Hi guys. Welcome to the blog site. Feel free to add comments, talk paddle, share what the morrow tournament means to you, ask questions, or just say “hi!”
What fun! Loved seeing the pictures!! We love living in Vero Beach and are playing tennis & golf ….but I must admit we miss the paddle and all the comraderi that goes with it. Cheers!
Dear committee,
Just wanted to say “outstanding job” on the tourney wrap up. I wonder how many other outlanders like ourselves enjoy having those wonderful old memories stirred up whenever we hear from you? Who knows…maybe we’ll see you next year!! Thanks again for all your effort.
PADDLE ON!!!
Peter & Maribeth Veale
Great event again! I LOVE the morrow. Great people, great vibe, great weather, can barely walk right now.
Thanks again, fun weekend, great game.
Kert Anzilotti
Great photographs! Thanks for a great event !
Thank you to all who dedicated so much time and effort for the event to run without a hitch!
Dana and Steven Poirier
Just wanted to thank you for letting me being part of the really fun Morrow experience. It was truly a great event, well organized and so so much fun.
I wanted to send a note to Ashley & his wife, thanking them for sharing their house on Friday, but I do not have any contact details, if you can provide his email, that would be great.
Again thanks for all your work in putting this together and will look forward to next year’s event!
Unfortunately, Andy, I am out in Snowmass for the entire ski season (took job as a Community Ambassador for the Aspen Skiing Company), so once again will miss out in this wonderful event. Maybe next year….
I am sure I forgot someone on this email, but thank you for a wonderful day of Paddle and camaraderie. I really enjoyed the whole event. I was sitting with the under thirty crowd last night listening to how much fun that had and how they cannot wait for next year .
Peggy and I are very impressed to see how well you all handled the bad weather this weekend. The tournament is in very good hands. And, the communications are terrific and certainly convey the spirit of the event. Well done!
Absolutely Fantastic! I cannot tell you how proud our Dad would have been – we are sure he is looking down from that big court in the sky with a huge smile on his face. Thank-you and everyone involved for carrying on his memory in such spectacular fashion. Words really cannot adequately express our appreciation.
From two-time Morrow champion (1985 and 1987) Caroline Burkhart Shaw:
The year was 1985 and we were the new kids in town. Thank goodness Barry Snyder argued in our favor when our names came up before the newly created Morrow Tournament committee, and luckily I just barely met the minimum age requirement of 21. Chas and I played against all of these really old people (they were probably in their 40’s and 50’s) and had a blast.
Everyone was so friendly! Two years later Chas and I teamed up again, and this time Chas’ goal was to win the party. Well, he did just that on Saturday night, and those Sunday morning matches were pretty rough…. Fast forward a few more years and eventually our little sister Cooey was old enough to play. Then Chas’ wife Patti, Cooey’s husband Jeff, and our brother-in-law Teddy all decided to join in the fun. When Cindy asked our other brother (who lives in England) to play, he replied, “Sign me up!” Who wouldn’t book a trans-Atlantic flight for a chance to play with Cindy in the Morrow?
My husband, who was not born with a racquet in his hand, even found himself a partner one year and thoroughly enjoyed whacking balls at people for a day. This year our son and daughter are both playing in the Morrow, bringing the Burkhart family total number of participants to TEN! Thank you to all of those people who have worked so hard over the years to make this wonderful event happen. It has brought us the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but mostly it has brought us the joy of friendship and the sense of belonging to a community.
(Sandy Yeatman and her husband Penn (14-time participant) are part of Morrow lore. They were part of the event from the beginning and won the 1993 A flight. A memory from Sandy, referring to their 1985 loss to champions Chas and Caroline (now Shaw) Burkhart in the main draw):
“As I recall, Chas was wearing an overcoat when he started this match. He finally decided to take it off. Then he broke his racquet and Donna Walbert Thompson got him another one.
I asked Penn for our 25th wedding anniversary if he would play with me instead of Sue. He reluctantly said yes. We got to the finals of the A division and we lost the first set 6-0. I believe we were down 5 games in the second set and at the end of a point he looked at me and said, “You’re still trying”. I said “Of course I am”. He said “You didn’t tell me that”. He then became a whirling dervish and we won the second set 7-5, and then the 3rd set. No one could believe it, including me. I think we were playing Ellie Maroney and one of her sons.
