Settlers of Catan 2004 Championships
Congratulations to: Gavin Inglis the 2004 Scottish Champion; and
Colin McKenna the runner up.
Both won the right to represent Scotland at the 2004 World Settlers of Catan Championships in October 2004.
The 2004 tournament attracted a bumper entry of 28 players.
The format was the same as the successful 2003 tournament but with a shorter time limit of 90 minutes a round:
- Four rounds of play;
- Each game had four players;
- Players were randomly allocated to boards;
- Each table in the same round used the same layout;
- The tournament points available were 10-8-6-4-2 with ties sharing equally;
- No individual scores were published until all the event finished;
Round by round
In round one the winners were Colin McKenna, Tanya Fox, Alastair Leishman, David Hislop, Lucinda Ackerman and Phillipa Dall.
In round two the winners were Gavin Inglis, Rik Little, Alastair Leishman, Gareth Fotheringham, Ricky Linton and Peter Donaldson.
In round three the winners were Gavin Inglis, Colin McKenna, Rik Little, Paul Cantwell, John Wilson and the Martin family - mother, father and child playing tag team Settlers!
In round four the winners were Gavin Inglis, Colin McKenna, Tanya Fox, Paul Cantwell, David Cromie and Brian Stern.
The top five were:
- Gavin Inglis - 36 points
- Colin McKenna - 34 points
- Rik Little - 32* points
- Alastair Leishman - 32* points
- Tanya Fox - 32 points*
*Places 3, 4 and 5 were decided by competitive die roll because all finished with two first places and two second places. So close!
We made a special award to Sean McLaughlin as the youngest individual participant.
The 90 minutes a round worked well. I only once came close to calling a game over before there was a fully fledged winner but Rik Little squeezed in the winning die roll as I was about to swoop. Colin McKenna came close to repeating his 2003 4/4 performance but stumbled in round two finishing a painful joint second. Gavin stumbled in round one with a second finish and then trotted off three wins in a row. Impressive.
Beyond that, it's difficult for me to add anything over last year's report when I commended the participants: no arguments, good play and a bunch of thoroughly nice people having fun. Great stuff.
Ellis Simpson
10 June 2004