Settlers of Catan 2002 Championships
Congratulations to:
Leigh Martin the 2002 Scottish Champion; and
Ashley Beckwith the runner up.
Both these fine players win the right to represent Scotland at the 2002 World Settlers of Catan Championships in Essen next month. [Only Ashley Beckwith was able to take part. You can see a report of the World Championships here.]
Twenty eight dedicated Settlers of Catan players battled through four rounds of very competitive play. The tournament used the basic layout and random allocation of tables - and so opponents - over four rounds. Tournament Points were accumulated and the highest total acclaimed the winner.
James Pinnion made a name for himself with two wins out of two, setting himself up as the player to beat. Unfortunately for James, that's exactly what happened as he crashed to a 4th place finish in round three. James recovered from that bruising blow to come within a whisper of a win in the last round, a win that would have sneaked him a second place and entry to Essen. Alas, for him, it was not to be.
Instead, the top places were being fought over by Leigh Martin, Ashley Beckwith, John Wilson and Hendrik Little.
Hendrik Little went 3rd, 1st, 2nd and 1st to finish second equal on points with 30 but third equal on tie break with John Wilson. John had gone 2nd, 3rd, 1st and 1st and may have wished this had been a five round event as he was clearly just warming up!
Paul Cantwell and Philippa Dall finished in 5th and 6th places with James Pinnion, Peter Wrigley, Tanya Fox and Gavin Tough rounding off the top ten.
It gives some idea of the calibre of play to note Tanya Fox is the English champion. Her 2nd, 3rd, 2nd and 1st performance hides at least one missed victory which I shall quickly pass over. Simply put, it was not Tanya's day so she must hope that's her got rid of her bad luck just in time to win the main event!
I want to finish this report firstly by thanking everyone who played for being so helpful, co-operative and downright easy to deal with. You made the event by your fair play and terrific attitude. I really appreciated it. (Even if my only chance of winning anything in this event was the wooden spoon!)
Second, please get in touch if you have any feedback. I welcome all constructive criticism. What was good? What did you like? What didn't you like? How could we improve? What else would you like to see? And so on. Please email me. I may not acknowledge messages but I promise to read them and carefully consider them. Thanks again.
Ellis Simpson1 September 2002