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1st June 2010
76 Entries, 14 Tournaments, 53 Players, £3409 Prize Fund,
Peter Bennet wins Jackpot 1.
Miroslava and Sava Nadazdin over from Serbia.
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The day after a wet May Bank
Holiday weekend and it had been pouring rain all day; I was still
hoping for a good turnout but wasn't confident despite the fact
that we had on offer a
Play65 Added Prize Fund of £200 and the new Bg in London / Play65 T shirts to giveaway this evening.
Our 1st Swiss Tournament of the evening kicked off at about 6.40
but there were not a huge number of other players in-situ. But
then it kicked off and by 7.00pm we had 21 players interested in
playing for at least £25. Ok, it's gonna be a busy evening after
all!
The Camden Auction went from £25 to £250 to reduce to 8 players.
The next 8 played for £60 a head, another 4 for £50 and head and
one dropped down to the 2nd £10 Swiss Tournament. Meanwhile The £5
Swiss mustered to 8 players and another £25 Mini-Jackpot for those
delayed by the rain got underway by 7.40pm. That made 48
backgammon active players with another 5 joining us during the
evening.
Jackpot 1 was populated by 6 regular suspects plus Tim Line of
Bristol and Michael Sorenson of Denmark. Would an "interloper"
steal the jewels this evening as sometimes happens when we have
visitors? No, both went out in Round 1. Having blown his cash Tim
was then to be found at the bar for the remainder of the evening
and, with a little help from Dan the Lockside Manager, Michael
extracted some sterling from the cash machine to try and try again
but still to no avail. Bad runs in backgammon are just part of the
game we play.
Jackpot 1 & 2 matches (7 pointers) finishing on time (by 11.00pm)
have been an issue of late. It states clearly on the Auction page
and Tournament chart that I as the T.D. have the right to put any
match on a clock if I deem it necessary. What is necessary? Is
Round matches should start by 7.15, end by 8.30pm, Semi-Finals
should complete by 9.45pm and the Final by 11.00pm. A 1 hour 15
minute window to play a 7 pointer should be ample. The main recent
"offender" (by his own admission I'm pleased to admit) has been
Nicky Check so this evening he kicked off his first match on a
clock. His opponent, Engin Ongle, wasn't overly pleased about this
but accepted it with good enough grace. The Raj Jansari v Michael
Sorenson, Catalin v Michael Flesch and Peter Bennet v Nicky Check
matches were also clocked affairs. All in all this is I consider
good training for International Tournaments where clock play is
nigh on de rigueur these days. Peter Bennet won the final of
Jackpot 1 - it's been a while since Peter achieved this so about
time too Mr Bennet Senior!
Jackpot 2 was also populated by 6 usual suspects plus Cato
formerly of Stoke Newington but nowadays of The Netherlands and
Sava Nadazdin of Serbia. Could one of those two beat our locals?
There is no doubting that Cato is a good player but he has no luck
at all on the rare occasions he makes it to Camden. During this
evening he did the "turn again Dick Whittington" the required
three times but we're not going to have a Mayor of London named
Cato anytime soon. Sava had wanted to play in the biggest
tournament we had to offer but just before 7.00pm when I looked at
the list of players in the Camden Auction I predicted that the
entry fee would be £100 - £150. His Manageress (his charming
partner Miroslava) informed him that there was not enough sterling
in the wallet to allow for that so he played in Jackpot 2. His
first match was against Mourad who wins a good number of
tournaments here in Camden. Sava made short work of Mourad who,
when he reported the match, was still shaking his head and saying
"Sava's a good player, a very good player, he's a World Class
player." So Sava played Jon Barnes next who is also no slouch over
a backgammon board. Jon also suffered a similar fate. Sava then
had a long wait for the other half of the draw to catch up which,
despite a clock being used in the other Semi, was still running
behind schedule so the Final also became a clocked match. Michael
Flesch played Sava and Sava won. An "interloper" had run off with
our 2nd crown of the evening. See yous (Sava and Miroslava) again
in September for
The London Open.
The 3 Swiss Tournaments were trotting along at their usual pace
and there was lots of Mini-Jackpot action going on this evening as
players lost in Jackpots and new arrivals came in the door. The
first Mini-Jackpot Final was between old friends Stephen King and
Richard Patterson, Richard won, took the cash and they decided to
quit while the were ahead. Danny Cohen took Mini-Jackpot 2 and did
likewise. Mourad had re-entered in Mini-Jackpot, won it and hence
clawed back some of his Jackpot 1 entry fee. Lewis Potter and
Simon Morecroft decided not to contest their dead-rubber Swiss 1
match, Lewis slipped away to lick his wounds and Simon re-entered
Mini-Jackpot 4 (a SpeedGammon affair) which he won. Mini-Jackpot 5
was a re-enter and late arrivals affair and won by late arrival
Philip Swart. Dorothy Lee was down from Manchester, had gained her
entry fee back in Swiss 1, entered Mini-Jackpot 6 and won that.
Mini-Jackpot 7 was the last of our 5 pointer tournaments and won
by Uli Koch, Mini-Jackpots 8 & 9 were 3 pointer affairs and won by
Simon Gasquione and Richard Biddle. And the Swisses I hear some
ask... Oisin Mac Conamhna, Mike Ireland and Raymond Broome
won these.
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