The ‘24 Cherry Blossom saw a record breaking 32 teams enter Westwood’s signature event. The tournament director noted that the current year, 24, is a “double” year (if you double 2, you get 4). As the Cherry Blossom is a “doubles” tournament, it only seemed appropriate to focus on “doubles” as the theme for this year’s tournament.
Match play saw the introduction of the “Double Play” rule, where each team had the opportunity to double the points of the next point played either by winning that next point or by rolling doubles with the dice which were located courtside in the dedans.
Evening entertainment offered a double feature of double “standards”. On Friday night, a performance by the (nineteen)24 era swing jazz quartet The Foggy Bottom Whomp-Stompers and on Saturday we were treated to the smooth sounds of Just Four Grins, a barbershop quartet. In addition to the music, players were offered a “double vision” into how they would fare on the weekend with fortune teller and ”paume reader”, Madam Vision. Saturday saw the opening and closing of the Cherry Blossom Grille, a pop-up restaurant with a nod to the opening of In-n-Out in ‘48 (double 24 and home to the Double Double burger). The CB Grille featured Chaseburgers, Grille Cheese, Winner Winner Chicken Dinners and most importantly Paume Sundaes. The Paume Sundaes were served in a mini baseball helmet in honor of 24-time All Star and #24, Willie Mays, who also started his career in ‘48. In-n-Out also invented the two-way speaker system allowing true drive-thru ordering, so we put a walkie-talkie in the dedans so patrons could order drinks from the bar without having to leave their seats.
After 48 round robin matches had been played, it was time for the Sunday Finals matches. In the overnight, a pep talk message was sent to the players by wrestling Hall of Famer Hacksaw Jim Duggan, who was famous for his fighting spirit and more importantly carrying a theme-appropriate “2×4” into battle. The Sunday’s matches were comprised of the round robin finals and match play “duals/duels”. Players saw another rule change for the Finals, in that they could double the “Double Play” meaning one point could be worth four points!! The matches were full of excitement and camaraderie. The most exciting was perhaps when young upstarts Penuel Lee and Brock Anastasi used their Double Play as time ran out and won it by rolling doubles to tie the match and force a sudden death final point. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to double their good luck on that next point, but they certainly won the crowd over with that clutch doubles roll!!
A special thank you to our professionals Ivan Ronaldson and James Greenley for the Herculean effort of marking so many matches and to Westwood Country Club for hosting our humble little tournament. Thank you as well to John Motz and Lisa Cato for their artistic handywork on the trophies and gifts. Lastly, a doubly special thank you to all of the out-of-town players who made the superlative effort to come play in the Cherry Blossom, especially to the Jesmond Dene contingent of Simon Johnston, Alan Douglas, Richard Macalister and John Duns and to Kevin Button who pulled off the improbable RCOP Pub Club Championships/Cherry Blossom double!!
