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THE REPORT
At the end of last years Backgammon Live in London I was told by Richard
Biddle that I was to delegate this year. So we had a meeting a couple of
months before this years event to decide who was to do what. It worked and
we had a far smoother running weekend.
As ever the event was designed to be better; added this year were printed
programs of events that were handed out to all participants, all players
were asked to bring a present for another player, we had some new sponsors and
massage for aching backgammoners. Altered was the Sunday format from a
Swiss to an Olympiad Tournament and the Singles Knockout was shaved down
but On Shore and On Board Tournaments added. All entry fees were
maintained as they always have been though the Boat Trip was increased.
The weekend kicked off with people arriving by the free cabs laid on by
one of our Sponsors
GLH
or under their own steam. Drinks downstairs in the Spice Island were
followed by dinner for about 20. At 9.00 o'clock we moved to the YHA where
we kicked off the backgammon with the Weekend Knockout which was run by Zoe
Cunningham. We had 28 players so we had time to play 7 pointer matches.
Zoe did a grand job by getting all 2nd Round matches played by midnight
(20 hours before they were due to be played.)
Michelle kicked-off the first of 5 Tric Trac Tournos to be played over the
weekend at about 10.00 pm and by midnight we had our first winner of the weekend
- Mike Bailey.
Very apt that, Mike has attended every Bg Live in
London. Not only did he pick up a trophy he also picked up a $20
voucher for
ClubGames
who were the sole sponsors of TTTs over the weekend. They also donated
bunches of flowers and boxes of chocolates for the 2nd and 3rd placed
players. Later on we played the Friday night Jackpot which was won by
Chris Gibbins at 4.00 am.
We had 24 people staying at the YHA most of whom were looking forward to a
good fry up breakfast before a long day of backgammon. But it was not to
be so - we'd been Jamie Olivered! That chap is a celebrity chef who
this year had a go at the British Government about what children get for their
school meals. I don't have a problem with that at all but I do have a
problem when caters decide they can provide not much more than a micro
waved croissant and a glass of watery orange juice in the interest of "not
serving up junk food." I wasn't best pleased and told them so.
At 10.00 am we had a Seminar by Paul Lamford. The 6 positions had been
handed out the evening before for people to work out and submit their
answers. Instead of using a large display board the Seminar was given with
the aid of a PowerPoint Presentation that projected
Snowie
(another sponsor) files onto a wall. The Seminar is now available
here.
11.30 saw us back in The Spice Island and Richard Biddle doing an
excellent Auction. The 64 player Draw took all of 2 minutes because
instead of doing by names out of a hat it was done through a laptop. It's
brilliant. No delay, just a press or two of the keyboard and random
numbers are generated, assigned to players who are then assigned to slots
in the Main with byes in the correct places. Is it really random I hear
some ask? If anybody can predict who will play who correctly I offer a
free weekend next year.
Numbers in the Singles Knockout were down slightly this year to 56 - that
was a shame but at least we had a perfect 8 byes so we had no real delays
to contend with. Of course some big names fell at the first hurdle but on
the whole those who went though to the 2nd Round of the Main were those
who would be expected to do so. I shaved down the Progressive Consolation
this year so that only the 1st and 2nd Round Main losers would go into it.
The reason for this is that we have a Boat Trip to see the Lord Mayor's
Fireworks Display as part of the day. As if that doesn't cut into the
backgammon as it is, this year the tides on the river meant the boat
needed to leave 30 minutes earlier than last year. Also I was certain that
a number of players would want to skip the boat trip having done it
before. So I decided to abandon all hope of keeping the tournament running
between 3.00 and 6.00 pm and laid on separate On Board and On Shore
Tournaments instead. At 3.00 o'clock, with the Main, Consolation, Last
Chance and Suicide about half way though, the Boat Trippers were off in
cabs to the Pier where the boat awaited them.
Michael Crane of
Biba
(another sponsor) ran the On Board Tournaments while Zoe ran
the On Shore Tournaments. I gave them both 6 x 8 player Knockout Charts
which I was sure was more than they would get played but Michael Crane had
all of them full by the time the fireworks started at 5.00 pm. I think he
must have some experience in this field! Zoe ran, with only 9 players, 4
longer point Tournaments.
