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The 8th incarnation of Bg Live in London - what were the
highlights, the lows and what could have run better? Overall is
was I think a great success however that's not for me to decide
'cause I'm only the bloke that sets it up - it's the player's
views that are important and the feedback questionnaires will take
a week or two to come in.
We were all in the one venue this year - no repeat of 3 different
venues that we had last year because it left the crew too tired
over the weekend and was confusing for players. The King's Stores
by Liverpool Street Station in The City of London got the job and
Farhed and his staff once again rose to the challenge and were
wonderful hosts. Out of Town players were scattered around various
Travel Lodges around the City and some elected to stick with the
YHA at Surrey Quays. As such late night (all night) play was not
really part of this years gig but we did have later licenses for
the Friday and Saturday which were sufficient.
The big introduction this year was clock play. I firmly believe
that Clock Play is coming into Tournament Backgammon and will
within a year or two become the norm in International Tournaments.
Bg Live in London might not be the most prestigious event on the
calendar but it has always been designed to show players what
playing in prestigious events is going to be like. Bg in London is
already equipped with 32 clocks thanx to a very generous donation
from PartyGammon so it was a logical step to swing them into
action and train up players in their use. The vast majority of
players at this years Bg Live in London had never used clocks
before so it was an ambitious plan to introduce them to clock play
en masse. But Bg Live in Londons are Group Learning sessions as
well so I considered it the ideal time to teach a lot of players
all together. It would, I thought, either go very well or very
badly. If the latter I would probably suffer an almightily dent to
my reputation but it was a chance I was willing to take to
progress Tournament Backgammon.
Most players were signed up at least a month before the event but
at long last the Friday evening came and people were gathering at
upstairs in The King's Stores. Martin Birkhahn arrived early and
was put work moving tables, laying out boards and putting names on
programmes while a friend of mine made bundles of $32 Back of
Backgammon in London Bucks to go with programmes. By 6.00pm we
were set and others started to arrive. Dinner for those that
wished it was next door in a little Indian Restaurant because The
King's Stores doesn't do food on a Friday evening so they can
concentrate of pulling pints for thirsty City Workers who invade
all and every pub around the City of London on Friday evenings. At
9.15pm we kicked off the Weekend Knockout in the upstairs (which
we had to ourselves) of The King's Stores . 34 players (same
number as last year) were signed up for this free tournament and
Rounds 1 and 2 were played. That was the easy bit of this
tournament -
it's the later matches in this weekend long tournament that
usually run into trouble simply because there is so much
backgammon to play over the weekend but at least we were on
schedule. We also had 2 TTTs and 2 Jackpots this evening. The
first TTT grew and grew until there were 10 players but some had
to leave to catch last trains so it was agreed to finish it on the
morrow. At 1.00am it was time to leave for various hotels and
homes. I'm not sure if players continued play until the wee hours.
Adam decided to let his cat have an impromptu diet and came back
to my flat and crash on my new sofa bed. I think it was about
4.30am when we decided it was time to get some kip.
My alarm clock decided to take the morning off so our pre-booked
cab driver was the alarmist. Still wearing my sleeping robe I
shouted to the driver"5 minutes." He didn't look convinced and I
jumped into the shower. I think it was 10 minutes later, the
driver told me it was 15 minutes and he looked like a religious
man so I doubt he lied and off we headed for The King's Stores.
Adam and I had decided the seminar would be better placed
downstairs in The King's Stores rather than in the small space
upstairs so we had some furniture removal to do. During this a leg
fell off the T.D. table but Richard found a hammer and two nails
and I said a pray to the table gods. By 9.00am we were all set,
tea, coffee and biscuits were laid out and players started
arriving. Sean Williams was our Saturday Seminar Giver this year
and his topic was "The Other Side of The Board." It was well
attended and the seminar should be published in due course. As
soon as the seminar was over Sean had to leave us - he was in a
crucial period of work this weekend and there was no time for him
to play. We would therefore have a new Champ 'o' Champs this year.
