4th August 2009

76 Entries, 11 Tournaments, 68 Players, £3300 Prize Fund,
Raj Jansari wins the Jackpot.

Sometimes in this life you just have to be in the right place at the right time.
 

A staggering 68 players were in Camden for this monthly August event. I was asked to run a £25 Swiss Tournament by the first player in the door so I elected to give a Swiss Camden Auction a spin. The next player in the door was Chris Bray the Independent Backgammon Columnist and writer of (I think it is now) 5 backgammon books. He was followed by another Bg book writer - Simon Gasquoine and then Peter Bennet who has written numerous bg articles. By 6.15pm they were sitting down at the far end quietly chatting and having an early dinner.

What they didn't realise is that up at the T.D. desk I was getting a stream of new players some of whom knew how to use the doubling cube and some who didn't but they all wanted to play in a Swiss Tournament together. A Doubling Cube lesson was now required on this evenings bill. So I did the most obvious thing I could think of. Not 15 yards away I had 3 of the best brains on this subject in the country. Initially Simon, Chris and Peter all claimed that they were not qualified to give a Doubling Cube lesson. Yer right! Chris was the one who was volunteered. Chris managed to compress years and years of study and knowledge into just 30 or so minutes for our Doubling Cube Virgins. They could not have had a better tutor and it's certainly one to tell their grandchildren about. Thanx Chris.

Meanwhile players were coming in the door thick and fast. By 7.00pm I had 23 players interested in a minimum £25 Jackpot and 25 for a minimum £5 Swiss Tournament. It's been a while since we've seen the like of this! The 1st Jackpot became a £200 entry, the 2nd a £100 entry and the 3rd a £50 entry. We've never seen the like of this. Next up I kicked off a £25 Swiss, followed by 2 x £10 Swisses and a £5 Swiss then a £10 Jackpot. That should have been 64 players bg active by 7.40 but there was, for the first time ever at a Bg in Camden, the little problem of us needed 4 backgammon boards that we didn't have in-situ. Thankfully Stuart Richardson swung into action as an emergency helper and made a list of the waiting pairings then allocated those players to boards as they became available. Cheers Stuart.

Since the last Bg in Camden I've been an Assistant T.D. at both The 34th Monte Carlo World Backgammon Championships and The World Series of Backgammon Cannes Tournament. Those were about 300 and 125 player gigs. I'd set up a blog for Monte Carlo but I was working 16 hours days so something had to give and that was I'm afraid the publication of the blog, gallery and tournament charts. It needs somebody doing that and that alone and I intend to ensure that this sector will be staffed next year. WSOB in Cannes had no such problems; Both Stick Rice and Will Cockerall were there as active and excellent bloggers, Robin was there (but could not with us this evening as a novice player) where he, as a film man, had videos going up ten to the dozen on Utube.

In Monte Carlo we had, at the last minute and with the help of Kenji of Japan, thank you Sir, put the Final Match out live on Ustream. The Final was a brilliant one: Lars Trabolt won this event last year an was hoping to be the only player ever to have won the World Championship twice on the trot. However he was up against Mochy - Japan's finest and, since The London Open May 2009 and Bg in Camden June 2009, can be classified as a Bg in London player. Even with an email and notices going out on backgammon bulletin boards only an hour before the match was played there were about 500 players around the world who watched the Final live. Mochy won.

Back in Camden it was evident to me that we need a Workshop Evening shortly. Tuesday 18th August in The Lockside Lounge. A fortnight's time. It's the usual £5 in the door and tutors will be in-situ. The workshop usually takes the form of an experienced player playing against a couple of novice players and talking through the strategies that occur during the game and or match.  So that I know how many Tutors to ask along could Workshoppers please let us know if they are coming along. Email to mike@backgammoninlondon.com or phone on 07985-941729.

Back in Monte Carlo I witnessed the best ever set of results by British players. 15 British players competed, none fell in Round 1, 9 were Consolation 1 bound in the Round of 128, Sean Williams and Kevin Dale got to the Round of 64, John Broomfield and Martin Barkwill got to the Last 32, Simonetta Herrera of Bristol just lost to Lars Trabolt in the Last 8 and husband Roland Herrera just lost to Trabi in the Semis. It was a brilliant performance from Britain and Bristol.

Over in Cannes a Bg in Londoner should have picked up a trophy but he and his partner had left before the Prize Giving ceremony. Edward Leighton and George Devlin had entered the Doubles Tournament and were the Finalists. En route back to England I was due to visit my niece in Geneva and George has a place very close by so we delivered his trophy to his local newsagent. The other trophy came home to London and was awarded to Edward at this Bg in Camden.

In our Jackpot 1 of the Camden evening the Final was contested between Michael Flesch and Raj Jansari. Raj's picture (with his wife Kulvant) is posted at the top of this report so you can work out who won. Jackpot 2 went to Mourad, Jackpot 3 was won in a rare playing evening by Shirley Elghanian of The Magic of Persia and Jackpot 4 went to Danny Cohen.

Our 4 Swiss Tournaments were sauntering along nicely and were won by Alan Beckerson, Ann Fordham (who came along with Ex-Fox Reformed Backgammon Player and now Amsterdam based Opera singer Cato - good to see yous - Cato's bg was rubbish so his wife helped him out!), Swiss 3 went to Jake and Lewis Potter, a Chris Bray Backgammon To Win book (now signed I think) owner, won Swiss 4. 

We also had 3 Mini-Jackpots which were won by Ken Gibson, Molho and James Grenier.

Looking towards the future there is the internationally attended Bristol Open at the end of the month. Bg in London will be there to provide our Tournament Management System. There are currently Online Qualifiers happening on Casinorip.com, Live Qualifiers are being held in Bristol and I can now announce that there will be a Live Bristol Open Qualifier on Tuesday 18th August in The Lockside Lounge. Details to follow in an email to the Bg in London mailing list but I can let you know now that Casinorip.com are added something to it. 
 

It's all kicking on nicely at the moment from workshops to big money play and cooperation between backgammon providers to make the market place full of choice. Ball's a rolling, let's keep it that way.
 

Mike Main