WFDF Overall Championships

07/18/11 - 07/23/11 in Fort Collins, CO

OPEN Division

WOMEN Division

MASTER Division

WOMENMASTER Division

WOMENGRANDMASTER Division

GRANDMASTER Division

SENIORGRANDMASTER Division

Thanks to Harvey Brandt for the results.

Sorry for this delay, I somehow managed to leave all the paperwork in
 Ft. Collins when I made the bleary eyed 14 hour drive back home. Bill
 Wright was kind enough to have found it and mailed it to me.  The pool
 pages will be posted at the usual location
 http://web.mac.com/tmbanzai/DDC_/Results_Stats.html within the next
 few days, probably tomorrow. Figured it was enough to write this to
 start things along.
 The WFDF tourney in Ft. Collins was like a dream come true for
 DDC. Lush fields, very light winds, no rain, great competition, and
 the Wright Life putting on a great show all week.
 I'll start with the Women's Division results: With only 4 teams
 competing (there certainly should have been more), this division
 started off with a double round robin. Local Kaili Young teamed with
 Bethany Sanchez to run the table, 6-0, in this round. Top seed Lori
 Daniels and Beth Verish ended up 4-2. Air Kloke and Stina Persson were
 2-4, while Stephanie Chan and Susie Horn finished 0-6. The top two
 teams played a finals for the top award and gold medals, the next two
 teams played off for the bronze. I am going on some memory here as I
 don't seem to have the actual game scores (Beth, help me out on this
 and send me the scores!). Ari and Stina beat Stephanie and Susie for
 3rd place, while the finals did not follow form. Kaili and Bethany
 took the first game of the best of three handily. Then Lori and Beth
 must have decided that 3 straight game losses were enough. Lori and
 Beth rallied for a game two victory and then sealed it in the third
 game to take the WFDF World title. This would also prove to be
 extremely significant in the Women's Overall as Lori then went on to a
 narrow 2 point overall win over Kaili.
 The Open teams were seeded almost directly from the ranking
 points. The defending champions were awarded the top seed despite not
 having the best ranking numbers. But it was certainly close enough to
 favor the champs. We started with a total of 23 teams in 5 pools. Top
 2 from each pool (10 teams) would advance to the "A" pool and the
 other 13 would play a long and grueling round robin to sort out the
 next 13 spots head to head. There was only one huge seed bust for
 getting into the "A" pool. Jeff O'Brien and Kirk Young bested Tim
 Mackey and Bill Wright, 15-12, to jump seed and make the top pool. Tim
 and Bill would later exact a measure of satisfaction but going
 undefeated in the "B" pool.  To see the actual pools, please refer to
 the results web page mentioned above.
 Everyone figured the top 3 spots were likely to be taken by the top 3
 seeds. Among them, the defending champs - Cody and John Kirkland;
 former world champ Harvey Brandt and his US Open champion partner Dave
 Hesselberth, and former world champs (2004 together and other times
 separately) Conrad Damon and Rick LeBeau. This went true to form but
 with some twists as the Kirklands beat Brandt / Hessleberth; Brandt /
 Hesselberth rallied from a 5-10 deficit to beat Damon / LeBeau; and
 (of course) Damon / LeBeau beat the Kirklands. The fun was for the
 fourth spot in the semis. 4th seed Randy Aiu and Mark Horn put
 themselves in a tough position when they lost to 5th seeded Jack
 Cooksey and Jon Freedman. This meant that Aiu and Horn needed a big
 upset on their part over one of the top seeds AND help from another
 team to defeat Jack and Jon. Lo and behold, Randy and Mark manhandled
 2nd seed Brandt and Hesselberth (15-6). Then in the last round, with
 the semis dangling in front of them, Jack and Jon ran into a hot Jeff
 O'Brien and Kirk Young, losing 15-8. Remember Jeff and Kirk? Seed
 busting once again.
 So the semis were set with the number 1 pick going to Conrad and Rick,
 due to their single loss and defeat of the other single loss team (the
 Kirkland duo). Conrad and Rick chose to play Mark and Randy, whom they
 defeated 21-11 and 21-12. After defeating Harvey and Dave in the pool
 action, defending champs Cody and John had to feel confident. As it
 turned out, just like in the Women's division DDC, this match would
 have significant repercussions on the tightening overall
 contest. Harvey and Dave took an early lead and managed to hold off
 any thoughts of a comeback by Cody and John in the first game, keeping
 the Kirklands deep throughout the game. 21-17 for the first game. In
 the second game, the same scenario developed and Cody and John were
 relegated to a 3rd place finish, 21-15. This set up a final between
 major overall contenders. Conrad had won the last two major overalls
 (US Open in 2010 and the WFDF in 2009). However he did not win the DDC
 in either year. This time he reversed it, taking the DDC title with
 Rick in a thrilling match, 15-13, 15-10, 10-16, and 15-12 (in the
 final game, Harv and Dave once again rallied from far back, 4-10, to
 tie it at 12s) but Conrad would fall short in the overall. As I
 mentioned, the semi match involving the Kirklands had a telling effect
 on the overall. Had Cody won that match, the results may have well
 turned out in his favor and might have led to a first, major, overall
 title for him. Instead, with the semi victory, Harvey pulled into an
 insurmountable overall points lead and went on to win the WFDF
 title. By winning the DDC however, Conrad Damon pulled into a 2nd
 place tie with Cody in the overall. Fun and games.
 As I said at the beginning, it was a wonderful DDC event. If you
 missed this opportunity in Ft. Collins, you missed a great one. Bill
 Wright and the Wrightlife did it once again with a superb event.
 Next up is the East Coast DDC event run by Carlton Howard. I
 understand there is still a spot or two available. Another great DDC
 weekend. After that, still to be determined is the AZ States / West
 Coast DDC event. Likely headed to Veteran's Day weekend in
 November. Possibly in Southern California?  News as it develops. I
 have some results to scan.
 your humble scribe
 Harvey