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76 Entries, 9 Tournaments, 40 Players, £776 Prize Fund,
Phil fools everybody though Zoe comes close.
At 6.50 pm there were only about 6 players present and I was starting to
think I might have a flop on my hands. But 10 minutes later the doors of
the Lockside Lounge got a good workout and there must have been 20
players. Time to get this show on the road.
11 Players said they were interested in the 7 Pointer, 8 Player, £25
Obligatory Pool Tournament so, given I made a little mess of it last
month, I wrote down 10 names before I started bidding the entry fee up to
reduce it to 8 players. Two offered to drop out before I even got as far
as £30. I checked my list, read out the 8 remaining names to the assembled
players and kicked the tournament off. It was only after the draw was done
the I realised we had 2 Rays - Ray Singer and Ray Fard. Damnation - I'd
done it again - made a mess. I called over the two Rays, explained my
mistake, apologised and a coin was flipped to see which one of them would
play. Ray Fard lost the toss. Ok - next month I'm gonna take loads of care
and not let myself be rushed.
The nest tournament was, as per usual now, a 5 Pointer, 16 player, £10
Obligatory Pool. 14 Players signed up, we did the draw and moments later
another 2 players arrived so, hey presto, we had a total of 24 players
playing by 7.15.
Another 8 Players turned up over the next 15 minutes so we had a 5
Pointer, 8 Player, £10 Obligatory Pool up and running by 7.30. All ideas
of this evening being a flop were now banished.
To cut what could be a long and laborious telling short we had a total of
9 tournaments during the evening. As last month we had another 7 pointer
tournament but I again kept that to 4 players because of the time factor
(it started at 8.20) and it had a £30 Obligatory Pool. We had a total of 5
x 5 pointers, 1 x 3 pointers and 1 x 1 pointer. 9 Tournaments played is a
new record.
We also hit the magic 40 players present. This is the bit I'm thrilled
about. Not only does it make the bar good and active it also means that
the likelihood of players re-playing a player that have already played
less likely. Also the range of skill level is wider so players can choose
their level easier. The snowball is rolling.
I wondered if handling so many players would cause me as T.D. a problem of
how many places would I need to be in at one time. The were only two times
when I was pushed - during the setting up of the 1st tournament and when I
was needed to make a (simple as it turned out) T.D. ruling. In my real job
as a Cab Controller I can handle upwards of 40 - 50 cars at any one time
and it seems that the same ratio is applicable in backgammon.
So who won ? In his first time attending Bg in Camden Mr Uldis Lapikens
beat Dod Davies in the 1st Tournament, Jo Curl increased the take of the
Dod and Jo partnership by winning the 16 player, Ray Fard won yet another
Bg in Camden tournament, Geoff Conn won Tournament 4, Zoe won T 5, Miranda
invested £30 in Tournament 6 and won it, John Broomfield won Tournament 7,
first time tournament player Jessica won Tournament 8 and Michael Flesch
continued the Flesch family tradition by winning Tournament 9. Nine out of
40 happy bunnies.
That's not to say there were 31 unhappy bunnies. Once again I asked,
particularly the first time Bg in Camden players, if they had enjoyed
their evening. All answered that they had and I'm pretty sure we'll see
them there again. Players are of course also welcome to bring a friend.
A
Phil Simborg Quiz was once again available for players to ponder over.
It was a little harder this month and though many looked at it we only had
4 entries. Much to Sean's disgust it was Zoe who won it again. Both Sean
and Zoe got the first part of the quiz correct (there must be something
said for reading and digesting bg books) but Zoe got the second part more
correct than Sean did. Zoe, I owe you a drink - better be in Brighton
before yous go off to Aus'.
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