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→The 2004-2005 Season: notes and changes
Jonathan continued to have the edge in skunks, collecting 13 to Zach’s 8 as his ever more aggressive play continued to pay off. When a large lead materialized early in the game, double skunks, or winning by 61 points, were often the subject of trash talking, but neither player would amass that large a margin of victory by the end of any match. This saved the two from deciding whether the elusive double skunk would be worth four points, or some other value in the tally.
As the year wore on, it was clear that the training Zach had in early life at the hands of his father and grandfather had paid off handsomely for him, as he waltzed through the season with Jonathan in his rear view mirror. Jonathan trailed by an average of ~10 games throughout the season, coming within one game of zach only once, and no closer. The frustration, as he began to slip back down to his prior ten-game deficit, was enough to play hell with send his schoolwork schedulewill to read Melville's ''Pierre'' down the crapper.
Meanwhile, the return to focus on cribbage, and less leaving distractions such as Go, Ms. Pacman, and term papers, were certainly a factor in Zach’s excellent year. Another possible reason for the season’s result was that it was Zach’s second year in a Greylock dorm -– it certainly became a comfort zone for matches and perhaps reached the point of an unfair home-field advantage.
After four years of learning each others' tendencies and styles, the duo could play in almost any environment, maintaining same easy rhythm to the game. Music, especially in Jonathan’s room, was background to almost every contest; Marc Cohn’s ''Walking in Memphis'' and Dexy's Midnight Runners’ ''Come on Eileen'' were just two among many favorites. Playing in front of the TV was a new and frequent feature this year, especially if the MTV show ''Boiling Points'' happened to be on. To be honest, the friends often scheduled game sessions specifically to coincide with showings of ''Boiling Points''.
=== The 100th game of 2004-2005 ===
The hundredth game was played in Fitch Hall on January 9th, : by far the earliest 100th game contested by farin any season. It was held during [[Fitch ]]'s Sunday Tea and was a low-key matchup played before a group of about 15 odd-quadders, many of whom left for [[Driscoll ]] dinner before the game was even over, and never knew it was taking place. It isn’t even remembered who won the game, --though statistically Zach probably did – the . The game held less significance than in past years as it was merely a step toward the Big One – - the 500th game at Williams.
=== The 500th Game ===
Zach and Jonathan’s four years of friendship and cribbage culminated in early April with the 500th game played since that fateful fall day freshmen year when Jonathan saw Zach’s board and inquired “You play?†and Zach answered “Yes.†A perfect situation unfolded for the 500th game – Chadbourne resident and cribbage fan Robert Hahn '05 had scheduled a root beer keg party for Saturday April 10th, and welcomed Zach and Jonathan's big game to during the festivities. To promote the blockbuster event, the following ad was run in the Daily Messages the week of April 4th:
<blockquote>Cribbage Fan??? Come to the Williams Cribbage Club's annual meeting on Saturday April 9th. The two titans of the college game, Jonathan Landsman '05 and Zach McArthur '05 square off in their 500th game of their career at 1pm on Perry Volleyball Court.<br><br>
* '''Sheer volume.'''
*'''Official scoreboard story.'''
=== Final Statistics, 2004-2005 ===