We actually started playing when it was the Tri-Club. I remember Dick Morrow saying to me that I needed to stick with it because it was such a fun game. I’m glad I listened.
The first Tri-club party we went to was on the second floor of the Greenville Country Club. Dick Morrow played the guy bucket, and Patsy Morrow and I had tambourines and sang. I can’t remember who played the piano.
Penn is going to be at Penn State the weekend of the 50th, so I am looking for someone to go to the party with.
I hope you enjoy these stories. It has been a fun 50 years!”
“The Morrow will ALWAYS be IT in my mind. Nothing compares to it, never will.”
From: Cooey Lyon
Subject: MANY THANKS!!
Date: January 30, 2011
Dear Joan, Barry, Alice, Teddy, Randy, Tracy, Martha, Alice, Pat, Carol and Shawn,
MANY thanks for yet another wonderful weekend of paddle… all due to you all and your efforts. Your hospitality seems to know no bounds…. and the Burkhart/Lyon crowd thanks you for that! Yet again, the Morrow was just as fabulously fun as ever… Jeff and I always joke that the night before the Morrow is like Christmas eve… we just love it. SO MANY memories from the past 27 years…. and yes, I really do remember sitting by the courts in 1984 with my mother (I was sixteen and thought that all the adults there were just TOO cool… yep, Barry and Randy, that included you two!) and watching Chas and Caro play Cindy and Ernie (I think that was the final that first year… I know that match up certainly happened a lot back then!). At the party, Caro and I always used to have a contest on who could spot Peggy’s new centerpiece creation first… we ADORED them!
Thank you for treating us to the best weekend of the year. We all love it so! Saturday night around 10 pm, when the band is really going, I’ve hit the sundae bar with gusto and the blisters haven’t formed yet on my feet from dancing is my favorite moment of every Winter. Of course, there was the year that Mr. McAvoy threw me into the drum set (I took the whole thing right out!) on one particularly aggressive twirl/spin move.. I was still pretty young and utterly mortified! Now of course, I just can’t wait to get to Vicmead to cut the rug up with Alice (who looked lovely in winter white last night, by the way!) and shag to Sea Cruise with Randy.
Anyway, many thanks to you all for another spectacular Morrow!
And thank you, Dick, for inspiring all this fun!
XO
Cooey
Please forward on to all! Thank you!
“Just gratitude, nothing but gratitude. Can’t wait to see you all this weekend! XO Cooey
From: Cooey Lyon
Subject: THANK YOU
Date: January 29, 2014 at 3:20:27 PM EST
Dear venerable committee members,
How to thank you all for yet ANOTHER spectacularly successful and ridiculously enjoyable weekend in Wilmington?
When the dust had settled, Caug was back on the plane for London and we had collapsed, Jeff and I both looked at each other and said: Might have been our favorite year yet!
The memories are SO strong and so wonderful of the past 30 years, starting with sitting next to Mom at Vicmead and watching Cindy, Ernie, Chas and Caroline duke it out in 1984 to playing with Peter (still upset you dumped me, but maybe if I keep trying to get better you’ll pick me up again?) to the anticipation of seeing what centerpiece Peggy had fabricated during the previous 12 months to Alice’s ever-evolving dance floor moves, to Teddy and Alice’s hospitality last February to Barry’s wit and Joan’s letting us sleep in the basement when Jeff decided he WOULD win the party, to Martha’s always being “on it,” to Andy’s stats to THIS year being on the court with Brint, catching a glimpse of “Burkhart-Vosters” in the draw (and hoping Bunny got a kick out of it too), the brilliantly hard-fought Championship Draw finals battle and the incredibly cool moment when I realized what a seriously special (hate that word, but it’s appropriate here, I think) match Cindy, Caug, Dave and I were playing on Sunday.
These things just don’t happen every day. AND, this tournament doesn’t bring so much joy, help to rekindle old friendships and forge new ones without YOUR efforts.
