AZ States

10/08/09 - 10/11/09 in Phoenix, Arizona

OPEN Division

WOMEN Division

MIXED Division

All was well in the beautiful state of AZ DDC. Weather, check. Great
 DDC, check. Fun had by all (or most of all, not everyone was able to
 win every game), check. Only thing missing was the usual numbers of
 players. Lots of things came up this year to keep people from making
 the trip and we all hope it changes. But for those who were here, good
 times.  Judy Robbins has already written about the freestyle for the
 Jammers list.  Other things of note were the usual doubles golf
 action, with Cody Kirkland and Conrad Damon racing off in the morning
 for a 25 under over 36 holes. Remember that this was all some form of
 doubles!!!  Gollum Guts joined in the fun this year and from what I
 was able to see, everyone really had a blast with this. Thanks to
 Stork for organizing this with an assist to Discovering the World for
 their sponsorship with discs.  A very special thanks to Judy Robbins
 and Conrad Damon for their support of this event. With the economy and
 restricted travel by a lot of folks, plus my increased costs, it is
 becoming harder each year to put this event on. Because of Judy and
 Conrad, I was able to keep it happening this time.
 To the DDC: MIXED PAIRS started off the weekend as usual. Defending
 champs, Conrad Damon and Lori Daniels went through the double round
 robin without a loss, taking a close 16-14 game over second place pool
 finishers Harvey Brandt and Beth Verish (Beth being in the finals last
 year with Jon Freedman). Those two teams were dominant over the other
 3 teams in the field and after the pool action went straight to the
 finals. Beth and Harvey took the first game 16-10. Conrad and Lori
 rebounded in the second to win 15-13. Then Beth and Harvey took the
 deciding game 15-11. Beth Verish has really polished her game over the
 past few years. The LA group has been great for her. She kept the
 other team deep all weekend and played some great front. Definitely
 the MVP in the Mixed Pairs action.
 Results:
 1- Harvey Brandt / Beth Verish - 6-1 / 2-1
 2- Conrad Damon / Lori Daniels - 7-0 / 1-2
 3- Ray Mondo Chun / Tita Ugalde - 4-4
 4- Jody Lui / Ryan Peterson - 2-6  (Hawaii / Alaska team #1)
 5- Laura Gilda / Cillian O'Bairead - 0-8 (Hawaii / Alaska team #2)
 OPEN DDC brought a small but competitive group to the fields. In the
 first round robin pool, we added the two women's teams for a 9 team
 pool. In the second round, we scaled back to our 7 Open teams.  Cody
 Kirkland and Rick LeBeau came through the first round with an 8-0
 record, followed closely by defending AZ champs Conrad Damon and John
 Greensage. A modest surprise was the 3rd place showing by Dave
 Hesselberth and Dan Stork Roddick, taking their game with Harvey
 Brandt and Carlton Howard. In the second round Harvey and Carlton not
 only took the victory back from Dave and Stork but also were able to
 hand Cody and Rick their first defeat of the tourney. Conrad and John
 won the final round robin game against Cody and Rick to win the
 pool. Because of some travel issues, the semis took place Friday night
 rather than in the usual Sunday morning time slot. Conrad and John
 picked Dave and Stork as their opponents despite having thrashed
 Harvey and Carlton twice. The first game was pretty close, Conrad and
 John winning 21-16, but the second showed the strength of the champs
 as the won 21-7. In the other semi, Cody and Rick had all they could
 handle from Harvey and Carlton with excellent play from both
 teams. Each game was down the wire with a few unforced errors deciding
 the outcome. Cody and Rick advanced 21-17, 21-17. In the finals on
 Sunday morning, the first game was tight to the end, Conrad and John
 winning 15-13. Each successive game provided Conrad and John with a
 larger margin of victory, 15-11, and lastly 15-6. This observer
 thought that it mostly came down to unforced errors (doesn't it
 always?), allowing Conrad to tip out of doubles too often, and perhaps
 a missed double call or so. All in all, the conditions did not become
 a factor for either team and it was the solid play of the champs that
 brought them the title for the second year in a row.  I am including a
 PDF file with all the pools sheets and scores for your amusement.
 I want to make mention of the very improved play of the team of Chris
 Horn and Ray Trevino. They are the Open Division's Most Improved Team,
 and are also from the LA pod that gave us the hot Beth Verish. Add in
 Dan Roddick's high level of action and you can see that LA is really
 making some noise in DDC. We unfortunately did not get to see the
 highly respected LA team of Jon Freedman and Mark Horn and will have
 to wait to see them in action.  Kudos and thanks to the Alaska and
 Hawaii teams once again. We need to have an event in both of those
 locations. The word is that there are some 25 plus players in AK, and
 a whole lot of women joining in.
 Results:
 1- Conrad Damon / John Greensage - 13-1 / 2-0 / 3-0
 2- Cody Kirkland / Rick LeBeau - 12-2 / 2-0 / 0-3
 3T- Dave Hesselberth / Dan Roddick - 10-4 / 0-2
 3T- Harvey Brandt / Carlton Howard - 10-4 / 0-2
 5- Chris Horn / Ray Trevino - 6-8
 6- Cillian O'Bairead / Ryan Peterson - 3-11
 7- Matt Cameron / Cade Loving - 2-12
 8- Lori Daniels / Beth Verish - 1-7
 9- Laura Gilda / Jody Lui - 1-7
 your humble reporter, one of the old guys