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Many thanx to Danny Gallagher for running this years backgammon
tournament at the annual Mind Sports Olympiad Cambridge which this
year was held in Trinity College. There were 9 players, a Main,
Consolation and Last Chance.
Richard Biddle drove Linda Taylor and myself up to Cambridge, John
Broomfield had spent the night with his family in Cambridge, Loen
Fotiadis and Chris Purchase drove over while Sean Williams & Zoe
Cunningham came by train to returned to their very Cambridge
College which is were they picked up their doubles play name of Z3
Blue Boar DreamTeam.
So for a change I (Mike Main) was a player. As luck would have it
I was drawn to play in the 1st Round while everybody else (apart
from my opponent Danny) got a bye. I a close 11 pointer I
progressed leaving Danny in the Consolation. Next I played Linda
Taylor. I got (to use a St Albans Club term) "Lindaed" in the
first game = 4-0 to Linda. After a long slugfest the scores drew
level at 6-6 after which I crept slowly towards the finishing post
just ahead of Linda.
While this had been going on the Consolation was progressing well
and the Last Chance was about to kick in but I was head down
playing and not caring about who else was doing what. I played
Sean in the Semi-Final. I made some rash moves in the hope that
the dice would be kind to me over the excellent player that Sean
nowadays is but they didn't pay off for me and Sean cruised to the
final. Could he win on his old stomping ground?
Leon was playing in his first live event and had swiftly
progressed to the final. I didn't see much of the match but I did
see the closing stages with the cube on 4. Leon was trailing but
was rolling doubles to edge ahead in the bear off, Sean countered
with a double of his own, Leon replied with a double, shortly
after Sean rolled a double but this was countered by Leon's last
roll of double 4 to win the match. Well done Leon, hard luck Sean.
Of course with Richard Biddle about and with tradition to maintain
a few of us ended up in a Cambridge pub with some very tasty ale
to drink. All in all it was a very pleasant day out.
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