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Enlightenment XI Makes a Comeback

Enlightenment XI rebounded from a dismal 2007, with a 63% gain in attendance. 31 players, including five former champs, participated in the Age of Renaissance tournament. Enough stayed the course to man five boards throughout every round of the event. The tournament had 5 six-player games and 16 five-player contests. The sister tournament for Manifest Destiny fared nearly as well and attracted several additional players who opted out of Age of Renaissance.

It was heartening to see such a rousing response to the threatened end of this series and a relief is to see it saved from the fate of the D-Day mini-con which was unable to sustain sufficient attendance to warrant a continuation of that event. It is pleasing to see that there is still an audience for dedicated play of a title in a competitive format.

The 1st round on Friday evening saw 26 players kick off the weekend in 4 five-player games and one 6-player contest. John Coussis won the six-player game and Ken Gutermuth, Bill Crenshaw, Kevin Sudy, and Tedd Mullally took the five-player contests. John won as Hamburg, leading in advances over Greg Stripes, Mark Smith, Shawn Fox, Chris Byrd, and Pierre LeBeouf.

Ken was one of 10 players to purchase all the advances during the weekend to top Arthur Field, Terry Coleman, Steve Simmons, and Eric Eshleman. In our lowest scoring game of the first round, Bill Crenshaw edged Davyd Field, Ewan McNay, Rodd Polsky, and Pete Staab. Kevin won the closest game of the round, defeating Carl Damcke by only 30 points, followed by Jeff Mullett, Tom Browne, and Chris Trimmer. Tedd posted the highest score of the weekend by purchasing all advances and accumulating a score of 2778 to defeat Rob Kircher, Ted Simmons, Craig Trader, and Ivan Lawson.

The second round saw all 31 participants competing in one 6-player game and five 5-player games. At the winners table, Kevin Sudy became the early target as the first double winner. Joining Kevin in the Round 2 winner's circle were Chris Byrd at the 6-player table, and Carl Damcke, Rob Kircher, and father-son combination Steve and Ted Simmons from the 5-player matches.

Kevin led in advances and cash to garner his second win and become the early leader over Round 1 winners Tedd Mullally, Ken Gutermuth, John Coussis, and Bill Crenshaw in a game that saw Bill (London) and Ken (Barcelona) having to cooperate early for wool payouts. Chris Byrd chose Genoa with his 4 bid and went on to victory over Eric Eshlemann, Chris Trimmer, Pierre LeBeouf, Kathy Stroh, and Ivan Lawson. After a narrow miss in Round 1, Carl used highest advances and cash to win over Arthur Field, Greg Stripes, Derrick Landel, and Davyd Field. Rob managed his lead in advances to a victory over Terry Coleman, Jeff Mullet, Ewan McNay, and our first Chaos victim of the tournament, Mark Neale. In a close game that came down to final payouts, Steve Simmons started a winning streak by defeating Brian Farley, Pete Staab, Shawn Fox, and Craig Trader. Ted joined his father in the victory column with the closest victory of the second round over Rodd Polsky, Tom Browne, Mark Smith, and David Hood.

The third round saw 28 people in three 6-player games and two 5-player contests. Steve Simmons won at the winners table to join Kevin Sudy with a pair of wins. Bill Crenshaw continued his comeback from a personal worst 2007 Enlightenment by also joining the double win fraternity. Enterimg the winner's circle for the first time were Ewan McNay, Rodd Polsky, and Jeff Mullet.

Steve held off son Ted with final payouts to continue his streak with Chris Byrd, Rob Kircher, Kevin Sudy, and Carl Damcke rounding out the table, thereby stopping Kevin's momentum by knocking him from the unbeaten ranks. Bill bought all advances in winning against Mark Neale, Davyd Field, Kathy Stroh, David Hood, and Craig Trader. Ewan edged Shawn Fox with some late payouts to earn his first victory with Pierre LeBeouf, Greg Stripes, John Coussis, and Mark Smith finishing the table. In a game that saw two players buy all advances, Rodd Polsky defeated Arthur Field, Terry Coleman, Eric Eshlemann, and Tedd Mullally. A very enlightened Jeff Mullet bought all advances to hold off Pete Staab, Ken Gutermuth, Chris Trimmer, and Brian Farley.

After three rounds, ten players retained a legitimate chance to win the title including defending champion Ken Gutermuth, previous champs Jeff Mullet, Bill Crenshaw, and Chris Byrd, as well as Steve Simmons, Ewan McNay, Tedd Mullally, Ted Simmons, Kevin Sudy, and Carl Damcke. Steve was the leader in the clubhouse with a three-game score of 282 followed closely by Ken at 279, Bill at 277, and Jeff at 275.

