17th August 2008

28 Entries, 4 Tournaments, 16 Players, £1540 Prize Fund,
Edward Leighton wins Jackpot.

Back to Backgammon events was the plan - would it work in reality? I was reasonably confident that it would even though it is now mid August and thus every self respecting married person with 2.5 kids and a quarter of a dog each should be somewhere near the sea building sandcastle backgammon boards. Then on Tue 5th August we had had 60 players at Bg in Camden so there was me thinking I'd made the correct decision.

This Bg in St John's Wood was to be the third leg of a weekend of Bg in London. On the previous day 28 had turned up to play for no money at the MSO 2008 in Victoria. That was a one and a half day event with 4 matches (11 pointers) played on the Saturday and another 2 on the Sunday morning (leg 2 of weekend. which would finish at 1.30pm.) Then at 2.45pm we'd kick off at the Bridge Club in St John's Wood with a Big Tournament Day designed for money players. Surely the MSO players would troop up to St John's Wood for more.

Well, they didn't - nay, I tell a lie, 2 did. The remainder were backgammoned out. Also, and may I state that I have no wish to decry the following event, a few days after I announced this Bg in St John's Wood our good friends over in Bristol decided to hold the "Annual" (or is that the Bi-Annual?) Bristol Open this year. When I heard about it I was thrilled that such an excellent event is indeed in the menu this year but I did rather wonder if it might mean that players would decide to go to it rather than the more frequently available Bg in St John's Wood. As it turned out it seems that a number did also think this way. And who can blame them? Will the Bristol Open happen in 2009? Who can tell? If it doesn't and players miss the 2008 event then it could be 2010 that they next attend a Bristol Open. Given that, it is only to be expected that players opted to go to Bristol and another event should (without intending harm to it) suffer. I will however join many players and ask that if the Bristol Open is to be held in future years that more notice than just 1 month be given.  

The MSO event went on slightly longer than I had thought it would which made my published close of registration time for the Jackpot Tournament in St John's Wood extremely tight. And given how pedantic I am (moi?) about start times I really wanted to achieve it. So, blow the expense, a black cab was hailed to rush from Victoria to St John's Wood. However Chrissie was already in-situ in The Bridge Club, she'd set up boards, made the place ready and taken names of those wishing to play in the £200er. She's a grand Assistant is our Chrissie! I arrived at 2.44pm. plugged lap-top in, announced registration closed at 2.45pm and proceeded to agree what we would do for our 6 assembled £200ers. Clearly the 16 player £200er wasn't going to happen as such. But there were two players willing at £100. Ok, we can work this out mes thought. Proposal: An 8 player £100 entry fee 13 point matches (on clocks) Knockout Tournament with an Optional Pool of £100 for those that wish it. Prize Fund will be £1300 if 6 enter the Optional Pool (commission only on the entry fee) which, given it's only an 8 player, the Prize Fund is a Winner takes all basis. Everybody happy with that? 8 yays. Pay registration, entry fee and optional pools, draw happened (as published that it would) bang on 3.00pm. Mission accomplished! The further 6 players in-situ were up for £10er Knockouts so we kicked off an 8 player with 2 seats to be snapped up by those knocked out or other arrivals.

The 1st Jackpot was a "Clock Play Tournament." Get used to the term folks 'cause you're gonna hear a lot more about clock play in the future. It's the way International Bg Tournaments are going, London is not a backwater, so we're on the bandwagon. That's not to say we're going to introduce it across the board - nope, there's a need for different levels of bg as well. Let's start with those that need to have knowledge of it and let it filter down. 
 

As it happened 7 of the 8 players playing on clocks were experienced clock players - indeed they prefer it. So my focus of attention fell upon the one who'd never played with them before. It's not easy to change habits of a lifetime and I was not surprised to hear Rod say, before his match, "I hate this clock play business." Fair enough, now go try it.

He had 28 (of his 33) minutes left on his clock at the end of his match. Had he been stressed that he might run out of time I asked. "Nah, nowhere even near worrying about it" came his glib reply. Thank you me thought.

He did in fairness say that he was slightly disturbed by the new routine in playing the game - picking up his opponent's dice was a new thing to place into his brain to do instead of not to do - but that once he had got used to it it was "yer, well, it was fine" but I could see he didn't want to be hearing himself say so but, the point is, he's been won round. 

Some months ago I spoke to a "Clock Play Convertee." He told he he loves clock play because it helps you get into the groove and once in the groove you play better - there's more rhythm to your game. That man, Julian Wilson, was with us today for the first time in St John's Wood - attracted because there was clock play.

So even though this proved to be a small trial (read a trial on one player) it overall proved to be a success. It was also a trial for myself and Chrissie as the organisers and in this we learnt a great deal. Setting these blasted clocks (I didn't use that term - honest!) is not the easiest thing in the world especially for a technophobic such as myself. The manual is pages and pages long of tiny print and as about as interesting and easy to follow as a stereo or TV manual. But with a little help from friends we have now found a function on the make of clocks we have that remembers the pre-programmed options we need for various backgammon matches lengths and times.
 