62 players were there for the Singles. We had built up to 64
but 2 players had had to drop out. Before the draw was made there
was an Optional Main Pool for players to enter and a Group Auction
to happen. Our Auctioneer this year was Richard Biddle. He's done
them before but never has he been in such form as he was today. He
quipped and wisecracked about players left, right and centre and
raised the auction money to a goodly sum. He actually overran his
allotted time but everybody was enjoying his repartee so much I
didn't let it worry me.
We run a Main, Plate 1, Plate 2 and Plate 3 in the Singles
Knockout. No progressive stuff here due to the fact that were are
on a seriously small window in which to get the event played
because about 2/3rd of the way though the event most players leave
to go on a jolly little boat trip. It's the day of the Lord
Mayor's Show and as such there is a fireworks display on the river
Thames. So if you lose a Singles match you take the next available
slot in a Plate Tournament - no hanging about for an opponent, it's as
quick as can be. In the setting up of this event I had been
tempted to use clocks for this tournament but because there was no
time available in which to teach players how to use them this was
not built in. Besides I wanted players to learn together and that
would be better achieved in the Doubles Tournament.
By 3.15 we were pretty well advanced in The Singles but not quite
on schedule. One or two players had ordered something to eat at
about 2.00pm, others saw and smelt the food and did likewise. I
watched my schedule waft out of the window. Zoe wasn't due to go
on the Boat Trip but saw that she needed to in order to keep The
Main on track, so she did. Last year we had a coach to take
players to the boat. This was driven by "Countrie Boy Ted"
who got lost and nearly caused half the players to miss the boat.
So this year I reverted to using mini-cabs. Lots of them from lots
of different companies; eggs in different baskets thinking. It
worked. Cabs arrived to the door of The King's Stores and off
players went in the rain. I heard by phone that all but 5
passengers made it to the boat on time. The missing 5 were
non-players who were to due meet the boat at the embarkation point
of St Katherine's Pier. They were stuck on a tube but got word
though to Sue Keeble that they were running late but Sue fully
understood if we had to leave without them. The Captain stalled
his departure for 5 minutes but could do no more so the boat left
without them.
Irving was our On Board T.D. again this year and despite starting
with only 63 passengers on board still managed to run a full 12 On
Board Tournaments. However those lost passengers did get on board.
The Captain allowed them to board at Temple Pier where the boat
moored to watch the fireworks. Good man he. One of the late
arrivals, Luca Onisto, also managed to win an On Board Tournament.
Fireworks went up, play stopped, heads went up to watch and boat
turned round back to St Katherine's Pier where cabs were waiting
for passengers. Meanwhile those who hadn't gone on the Boat Trip
played some On Shore Tournaments back in The King's Stores.
At 6.15pm The King's Stores filled up again. Those still in the
Singles were ushered upstairs to finished their matches and others
sat down to eat. At 7.00pm it was Presents Time. Every player was
asked to bring a present for another player, those that do have
their names drawn at random and receive a present from
another. Presents ranged from rather nice bottles of wine, cushion
covers and silly toys but it should be said that some of the
presents were a little disappointing this year.
The Singles carried on with Plate 3 competing first and won by
Mike Bailey - one of only 3 of us who has attended every BGLIL.
Plate 2 was won by Fergus Cooney who's been doing a lot of work on
his play over the last three years. Plate 1 went to Martin
Hoekstra who'd come over from Holland with Arend. The Main however
was taking longer than hoped for and didn't complete before the
Doubles so some doubles matches had to start without 1 player
involved. But a long last we had a winner - Nicolas Guibert won
over Nick Boles. Could they keep up their good record and gain
more Champ 'o' Champs points over the weekend or would others
over-take them. Martin Birkhahn was a Semi-finalist in the Main
and he knew and was working on his target.
