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"Lashings of it
please" sounds great but it depends what you're talking about.
When it's rain, it's not so good at all. That's what we've
suffered for the last 24 hours here in London Town and I can well
understand people seeking their home to watch David Beckham play
Man United in a Milanese football shirt. Would he be the
star of the evening?
I met 32 people this evening who did not watch that. By chance they
all play backgammon and instead went to The Canalside Bar to move,
play, listen, learn and laugh. That's not a huge population of
players compared to recent Bg in London events but with 3 events
per month nowadays player numbers continue to increase but only
one could be the star.
Swiss 1 was up and running by 6.50 and during the Camden Auction
we had 8 players for the 1st Knockout. The entry fee remained at
£25 but we had an Optional Pool of another £50. Our 2nd Swiss of
the evening took until 7.30 to fill up but fill up it did.
In Knockout 1 Edward Leighton went down in super quick time to
Graham Read which left Graham waiting for the result of Nicky
Check versus Alan Beckerson which was a match filled with
backgames and other such complex positions so it took ages to play
out. This was so much so that the following match was going to
start 15 - 30 minutes behind schedule. Knockouts are liable to be
put on a clock if they are running late. Others might say that I
should have taken a strict view on this and imposed a clock
without hardly thinking about it.
But this would have ignored one factor: Graham has recently
promoted himself from a £10 Swiss player to a big Knockout player,
he's played on a clock before but his preference is still to play
sans clock. Would it be fair to him to impose a clock on him when
the delay was not his fault and had kept him waiting for the good
part of over an hour? I decided it wasn't. So I gave him the
choice of clock play or not.
T.Ding is often about understanding where your players are at and
making choices based on what is best for a given situation. Nicky
and Alan, both highly experienced tournament players, knew fine
well they were being slow coaches but, given what was happening on
their board, there was little they could do about it. I knew I
would not even have to tell the winner of them to up the tempo in
Round 2. So let be what is going on was my choice - non clock play
and the Canalside Bar are pretty relaxed about close-up time.
Richard Halvorsen sent me an email about 3 weeks ago; he's played
some, has a backgammon program on his IPhone and would like to
come along to see how good or bad he currently is. I called him
back and we chatted for a while. That must have been on Tuesday
2nd Feb because I offered that he came along that evening but he
couldn't make it and would be fine to come along for this evening.
He did and He played in Swiss 1.
Ben Owen heard an interview just before The Casinorip London Open
May 2009 and cycled along to that. He arrived at peak time which
wasn't great for me and, hands up, I missed settling him in. But
he re-appeared, again by bike, in Fulham last week, playing in a
Swiss, won 2 out of 3 and lost to the winner - last weeks star of
the show Roya Ireland . This week he cycled to Camden and was the
first player in the door.
Ben and Richard were drawn to play each other in Swiss Round 1.
The two of them were evidently enjoying their meeting of minds
over a game that they both enjoy but are both not sure if they
play so well. I prodded them a couple of times but they were in
their zone so who was I to bust that? Enjoy boys. So yup, it
took ages. Clock the next round? No way - checker and cube play is
quite enough for their heads that their stage. But this did leave
me with 2 of our 3 primary tournaments with sever delays. Ok I can
handle that.
Instead of focusing in on the slow matches I focused in on the
players who would be waiting. I set up a Round Robin Rourno. 1
point matches, all play all for those who are waiting or otherwise
in active which included Dan Owen; Ben's brother. These got
played in between other matches so players were bg active.
The Biddle played in the 2nd Swiss. He done good - Annette, Simon
Morecroft and Monica Beckerson were his scalps in that so he
followed it up with a Mini-Jackpot in which he re-played Morecroft
then alaid James Gernier. Biddle; wins 5 on a trot. Very handsome
but was he the star of the evening?
Tolga, on his 2nd Bg in Camden evening played in a Swiss, didn't
do great in that so played a Mini-Jackpot, lost in that,
re-entered another and won that. A 6 match evening for him in
which his star got progressively brighter.
The Round Robin was progressing nicely as I kept on pairing up
player after player as soon as they became vacant. Lewis Potter
had put 3 wins under his belt before needing to return to his
Swiss action which was now taking ages. Was there a "slow bug" in
the air this evening I wondered. Vivek Jansari (no relation to Raj)
had bombed in the Swiss but was doing better in the Round Robin.
Claire O'Toole was thrilled to be playing so many cubeless
matches.
