16th & 17th August 2008

75 matches, 1 Tournament, 28 Players, £000 Prize Fund,
Peter Bennet wins MSO Vincent Square Cup 2008.

9.00am and there is a cluster of MSO players outside the Royal Horticultural Conference Centre. The good news as far as backgammon is concerned is that I know most of the faces which means most of the MSO players are backgammon players.

At 9.30am some players are still going through the registration desk so we didn’t kick off until 10.00am. Given the early hour of the day for backgammon players no problem there!

And we have 28 backgammoners! An enormous figure compared to recent years; a fact I put down to the venue being back in central London, it being advertised via Bg in London as well as Biba and the offer of a free seat to Bg Live in London November 2008 if there are 20 or more players present.

Round 1 saw a couple of pairings to raise an eyebrow: Peter Bennet versus Rachel Rhodes (11-8) and WSOB Doubles winners Lawrence Powell versus Nicky Check (11-7). Other winners in Round 1 were:
Irving Czechowicz, Andy Guthrie, Paul Gilberson, Mike Heard, , Alex Polden, Geoff Oliver, Vicki Ondis, Neil Foston, Graham Read, John Reddington, Ritchie Newbold and Graham Palour.

Despite being listed here as the last name Graham Palour was the first to register a win because he was drawn against Uldis Lapikens who had pre-paid his MSO entry fee but wasn’t with us at 10.00am. and was of course entitled to his seat until such time as he timed out a he did at 10.30am. Graham was happy enough!

Round 2: Having started R2 with 14 players on 1 win out of 1 played and reduced to 7 players on 2 out of 2. They were: Irving Czechowicz, Mike Heard, Peter Bennet, Geoff Oliver, Vicki Ondis, Graham Read and John Reddington.

Round 3: Surviving on 3 out of 3 are: Irving Czechowicz, Peter Bennet, Graham Read and Vicki Ondis

Round 4: Surviving on 4 out of 4 are: Irving Czechowicz and Peter Bennet.
 

And here ended the play for this day. You could be forgiven for thinking that the next round will be the last round but this will not be so. For this is an event with Biba Grand Prix points up for grabs and must therefore by definition have 6 (not 5) matches played. Yes, I too find Swiss very complicated!

So Irv will play Peter which will leave one of them on 5 out of 5. But in Round 6 the winner of that match could go a fluff the gold medal when they play and the Silver and Bronze are also up for grabs by those currently on 3 out of 4 who could promote themselves to 5 out of 6 by the end. It’s all a lot more complex than Knockouts are!
 

*5 Players informed me that they will not be there on Sunday. Also it must be presumed that Uldis Lapikens (who had paid registration fee but did not turn up - you lost that reg fee me thinks Uldis!) will also not be there tomorrow. So of the 28 original players we SHOULD be down to 22. If we are not these pairings might have to be re-considered. Yes, I hate Swiss!

So it’s 09.30am back down there tomorrow morning and watch this space more more news.

Sunday morning:
During the course of the previous evening the players have obviously sat down to work out the possible combinations of wins and losses and what it might all mean to them personally. So at 9.15am I’m hit with a barrage of questions all starting with “What if?” Every question is valid but I have tucked up my sleeve one simple answer: “If it gets as complicated as I think it all might them I’m going to send the data to the man who has vast experience in running this event, the man who is going to award Biba Grand Prix points and the man who understands Swiss a heck of a lot better than I – Michael Crane.” The players were more than happy with this reply and off they set to play.

2 players where a no show (insert Mike’s opinion of Swiss then delete it because it’s not publishable!) so Cliff Connick played Steve Rimmer which was actually fine because their results were as close as could be without re-matches having to happen. It was the top of the table match and the bottom of the table match that took the longest to play. This event has a 2 hours 15 minutes maximum play period per round. In the bottom of table match Mick V beat Graham Parlour in 2 hours 13 minutes and 30 seconds. In the top of the table match – the important match to decide placings – Peter Bennet beat Irving Czechowicz in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 15 seconds!

This left Peter on 5 out of 5 and 5 other players (Irving Czechowicz, Vicki Ondis, John Reddington, Nicky Check and Steve Rimmer) on 4 out of 5. Draw done top of the table pairings where thus:
 

John beat Peter, Irving beat Vicki and Nicky beat Steve leaving me hating them all because this left me with 4 players (Peter, John, Irving and Nicky) on 5 out of 6! “It’s done this way,” “It’s done that way,” “No, but if you do that it doesn’t work because of this”, “Ah, but if you do that then this” are just four samples of sentences being said by players. I looked up from my desk, didn’t say a word and picked up my phone – Thank you Mr Tarrant, I’ll take your phone a friend option!

I explained the situation, Michael asked questions, I answered, no conclusion there so Michael asked more questions which I duly answered but now it was all getting into realms that were better seen on paper (actually computer) so the results files was sent via email to Michael for him to quietly decide the outcome of it all and if a play-off would be required.

Meanwhile there was another Bg event for me to run up in St John’s Wood at 2.45pm but fortunately all interested 4 players will be attending The Bg in London at Biba in early September so a play-off (in needed) could everybody realized happen there.

A little while later Michael called me back. A play-off was not needed. Placings were as follows:

Mike Main