20 pairing registered for the Doubles. Only 7 of the 40 players
had played with clocks before. I'd intended to set clock times to
30 seconds per move and a time bank of 10 minutes for the 3 point
matches throughout. However in the days preceding the event when
I'd set up the time allowances on our 32 clocks I could only set
the seconds per move to maximum 19 seconds. This seems a very
strange feature of the Excalibur Gametime 2 clocks and if anybody
has sussed out how to set it to more please do
let me know. So I
set the clocks to 19 seconds per move and a time bank of 15
minutes. Just before the draw I gave a quick introduction to clock
play rules and advised players that there was really nothing to
fear in using them. The draw was done and off they went to play.
Everybody settled down and there were no early problems at all.
I'm now struggling to find words to write about the players using
clocks simply because they took it all in their stride - there
wasn't a single problem raised. Sure, because they were 4 players
per match of course the workload of donking clocks, picking up
"the opponent's dice" dice and getting used to the rhythm of using
clocks was shared about but a "no problems" situation was far more
than I had expected. All in all it seemed to prove that the fear
of using clocks is totally unfounded and purely based on "fear of
the great unknown." Players can play backgammon to either side of
the board and hence are equally adept playing right to left and
left to right so why can't they play with or without clocks? It's
just a new routine to learn.
As last year Monica and Alan Beckerson (this year playing as the
OAPs) were Finalists - could they manage to win the final this
year. Due to the Singles running late and we had had a delay in
Doubles matches being able to be played and it was arranged that
the Doubles Final would be played first thing in the morning hence
allowing the OAPs a good sleep. Not quite true that - Nicky Check
(half of the Black Ravans playing with Catalin Barcur) wanted the
early night. In the morning, after the Chris Bray seminar, The
Doubles Final happened and the Black Ravens won. So lots of
Champ 'o' Champs points for Nicky and Catalin but Martin Birkhahn
was a Semi-finalist in this event too and consistency over the
weekend was building up his C'o'C points.
Tric Trac Tournos were a larger part of this years Bg Live in
London with 8 of them happening with Bedstefar and Clan enjoying a
lot of them. Jackpots happened as and when required and acted as
fillers for those that wished them.
An element missing from this years Bg Live in London was the late
night / all night play. Few players had elected to stay at the YHA
because they had found good deals in various Travel lodges around
the City of London close to The King's Stores. I'm not sure that
the lack of late night play was greatly missed (we did have a late
licence until 2.00am on the Saturday night which was ample for
players) or is it that I'm just getting older? Either way it has
been noted that very cheap beds are to be had in The City on
weekends and this I'm sure will come in as handy knowledge for
plans we here at Bg in London have for 2009.
Sunday morning and it's the Chris Bray Seminar. Chris has given a
seminar for the last few years and it really is a huge draw for
this weekend. He's also written another book this year -
"Backgammon for Dummies" and the publishers (Wiley's) generously
gave 5 copies to be handed out as prizes and discounted copies of
the book can be obtained via
here. "How to Win 5-pt Matches" was
Chris's chosen subject this year and about 30 players were seated
by 09.30am. The Powerpoint presentation is now
published.
The format of the Sunday Tournament at Bg Live in Londons has been
altered nearly year on year. In the first years we ran a Swiss but
I loath Swiss used in backgammon so it got altered to an Olympiad
format that I devised which kept all 32 players active by putting
them back in time and time again. This however ran into problems
due to slow matches. Clock play could have been introduced but
clock play was still at that stage an untried and tested idea. So
last year we ran a League / Knockout which worked well but players
found the match lengths (3 pointers) short. Given that Chris
Bray's seminar this year was on 5 pointers it was logical to run a
5 point based tournament. Add in the fiasco of the MSO 2008 Swiss
Tournament and I was once again inspired to see if I could come up
with a Swiss format that actually works for players and TD alike.
Swiss also needs players to play at a fairly similar pace of play
so Clock Play has a valid place in it. Hence I sat down a few
weeks before Live in London 2008 to see what I could come up with.