Sunday morning saw 25 players answer the bell for the final round in five 5-player games. Greg Stripes, Pierre LeBeouf, and Mark Smith managed to break into the winner's circle but the morning belonged to the Simmons clan. Ted Simmons managed a win to get his second victory while Steve Simmons ran his winning streak to three, ensuring him the championship as the only three-game winner. Greg, in the lowest scoring game of the event, defeated Kevin Sudy, Rob Kircher, Tedd Mullally, and Chris Trimmer with a score of 1115. Pierre started strong and weathered the pack's onslaught to come back and gain a win over Ken Gutermuth, Chris Byrd, Terry Coleman, and Kathy Stroh

With his beloved Louisville team crushed the night before, Mark Smith turned his full attention to the game and defeated John Coussis, Carl Damcke, Craig Trader, and Bryan Farley. In our longest game of the weekend, Ted outlasted the crew of Tom Browne, Shawn Fox, Mark Neale, and Pete Staab. At the winner's table, in a game that saw all players within 110 points in advances, Steve culiminated his winning streak to defeat Ewan McNay, Jeff Mullet, Bill Crenshaw, and Rodd Polsky, and thereby win the tournament.

Steve finished well ahead of the pack in winning his first Enlightenment title. Kevin Sudy finished 2nd, Ted Simmons 3rd, Ewan McNay 4th, Bill Crenshaw 5th, and Jeff Mullet 6th. Paris and Genoa lead the way with six wins each. Venice had four victories, perennial powerhouse Barcelona had but three wins while Hamburg and London managed only one apiece. We had 16 different winners with champion Steve Simmons leading the way with three wins, Kevin Sudy (2nd), Ted Simmons (3rd), and Bill Crenshaw (5th) with two each. Other winners were Ewan McNay (4th), Jeff Mullet (6th), Carl Damcke, Ken Gutermuth, Tedd Mullally, Mark Smith, Rob Kircher, John Coussis, Rodd Polsky, Chris Byrd, Greg Stripes, and Pierre Lebouef.

Capital bidding continued downward as 45 of the 110 bids were for zero. There were six 5 bids and four bids of 4 with Barcelona and Venice attracting the only 5 bids. Barcelona led the way with a 2.66 average bid, followed by Genoa 1.76, Venice 1.43, Paris 1.05, Hamburg .6, and London .52.

Ten Players managed to buy all the advances although two of them came in losing causes (Arthur and John). Players buying out included Ken Gutermuth, Carl Damcke, Tedd Mullally, Bill Crenshaw, Rodd Polsky, Arthur Field, Jeff Mullet, Mark Smith, John Coussis and Ted Simmons. Only one player reached Chaos, Mark Neale, but five games went over the five-hour time limit, the most in recent years...a trend no doubt influenced by the welcome increase in new faces.

1st: Steve Simmons, NJ	2nd: Kevin Sudy, VA	3rd: Ted Simmons, NJ
4th: Ewan McNay, CT	5th: Bill Crenshaw, VA	6th: Jeff Mullet, OH

The Final Standings were as follows:

1998, 2001, 2005 Bill Crenshaw, VA	1999 James Pei, TX	2000 Tom Taaffe, VA	2002 John Coussis, IL	2003 Chris Byrd, CT
2004, 2006 Jeff Mullet, OH	2007 Ken Gutermuth, TX	2008 Steve Simmons, NJ

In the under card, Ewan McNay topped Arthur Field in the last heat to win the Manifest Destiny shadow tournament at Enlightenment. Ewan (Pennsylvania) and Arthur (Mexico) were neck and neck throughout and the tide turned when Ewan pulled out Most Cities on the final turn, resulting in a 2 VP swing that was the margin of victory. John Coussis, the other double winner, came in third. In the last round John beat Jeff Mullet (who tied for first in all three games he played, only to lose the cash tiebreaker in all three draws), Kathy Stroh (who came in fourth overall) and Bill Crenshaw (5th) in a 30-30-30-29 VP game, that saw the final two cards (War and Black Tuesday) knock Bill out of first.

In all, the sister event drew 28 players including several who played only or primarily Manifest Destiny in 17 games. Both events consisted of four rounds with only the best three scores counting, but at some point players dropped out to concentrate on the other event since playing four rounds of both was not possible.

1st: Ewan McNay, CT	2nd: Arthur Field, SC	3rd: John Coussis, IL
4th: Kathy Stroh, DE	5th: Bill Crenshaw, VA	6th: Shawn Fox