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15th June 2008
57 Entries, 9 Tournaments, 35 Players, £3766 Prize Fund,
Tom Townsend wins Jackpot. |
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The 2nd Big Double 5 Club Tournament Day this Sunday 15th June was
again extremely successful with 36 players attending the event and
participating in a total of 9 separate tournaments generating
almost £4200 in entry fees. Entries were down a little from the
1st Big Tournament Day but we are in holiday season now and it was
also Father’s Day on Sunday.
At the top of the bill was the £200 tournament in which Tom
Townsend defeated Shino in the final. Tom is a bridge player
primarily but can turn his hand to anything intellectually
demanding and he was also a finalist in the 1st Big Tournament
Day’s £200 event so congratulations to him for going a step
further this time. Tom benefited from a bye in the first round and
then battled past Rod Hanreck and Andy Bell to reach the final.
Shino regularly features in big tournaments and finals and on
Sunday saw off Barry McAdam, Mike Heard and Peter Bennet, all
extremely tough opponents, to reach the final.
The other tournament winners were Marcus Wrinch, Andrew Abelson,
Julian Fetterlein, my good self, Mike Gold, Larry Bennet, Monica
Beckerson and Chris Purchase and congratulations go to them all.
The registration for the first event was stated to close at 2pm
but was extended for two players on an exceptional basis only
because the Club is still at its early stages and both the players
involved attended the 1st Tournament in good time. However, in
order to get proceedings underway in a timely manner and because
it is patently unfair on all the other players who arrive in good
time, in all future Club tournaments the first event will close
for registration at the published time without any exceptions.
Late attendees should not be unduly affected however as there are
various and numerous other tournaments running throughout the day
for them to participate in.
Once again the buffet was excellent and our thanks go to Olga and
Janetta for their preparation of that and also for their general
waitressing and preparation assistance throughout the day. For the
next event we will improve the buffet further still however and
ensure that even more food and drink is available to players.
As the Club is in its early stages, we are learning and seeking to
improve the experience all the time to try to ensure that we
provide the players with what they want. In the first event of the
day we introduced the re-buy concept to allow first round fallers
to buy-back into the tournament. Two out of the three available
buy-backs were taken up but this lead to unduly prolonged waits
for second round players and therefore in the future we will not
allow re-buys but instead either allow normal bye’s in the draw
allowing the randomly picked recipients bye’s straight into the
second round or auction off the available bye’s to the highest
bidders who would then ‘buy’ their way into the second round. This
will ensure that the prize fund is maximised and also that the
tournament progresses much more efficiently.
Rakes and costs were mentioned in Mike Main’s previous write-up
about the 1st Big Double 5 Club Tournament Day but I will touch
upon the subject again here. It is fully understood that nobody
wishes to pay to play backgammon but unfortunately there are a lot
of expenses involved in organising and running a professional
tournament day at a dedicated venue (including a professional
tournament director, professional boards and associated equipment
supply and its transportation, buffet food and wine, waitress
wages and premises costs) and despite the Club willing to run at a
loss on the 1st Big Double 5 Club Tournament Day, clearly this can
not be sustained in the long run. However, it should be made clear
that the Club is not in existence in order to make money and
indeed it does not, but it is only reasonable that it at least
breaks even. I can confirm that any marginal excess that does
materialise will go straight back into the Club and towards more
equipment (e.g. precision dice, chess clocks etc) or the
maintenance of equipment (e.g. board refurbishment etc) for the
greater benefit, comfort and enjoyment of the players themselves.
I am confident that all the Club players will appreciate and
understand this point now that it has been explained in more
detail as above but we are always open to hearing players’
thoughts on this issue as well as any other issue they wish to
raise in order to make the playing experience as positive as
possible.
Finally, as you may know, I got married a few weeks ago and
because of associated preparations etc and also because Simon
Barget, due to a new job and other commitments, is now not able to
assist with the running of the Club as was originally envisaged,
the initially proposed Club openings of Sunday afternoons/evenings
and Wednesday evenings have unfortunately fallen away.
However, I am keen to introduce some more weekly or fortnightly
backgammon at the Club (in addition to the monthly Big Club
Tournament Days) and therefore hope to be able to shortly tell you
about some more regular Club events so please do watch this space
although I will also send emails to people about such events once
they are finalised.
Thank you and look forward to seeing you at the next Club event!
Raj Jansari
Contactable on 07973-265 375 or at
rajjansari@gmail.com
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