WFDF Overall Championships

07/21/01 - 07/26/01 in San Diego, California

OPEN Division

WOMEN Division

JUNIOR Division

Greetings, intrepid DDC followers. By now, many of you have seen the
 results from DDC at WFDF. But what of the stories behind the finishes.
 How could so and so finish in such a place? How could they get into the
 top 10? And so on and so on. Well I'm not sure I have all those answers.
 But I can give you the basics
 And that's why I am here. We all need a meaning of life thing. And I
 guess this is mine. So here goes.
 Initial seeding was done according to Conrad Damon's ranking page. And
 as in the past, few teams made huge jumps one way or the other, showing
 that this method of seeding teams works as well or better than anything
 else. I'll list most of the finishers (OK, ALL, for those stat impaired)
 and show the seeding compared to finish. But towards the end.
 There were a total of 32 teams. This included everyone in the tourney
 playing DDC. Juniors (2 full and 2 half teams), Women (7 teams and a
 half), and Open (all the rest). Pool play was 2 pools of 7 teams and the
 other 3 with 6. Round robin action went mainly according to seed with
 only one 'third seed in pool' team cracking the top ten. That was the
 team of G. Kirkland and Judy Robbins, I believe it was the first all
 female team to be in a major top ten. To get there, they took out the
 number 8 seed team of Henricksson / Storz and also got past the team of
 T. Roddick / D. Roddick.
 I'm going to work back from the finals. Triumphing this year was the
 team of John Greensage and John Kirkland. Even though they had the worst
 record of the 4 semi teams, they cruised through the semis and finals
 with only one loss. In the finals, they took out Snapper Pierson and
 Rick LeBeau (11-15, 15-10, 15-13. 15-13), possibly their first ever loss
 in a finals? Snapper and Rick had both played in the golf finals that
 morning and had endured a 3 game match in the semis with Conrad Damon
 and Tony Pellicane (coming back from 17-20 in the third game). This is
 not to take anything away from JG and JK's victory, but it appeared that
 one team just had more energy in the finals. John and John took only 2
 games (also coming back from a deficit in the last game) to defeat
 Harvey Brandt and Sune Wentzel in their semi match (Brandt and Wentzel
 had gone 9-0 in the round of ten and actually chose JG and JK). I guess
 that should be the lesson, have more energy in the finals. Defeat your
 opponent quickly.
 The round of 10 was very competitive with several teams making great
 showings. Freedman and Horn edged out Hesselberth and Paulsen for 5th
 with a 15-13 victory. Rounding out the top ten were the following teams
 (with their 10 round record):
 5th - Freedman / Horn    4-5
 6th - Hesselberth / Paulsen    4-5
 7th - Josjo / Palm    3-6
 8th - Bergehamn / Sandstrom    3-6
 9th - Wright / Zimmerman    1-8
 10th - G. Kirkland / Robbins    0-9
 (Ties were broken on head to head record)
 The 'B' round of 10 was very competitive as well with excellent play.
 11th - Laubert / Sader    9-0
 12th - D. Roddick / T. Roddick    7-2
 13th - Henricksson / Storz    6-3
 14th - Beckman / Chantiles    6-3   (yes, the jambo himself!)
 15th - Cameranesi / Coddington    5-4
 16th - Gleason / Williams    4-5
 17th - Karlsson / Voigt    4-5
 18th - Ishihara / Kato    2-7
 19th - Celinder / Sillen    2-7
 The 'C' round of 10 contained many teams for whom this was their first
 World Overall.  Several teams were women's teams from Japan, 2 teams
 from the Republic of China, and some of the Juniors' teams. I'll include
 their finishes in the whole layout.
 OK, here is the whole enchilada. Finish / Team / Initial seeding
 1- Greensage + J. Kirkland / 3
 2- LeBeau + Pierson / 1
 3T- Damon + Pellicane / 2
 3T- Brandt + Wentzel / 4
 5- Freedman + Horn / 7
 6- Hesselberth + Paulsen / 6
 7- Josjo + Palm / 5
 8- Bergehamn + Sandstrom / 9
 9- Wright + Zimmerman / 10
 10- G. Kirkland + Robbins (W) / 13
 11- Laubert + Sader / 11
 12- D. Roddick + T. Roddick / 18
 13- Henricksson + Storz / 8
 14- Beckman + Chantiles / 16
 15- Cameranesi + Coddington / 12
 16- Gleason + Williams / 14
 17- Karlsson + Voigt / 15
 18- Ishihara + Kato / 21
 19- Celinder + Sillen / 17
 20- V. Titcomb + Z. Titcomb (V is Jr.) / 20
 21- Cohn + X. Titcomb (Jr.) / 19
 22- Yukari Komatsu + Yumiko Tauchi (W) / 22
 23- Lindqvist + Yaniv / 23
 24- Sanchez + Ugalde (W) / 20
 25- Miho Shimada + Yumiko Yoshida (W) / 29
 26- Shipos + Withiam (Jr.) / 25
 27- Huang + Lin / 31
 28- Bolyard + C. Kirkland (C is Jr.) / 24
 29- Yuko Hirose / Mayumi Shimomura (W) / 28
 30- Tomoyo Misumi + Chisato Nomura (W) / 27
 31- J. Titcomb + R. Titcomb (R is Jr. W) / 30
 32- Chien Yu-ting + Fan Li-min (W) / 32
 There were two multi generational teams (Dan Roddick + son Tyler
 Roddick, John Titcomb + daughter Rohre Titcomb) and also two families
 with all sorts of players sprinkled through the field. The Titcombs also
 had Vehro, Xtehn, Zahlen, and a bit of Qxhna playing. The Kirkland
 parents (though not playing together, what a shame) had son Cody playing
 and playing well. Both Cody and Qxhna are under 9 years old, so there is
 hope for the future.
 The biggest jump up was by 6 places for the Roddick squared team and
 their seeding was somewhat hindered by not having any ranking numbers
 for Tyler. They definitely showed some maturation as the event
 progressed. The biggest drop down was by 5 places for the Henricksson
 and Storz team.
 Even though given the number 2 seed, the team of Damon and Pellicane
 actually had the fourth best ranking numbers (21), behind Greensage and
 Kirkland (15) and Brandt and Wentzel (16). Conrad was given the higher
 seed due to being a defending champion and practice time with his
 partner, and Brandt and Wentzel were dropped a bit due to not having any
 real practice time together. Kirkland was given his seed only so that he
 could brag about busting seed again.
 AZ States in November should be very exciting DDC. The new WFDF
 championship team of Greensage and Kirkland is reported to be playing
 together. And defending AZ champs (and former WFDF champs) Brandt and
 Damon will be back together. Other pairings are not set but expect to
 see all of these players:  Pierson, LeBeau, Pellicane, Horn, Freedman,
 Paulsen, Roddick, Cameranesi, Coddington. A veritable who's who of top
 20 world ranked players.
 Air fares are fantastic right now, so I will put a plug in for AZ. (I am
 the stinking TD, after all.)  Dates are November 10 and 11. Tourney DDC
 is Sunday, with Friday night fun DDC and Monday casual DDC. Monday is
 Veterans Day this year so you might have a built in 3 day weekend.
 I think that is enough for now, your humble reporter.
 HYB