In Knockout 1 (7 pointers) Alan had finally beaten Nicky so Graham
played with Alan. Over in Swiss 1 (5 pointers) Ben and Richard
finally completed as Ben won. Ben then faced Oisis (who won a
Swiss a couple of weeks ago.) Another Mini-Jackpot or two go under
way for those that wanted doubling cube play and that Round Robin
was plodding along too.
Zoe and Sean were with us this evening but were suffering from jet
lag so didn't play. They've been in the US these last two weeks
(one target being to get some sun and be away from our foul
winter) and included the Santa Fe ABT Tournament in their
schedule. Sean beat loads of big names: Steve Sax, Bob Glass, Kit
Woolsey, Mary Hickey, Bob Koca, Malcolm Davis, John O'Hagan, and
Joe Russell to name but some. Zoe, being a foodie, found all sorts
of things to eat; chicken and chocolate and cactus for breakfast.
You wouldn't think it but Zoe is clearly mad; she was wearing very
fetching pink wellingtons this evening and when I mentioned them
she proudly announced that she has walked here jumping in every
single puddle she found and even related to me the attributes
of one puddle in particularly. Meanwhile Sean asked a very
reasonable question; if you go to a place with Mexico in the title
what would you expect to take in the way of clothing? A vision if
Sean's Bermuda shorts (that he wore to play François Tardieu in
Cannes) came to my mind. Not so at all - it snowed in Sante Fe,
New Mexico! Maybe madness finds S&Z?
"This report is now far too long Mike" said Mike.
"I know" said Mike "but I'm not finished yet."
"One could say there is already lashings of it" said Mike.
"Oh shutup Mike" said Mike "you're only making it longer."
Ben beat Oisis, Richard lost to Jim Dickson who then played now
too busy Lewis Potter. Lewis realised he this and said it was
doubtful that he would have time to play his two remaining Round
Robin matches. So I looked for a replacement player, couldn't find
anybody to hand so, given there was no prize fund in this event, I
chose myself and played Vivek for Lewis. "Lewis" ("You mean Mike
don't you Mike" interjected Mike) pointed out a couple of better
plays that Vivek could play, Vivek did and "Lewis" lost his match
against Vivek.
And so onto the final of Knockout 1 which was to between Mourad
and Alan. It was late now and there was no way a 7 point Final
could have been played had we been in the Lockside Lounge. But
Mourad was ready for home and Alan was sporting his wore out look
so when they announced that they we happy to do a split I was
happy as long as they rolled a couple of dice to settle it. They
did - Mourad goes down as the winner of Knockout 1 yet again.
In Swiss 1 Ben beat Oisis so Ben played Mike Ireland for top spot.
Could Mike live up to playing as well as his sister had the
previous week? Could Ben win his first Tournament at the second
time of asking?
In our Mini-Jackpots Danny Cohen and James Grenier were declared
winners. The Round Robin needed one last match to be played but
one player didn't want to so the other was declared the winner of
that match and hence the winner of the Round Robin - Lewis Potter
with Vivek Jansari coming home 2nd. Ben Owen beat Mike Ireland for
top spot in the Swiss - Ben was the star of the evening. We were
all done.
"Great" said Mike "can you shut-up please now Mike?"
"No" said Mike, "I've the summary to do yet."
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In February 2010 that's 123 session
of play that players have had. 11 players have come along for 3
sessions, 15 players have come along for 2 sessions and 60 players
have come along for 1 session each. This makes a total of 86
active players this month. Not bad.
This month we have added two new regular venues - The Durell's
Arms in Fulham and The Canalside Bar in Camden to provide 3
sessions per month (2 on Tuesdays, 1 on a Monday.) I was asked the
other day if the market could stand so much choice. I believe so
and expect the that the variety of choice is going to increase our
player numbers.
Along side that we've stepped up to running 1 or 2 Swiss
tournaments per session to 2 - 4 per session. Though this players
are nowadays getting more matches in per evening for less of an
investment. Gone are the days when backgammon was exclusively a
rich mans pastime; cometh are London evenings when backgammon is a
near weekly thinking mans mind sport.
London event in March 2010:
Bg in Camden, Lockside Lounge - Tue 2nd
March
Private Members Club Quarterly - Wed 3rd March (by invitation
only.)
Scope Charity Annual Tournament - Sun 7th
March
Bg in Fulham, Durell's Arms - Mon 8th March
Bg in Camden, Canalside Bar - Tue 16th March
"Up hum, you done now Mike?" asked Mike.
"For now, yes, thank you" replied Mike.
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