THANK you for the kindness you all have shown to the Burkharts over all these years. Randy, I know we may be vexing at times, but we love seeing you too!!!! And yes, Timmy and I both got a bit tearful during your talk Saturday night. 🙂 How could one not??
So, thank you, Peter, for letting all of us delight in the memory and play in the honor of your brother each year. It’s a treat and a privilege.
I just wanted to thank the entire Morrow Committee again for having Dave and I join in the fun this weekend. And fun it was! From the cocktail party to Sunday’s finals….everything AND everyone was wonderful. We were ready to “embrace the glorious chaos” you warned of but there was none to be found. You all run a really nice event. We are already looking forward to next year! Cheers to you and your team.
Team Morrow: Thank you for putting together a fantastic Morrow Tournament. This was your best ever. The organization, the kick off party, the pace of play, the Saturday dinner, and the finale today – all were top notch. Your focus and attention to detail was like no other. We all had a fabulous time. I greatly appreciate your including me and my partner Ashley McManus. We look forward to 2024! Please enjoy downtime and get some well-deserved rest. And Go Eagles – all the way to Arizona!
Hi guys. Welcome to the blog site. Feel free to add comments, talk paddle, share what the morrow tournament means to you, ask questions, or just say “hi!”
Hard to believe that it’s just over 5 weeks to the Morrow Tournament. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for better weather this year.
Barry Snyder
So much for my magic crossed fingers. 48 hours to go and the forecast is 100% chance of snow and rain.
Barry Snyder
What fun! Loved seeing the pictures!! We love living in Vero Beach and are playing tennis & golf ….but I must admit we miss the paddle and all the comraderi that goes with it. Cheers!
Chip & Kathy Cruice
The new 2016 Application is up on the website!
It was a fun tourney as usual, thanks for all of your hard work!
The video you posted is a riot, thanks for posting one that I actually got a few balls back! Ha.
Kim Alicknavitch
Thanks Kim. Was fun seeing your whole family out there playing in front of the crowd
Dear committee,
Just wanted to say “outstanding job” on the tourney wrap up. I wonder how many other outlanders like ourselves enjoy having those wonderful old memories stirred up whenever we hear from you? Who knows…maybe we’ll see you next year!! Thanks again for all your effort.
PADDLE ON!!!
Peter & Maribeth Veale
Beautifully done!! Really missed being there….
Esteban Ferrer
Great event again! I LOVE the morrow. Great people, great vibe, great weather, can barely walk right now.
Thanks again, fun weekend, great game.
Kert Anzilotti
Great photographs! Thanks for a great event !
Thank you to all who dedicated so much time and effort for the event to run without a hitch!
Dana and Steven Poirier
Just wanted to thank you for letting me being part of the really fun Morrow experience. It was truly a great event, well organized and so so much fun.
I wanted to send a note to Ashley & his wife, thanking them for sharing their house on Friday, but I do not have any contact details, if you can provide his email, that would be great.
Again thanks for all your work in putting this together and will look forward to next year’s event!
. . . yet another FUNtastic Morrow tournament. Gracias!
Daniela
Oh no…..I could get stuck with Ed White!!
Very funny, as usual.
Unfortunately, Andy, I am out in Snowmass for the entire ski season (took job as a Community Ambassador for the Aspen Skiing Company), so once again will miss out in this wonderful event. Maybe next year….
Esteban Ferrer
Hi all
I am sure I forgot someone on this email, but thank you for a wonderful day of Paddle and camaraderie. I really enjoyed the whole event. I was sitting with the under thirty crowd last night listening to how much fun that had and how they cannot wait for next year .
Thanks again for all your work and efforts.
Sincerely
Simon
Who will be the winner in 2019? I -predict Andy Podolsky will win the gut bucket as long as I am not your opponent 🙂
I think Hannah’s seeding just got a tiny bit easier based on that positive comment. 🙂 I kid, I KID!.
Andy my prediction was correct‼️‼️ Thanks for a great tournament
Great photos and the captions are the best! Thanks again for another awesome job!
Peggy and I are very impressed to see how well you all handled the bad weather this weekend. The tournament is in very good hands. And, the communications are terrific and certainly convey the spirit of the event. Well done!
