Mark Hinkle and Lee Proctor in the first heat.	Kevin Walsh, Sceadeau D'Tela and defending champ Paul Sampson

Back to High Water Mark ...

Attendance at the fourth tournament returned to its previous high of 45 players with a mixture of new and familiar players. 17 preliminary games yielded 16 different winners; John Corrado, last year's runner-up by a whisker, won twice, and Lee Proctor, having won two heats last year, won one and got a "perfect second" - missing a second win on a tie-break. However, only ten winners chose to attend the semis, so two alternates, Kevin Barry and assistant GM William Kendrick, were included (based on their two best scores) to create three 4-player semifinals.

Kendrick, John Dextraze and Paul Sampson won their semis but Sampson had to set off on the long trek to Ohio and couldn't stay for the Final. This brought in the two best runners-up from the semis, Daniel Speyer and Phil Shea, with the GM missing the cut by 0.0049 of a point!

The Final began with three developing and Kendrick (Red) building iron - only to be quickly overbuilt by Speyer (Green). The other players continued to consign their low-tech mills to the dustbin of history and Kendrick riposted by overbuilding Speyer's I2. By Turn 4 Shea (Purple) laid an M2 but Dextraze (Yellow) and Speyer began building M3s and shipped respectively 2 and 1; Shea shipped an M3 but failed to ship his M2 before "loaning-up" for the Rail Era, while Kendrick shipped an M1 and built his last ironworks to lead (R35-Y27-P23-G16).

The Rail Era began traditionally with rails snaking rapidly over the hills, while Shea built two more M3s and an M4 and Kendrick built coal and odd rails, seeming to have no overall strategy. By the crucial Turn 12 he had linked Ellesmere Port to Liverpool via Warrington and his plan became apparent. Two developments spread across a turn-end and he laid a shipyard in Liverpool and was set for a second in Birkenhead. Meanwhile Shea had built two ports in Liverpool and unloaded his cotton including a second M4. Speyer was in the running with two M3s shipped and Dextraze had M3 and M4 but had twice to build a port and ship immediately to avoid his port being used by another player.

There was repeated overbuilding of iron and a couple of players had to pass when they ran out of money, but in the last turn Kendrick built his second shipyard as the last rails were taken. At the end, Speyer's rails and solid industry had won the Rail Era but hadn't overtaken Kendrick's lead; the tie for third place was won by Shea's higher income. (R133-G123-P117-Y117)

Over the 21 games the average score was 127.4, somewhat lower than last year probably owing to the influx of newer players. The use of the two best scores to select semifinalists worked well and will be retained in future years, where the number of participants will hopefully grow still further!

Mark Geary, Chris Cormoreau, Anthony Daw and William Kendrick	GM Ed Kendrick oversees his finalists at work.

Philip Shea, 2010 champ Bruce Hodgins, Jack Jung and Fletcher Chapin in the second heat.