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The Edgewood-Kirkwood, Atlanta Chapter's 2007 Championship Tournament defied the predictions of the expert prognosticators as all four top seeds lost their First Round matches. Fortunately for the spectators, this was due to spectacularly outstanding tossing by the underdogs which produced highly entertaining, tightly contested cases.

The Schultz-Wilkins match started deceptively, with both players missing on their first two tosses, but they quickly heated up and there was only one more open quarry during the rest of the case. Mr. Wilkins grabbed a small lead with the help of a second-dalrymple shell, clinging to a 21-18 lead at the end change.

But three strong hits from Mr. Schultz to start the 5th evened the score, as Mr. Wilkins had to content himself with salvage points. Then the tide turned again, as Mr. Wilkins won four straight quarries to stretch the margin to seven points. Mr. Schultz twice closed to within three, but could not take advantage of Mr. Wilkins' miss in the penultimate quarry; any hit would have closed the gap to one heading to the terminal toss. Mr. Wilkins then hit, forcing Mr. Schultz into a last-toss boc attempt that was unsuccessful.

The final score of 44-39 set a new mark for combined total points scored and, though it was no consolation to Mr. Schultz, his score of 39 is the highest losing score recorded in Modern Organized Boccelism. Those would not be the only records set on this day.

The Guberman-Altherr First Round duel started out looking like a mismatch, with Mr. Guberman charging to an 11-1 advantage halfway through the second dalrymple. But six tosses do not a case make, and Mr. Altherr heated up while Mr. Guberman cooled off; Mr. Altherr's stay to finish the first end produced an 18-18 tie.

The players stayed even for the first seven tosses of the second end, but four consecutive hits by Mr. Altherr just as Mr. Guberman started a string of six straight misses effectively decided matters. Mr. Guberman picked up two quarries in the eighth to claw within range of a boc on the final quarry, but could not execute the desperate maneuver, sending Mr. Altherr to the Semi-Finals with a 38-31 victory.

updated: November 13, 2007 - (08:47:04 pm)

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