The 10 winners each received a plaque and 1 Champ'o'Champs
point and shared a bottle of bubbly donated by the
Captain of the Boat or the Landlord of the Pub.
I'm told the fireworks
were the best ever.
When all the players returned to the Spice Island we continued with the
Singles Knockout.
In truth it had not progressed as far as I had hoped it
would have (thank God I'd shaved the Consolation) and it looked like the
start of the Doubles would be delayed. However seeing as it was not I (who
was busy running the Singles) who was going to run the Doubles the T.Ds
Sean Williams and Richard Biddle managed to run around and collect names
and pool entries and thus pretty well start on time.
The Singles was drew to a close with the Suicide being won by DailyGammon player Martin Coote, The Last Chance by Nodar Gagua, the
Consolation by Stef Rohan and the Main by Steve Ferrer.
John Broomfield
had an excellent day by winning 100% of the Auction.
As mentioned an addition this year was presents. Bg Live in London is
designed as a party as well as a backgammon weekend so it seemed obvious to
me to ask players to bring present for other players. Those that did were
given a raffle ticket and chose a present from the table. The most fun
present was a basket ball net that attached to your waist with a ball on a
string that you had to flip into the basket. Gigolos should all have one.
Another addition was the program of events. It not only did a marvellous
job in cutting down the questions I was asked during the weekend but also
included scorecards for every match players might play throughout the
weekend and a page of position cards too. It'll be de riguer at every
large event I organise in the future.
18 Teams in the Doubles meant no bye back ins and 14 byes so most of the
2nd round matches started straight away. Others elected to play in a Tric
Trac Tourno which had its own section in the Pub with a flat-screen facing
them so they could see the scores as they played. This was won by
Bedstefar which I must admit bought a smile to my face for it was he who
inspired the creation of Bg Live in London after Liz Barker and I went to
an internet players meet in Oslo that he organised some years ago. As soon
as that was played there were clamours from knocked out Doubles players
for another so we had our 3rd TTT of the weekend which was won by Tim
Line. There were no takers for the Saturday evening Jackpot.
At midnight it was time to leave the Pub so we returned to the YHA where
the Doubles continued and a Jackpot was played. Little Suzy Crabb and
Matte Juggler (in his first tournament) won the Doubles. Later Suzy was
awarded the
Dod Davies - absent due to some little (?!?!?) tournament
going on in Las Vegas - 2 hour backgammon lesson prize.
Meanwhile the Weekend Long Knockout was doing well too - Zoe had somehow
managed to keep it running and in fact it was ahead of itself by close of
play on Saturday. Paul Lamford was a known finalist and the other
semi-final was due to be played at 10.00 am Sunday.
Breakfast was another disappointing affair but in truth I probably didn't
have time for it because we had a Presentation on "The History of the Game
and some of the people who play, have played, do play the game" by The
Independent Backgammon Columnist
Chris Bray. Again I missed it because I
was busy setting up for the next event but everybody came out of it saying
it was excellent. Many thanx to Chris who had a bad back but still managed
to turn up.
11.30 and we're back in The Spice Island for the Olympiad Tournament. In
previous years we have run a Swiss Tournament but we have only ever had 30
or so players turn up for it. I'm not surprised either - it's to my mind a
pretty pointless format to use in backgammon. Players that have lost have
very little incentive to play on. Hence they don't even take part. So this
year it got the sack and was replaced by a far more inclusive format. My
Olympiad format has 7 brackets all with 3rd place play-offs for bronze
medals, trophies and gold medals for winners and silver medals for losing
finalists. Each bracket has an Optional Pool and there's an Auction in the
Main to boot. It's about 7 hours of pretty intense backgammon for 32
people. Of course it's run via computer (program designed by myself and
Sean Williams) with the charts projected onto a screen for all players to
see their progress.
Here's an interesting position from the 2nd Round Main Olympiad:
Paul Lamford
"In this position I redoubled and Chris took. I thought at the time
this was an error, but when checking it out with my EquityRatingChart, I
found that for someone of his ability he was right to take. The window at
this skill difference is: 63/75%. This assumes a 300 point rating
difference. The approximate ratings were 1980 and 1680 at the time."
