The Players
The field was impressive with many high profile players. There were five previous WSC winners — Mark Nyman (1993), David Boys (1995), Joel Sherman (1997), Joel Wapnick (1999) and Panupol Sujjayakorn (2003).
From North America there were the current champ Dave Wiegand (US) and former champ Adam Logan (Canada), as well as former Canadian champ Ron Hoekstra
From the UK there were former national champs winners Russell Byers, Phil Appleby, Brett Smitheram and Harshan Lambadusuriya, as well as former Scottish champ Allan Simmons.
From Africa there were former national champs Trevor Hovelmeier and Dylan Early (South Africa),
From Asia there were 2003 WSC runner-up Pakorn Nemitrmansuk (Thailand), Malaysian champ Ganesh Asirvatham, Indian and former Gulf Champ Akshay Bhandarkar, former Australian Champ Cheah Siu Hean (Singapore).
From Australia there were current Australian champ and former Gulf champ Naween Fernando, former Australian champ Paul Cleary, former British champ Andrew Fisher.
Of those players who gave their age, the youngest was Samitha Amarasinghe, aged 14 from Sri Lanka, while the oldest was Joel Wapnick, aged 59, from Canada.
Team NZ
New Zealand was represented by
Jeff Grant, who is one of only two players to have played in all eight WSC events (the other is Joel Wapnick). Jeff has multiple NZ national and Masters titles and his best place in WSC is 3rd in 1995
Day 1
Team NZ got off to a bad start, with only Nigel and Peter being able to win their round 1 games. By round 4, Nigel had climbed up to second on the leaderboard with 4 wins. Peter and Rogelio were on 2 wins. Jeff had a draw against Panupol with 430 points, and was on 1.5 wins, with Howard on 1 win. There were at that stage 6 unbeaten players.
At the end of day 1 after 8 games Adam Logan (Canada) was the sole unbeaten player. Ganesh Asirvatham (Malaysia) and David Boys (Canada) were on 7 wins and Gerald Carter (Thailand) was on 6.5.
Nigel was in the next group of 10 players on 6 wins, and in 9th place. Jeff ended the day on 4.5 wins, with Rogelio, Howard and Peter all on 3 wins.
Day 2
After four games on day 2 Nigel was holding on to 10th place with 8 wins, while the other Kiwis struggled for form. Adam dropped two games to slip to second place and Ganesh took the lead. Australia held the next three places, with Andrew, Paul and Naween all on 9 wins.
At the end of 9 games on day 2 it was tight at the top with 4 players on 13 wins from 17 — Adam, Naween, Pakorn and Peter Armstrong (US). Nigel remained the best Kiwi, but had slipped to 20th place on 10 wins. Howard won 6 games (unfortunately at the expense of Peter and Jeff) and climbed up the leaderboard. In round 16 Rogelio had a good game against Mark Nyman (England). bingoing three times with PENCILS, TURDOID and RESITING, ending up with 425 points. He would have won, too, except that Mark scored 680 points, bingoing HEATHEN, NEMATODE, PREADULT and the triple-triple TETANIZE (see board at right).
Day 3
After four games, Adam was the only one of the top four to win all the games and he took a 1 game lead on 17 wins, ahead of Naween (16), Paul and Pakorn (15). It was looking good for Australia, with all four of their team in the top 13. Howard and Nigel were the best of the Kiwis on 11 wins, but were well down the field.
In round 22 Adam beat Naween 432-386 and took a two-win lead. Pakorn beat Paul and joined Naween on 16 wins. With only two rounds left to go
Adam was virtually assured of taking the top spot as his spread was more than 700 points ahead of his nearest rival. Attention turned to who might face him in the final.
In round 23 Pakorn and Naween faced off. In a very tight game, with both players in time trouble, Pakorn emerged the winner by 393-327 and took a 1-win lead over the field going into the final round.
There were three contenders for the second spot in the final — Pakorn needed only to win his final game versus Gareth Williams (Wales); If Naween or Ganesh win and Pakorn loses, they may get to play. If Gareth wins big over Pakorn, he could be a contender.
Pakorn ended up winning by only 1 point and plays in his second WSC final. Naween beat Ganesh by five points and retained third place on 17 wins. Ganesh and Gareth ended up in fourth and fifth place respectively on 16 wins.
An extraordinary performance by the Australian team, with all four players in the top quarter of the field means that they will get an extra team member in the next WSC. David Eldar finished in 11th place—a fantastic performance for a 16-year-old in his first WSC.
Howard won his last three games and climbed up to 18th place on 14 wins. Nigel had four consecutive losses and dropped to 47th place on 12 wins. Rogelio also managed 12 wins, while Jeff and Peter finished on 11.5 and 10 wins respectively.
Final
Game 1 was a tense affair. Adam built a 44-point lead, but Pakorn found the first bingo. Holding ACDIOSU he played EDACIOUS through a floating E. Adam kept pace until Pakorn scored his second and third bingos — GRINDER and VALETING to take a 86-point lead. Adam replied with a bingo of his own — STATURE to reduce the lead to 18 points, but Pakorn scored59 with the Z and went into the end game with a 56-point lead. Unfortunately for him Adam was able to score 140 points for the triple-triple TWISTIER and Adam won 524-419.
In game 2 Adam scored 89 for RIBANDS on his second turn Pakorn came straight back with CATTAILS. Adam went ahead again with 77 for GNARRED, and when he scored 60 for REX/XENIA it was looking grim for Pakorn. Another bingo — VAUNTIER let Pakorn back into the game, and he managed to get to within 44 points of the lead with 54 points for YOMP on a triple. However Adam played his third bingo ELODEAS and kept a comfortable lead for the rest of the game. Pakorn got caught with the Q as well as a 30-point time penalty, for a 520-316 loss.
Adam started the next game with a rack of AEIIPRU, but found the unusual EURIPI to rid himself of unpromising tiles. Pakorn was not so lucky — holding ACIGLUW he could only play WAG. Adam immediately hooked an S in front, making AURATES, and in his next move he scored a double-double with RECOINED and a 120-point lead. Pakorn got down TEAMING and after his fifth move the game was even at 218-216 to Adam. A further bingo—ANCONES put Adam out in front. But Pakorn scored well with his Z and found a late bingo with BIRSLED to put him 20 points in front, with only 14 unplayed tiles remaining.
Adam scored 50 points for HORNED on the triple, and picked up the two remaining tiles. Pakorn held FIIHLUW and was only able to score 28 for HUI to trail by 2 points. Adam played out with IRK to win the game 465-426 and become the 2005 World Champion.