AZ States

11/08/07 - 11/11/07 in Phoenix, Arizona

OPEN Division

WOMEN Division

MIXED Division

The Report
 We started off with Mixed Pairs DDC on Thursday, if you haven't played it you 
 are missing one of the best times. Conrad Damon and Tita Ugalde took the title 
 over defending champs Harvey Brandt and Lori Daniels. Brandt / Daniels had won 
 the pool game but couldn't overcome the consistent play by Damon / Ugalde in 
 the finals, 15-12, 15-12
 3- Bethany Sanchez and John Schiller rode a second round surge to finish 3rd
 4- Beth Verish and Bill Wright
 5- Mark and Susie Horn
 Queen of the Court took place while I was unable to fully watch and appreciate 
 the excellent play by 6 women. In addition to the 5 players from Mixed, 
 G Kirkland joined in the fun to round out the group. And after an unknown 
 number of combinations and games, I was told that these were the results:
 1- G Kirkland
 2- Beth Verish
 3T- Tita Ugalde and Lori Daniels
 5- Bethany Sanchez
 6- Susie Horn
 Friday saw the start of Open DDC, the Women deciding to play an extensive 
 Queen of the Court round robin. After 12 games of pool action for everyone it 
 looked like this-
 1- Conrad Damon and Dave Hesselberth 12-0
 2- Harvey Brandt and Carlton Howard 9-3
 3- John Greensage and John Kirkland 8-4 (these guys had to forfeit their last 
 3 games due to injury)
 4- Chris Horn and Mark Horn 4-8 (became a 4-6 record after the forfeit rules 
 shuffled everything)
 5- Jon Freedman and John Schiller 5-7 (became a 4-6 record after the forfeit 
 rules and ended up losing the head to head tie-break)
 6- Johan Josjo and Bill Wright 3-9  (yes, more Swedes keep coming for AZ)
 7- Cody Kirkland and Richard Paschal 2-10 (the highlight show team)
 Because of the forfeits, we had to use the oft misunderstood forfeit procedure 
 to determine placings. Horn / Horn benefited by becoming the fourth team in 
 the semis. Damon / Hesselberth chose to play the Horns and took them out in 2 
 straight games. The same result occurred with Greensage / Kirkland eliminating 
 Brandt / Howard. This set up a titanic struggle for the finals of DDC. With 
 Damon / Hesselberth ultimately prevailing over Greensage / J. Kirkland, I 
 believe the scores were something like this: 11-15, 17-15, 16-18, 15-10, 16-12.
  Excellent DDC with perfect conditions.
 Although the play seemed to go on forever, much of that was due to excessive 
 arguments and way too much time being wasted in between points and crossovers. 
 This will not happen in the future, party because the finals should not take 
 2.5 hours, the rules are written to prevent just such a thing, and we always 
 have some totally hot freestylers waiting to tear it up. 
 I'll only mention Golf briefly because a lot of players just blew it off and 
 played DDC or freestyle ALL day Saturday. Hmmm, nice idea.
 But Chris Horn and Mark Horn, playing best shot doubles, hit birdies on their 
 first 15 straight holes. Then missed their last 3 IN A ROW!!!
 But consider another team (of locals) - they missed their FIRST hole, then ran 
 off 17 straight birdies to finish with a -17. Doubles can be fun.
 Freestyle has been addressed by Judy Robbin's report to the Jammers list. For 
 those who don't receive that, suffice it to say that there was such jamming 
 going on all weekend that the competition on Sunday was almost a breather from 
 all the frenetic action. Here are the final results:
 1- Paul Kenny and Dave Schiller 
 2- Dave Lewis and Pat Marron
 3- Jake Gauthier and Matt Gauthier
 4- Larry Imperiale and Jonathon Willett and Bill Wright
 5- Amy Schiller and Bethany Sanchez
 6- Mike Galloupe and Steve Hays and Neil Toland
 7T - Rico Schneider and Stuart Landsee 
 7T- Lori Daniels and Tita Ugalde
 In the Women's freestyle:
 Bethany Sanchez and Amy Schiller took 1st over Lori Daniels and Tita Ugalde.
 There were only 2 Open teams that played more that one event together for the 
 Pairs Overall title (have to rethink the whole Pairs thing with that type of 
 situation). Chris Horn and Mark Horn took the Overall Pairs title over Jon 
 Freedman and John Schiller.
 And lastly, I have no idea who might have won any Women's overall title. No 
 one played more than one event with the same partner, everyone played a 
 totally different mixture of events with all sorts of partners. I guess all 
 the Women were champions, just as it should be.
 I'll take about 6 months to recover and figure out where AZ States goes from 
 here. Please send me ANY comments and suggestions. I mean that.
 If AZ States happens for the 33rd time, it will be November 6-9, 2008, with 
 Mixed Pairs on Thursday, Open DDC on Friday, and all sorts of other things 
 going on.
 Was a great time.
 Harvey Brandt
 32nd Annual AZ State Overall
 Mixed Pairs DDC