Star of the show was Paul Lamford who not only won the Main but also won
100% of the Auction. Paul may have been out of mainstream backgammon for a
couple or so of years now but he proved that he still knows how to play the game. Chris Gibbins made up for, by his standard, a quite Bg Live in London by winning
the Consolation, Tim Line took the Last Chance, Nodar Gagua (en route back
from the WBF event in St Maarten and visiting his daughter in London) took
the Suicide, Sean Williams took the TTT and Hubert de l'Epine and Martin
Coote the Satellites.
Another 2 Tric Trac Tournos were played on Sunday afternoon. Alan
Beckerson now has a trophy to match his wife Monica's from last year and
Marios Contantinou, after a 3 player final play-off, took the other. In another corner of the Pub Chrissie
was giving back massages to tired players.
David Rogers had progressed to the Final of the Weekend Knockout and thus
sat down to play with Mr Lamford. This was Pauls' 9th 7 pointer of the
weekend and, yes, he made it 9 out of 9 to win the Weekender.
Having won 2 of the major events of the weekend there was little doubt
that Paul had also won the Champ'o' Champs tournament as well. So he
walked away with 3 large trophies and bulging pockets. Perhaps you would
like to take a look at his seminar.
The Chouette Corner now wrapped up as well. Once again we were playing
with monopoly like money in the Chouettes on the basis that this event is
designed for backgammon learning rather than for sharks. In reality most
players hustle with their chouette money by playing head to heads or
having side bets on their tournament matches. This year it was Tim Line
who walked away with the Chouette Hustlers Cup.
There were now trophies to award to tournament winners, sponsors prizes to
give out - ClubGames vouchers, flowers and chocolates, Biba's Bibafaxes subscriptions,
The Fox
Reformed vouchers,
GammonVillage subscriptions, Snowie CD Roms, Chris Bray
and Paul Lamford books,
The Lockside Lounge
(venue of
Backgammon in Camden) vouchers and Annie's plate
and thanx to be said.
"They think it's all over..." Not at all - true, most players had made
their exit but the diehards just wanted more. And quite rightly so for the
best was yet to come. The Gang Tournament. Take 16 players, throw their
names into a hat, draw them out in two teams and set 8 versus 8 in a 3
point match. Large round table required and large board to suit. You have
on your hands a well mannered riot and a load of fun. It's a perfect
finale to a weekend of backgammon.
Here's a position from the 2nd Round match that took the team
concerned 20 minutes, with much goading from the opposition, to debate and
decide upon.
Team A incorrectly cubed (against my advice I'm pleased to say - I thought
it was too good to double because we had loads of gammons to win because
they would crunch and we would therefore win by a gammon anyway hence
pushing the score to 2-1 Crawford with Team B needing 2 straight wins or a
gammon in the following game. I also thought that Team B would drop so
we'd only profit by 1 point by cubing.) Team B quite correctly dropped.
The Gang Tournament was won in the smaller hours by Tim Line.
Later still we had a Jackpot trophy to play for. This was due to start at
11.00 pm but that time was well are truly missed. By the time the last two
players standing (actually sitting now) were ready to play it was 3.00 am.
As it happened those players were the Jackpot TDs so we fined
ourselves 24 points each and played a 27 point match.
Summary:
Numerous players told me it was the best Bg Live in London yet. I took
that with a pinch of salt because it was said to me but looking back on it
now, yes it certainly was a good one. It ran very smoothly but not so
smoothly and without its dramas that it was over sanitised. The printed
program certainly cut down on the number of questions I was asked during
the weekend, having others doing things really made things easier for me,
the On Board and On Shore tournaments worked a treat, a Presentation
rather than a Seminar is
better idea for tired brains on the Sunday morning, the Olympiad was a far
better event than Swiss is and the presents made it more party like. Oh,
and the backgammon was good too. Thanx for being there.
Many thanx to The Crew 2005.
Photos of event by Sue Keeble, Tim Line, Stef Rohan and Sue Bentley. Thanx too.
