21st September 2008

48 Entries, 9 Tournaments, 28 Players, £2196 Prize Fund,
Michael Michael wins Jackpot.


Paul Weaver - Co-Author of Backgammon Openings


People come to London for various reasons and it just happened that Paul Weaver was in Town this week - so he came along to Bg in St John's Wood. He's doing some travelling this year - he was in Australia earlier this year where he played in 3 tournaments in successive weekends and won two of them. Could he do as well in London Town?

But first of all something about his and Nack Ballard's book. It took something like 5 years to write and has been hailed as the most important backgammon book to hit the shelves since its publication. It's an in-depth look at the early part of a game. Paul bought along some copied which were duly snapped up by London players and others who have read the book had a chance to discuss its content with Paul. 
 

Genesis Naylor is also in London this week as well. On of the reasons he is over was to deliver a new board (picture above) to Regina Dodge. The board itself is a beautiful piece of work and we wish Regina the best of luck upon it - a lot more than Genesis had on Sunday in his play! 
 

There were just 8 players for the 1st (£200er) Tournament which made for a nice easy start for me even if I was disappointed not to have more players. Another 4 players entered a £30er and 8 players kicked of a £10er. We would build up to 28 active players during the day and run a total of 9 Tournaments.

We also had as part of the day the start of the Bg in London Doubles Tournament. In all 36 players were registered by close of registration at 5.00pm - 15 Pairs and 6 Unpaired. The Unpaired were paired up, a Calcutta Auction done and the Draw made. Hence we have 2 1st Round matches due to be played by Mon 6th October and 14 pairs on byes into Round 2. Most of those already in Round 2 can play their first matches though they have until Mon 20th October to do so. The most interesting (at least on paper) match thus far is going to be a 2nd round match: Paul Lamford & Simon Gasquoine versus Peter Bennet & Julian Wilson. We've already stated that we would like record the two final matches (Main and Conso) but we would like to record this one as well so if all parties are agreeable and we can find a recorder this shall happen. Those Pairings that lose their 1st match (round 1 or round 2 Main) will be slotted into the Consolation Tournament - hence all Pairing will have at least two matches to play. Full details of the Doubles Tournament here and updates from players on the Bg in London Discussion Board (GABBI enabled) via which match venues are to be arranged and results reported.

Paul Weaver lost his 11 pointer to two times recent tournament winner Edward Leighton. Paul came to me after the match to ask what was next to which I answered "something to eat" after which there would be, as per usual at Bg in London event, more tournaments for those knocked out of the tournament they had been in. He then asked me if there was a Consolation Tournament to which I had to reply that there was not. I've been at pains since we launched Bg in London to inform players of the format we have adopted (invented) of running many tournaments to keep bg players as active as possible but I'm not sure that this message has got though to all. Paul left shortly after eating so I'm not sure that he was aware of this situation before he entered the first tournament of the day - I only hope he was. So just in case anybody else is unaware of our format:
 
WE DO NOT, AS A GENERAL RULE, RUN CONSOLATION TOURNAMENTS. INSTEAD WE RUN MULTIPLE TOURNAMENTS THROUGHOUT THE DAY WHICH MEANS PLAYERS CAN CHOOSE TO RE-ENTER OR NOT. THEREFORE IF ONE IS NOT CONFIDENT OF WINNING THE FIRST TOURNAMENT ONE ENTERS ONE SHOULD NOT DO SO - SAVE SOME OF YOUR CASH IN CASE YOU ARE KNOCKED OUT AND CAN THUS RE-ENTER ANOTHER TOURNAMENT.
 

Second time Bg in London player Catalin Bacur is making his mark; he won Tournament 2 and Mini-Jackpot 5. Not content with those two wins he entered T3 but lost in Round 1 and still wanted more! I can't think of any player that has won 3 tournaments in one evening so there you go Catalin - there's a target for you (and others) for the future.
 

The Final of T1 was contested between Michael Michael and Barry McAdam and it went all the way to Double Match Point which Michael Michael won.  

 

Martin Hemming was also with us today for his first Bg in London event and won Mini-Jackpot 1 and we hope to see more of Martin in the future now that he is semi-London based. Other winners were George M, Regina, Lawrence Powell and Dave Moon also won 2 tournaments.
 
Summary:
The turnout was better than I had expected or players had stated an interest in attending. That said numbers were lower than I had hoped for though at least this event (as opposed to last month) did not run at a loss. Even so I'm disappointed with the turnout. While other clubs might be thrilled to have 28 active players at a session (and another 4 or 5 turn up for the start of the Doubles) this is not quite enough to make it a truly viable proposition for the goals of Bg in London. To put it bluntly to pay the bills we need bums on seats. To achieve that we need to provide a playing environment that is conducive to 40-60 players coming along to a gig.

I'm not convinced, despite me canvassing players opinions on the suitability of the St John's Wood venue but getting few replies, that we have chosen the correct venue for London Sunday Backgammon events. Please players, if you are not happy with something we do LET US KNOW. I'm not telepathic, Chrissi is more so than I but her skills in this department are not quite 100% (though close) - if you don't tell us we are left fumbling in the dark and assuming things (potentially incorrectly.)

 

Mike Main
Report of next event.