6th October 2009

56 Entries, 8 Tournaments, 54 Players, £3232Prize Fund,
Ray Singer wins Jackpot.
 

I made my customary call to The Lockside Lounge a week or so before this event just to chew the cud, ask how business was ra, ra, ra but really to check that we were booked in for our usual 1st Tuesday in the month. There was an awkward silence from the other end of the phone then an "Ah... let me call you back in an hour or so Mike." I paced for the next 50 minutes until my phone rang.

When it did the Manager explained that they had somehow accepted the launch of a new drink evening and that for some reason my booking (made in January) was not in the bars' diary as they admitted it should have been. Uh huh, and where does that leave me I asked. Tom had called another bar on the other side of West Yard and they could accommodate us for the evening if I would like to go down and check it out. I said I'd take a look and was there within the hour.

The Manager of The Canalside Bar (part of Dingwalls & Jonglers complex) was expecting me, left his meal to go cold and showed me round. It looked like having potential but would need some alterations. I explained that the sofa chairs and coffee tables were not good for backgammon players; We'll move those out and bring in tables and chairs, how many do you want? A meal went by; it looked good. I checked the menu prices; reasonable. My Guinness was going down easily. Do you get many walk ins - we'll make yours a private function Sir. What time do you close Davey? Will 2.00am be ok?  Can the lighting go up? Up it went but would need enhancing; No problem. Can the music go down or off? Whatever you wish Mike. Can I have the joint by 5.30pm? We'll close at 4.00 to have it ready by 5.00 for you. I stopped short of telling Davey that his windows needed cleaning because I was sold on the venue. Later Tom of The Lockside Lounge called me to ask how my visit had gone. I told him I'd liked my look and that he was off the hook. A change of venue webpage was written and the mailing list informed.

We turned up with our bg gear at 4.30pm.  3 Canalside Bar staff were making the venue ready for us and asked for another 10 minutes to have it ready for us to inspect. So Richard Biddle and I popped over to the Lockside Lounge with our change of venue banners and to pick up our bg boards stored there. The Lockside Lounge was being Jägermeistered in preparation for a new sambuca range with the place being black and oranged out, a rock band setting up at one end, a press interview stall at the other and every other drinks bottle stripped off the bar walls in favour of anything from the Jägermeister brand. Charlie Biddle would have thought he had died and moved to heaven had he seen this.

By 5.30 we had The Canalside Bar backgammon tickerty-boo and WSOB branded. We thought it looked good but the acid test of what players thought was yet to come. We had a Winter Doubles match kick in (Michel & Agnes Bach versus Unfinished business) which was won by The Bachs. Other players started arriving at 6.00pm and a number passer bys peaked in at all those huge backgammon boards. By 7.00pm I had 8 players in house for a £10 Swiss Tournament so that got kicked off, and 16 players down for Camden Auction 1. My bell was rung, silence reigned for a moment and WSOB - the sponsors of this evening - announcements were made. Leg 3 of their 2009 Tour will happen in London:

Tournament 1 had a WSOB Added Prize Fund of £130 and, via our Camden Auction, the entry fee became £200. Tournament 2 had £70 Added and became an entry fee of £120. A £5 entry Swiss kicked in, a £10 Knockout got started, a £25 Swiss found its 8th player and kicked off meaning that by 7.25pm we had 52 tournament active players rolling away.

We had some long awaited guests with us this evening; Biba players Andy Darby had made it down to London and Bob Bruce had made it up to London while Meribel Backgammon December 2009 Organiser Clive Kaye had made it over to London and bought along his two nephews.

In between matches players commented to us about the venue and the general consensus of opinion seemed to be that players were very happy with it, the table service was great and the meals good value too. We were also taking registrations for our annual Backgammon Live in London in November. We're not full yet but the Sunday Swiss Tournament must be getting that way - if you want in I suggest that you get your booking in rather sharpishly now.
 

Ray Singer was back with us for the second time in ages. He previously won the T1 of December 2005 and won the T1 again this evening. Mourad's perfromance at Bg ion Camdens have been good of late and he continued this trend by winning T2 this evening. T3 went to our 7.45pm arrival man Steve Ruddel which just goes to show you can turn up lateish and still win. In the Swiss Tournaments Alan Beckerson was the player with the clean sweep in S1, David Collins swept up in S2 and James Felton took S3. We had a couple of Mini-Jackpots which were won by Uli Koch and Bob Bruce.
 

Mike Main