Best email EVER!! 😂
I will do my best to make it next year!
Best email EVER!! 😂 I will do my best to make it next year!
Thank you for all the work that went into this great weekend. My sister and I had a blast and we’re already looking forward to next year.
Absolutely Fantastic! I cannot tell you how proud our Dad would have been – we are sure he is looking down from that big court in the sky with a huge smile on his face. Thank-you and everyone involved for carrying on his memory in such spectacular fashion. Words really cannot adequately express our appreciation.
Looking forward to the Morrow during the Pandemic!
We are looking forward to the event!
We look forward to playing! Thank you organizers for finding a way to make it happen while staying safe!
As always, thanks to the committee for organizing, especially during these crazy times.
Thank you for organizing! It was a beautiful day for paddle today!
Thanks Jen! We appreciate everyone’s flexibility this year.
From two-time Morrow champion (1985 and 1987) Caroline Burkhart Shaw:
The year was 1985 and we were the new kids in town. Thank goodness Barry Snyder argued in our favor when our names came up before the newly created Morrow Tournament committee, and luckily I just barely met the minimum age requirement of 21. Chas and I played against all of these really old people (they were probably in their 40’s and 50’s) and had a blast.
Everyone was so friendly! Two years later Chas and I teamed up again, and this time Chas’ goal was to win the party. Well, he did just that on Saturday night, and those Sunday morning matches were pretty rough…. Fast forward a few more years and eventually our little sister Cooey was old enough to play. Then Chas’ wife Patti, Cooey’s husband Jeff, and our brother-in-law Teddy all decided to join in the fun. When Cindy asked our other brother (who lives in England) to play, he replied, “Sign me up!” Who wouldn’t book a trans-Atlantic flight for a chance to play with Cindy in the Morrow?
My husband, who was not born with a racquet in his hand, even found himself a partner one year and thoroughly enjoyed whacking balls at people for a day. This year our son and daughter are both playing in the Morrow, bringing the Burkhart family total number of participants to TEN! Thank you to all of those people who have worked so hard over the years to make this wonderful event happen. It has brought us the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but mostly it has brought us the joy of friendship and the sense of belonging to a community.
What a tremendous summary Caroline – thank you!
From Kennett’s 23-time participant Sandy Yeatman:
(Sandy Yeatman and her husband Penn (14-time participant) are part of Morrow lore. They were part of the event from the beginning and won the 1993 A flight. A memory from Sandy, referring to their 1985 loss to champions Chas and Caroline (now Shaw) Burkhart in the main draw):
“As I recall, Chas was wearing an overcoat when he started this match. He finally decided to take it off. Then he broke his racquet and Donna Walbert Thompson got him another one.
I asked Penn for our 25th wedding anniversary if he would play with me instead of Sue. He reluctantly said yes. We got to the finals of the A division and we lost the first set 6-0. I believe we were down 5 games in the second set and at the end of a point he looked at me and said, “You’re still trying”. I said “Of course I am”. He said “You didn’t tell me that”. He then became a whirling dervish and we won the second set 7-5, and then the 3rd set. No one could believe it, including me. I think we were playing Ellie Maroney and one of her sons.
We actually started playing when it was the Tri-Club. I remember Dick Morrow saying to me that I needed to stick with it because it was such a fun game. I’m glad I listened.
The first Tri-club party we went to was on the second floor of the Greenville Country Club. Dick Morrow played the guy bucket, and Patsy Morrow and I had tambourines and sang. I can’t remember who played the piano.
Penn is going to be at Penn State the weekend of the 50th, so I am looking for someone to go to the party with.
I hope you enjoy these stories. It has been a fun 50 years!”
Another Memory courtesy of Cooey Lyon:
“The Morrow will ALWAYS be IT in my mind. Nothing compares to it, never will.”
From: Cooey Lyon
Subject: MANY THANKS!!
