It was a glorious crisp fall morning, ideal for the tournament of champions -- the Wild Card Championships.  Coffee, breakfast, orange juice, all provided by Rowena Slee.  Glorious!

18 women and 12 men qualified by placing first through third in one of club's many Wild Card tournaments during the year. Competing in the grand finale were:

On the womens' side: Cinnamon Renvall, Eppie Ying, Joan Gardner, Liz Rutter, Shelly Schlender, Shin Kim, Susan Mann and Terry Quinlan.

On the mens' side: Alan Tam, Chris Bang, Chris Christopher, Ed Logwood, Ken Steiner, Larry Barclay, Mike Ying and Ron Wyman.

Things started slowly with many 2-2 ties in the first two rounds but then some players started to pull away, then others caught up again.  After more rounds of jockeying, five of the eight men were still in contention to win, and four of the women, going into the last round.

Liz Rutter and Susan Mann both scored three points in the last round to stay in joint first place, while Shin Kim and Terry Quinlan took joint third place,

Allan Tam's last round perfect score wasn't quite enough to catch Ed Logwood who took first place, leaving Allan in second.  Ken Steiner and Mike Ying tied in third place.

Congratulations to all competitors.  See you next year.  Your tournament director, Chris Slee.