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Mike Stanley tests his mettle vs two-time
champ Arthur Field. |
Jason Levine upset 2002 champ Kevin
Youell in the semis. |
Yawn ... Him Again
48 'regulars' posted at the usual time on Friday evening to
contest the tenth title and continue the event's remarkable consistency.
It's a great event because you are guaranteed three games, it's
over within four hours and you can learn it very easily. Mastering
it, well that's another story.
We broke into the usual pods of four. You play everyone in
your pod once and the scoring system encourages you to win via
breakthrough. As always I number the pods in order of finish.
My pod is usually first, but slipped to fourth this year.
Pod 1, the speedy one, was won by Chad Gormly with breakthough
wins over Mike Shea and Ryan Friedman. He was only able to manage
a 5-2 win over Phil Rennert.
Pod 2 was taken by Eric Kleist over Eric Filiplowski, Nicole
Reiff and Jeff Hacker. Nicole may not play as well as her old
man (yet), but at least she plays as fast! Eric had three breakthroughs!
Pod 3 was won by Jason Levine over Gordon Rogers, Rick Young
and Andrew Fedin but he needed the head to head tie-breaker to
advance over Andrew who was also 2-1.
Pod 4 was won by yours truly with three wins over Bob Hamel,
Dan not-the-legend Hoffman and Kate Tallion.
Pod 5 belonged to Philly regular Rob Kilroy at 3-0 versus
Tom Murcko, Pat Mirk and Austin Walzl.
Craig Melton took Pod 6 with three wins over Matt Ellis, Bram
Walzl and Charles Squibb.
2002 champ Kevin Youells showed that he still had the right
stuff in Pod 7 by scoring three breakthroughs over Paul Bolduc,
Angela "I'm not the legend's wife" Hoffman and John
Kilbride.
Pod 8 saw the biggest upset as Barrington Beavis went unbeaten
over two-time champ Arthur Field, Ron Fedin and Mike Stanley.
Steve Raszewski went 3-0 in Pod 9 over Huston Johnson, Gary
Phillips and Joe Yaure.
Bob Wicks brought a smile to the GM's face by knocking fellow
Cabbie Jeff Mullet out of the tournament while also beating Steve
Squibb and Tamara Fedin in Pod 10.
Pod 11 was the only other group to resort to a tie breaker
when Collin McFall's 2-1 advanced over Alan Arvold, Gordon Stewart
and Kevin Toney.
And in pokey Pod 12, Charles Stucker turned back Brad Razewski,
Carol Caler and Jason Pollack.
This set up the usual single elimination rounds. In the round
of 16, Charles Stucker beat Bob Wicks, Jason Levine denied Eric
Kleist, Barrington Beavis's day came to an end against Collin
McFall and Rob Kilroy did Philly proud and won the right to play
the GM in the next round by sparing Chad Gormly the same fate.
The quarter finals advanced Kevin Youells over Charles Stucker,
Jason Levine over Steve Raszewski, Craig Melton over Collin McFall
and yours truly over Roy Kilroy.
In the semis Jason Levine ended Kevin Youell's quest for a
second title. Craig Melton came close and almost made Don smile,
but Bruce won with a breakthrough just before Craig could.
That set up a Final between long time adversaries Jason Levine
and Bruce Reiff. Fortunately for Bruce, Jason wasn't able to
break any deals like he did in Age of Renaissance this year.
Nevertheless, Jason could almost taste the victory as he had
Bruce on the proverbial ropes only to have the lumber king score
a breakthrough and stun Jason who was just a turn away from besting
the plaque master. Karma for deal breaking? You decide. Instead,
Bruce won his fourth straight title - a number very symbolic
of his 2010 WBC as he would carry home four championship plaques
in 2010.
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My kingdom for a "5" ...
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Craig Melton suffers a breakthrough
vs you-know-who. Darn it! |
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