Annual Croquet Tournament Held In Honor Of Jim Sulzby IV

MOUNTAIN BROOK, AL - The 13th Annual James Sulzby IV Memorial Croquet Tournament was held Sunday, November 4, at the Mountain Brook home of Arthur Bagby. The tournament, held each year by the Crestline Park Lawn Sports Society since the 2006 death of Sulzby, ended with Jake Waitzman and Robert Schoel winning the championship.

The 12-player field for this year's tournament played in a Waterford doubles format, with each player paired with a different partner for six games, before the four players with the most wins on the day faced off for a best-of-three championship.

Waitzman and Schoel dropped the first game of the finals to Wendy Russell and Eddie Greenhalgh before storming back to take the next two games. (For more updates on community news and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Patch morning newsletter.)

The tournament is held in honor of one of the founding members of the CPLSS. Sulzby helped start the organization in 2005, which played primarily at Crestline Park for 10 years. After Sulzby's death in the spring of 2006, the CPLSS organized the tournament in his honor at the Lake Wehapa home of Dr. and Mrs. Jerry Jackson. This year's tournament, the 13th installment of the competition, was only the second time the event has been held away from its original venue.

Sulzby was a 1990 graduate of Mountain Brook High School, and his parents, Jim and Robin Sulzby still live in Mountain Brook.

Photo by Michael Seale/Patch