;" The exhibition matches would involve 3 teams of 5 players composed of players from NYC, Miami and Hollywood. One player from each team was designated "Team Captain," games were to 21, win by 2. Players could be substituted by the Captain between points and there were no time outs, Games were quick, play was intense and crowd reaction? They went wild for it, everyone rooting for their favorite teams. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd sure like to see more of this type of matches!
The exhibition then led to the Tournament matches. Johnny D did an excellent job of matching up the teams- every match was a tough contest for all participants. There were even "upsets" along the way! What more could a crowd of fans want?

Day 2? After a couple of exhibition matches, Tournament competition resumed. These remaining guys are the "heavy-hitters" of our sport, both figuratively and literally. But not all of them were the Historic Courts' "usual suspects-" and that added to the suspense of the matches. In the end, favorites-to-win met up with another tough team in the finals. I'm not telling who won here- you'll just have to scroll down and look through the pictures to find the brackets.

My thanks go out to all the players that participated in the CPQ Finals, Johnny D, GMan, Victor and all who took the heat and ref'ed the matches. CPQ Handball & Paddleball Association, I gave you all grief previously in the Ed's Comments page  but with these I give you thanks and kudos for continuing to support ours and other modalities of wall-sports. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

Below, you'll find thumbnails of pictures of the CPQ Cup Finals event. To view a full size picture, click on the thumbnail; to return to this page, click the back button on your browser or hit the backspace key on your keyboard.  I'll post a limited amount of photos below but additional pics will be uploaded to Yahoo Photos. Just click the link to go to my Photo Album. From there you'll be able to see slide shows, download the photo files and order prints. Way cool! If you'd like a CD with full-sized high resolution versions of the photos you see (and more!), feel free to email me or see me on the Courts.