Meanwhile our £10, 5 pointer players bobbed along at their goodly pace without clocks at all. A second £10er, 5 pointer Tournament kicked in, filled up which was followed by a 4 player, £20, 5 pointer Tournament. The Final of the 1st £10 became between Alan and Monica Beckerson. They asked to postpone the playing of it so they could keep the 2nd £10er moving along nicely - this seemed an excellent idea so that's what they did. In Round 1 of the 2nd £10er they were drawn against each other, I pointed out that they could play the two matches as one, Alan agreed this was a good idea but Monica vetoed it saying to her husband "You'll have to beat me twice if you can." Chrissie and I had a good chuckle!
 

Over in Jackpot 1 Round 1 Chris beat Andrew, Nicky beat Julian, Edward beat Rod and Andy B beat Jon B. They broke for the buffet (loads of food because I'd told the Bridge Club to cater for approx. 20 and there were at that time only 15) then resumed play. Edward stormed though Andy in pretty quick time. The other semi-final was a slower (though not slow) affair. However, from the point of view of the waiting Finalist, it was still a wait. This was exasperated by the fact that Chris and Nicky are both smokers. Hence they were availing themselves of allowed break times. I'm a smoker too and I can understand smokers wishing a break, taking it, having a second fag while you can and a 5 minutes fag break can easily become a 15 minutes away from the board time. But there is little point in introducing Clock Play if one match is endemically allowed to take a lot longer than others are going to do so. Hence along with introducing clock play, to make it work, I need to be pretty exact on break rules as well.
 

Current Non-Clock play rules state:
2.2 Time
Matches shall start promptly at the appointed time. Two 5-minute recesses only are allowed per 7-point match. Players must use their breaks at the same time.
The only reference made to Break Rules in the US Backgammon Clock Rules and Procedures - October 2007 (The most advanced and best clock play rules I can find and hence are being adopted as Bg in London Clock Play Rules) is in:
5.2 STOPPING THE CLOCK.
A player stops both clocks to take an authorized break between games in the match.
So breaks ARE allowed in Clock Play Tournaments though only 7 point matches are covered by the rules.
 

So what do I do? Stick a clock by the Smoker's door? You think they are going to remember to donk it on their way out? No chance. Besides that does not cater for those that don't smoke but want a break during a match. This then begs the question of "should a break be allowed at at?" Or let's approach the problem (for it will be a problem sooner or later) another way: "In what circumstances are breaks needed?" If your phone rings and it's not on ansa-machine mode you already inform the caller you're busy and you'll call back. Most peoples bladders can last for the time it takes to play a backgammon match. Do we see footballers running off the field to go to the loo? No. Granted, most backgammon players are not supreme athletes whose bodies are finely tuned so we must gear our rules towards our player's physical conditions. But, Tennis players playing a 5 set matches that can take 5 hours do take loo breaks. A 7 pointer should be all played within 75 minutes. No break needed is my opinion. However an 11 pointer can take considerable longer - 2 hours is not unheard of, 2 hours 15 minutes if your initials are S.G. Break(s) option needed is my opinion.

Where to record the Break time? On the clock next to the board concerned is the obvious place. So I need to learn how to set this function up on the clocks. Where's that blasted manual again then?

So we can see that it's the old story of change the status quo and all other manner of other things then come into question. That's fine but as long as we consider all possibilities and implement rules to work by I can see a bight future for Clock Play and hence an even brighter future for Tournament Backgammon. 

Here's another question? Should rolling on the right hand side of the board rule be abandoned for clock play rules?
 

Chris Ternel beat Nicky Check. So it's an Edward Leighton versus Chris Ternel final. To use a Will Cockerell favoured expression "loads of wonga at stake." Chris is used to being a finalist, Edward makes it now and then but it often goes against him in the end. Who will come out of this smiling? I'm not one given to listening or even reporting on hard luck stories - my usual response when I see one coming my way is to inform the teller where the nearest mirror is but there are some that are worthy of cover. It's 3 away versus 3 away and Chris is running hard to save a gammon which, if scored, will lose him the match. He's played perfectly to make every single spot on his dice work to the maximum and is odds on to make it. But Edward has just popped out a double and Chris is in need of any but 2 of 36 rolls.  
 

Chris is a pretty cool character who's seen most there is to see over a board and, fair play to the man, he took his bad luck in his stride. Edward's horse came in and good for him.

In T3 Round 1 Monica beat Alan but then lost to Cynthia Roberts of Bristol and MSO weekend. So Monica played Alan in the Final of T2 but couldn't repeat her performance against her husband. Jon B went on to win T3 and in T4 Laurence Lewis was our winner.

Back to back Backgammon events on a mid August weekend in London Town don't work. The MSO was a great success but the St John's Wood gig suffered big time at least as far as the purse of Bg in London was concerned - to put it bluntly it cost us dosh to lay on. Ok, so that's not in the business plan but as long as we learn from such happenings we'll be ok in the future. I realised at 2.45pm without even doing the books that this gig was going to cost, so what became vital was that those that were there had a good day and we were on our guard to make sure this happened so that hopefully they'll say "Yer, the numbers were low but I still had a good day, September will be better populated." We also learnt one heck of a lot about clock play in practise so it was a good investment in that respect. We'll be hosting Big Tournament Days in St John's Wood on the 3rd Sunday in the month - next one Sunday 21st September. We'll be pleased to see yous then.
 

Mike Main