The ethos of Bg Live in Londons is on bg fun and learning in a
group situation. Money play is a small part of the event which
means that I can play around with it to suit the event. With
upwards of 64 players due to attend on the Sunday I could
guarantee to run a full 32 player Swiss and other events for the "spillover
players" some of whom would not wish to play Swiss anyway. A 5
round Swiss tournament all of 5 pointers all played on clocks. The
major problem with Swiss is that players that do not do well drop
out as the tournament progresses. So my answer was simple - give
them a carrot to play on. The Prize Fund would be split 33% to the
player that wins 5 out 5, 33% to the 5 players that win 4 out of 5
and 33% to the 10 players that win 3 out of 5. Any player that did
not play all 5 matches would forfeit their right to their share of
the Prize Fund. Big trophy for the winner, trophies for those on 4
out of 5, medals for those on 3 out of 5 and bag of marbles for
the player on 0 out of 5. Run the whole event on clocks and away
we go. Would it work? Bg in London tries yet another format tailor
made to push forward the boundaries of live backgammon tournament
play.
I'd love to say it ran like a dream but that wouldn't be totally
true. I missed one item. Food. At nearly 50 years of age I only
need maximum 1 meal a day and I'm quite happy to have that way
late at night if at all. But other human beings bodies don't
operate this way so after Round 1 (midday) a few players ordered
their meal and wanted to stop play to eat it. After Round 2 even
more players wanted to stop and eat as well. My smooth even
running tournament was getting blips in it's timings. In hindsight
I should have made then all play Rounds 1 ands 2, then let them
all eat, and then carry on with Rounds 3, 4 and 5. But that was
the only blip. The clock play, 15 seconds per move and 12.5 minutes
time bank, presented no problems for players,
nobody timed out, players could see, due to the computerised
programming of the tournament who they would play next and every
player played every game - even the dead-rubber match.
We very nearly had a repeat of last years final match between Adam
Tansley and Chris Bray but it wasn't quite to be. Chris lost to
the marvellously on form Martin Birkhahn in Round 4 and Martin
then went on to win the Swiss Tournament.
While the Swiss was going on we had other action too - 2 Team
Tournaments, Jackpots, Tric Trac Tournos and Blitz Tournaments for
those that had really got into clock play. Variety is the spice of
life and wherever you went in The King's Stores there were matches
happening. And it wasn't only backgammon - there was a table with
Pass the Pigs on and another table for the Indian board game -
carrum that attracted a good deal of attention.
At long last, slightly behind schedule, but nobody seemed to care,
tournaments were completing and it was time to award trophies.
Martin Birkhahn should have come forward to receive trophies but
was still involved in the Weekend Knockout Final. Fergus gathered
a good haul of trophies and medals, Alan Beckerson had three medal
around his neck, others had two and a lot of others picked up 1
trophy or medal.
We couldn't finalise the Champ 'o' Champs points table because we
still had the Weekend Knockout to complete. This should have been
played by 4.00pm Sunday but Martin Birkhahn had been involved in
so many Quarters, Semis and Finals that there was no way he had
had time to play them all so, for the second year running, the
Weekend Tournament was allowed an extension in time. However it
looked as if Martin had done enough to win the C 'o' Champs but
with C'o'C points
coming from every tournament played over the weekend I wanted to
check and double check it before announcing the winner. A day or
two later, after some much needed sleep, I worked out who was our
Champ 'o' Champ 2008 - Mr Martin Birkhahn of Germany.
And so ever onwards to the Gang Tournament - the best bit of the
weekend. There were 19 players up for it so Zoe (the Gang
Tournament T.D. and inventor of the format) split them at random
into 2 Teams. A very noisy 3 point match then happened with loads
of heckling from both sides. The 9 player Team won. With so many
players Zoe then ran a Main and a Consolation Gang Tournament -
Main at the front of the pub, Conso at the back of the pub next to
a TTT going on for those that wished that. In Round 3 of the Main
I was paired with Martin Hoekstra. He was rolling but to tell this
story I should hand you over to Fergus who posted the following on
DailyGammon a few days after:
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Lol.
