1st Round
Owen 17 Scott 13
The opening match was everything one would hope for in an introduction: fierce competition, focused endeavor, and a touch of fate’s cruel hand. After Owen’s opening single, Kong answered with 8 straight points on four ends. Owen then got two back, only then to relinquish 3 to Scott on the return. With the score 11-3, the two then split 2-point ends. Owen then scored the next 12 points on ends of 6,3, and 3 to finish a miraculous comeback. Quite a start.

Shalen 17 Martin 6
A well-played final puck by Shalen on the first end might have made all the difference in this one. His shot removed 5 opposing points from the table. If there was ever a helpful open end, that was it. Later , Shalen laid down a 5-point end, which included a kielbasa, to make it 11-3. Martin fought back to 11-6 on the next end, but Shalen finished with 6 straight points on two ends to win 17-6 over last year’s CDP champ.

Dan 19 David 2
Let’s just say that Dan used this game to serve notice to the rest of us as to what we were to expect from him on the night. Despite a fine effort, David proved no match for the assassin. Dan finished with a stoutly pronounced 7 on the last end.

2nd Round
Owen 15 Gerard 1
As it turns out, Gerard is not #1. Owen’s fine play this year continued as he made short work of Mr. Lester in this one. Once again, Owen used a late string, this one of 13 straight, to finish off the job.

Dan 16 Shalen 5
Shalen might tell you he was in this match. He might tell you a lot of things. He might even stray off topic a few times. He might even propose a movie idea about a diving movie shot entirely from the surface. You will be pretending to listen, hoping he would just stop. The same thing happened in this match, except he did stop. Just enough to hear Dan say, “Wake up dreamer, and watch me plow your yard!” It was a classic “class beats mass” affair. Dan won easily and promptly started counting the money in the dish.

3rd Round
Dan 16 Owen
In what would have been the single elimination final, Dan fought back from 0-5 score to win at a jog 16-7. He spiced the sweet victory with a hanger and ends of 4 and 3 to finish out.

Loser’s bracket
David 16 Martin 7
David’s solid play had gone unrewarded against the surgical precision of Dan’s earlier win. However, in this match, he got the result he deserved. David got 10 out of the last 12 points to eliminate last year’s Coppa champion. For once, it was not Martin’s night.

Scott 16 Shalen 10
Shalen got off to a 10-0 start, but could not finish the task against a determined King Lebold. After the matches second open end, Scott scored 8 straight to finish the comeback. Shalen’s second hanger of the night proved merely a notable in defeat.

David 15 Gerard 3
Gerard opened with a 3, but that’s all he got as David rolled the next 15 out like velvet carpet over a dirt floor. The win assured him of at least an even mark on the night and things began to look a bit more promising.

Scott 11 David 0
Shutout. Simple as 3-1-2-5. Kong was once again boiling up from the bottom of the pot.

Scott 16 Owen 7
In the only rematch on the night, Scott got his revenge, beating the man who had previously sent him to the loser’s bracket. With strings of 9 and 7 points, Scott punched his ticket to the final the hard way. For the second time in as many years, Scott had battled back in the Coppa. His new nickname is True Grit.

Dan 16 Scott 9
It’s probably best that Dan won, because we were all pretty tired of the Rumpus Room. Plus, Scott had to be beaten due to his consistent ED infraction. That’s “early departure”, by the way. He did manage to make the match interesting with a hanger, but Dan proved he was of another class on the night. Two straight 4-point ends to finish proved an ample pronouncement of his dominant run. His victory made it the second year running that the current Hammer holder has won the spring cup. The win was also notable in that he was the lowest seed going into the tournament.

Other scraps: Scott = True Grit; Owen = 84 Weeks; “Boston Brown Eye”; Gerard still might win. – Scrappy
Bars: Clyde Common, Rumpus Room, Agenda?
Fathers: Dan, Scott, David, Gerard, Martin, Shalen, Owen