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4th May 2010
56 Entries, 9 Tournaments, 40 Players, £2869 Prize Fund,
Mourad Wahba wins Jackpot.
Raymond Broome - winner of Swiss 2
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Play65 have been on the online backgammon scene for 6 years
now and boast the highest number of active online players. Months
ago I was called to a meeting in the Cocktail Bar of the Hilton
Hotel, Park Lane; there are some upsides to my job. They inquired
about sponsoring Bg in London events. I told them what I thought
would work for London players and for them.
This evening this resulted on them adding £200 to the Prize Fund;
this would be split between all the winners of the evening in
accordance to how much their share of the Players Prize Fund was.
Daniel Mester (CO of Play65) had flown into London to be with us
and was on hand all evening to answer questions about the site.
Swiss 1 had the 8 registered players at 6.30pm. The normal £10
entry but this evening the winner would also take home a Play65
backgammon board (as well as a share of the £200.)
At 7.00pm we had 16 players interested in the minimum £25 entry
fee Jackpot. Entry fee went to £50 before anybody dropped out and
it was not until entry fee went to £210 that we were reduced to 8
players. They paid, they were drawn, off they went to play.
Next up was Jackpot 2 which became an 8 player £50 Obligatory
Entry Fee Tourney with an Optional Pool of £50.
Swiss 2 filled up, Jackpot 3 was a £10er and there would be
backgammon boards for the winners of these too. 7.30pm: 40
backgammon active players.
Least we who live in London forget, our Town is a holiday
destination to some. And so it was this evening for Mr Dave Taylor
from Canada. He had been thrilled to find a backgammon club here
in London so much so that he asked if he could play in two
tournaments at once, presumably to pack in as much backgammon as
he possibly could in the short time he was with us. As host I of
course wished I could do all that I could for him but that did not
extent to allowing him to have a trail of waiting players in his
wake so I toned him down to 1 tournament at a time - as all
players do on these evenings of ours. In Swiss 1 he met 3 of our
good regular Swiss players and beat them all. There's a Play65
backgammon board heading back to Canada as a souvenir. No sooner
had he been awarded his prizes, he joined a Mini-Jackpot in which
he met another two of our good regular players and beat them as
well. So not a bad evening of play, a nice little perk of his
holiday and, Dave, if you're ever back with us again, I extend a
further welcome to you but please don't be overly surprised of
London players groan if they see you again!
Raymond Broome was back with us for his 2nd time this evening.
Quite why a man who comes from Barbados lives in cold climate
London I've no idea but a couple of weeks ago he won 2 out of 3 in
his Swiss Tournament and wasn't overly happy with himself with
this result despite winning his entry fee back. So this week he
bought along a supporter and won 3 out of 3. Other Swiss players
can take this a a warning of new competition.
I dished out a clock for the Jackpot 1 Final which didn't start
until just after 10.00pm. (the match should be in progress at
9.45pm.) Why do I mention this? Just to let readers know that I'm
a clock equipped T.D. and will use them if I deem them necessary.
This evenings winners were: Mourad Wahba, Jon Barnes, Alan
Beckerson (won a bg board), Edward Leighton, Kenroy Brown, Dave
Taylor, Oisin Mac Conamhna, Dave Taylor (won a bg board) and
Raymond Broome (won a bg board.)
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