battleline [Updated October 2005]  

2005 WBC Report  

  2006 Status: pending December Membership Century Vote

Arthur Field, SC

2004-05 Champion


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Event History
2001    Peter Staab     54
2002    Kevin Youells     36
2003    Ken Gutermuth     44
2004     Arthur Field     44
2005     Arthur Field     48 

 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Arthur Field       SC    05     40
  2.  Ken Gutermuth      TX    05     36
  3.  Aaron Fuegi        MA    03     30
  4.  Kevin Yuells       FL    02     30
  5.  Peter Staab        PA    01     30
  6.  Sean McCulloch     OH    05     22
  7.  Barrington Beavis  UK    03     18
  8.  Jonathan Miller    DC    02     18
  9.  John Leggat        CA    01     18
 10.  Bruce Reiff        OH    03     15
 11.  Mike Nagel         NJ    05     12
 12.  Andrew Cummins     UK    01     12
 13.  Cliff Ackman       PA    01      9
 14.  Keith Schoose      CA    05      8
 15.  Jason Levine       NY    04      8
 16.  Richard Irving     CA    04      6
 17.  Carol Caler        PA    03      6
 18.  Kaarin Engelmann   VA    01      6
 19.  Stuart Tucker      MD    04      4
 20.  Lance Fogel        PA    03      3
 21.  Gordon Elgart      CA    01      3
 22.  Tom Powell-Bullock OH    05      2
 23.  Laurie Wojtaszcyk  NY    04      2
         

2005 Laurelists

Mike Nagel, NJ
2nd

Keith Schoose, CA
3rd

Ken Gutermuth, TX
4th

Sean McCulloch, OH
5th

Thomas Powell-Bullock, OH
6th


Past Winners

Peter Staab, PA
2001

Kevin Youells, FL
2002

Ken Gutermuth, TX
2003

Arthur Field, SC
2004


The Killing Fields

We had 12 groups of four play the usual round robin format. The winners and the order they finished were:

Group #1 - Chris Palmero snuck in on a tiebreaker going 2-1 and then elected not to advance to the single elimination round.

Group #2 - Jason Levine managed three breakthroughs and managed to avoid his usual nemesis, moi. But being his team game, you just know team points were NOT in his future.

Group #3 had Sean "I finally won a plaque and am a real Cabbie now" McCulloch advance in a tiebreaker. Former champ Kevin Youells went a disappointing 1-2 in this group.

In group #4 left coaster Keith Schoose, the least pretty of the Schoose clan, dominated with three wins, two via breakthrough, to advance.

In group #5 Brad Raszewski came back from an early loss to beat Mike Stanley 'Tools' and Kate, Mrs. Arthur Field, Taillon via breakthrough to advance. I wonder if I can call Kate that?

In group #6 your trusty author/GM had three breakthroughs to make the single elim part of the event for the third time.

Group #7 had Thomas Powell-Bullock score two breakthroughs en route to a 3-0 showing to make the next round.

In group #8 Mike Nagle had two close matches but went 3-0 to advance over a field including regular winner, and one of my favorite names, Beavis Barrington. Heh, heh.

Mr Kremlin, aka Steve Cuccaro, had a breakthrough on Jeff "I gots me a real plaque now" Mullet and held on to advance on a tiebreaker from group #9.

Rob Taylor had three breakthroughs to advance from group #10. Too bad his Liberty efforts didn't go quite as well. Heh heh

Defending champ Arthur Field became the third person to advance with three breakthroughs. And as a bonus his group, #11, wasn't the last to finish.

The honor of last was reserved for 2003 champ Ken Gutermuth, he of no plaques in 2004 or 2005. But his ladies keep racking them up! Anyway, Ken managed an amazing feat in his group. He didn't give up a point to his opponents, and yet only had two breakthroughs! He actually won a game 5-0! Wow!!!

Byes were given to past champions and then randomly to those going 3-0. This set up single elimination games of Sean McCulloch vs Rob Talyor, Bruce Reiff vs Mike Nagel and Brad Raszewski vs Steve Cuccaro. Sean, last year's 2nd place finisher handled Rob easily after he tried to bid 2 for the Americans (wrong game Rob J ). Steve got by Brad and Mike Nagel brought a smile to Don Greenwood's face and sent the GM packing. The quarterfinals were set:

Arthur Field vs Sean, Jason Levine vs Keith Schoose, Thomas Powell-Bullock vs giant killer Mike Nagel and Mr Kremlin vs woodless Ken Gutermuth.

Arthur and Sean, reprising last years' titanic Final went back and forth with Arthur repeating with the late victory.

Keith Schoose pounded Jason Levine, ensuring that Jason would yet again score 0 team points for the Baby Seals.

Mike Nagel stayed alive in a close one over Thomas and Ken Gutermuth defeated Steve Cuccaro to keep hope alive.

The first semifinal was Arthur and Keith. It looked early on that Keith had the defending champ on the ropes but Arthur, with somewhat inferior cards, struggled back to win. In the other semifinal Mike Nagel added to his burgeoning reputation as a giant killer and took down a dejected Ken who was overheard mumbling something about 'at least my wife managed to win a plaque'.

So, Mike Nagel, defender of truth, comforter of the downtrodden, slayer of giants, hero of the masses had one more giant obstacle, err speed bump on his road to WBC immortality. Could he do to Arthur what he did to Ken, Bruce and all the others? In a word, no. Arthur scored a breakthrough and collected his second Battleline plaque. Oh, Mike, what could have been!

 GM      Bruce Reiff  [2nd Year]  NA
    BReiff@aol.com   NA

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