Lakewood Croquet Club

SEATTLE, WA – What appeared early on to be a come-from-behind, upset victory, turned out to be a come-from-behind, upset victory. It was just the wrong Johnston ending up on the winning side of the equation.

Doubles partners for the 2008 Gary Coleman Memorial Team Challenge were selected randomly (via a ball draw), and the pairing of “King of Qualifying” Tom Carmony and Kristina Johnston had never teamed before. The tandem of Brian S. Johnston III and “Mr. Fantastic” Kevin Sutton were the clear favorites at the outset of the match, particularly as Tom and Kristina struggled early, falling to third and trailing for much of the first half of the match.

The tables turned, however at the turning stake, as both the teams of Johnston/Sutton and “The Franchise” Jeff Gepner and Jenn Farrell found themselves off the main field of play and struggling to hit the half-way stake. Carmony and Johnston used the opportunity to leapfrog both teams, taking a commanding lead that they held until the closing stake.

The closing stake, of course, is where things began to unravel.

“I think we underestimated the treachery of the course, the lay of the land, at the closing wickets,” said Carmony. “The final stake was positioned just a couple inches from a paved sidewalk, on a pretty steep slope. Plus there was a bit of a fast, compacted dirt channel running down the hill directly in front of the stake.”

“That stake turned out to be our undoing,” added Johnston.

The pair’s struggles opened the way for BSJIII and Fantastic to get back in contention and ultimately win the match. The loss was especially disappointing, as Kristina Johnston’s stellar play got her within a shot of her first event win. The victory would have been Carmony’s fourth Doubles Championship (though only one of those were actually won – three were awarded by then-President and former doubles partner Brian S. Johnston III).