Convention AARs and Centurions
Event Reports
Minicons

2005 Centurions  

WBC opened a new era in the land of the Pennsylvania Dutch as Lancaster Host welcomed us to our new home through at least 2010. The greatly increased meeting space provided comfortable gaming during both WBC and the four Pre-Cons which preceded it with the addition of Victory in the Pacific to a Pre-Con slot. Also enjoying the greater confines were an expanded auction which ran for six hours on Tuesday in the luxurios Lancaster Showroom preceding the start of events and the vendors who had their largest presence ever with most of the hobby’s prime publishers on hand. Last, but not least, an expanded Juniors program entertained 61 youngsters age 12 and under with a larger Junior’s room complete with game library. Of course the beautiful swimming pool, miniature golf, shuffleboard, ping pong, billiards, game room and Disney movies under the pavillon of the family friendly Host helped too.

Ten events again drew 100 or more players but an additional five nearly broke into triple figures with attendance in the 90’s. 27 different states and three nations were represented


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in the winner’s circle led by New York which carted home 21 plaques to the empire state, followed by Maryland with 14, Ohio with 13, and host Pennsylvania with a dozen. There were two triple winners, ten double winners, and eleven defending champs who held serve and repeated. Four ladies proved the fairer sex can compete with men over a gameboard and 47 “rookies” recorded their first WBC championships.

Chris Withers and James Pei continued to dominate their events, extending their winning streaks to six and five years respectivly. And, of course, Bruce Reiff kept his streak of winning at least one event for the 15th straight year with a pair of wins to increase his wood total to 30. Nate Hoam won his first WBC wood and enjoyed it so much he tacked on two more for good measure to rack up a Century triple with wins in Al Hambre, Attika and Pro Golf—falling just one short of the never achieved Century Grand Slam. Arthur Field also won three events while sweeping the annual Caesar award with 224 laurels and Consul with 146 by wide margins. In doing so, he became the first BPA king of the hill to garner those honors with an all-Euro venue.Â