Martin's (EU-BNL-Frantic's) trophy was well deserved. That was a
match that had us rolling, players and watchers alike.
It was the Gang Tourney and Mike (MikeMadMonk, head honcho of the
whole shebang) and Martin were paired against myself and a chap
called Simon. It was DMP and coming up to bearoff time. I was in
the captain's seat and rolling badly with horrible low numbers and
thinking that we were going to lose. I was giving the dice to
Simon to roll but he wasn't doing much better and kept giving the
dice back.
But then Martin decided to show us amateurs how to do it properly.
He rolled a 2-1 and then a 3-1, and more 2-1s and 3-1s, like a
magician, with an occasional 4-1 or 5-1 for variety. He had so
many ones that it looked like he must have snuck in in a special 6
x 1s dice. Only occasionally did he disappoint with a larger roll.
Everyone was chuckling and Mike was going spare next to him.
Eventually Mike leapt up and stormed off to the trophy table,
grabbed a trophy and stomped back back to Martin and thrust it at
him declaring it the prize for "The Worst Roller".
But then he changed his mind. No, you get this because you're the
"The Worst Roller EVER!!". The huge gestures and big grin on
Mike's face as he did this had everyone cracking up. Martin was
great and took the honour with dignity and humour. And then
continued with the teeny rolls. What a pro. So Mike got up and got
a medal for him as well! Martin was the only person to get a
double award for truly outstanding performance!
Needless to say, Simon and I just couldn't compete with Martin's
splendid rolling and he forced us into a win. :o(
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Another Bg Live in London successfully in the bag with
lots of
people really enjoying their weekend. But no Bg Live in London is
ever quite the same for each one always has new goals. This year
the goal, at least for me, was to put
into practice Clock Play and see if it is a viable thing to do.
Sure, time allowances were so generous that "time outs" were
highly unlikely but the point is that an entire group of
backgammon players used clocks for the first time and nobody came
away from the event saying they hated them. Hence my conclusion is
that all the talk about the problems of Clock Play is just a lot
of hot air. Players took to clock play as a duck takes to water.
Many thanx to the players and friends who all came along. There
are far to many of yous to mention so I'll not even try to start
but suffice to say it's all done for you and I think yous all
enjoyed yourselves.
A huge thank you to the Bg in London Crew. Richard for his help
wherever needed and especially his Auction, Michelle for running
TTTs galore and for smiling so so much, Zoe for filling in
wherever needed no mater how boring the job, Adam for doing this
and that and the other and his Quizzes, Sean who was hardly with
us due to work but is always an inspiration, Irving for running
the On Boards, John B for his advice and Peter Bennet for his
support. Chrissi was only with us for the Friday evening this
year. She woke up sick on the Saturday morning and we never saw
her again over the weekend. Her presence was missed by all but she
does not go unthanked: Every year Bedstefar brings over an "Anni
Plate". It goes to the person who has done the most towards the
event. Bg Live in London is now part of Bg in London and it takes
a lot to run. Very little that we do is not discussed - we spend
hours upon hours on planning gigs and making sure we're giving
players the very best experience we can. Chrissi is in this very
much part of the process; it's Chrissi who is our eyes and ears
and so so often it's the little things that she spots and acts
upon that makes events go well. So Chrissi, thanx for all your
input and care - you take The Anni Plate 2008.
And so we look forward to Bg Live in London 2009 - as ever it'll
be on the 2nd weekend in November. However before that Bg in
London intends to run some other weekend long tournaments in
London during 2009. They won't be the non-money play events that Bg
Live in
in London's are but will incorporate clock play. Watch the website for details as we publish. |