SUNDAY, July 27th 2008.
Yes, there were 300+ teams. The beach, a good 400 yards to the ocean, was packed. You couldn’t see the end of the fields. Not too long ago Wildwood had 150 teams and that seemed large. How many teams will the tournament cap it at?
“We haven’t found that number yet,” says Mike Adlis one of the tournament directors. “I suppose we could add another day if we get more teams, and maybe keep adding days.”
Its appeal is accessibility and lack of pretension. Everyone is welcome. Anyone can come. All levels of play are encouraged. There are sweet trophies for 40 teams. You can win your loser’s G bracket chumpionship and walk away with hardware.
Sunday’s weather was cool. A thunderstorm with lightning snaps came midway through the day and held off games for an hour and change.
The top pools were headlined by the usual suspects, the many-headed Horned Melons who fielded teams in both divisions and the octopus-like Yellow Submarine. Both are Philly-based teams and Wildwood is their backyard sand box.
The Melons lost to Yellow Sub in 3-1 semifinals, but advanced in semis over Sexually Considerate (New York) in the 2-2 division. Yellow Sub won the 3-1 again, practically a birthright for this team, over Do The Deed (DC, I think). In 2-2, Atlanta’s No Limit Pandas, one of the few teams to have actually taken a plane flight to Wildwood, won the 2-2 over the Melons after having defeated Big Fish (Boston/ Slow White) in the semis.
According to one of No Limit’s players, most of the team hadn’t even played on beach before.
The rain delay sent plenty of teams packing. Two teams, Death By Misadventure and Thunder Punch, set to match up in the finals decided to determine the winner realized they couldn’t play because many folks left. Instead they competed in a boardwalk carney watergun-shoot-the-target race, won by Thunder Punch.
To get a copy of the 2007 tournament DVD, email kenne DOT hemphill AT gmail DOT com.
To see some tournament pictures, check out briancanniff.smugmug.com
