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Gordon Stewart, Marilyn Flowers, David
Ottey, and Patrick Shea man one of 12 tables |
Angela Hoffman, Lynda Shea, Dave Bohnenberger,
Kevin Breza and Rodney Davidson |
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Chris Lefevre, Jessica Shea, Nicole
Reiff, Faith Wobbeking and Rod Bacigalupo |
Alex Bove, Stephen Hunt, Lisa Gutermuth,
Sean McCulloch and Antero Kuusi |
Silently Stalking a Last Chance
at Glory
Sunday morning is the time for packing cars and hitting the
road for most. A few lucky ones struggle for a win in the last
rounds of the convention, and most of the rest head to Trans
America for a last chance at wood.
Many
consider it an advantage to go first in a round, so the tournament
"house rules" require each player to go first for one
round. In the case of a tie, the player who scored the fewest
points when going first would win the tie. If there is still
a tie, the scores in the second round are compared, and this
process continues until there is a clear winner.
We had 12 5-player games in the first round, with all winners
and the three runners-up with the highest % of the winner's score
advancing. This quickly yielded three 5-player semifinal tables,
with firsts and seconds advancing to a 6-player Final. Family
members were separated in the first round only.
The lowest advancing score was just 5 points by Sean McCulloch
and Luke Koleszar, with the highest advancing score being 12
by Mike Kaltman. The most common advancing score was 11. One
game had to be adjudicated after just four rounds, as it had
gone past the allotted hour and all other games had finished
all five rounds before that table had finished four.
At the first semifinal table, a different player went out on
each of the first three rounds, and it was anybody's game. In
the fourth round Patrick Shea got a second "out", but
still trailed leaders Carolyn Strock and Jeff Cornett by a point
and they advanced with 10 and 7 points when Lynda Shea took the
last round.
Sean McCulloch took the biggest hit in the first round at Table
2, but then went out first the next three rounds! Daniel Ottey
went out first in the last round, and despite being 8 away in
the fourth round, advanced with Sean to the Final.
The leaders were breaking away by the fourth round at Table 3,
and having another player go out in the last round was once again
insufficient to reign in the leaders. Bob Wicks and Luke Koleszar
advanced, but only by a single point.
The Final was thus contested by Carolyn Strock, Jeff Cornett,
Sean McCulloch, Daniel Ottey, Luke Koleszar, and Bob Wicks. And
what a quiet table it was! Most of the game was played in complete
silence. No merry makers in this group! Daniel took an early
lead with just two points after the first three rounds and it
looked like the championship might stay in the Ottey family.
I'm sure Daniel had a spot on the mantle beside his wife's 2011
souvenir all picked out. Then Luke, who was in last place, went
out first, giving Daniel six points and evening the playing field
to a four-point spread. With Carolyn now in the lead, her 1-point
finish in the fifth round and 0 in the sixth provided her second
WBC title.
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Phil and Jess Shea with a future junior. |
GM Lisa Gutermuth with her six finalists. |
Trans America Junior
There were 26 little train travellers this year for GM Laurie
Wojtazsyzk's Junior tournament. Ten-year-old Tessa Lytle proved
to be the best. Other accomplished train riders were
2nd: Colin Laird (9)
3rd: Rachel Bels (7)
4th: Dante Saccenti (11)
5th: Antony Saccenti (12)
6th: Aiden Powers (9)
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