Date: January 30, 2011
Dear Joan, Barry, Alice, Teddy, Randy, Tracy, Martha, Alice, Pat, Carol and Shawn,
MANY thanks for yet another wonderful weekend of paddle… all due to you all and your efforts. Your hospitality seems to know no bounds…. and the Burkhart/Lyon crowd thanks you for that! Yet again, the Morrow was just as fabulously fun as ever… Jeff and I always joke that the night before the Morrow is like Christmas eve… we just love it. SO MANY memories from the past 27 years…. and yes, I really do remember sitting by the courts in 1984 with my mother (I was sixteen and thought that all the adults there were just TOO cool… yep, Barry and Randy, that included you two!) and watching Chas and Caro play Cindy and Ernie (I think that was the final that first year… I know that match up certainly happened a lot back then!). At the party, Caro and I always used to have a contest on who could spot Peggy’s new centerpiece creation first… we ADORED them!
Thank you for treating us to the best weekend of the year. We all love it so! Saturday night around 10 pm, when the band is really going, I’ve hit the sundae bar with gusto and the blisters haven’t formed yet on my feet from dancing is my favorite moment of every Winter. Of course, there was the year that Mr. McAvoy threw me into the drum set (I took the whole thing right out!) on one particularly aggressive twirl/spin move.. I was still pretty young and utterly mortified! Now of course, I just can’t wait to get to Vicmead to cut the rug up with Alice (who looked lovely in winter white last night, by the way!) and shag to Sea Cruise with Randy.
Anyway, many thanks to you all for another spectacular Morrow!
And thank you, Dick, for inspiring all this fun!
XO
Cooey
Please forward on to all! Thank you!
More from Cooey:
“Just gratitude, nothing but gratitude. Can’t wait to see you all this weekend! XO Cooey
From: Cooey Lyon
Subject: THANK YOU
Date: January 29, 2014 at 3:20:27 PM EST
Dear venerable committee members,
How to thank you all for yet ANOTHER spectacularly successful and ridiculously enjoyable weekend in Wilmington?
When the dust had settled, Caug was back on the plane for London and we had collapsed, Jeff and I both looked at each other and said: Might have been our favorite year yet!
The memories are SO strong and so wonderful of the past 30 years, starting with sitting next to Mom at Vicmead and watching Cindy, Ernie, Chas and Caroline duke it out in 1984 to playing with Peter (still upset you dumped me, but maybe if I keep trying to get better you’ll pick me up again?) to the anticipation of seeing what centerpiece Peggy had fabricated during the previous 12 months to Alice’s ever-evolving dance floor moves, to Teddy and Alice’s hospitality last February to Barry’s wit and Joan’s letting us sleep in the basement when Jeff decided he WOULD win the party, to Martha’s always being “on it,” to Andy’s stats to THIS year being on the court with Brint, catching a glimpse of “Burkhart-Vosters” in the draw (and hoping Bunny got a kick out of it too), the brilliantly hard-fought Championship Draw finals battle and the incredibly cool moment when I realized what a seriously special (hate that word, but it’s appropriate here, I think) match Cindy, Caug, Dave and I were playing on Sunday.
These things just don’t happen every day. AND, this tournament doesn’t bring so much joy, help to rekindle old friendships and forge new ones without YOUR efforts.
THANK you for the kindness you all have shown to the Burkharts over all these years. Randy, I know we may be vexing at times, but we love seeing you too!!!! And yes, Timmy and I both got a bit tearful during your talk Saturday night. 🙂 How could one not??
So, thank you, Peter, for letting all of us delight in the memory and play in the honor of your brother each year. It’s a treat and a privilege.
Lots of love,
Cooey
From: kris prosceno
I just wanted to thank the entire Morrow Committee again for having Dave and I join in the fun this weekend. And fun it was! From the cocktail party to Sunday’s finals….everything AND everyone was wonderful. We were ready to “embrace the glorious chaos” you warned of but there was none to be found. You all run a really nice event. We are already looking forward to next year! Cheers to you and your team.
From Ashley Altschuler:
Team Morrow: Thank you for putting together a fantastic Morrow Tournament. This was your best ever. The organization, the kick off party, the pace of play, the Saturday dinner, and the finale today – all were top notch. Your focus and attention to detail was like no other. We all had a fabulous time. I greatly appreciate your including me and my partner Ashley McManus. We look forward to 2024! Please enjoy downtime and get some well-deserved rest. And Go Eagles – all the way to Arizona!