BACKPACKER BACKGAMMON AT BIBA
2nd, 3rd, 4th, September 2005

Report by Michael Crane 

I have come to the conclusion that there's too much backgammon around at the moment! Slovenia nibbled away at our entries; the weekend before Roland and Simonetta's wedding event ate into the MSO and a lot of players are just backgammoned out! So, this left us with just 23 entrants. A little disappointing perhaps but those that turned out enjoyed themselves and that's the most important thing.

 

Main (23) 
In the Main, all but the semi-finalists went into the Progressive Consolation. Brian Lever had a tough match against Nicky Check in the semis, a match from which Nicky went into the Final after rolling three big doubles at DMP to rob Brian of the place. In the other semi, David Nathan made very quick work of Peter Chan; so quick that Peter was hardly heard to call his rolls!

In the Final Nicky took an early lead, 9-2. David then began to dig back point by point to take it to 9-9 and DMP. The final game was a bit disappointing (especially for David) and wasn't very exciting. The dice played themselves most of the time and the game and match went to Nicky. This is Nicky's first Main victory since the 1999 Mary Rose tournament; so it's good to see him back on form.

 

Main: David and Nicky 

Consolation (19) 
In the Consolation, Jeff Barber triumphed over Uldis Lapikens. This was Jeff's first win' since his Consolation win at the 2003 UK Finals. Uldis entered via the last eight of the Main whereas Jeff did it the hard way - from Round One.

Consolation: Uldis and Jeff
 

This year, as last, the event was co-directed between myself and Mike Main, the tournament sponsor. Mike's friend, Sean Williams is responsible for the Excel spreadsheet in which the event is recorded and run. A complex program (to an idiot like me!) but one which Sean knows inside out. He was able to make tweaks and alterations on the fly to ensure it all went along smoothly.

The Screen: Mike, Michael and Sean

Last Chance (16) 
It looks as if there's a bit of rivalry between Sean and partner, Zoe Cunningham at the Biba Backpacker events. Last year Zoe won the Last Chance after knocking Sean out - and this year it was Sean's turn to take home the Last Chance trophy after he beat Mick Vacarey in the Final. Zoe wasn't too upset, after all, she did knock Sean out of the Consolation!
 

Last Chance: Mick and Sean

Suicide! (32) 
Mind you, Zoe wasn't going to go home empty handed, she set her sights on the Suicide: Chris Ternel, Kevin White, Paul Statter, Kevin White (thanks to a buy-back) and finally (literally) Dave Motley were unable to stop her taking home the Suicide trophy.

Suicide: Dave and Zoe

Satellite 1 (8) 
Because of the way the spreadsheet handles byes we had 8 players waiting for their first Main opponent so we ran a satellite for them to keep 'em occupied. Jeff Barber won Satellite 1.

Satellite 1: Jeff

Satellite 2 (8) 
Bob Young won Satellite 2.

Satellite 2: Bob

Friday Warm-up (16) 
Chris Gibbins won the Friday Warm-up after beating Nicky in the Final. I tried to stop him in Round Two but he whitewashed me . . . . the cad!

Friday Warm-up: Chris

Gang (6) 
There were so many trophies knocking about that there was almost one each for everyone! Suzy Crabb got one for winning the Gang event. Gang? What the hell is a Gang? A Gang is where (ideally) 8 players are divided into two teams and they play against each other conferring (actually shouting is more accurate - along with drinking and more drinking) with the Captain who does the moving. The wining team is then divided into two more teams and off it goes again! Thus it was that Suzy gained her trophy, as did Chrissi Williams (no relation to Sean) for coming 2nd.

Gang: Chrissi and Suzy

Poker (10?) 
 'Mad Mullah' Wignall won the poker . . . again!

Poker: Myke with Sharen

£50 Jackpot (4)
Uldis Lapikens went home with a few bob in his pocket for wining the £50 Jackpot.

Jackpot: Uldis

Overall it was a good weekend's backgammon. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and there were no contentious issues to deal with. Who knows, perhaps this time next year Sean will have played another Backpacker without having to tweak his spreadsheet . . . but I doubt it.

Finally. Mike drove down with Sean, Zoe, Chrissi and Suzy; all of whom had a trophy. The only one without one was the guy that bought them!

 

Note by Mike Main:
As Michael Crane quite rightly opens with it was a shame there were so few Players. The trend in Tournament Backgammon these days seems to be towards regional and special events taking over from the regular events. That in itself is no bad or surprising thing; why travel to the Midlands when a quality regional event (e.g. Manchester One Day Open, and  Liverpool Open) is laid on and surely a backgammon (wedding) party makes for an attractive weekend. Throw in the various Charity events (One to One and RAC Cancer BACUP) the International events (too many to list) and something has got to give. Hey presto - I sponsored probably the lowest turnout Biba Tournament in a decade! But at least I'm laughing about it.  

We (myself and Sean Williams) went armed with our improved excel spreadsheet for upwards of 64 Players. Had I know there were going to be less than 32 Players I'd have run up a maximum 32 players version. This is where the slight alterations needed to be made on the day, but Sean knows his stuff, Michael Crane knows his stuff and somewhere in between I was able to keep the Tournament charts up to date and working from the Players point of view. 

It's the byes that I wanted to and managed to guard against. Last year we had 25 byes in Round 1 of the Main. This resulted in some Players waiting upwards of 2 hours for their 1st match. No so this year - we successfully ran Satellite Tournaments of 8 Players each, Optional Pools and Trophies in each. They worked like a dream and players appreciated the idea.

There have also been failing (and failed) attendances in the Saturday evening Doubles Tournaments are recent Biba events. Poker is probably mostly to blame but some still prefer backgammon and seeing as its billed as a backgammon weekend I felt it would be wrong not to do something backgammon on the Saturday evening. So we swung into town with the Gang Tournament. This was invented by Zoe and first played at Backgammon Live in London 2004. Ok - so we were only 6 Players in it at this Biba event - but we had our fun and that was good enough for us.

So all in all those that those there had (I think I'm correct in saying) a good weekend, the chances of winning were much improved and the excel spreadsheets got another run from which we learnt more and will continue to develop. Will it be a case of: Give it a couple of years and you'll all be running your own Tournaments in your front rooms!