Father Can't Let Son Have All the Glory

RA fell short of its goal of 200 players but still managed to set a new all-time attendance record of 188 unique participants. The experiment of moving Heat 1 to the first Saturday was a huge success as we had 22 tables involving 107 players on the first day of the convention. Heat 2 on Monday night had 17 tables, Heat 3 on Tuesday night had 19 tables, and the Wednesday morning wake-up call had 13 tables. Not bad for a 9am heat.

Steve Scott and Geoffrey Pounder led the way with 3 heat wins each. Steve ended up the top qualifier with a third place finish on Saturday night. There were 13 other two heat winners for a total of 15 multiple heat winners. It took a win in your first heat and a fifth in any other heat to tie for twenty-fifth, the final semifinal spot, with 2 others. This was actually down from last year when you needed a win in your first heat and two fifths. Just winning your first heat only got you to thirty-sixth place. Due to no shows the low semi-finalist was tied for twenty-eighth with 9 other players who won their first heat and did not play a second heat.

In the first semifinal, Rodney Bacigalupo and Christopher Yaure ended up tied but Rodney got the tie-breaker with a higher sun at the end. The top rated AREA player, Janet Ottey was also at that table and finished fifth. In semifinal number two, previous RA Champion Rich Meyer had an easy time of it beating Henry Ho by 10 points. In the third semifinal, Kyle Smith also had an easy time beating Nicole Yuhase by 9 points. In semifinal number four, the top two seeds who ended up at the same table, were surprised by Scott Saccenti who beat them both by 6 points. In the last semifinal, Michael Thiessen sneaked by Scott Fenn by 4 points.

Experience paid off in this year’s final, as previous RA Champion Rich Meyer added his second RA Championship to his list of championships. It was a very close final as Rich beat Michael by 1, Rodney by 2, and Scott by 4. So the RA Championship banner will stay in the Meyer household as Rich’s son Jeff won the RA Championship last year.