Stan Buck searches for a Russian boomer.	The Mafia meets again at a WBC Final as GM Caler hovers.

last chance for wood ...

Once again three rounds of Swiss play were used to determine eight players to advance to single-elimination rounds. The pool of players included the usual Attack Sub 'sharks', but there were a good number of young players which bodes well for the future of the tournament. Jim Doughan in particular brought a young fleet in tow with him this time and one of his sons would grab more laurels than his dad. Five former champs were present in an attempt to improve their colors, including defending champ Bill Edwards looking to pick up his brown belt.

Bill had his first scare in the second round of Swiss play against Keith Hunsinger. The good reverend made a successful attack, but the damage draw was a Dud! Bill then followed up with an "automatic" attack, but drew a malfunction! Bill managed to overcome his faulty equipment to advance.

Several other players experienced similar maintenance problems. Andy Lewis had three malfunctions and downed his system on one repair attempt. Dennis Nicholson had seven malfunctions in his third round game while his opponent had four. Reports that they actually battled it out in a pair of rowboats are gaining credence.

Three former champs were among the eight players advancing to the quarter finals and the creme would rise to the top as they finished 1-2-3 ahead of Andy Lewis, Stan Buck, Rob Schoenen, Andrew Doughan and Jeff Lang. Bill Edwards continued his title defense over Andy Lewis while Stan Buck, Bruce Young and John Emery also advanced to the semi-finals.

Much to his consternation, Bill would face two-time champion John in the semi-finals while Bruce would tackle Stan. John managed to end Bill's streak with his surface ships defeating Bill's subs in Scenario B. Stan & Bruce also chose Scenario B for their match, but with the opposite outcome. Bruce was on a roll, having sunk both of Stan's ships in a third of the first deck! He never missed either a sonar search or an attack in dispatching Stan in record time.

So that set up a Greenville Mafia Final between a pair of ex-champs and frequent antagonists. Again, the scenario choice was B with Bruce taking the surface command this time. Bruce got off to another quick start sinking one of the Soviet subs, but then the Simpson had a sonar malfunction. Despite his own sonar malfunction, John managed to get off a good shot against the Virginia. But the resulting hit did not strike a lethal blow, taking only two sensor hits which had no effect since its sonar system was already down! The damaged Virginia then got off an attack that would sink the Skvortsov, giving Bruce his second Attack Sub championship - some 17 years after the first!