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The annual Cancerbackup Charity Backgammon and Bridge Tournament
is quite a fixture on the London calendar. Nowadays held at The
Reform Club on Pall Mall it attracts over 100 people to a
civilised and pleasant day out for a worthy cause. The proceeding
commenced at 11 o’clock with a champagne reception and the sale of
raffle tickets in which numerous people won vouchers to some
lovely restaurants around town. Then it’s brunch upstairs and a
chance to have a proper non Jamie Olivered traditional English
breakfast with champagne – just the thing in my mind to have
before a long day of backgammon though as T.D. I kept to the
orange juice and coffee. This year a Group Auction was added to
the proceedings and conducted by Julian Wilson and thus a little
extra was raised for the charity.
I missed the Lord Jeffrey Archer Auction because I had to do the
draw before players came downstairs. Kosher to do the draw when
most players are not present? Maybe not strictly speaking but when
there is a very limited time window in which to have an event
played, a swift start to the tournament is needed and the T.D. is
trust-worthy then there is a case for doing this. Besides two
players were actually present as I did the draw. This also gave us
the chance to lay out named match cards on each table all of which
were clearly numbered. As players came down from Brunch they were
greeted at the doors of the tournament room and directed to their
tables. A good number of players asked who their opponent was but
were simply informed that they would find this out by going to
their table and viewing their match card. A crafty method of
encouraging them to their seats – yes and validated because it
worked.
There were 58 players and hence 6 byes. Given this was a social
event every player had been guaranteed at least 2 matches. Should
those that got a bye in Round 1 of the Main lose in their 2nd
Round Main match (their first actual match of the day) they would
be placed where they would have been placed had they lost in their
1st Round Main match had they had an opponent there. Sound
complicated? Maybe so but who would be impressed by paying £100
entry fee for just one match? What is complicated are the formulas
on the spreadsheets to make this happen and I’m pleased to say
that these all worked as expected and were understandable to
players.
Fate had her way and gave us some interesting 1st Round matches.
We had an interesting blend of “known backgammoners” and those for
whom this is the only tournament they play per annum. Triumphs in
this respect were fairly equal. People met players they had never
met before and new plays discovered. Some friends played friends
and so we had “volume matches” which raised the fun of the day. Of
course I had my likely nightmare matches; in the morning 3 players
had been identified as “known slow players” and, blow me down, 2
of them were drawn against each other. My skills were in for a
test today but that makes it all the more interesting. However
fate had been kind to me in one respect; The Hostess of an event
always has a 1000 things to do and fate had given Lady Trudi Seely
a bye in Round 1 which meant a few of her duties could be
accomplished.
Keeping to our tight schedule was always going to be my greatest
challenge of the day and indeed I received players later than it
was stated they would arrive on the schedule but I’d already taken
the measure of treating the likely arrival time of players with
kid gloves. However I did have on all match cards the times that
matches should be played by and this I think helped to jog players
along at the required speed. That might suggest that fast play was
required. Not so, I’d allowed plenty of time but I wasn’t letting
players know that unless maybe asked!
Shortly the 1st Round Main matches were being reported and players
were divided into the Main and The Consolation. For this event we
had match cards to give every player in each round. As much as
anything else this was to help players know match lengths (5
points Main and 3 points Consolation) and it worked for only once
were we re-asked match lengths.
So how did last year’s champions fare? John Clark (winner 2007)
slowly took out George Jacobs of the RAC in Round 1 then Anthony
Wilson of the Hurlingham Club in Round 2. In Round 3 J.C. was
drawn against young Michael-Henry but the youngster was not bowing
to age or wisdom and took John to Double Match Point. A crowd
gathered round to watch which made for something of a spectacle
match. Michael-Henry’s reward for beating John was then a match
against Peter Bennet. But the fire proved more deadly than the
frying pan and Michael-Henry’s day was done. Last years
Consolation winner, Sue Keeble, against her declared intentions
lost her Round 1 match to John Broomfield of Bucks Club so then
declared her intention to repeat her last years performance. Sue
got back on track by winning over Sarah Adlam of the RAC but
failed at the next fence of Mo Vafaeie. Hence there would be new
names to declare as winners this year.
It was Andy Bell of The WSOB who had relegated Sarah Adlam to the
Consolation to then face Alexander Schlagman of the Cumberland
Lawn Tennis Club who Andy knocked for 6. Shino (he of Monte Carlo
semi-finals fame) was Andy’s next scalp for which he gained a
match against the Grand Life Master of Bridge, Zia Mahmood. But
this is where backgammon proved to be a bridge to far for Zia and
on moved Mr Bell. Next, in the Semi-Finals now, Andy met and
triumphed over Peter Bennet.
Meanwhile the upper half of the Main draw was moving along at much
the same pace. Sean Williams despatched Deborah Swanwick of the
RAC to then face Tariq Siddiqi in Round 2. Round 3 saw Sean play
and win over Shirley Elghanian of The Magic of Persia charity. If
Zoe Cunningham could win over Ray Fard we would have a Fiance
Quarter-Final match to watch but it was not to be. Instead Sean
took Zoe’s revenge on Ray and hence progressed to the Semis. Here
he met the last remaining RAC player - Martin Horsfield. Onwards
marched Sean into the final.
The Consolation Tournament being 3 pointers had progressed quicker
than the Main and the final was played in the middle of the
backgammon tournament room. By 6.00 pm is was over and shortly
after Adam Almagore was declared the winner over John Faridian.
The Semi-Finals and Final of the Main were played in the smaller
Strangers Room of The Reform Club. By that time many players had
left so the smaller space made for a fuller room and the
atmosphere was one of hushed reverence. Semis were 7 pointers and
the Final was a 9 pointer. In the Final Sean took a lead via Andy
dropping an 8 cube in game 1 which made the score 4-0 to Sean.
Andy valiantly battled back but the damage had been done and Sean
won the match 9-2. This is Sean’s second recent big win; he was
also Champ ‘o’ Champs at Bg Live in London 2007. Want to do well
in backgammon? Take a leaf out of Sean’s method and study the
game.
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