This months Bg in Camden was only 3 days after Zoe and Sean's Leaving for
Australia Tournament (a 30 Player event) and I didn't anticipate a huge
turnout; there's only so much backgammon people can play in a week.
However I wasn't disappointed with an attendance of 33 tournament
players and another 5 casual players at the far end of the bar.
I kicked off the proceedings bang on 7.00 pm with the 7 Pointer, Maximum 8
Players, Minimum £25 Obligatory Pool Tournament. I state quite clearly on
the website that it will start prompt at 7.00 pm and I'm very sure that I
must stick to the time - if I let it slip and start late it'll end up
starting at 7.15, 7.30 or worse. So folks 7.00 pm means 7.00 pm. We had 9
Players interested. Ah but only 8 were actually present. One had phoned in
to another player asking to be registered and happy to pay whatever the
bidding went up to. I'm not sure if I did things correctly last month but
I took his registration last month so, having omitted to speak to the
player concerned, I took his registration again this month. I was told he
would be with us by 7.10 pm. I let that ride. With 9 players interested in
an 8 player tournament I called out the names I had written down to
confirm they were indeed all up for it as they had said. They were. So the
Entry fee went up to £30. Did anybody want to drop out ? 1 player
did. Ok - we had our 8 players. Then I asked those 8 players if they
wanted to further increase the Entry Fee and hence the Prize Fund. £35.
They were still all in. £40. Nobody said no so they were all still in. £45. 1 player said no so we reverted to the £40 (Prize Fund £320
100% return) they were all happy with. All 7 present players paid up their
cash, the draw was done by a non-player and the draw called out. Off 6
players went to play with 1 player waiting for his opponent. Time - 7.06.
Next up was the 16 Player, 5 Pointer, £10 Obligatory Pool Tournament. 14
players signed up straight away, the draw was done and off they went to
play. Time - 7.15.
The missing player from the 1st Tournament had still not arrived at 7.19
so I phoned him. 1 and a half minutes and he'd be there. I openly
considered if I should charge the missing player penalty points but his
opponent said he didn't want them - he wanted to win his match though play
not penalties. Very admirable. The missing player arrived and sat down to
play at 7.22.
Penalty Points Rules are as follows:
Penalty points will be awarded against latecomers and absentees at the
rate of one per five minutes late, the first point being awarded 5 minutes
after the appointed starting time. When the total of penalty points amount
to more than 50% of the total points to win the match the absent player
shall forfeit the match.
So the tournament actually started at 7.07 and the missing player arrived
at 7.22 = 15 minutes late = score could have legally been altered to 3-0
in a 7 pointer. Another 5 minutes late and the missing player could have
been fined more than 50% of the match and hence forfeited the match. Had
that happened I would then have been in the situation of asking the player
for his £40 Pool Entry but not allowing him to play a single checker. You
might have noticed that I have not mentioned players names - that's not
relevant. What is relevant is how many players would be happy to hand over
40 quid for (from their point of view) nothing ? I agree it would be the
honourable thing to do but I gotta deal with reality here.
Another point is that because I have allowed a player to register via
telephone we are now seeing the knock-on effect. If I let this situation
persist we could soon have a situation of a number of players registering
via telephone, the bidding to reduced to 8 players happening via telephone
and a late start.
Even worse at that time of the evening I, as Tournament Director, am very
busy getting the evening off to a good start; this month I had 22 players
to deal with between 7.00 and 7.15. Of those 22 players 5 were first
time Bg in Camden players who of course need I need to give a little more
time to than those who know the procedure. In a nutshell I don't have time
for things to go wrong.
Further this tournament didn't finish until 11.15 pm. That's 15 minutes
over the time it's scheduled to finish by. That to me says it all. I
really need to address this situation.
I agree that I should not have allowed a player to register via telephone
last month. That in effect has opened the door to a whole host of other
potential problems. But rather than allow a poor situation to become worse
I'm gonna haul the rope in now before we have a major problem. Here's my
decision:
Players wishing to play in the 7 Pointer, 8 Player Minimum £25
Tournament (aka The Jackpot) must be in The Lockside Lounge in person by
7.00 pm. Telephone registrations will not be accepted. So folks 7.00 pm
means 7.00 pm in situ.
Ok - now where was I ? Oh yes, the 16 player was full by 7.25 and the next
Tournament (an 8 Player, 5 pointer, £10 Obligatory Pool) started at 7.30
with 5 players registered. In other words by 7.30 we had 28 players
playing and 1 player waiting for an opponent.
Soon players were being knocked out and another few players arrived.
Tournament 5 (also an 8 Player, 5 pointer, £10 Obligatory Pool) kicked off
at 8.00 pm and Tournament 6 kicked off at 8.15 pm. T6 was also an 8 player
5 pointer but the Entry Fee was £5. Hands up, I over stepped the mark
here; I should have taken better note of the players concerned (let's say
they are not fast players) and the time and made it a 3 pointer or have
limited it to a 4 player event. This is because one of the semi-finals
didn't finish until 11.30 pm and thus the Final was reduced to a 1
pointer. It would have helped if some of the players concerned had used
the doubling cube (especially in their Post Crawford Game) but the reality
is, I think, they are frightened of the cube
because they do not understand it so played pretty well without it.
Tournament 6 saw the Big Boys coming back for more. 4 players, 7 pointer,
£25 Obligatory Pool. It kicked off at 8.45 pm which was a little late to
complete by 11.00 pm but I'd seen no evidence that they were slow players
so I didn't stand in their way.
Tournament 7 was a 4 Player, 3 Pointer, £3 Obligatory Pool Tournament
which kicked off at 10.15 pm.
The Quiz. This month the quiz had only 3 possible plays. As such I
expected a larger than normal number of players to take part. I also tried
to plug it more so than usual. However I'm sorry to report than only 6
players took part - though many more than that did study it. It was Simon
Gasquoine (he who re-wrote "Backgammon - Know the Game" in 2004) who was
the only player to come up with the correct answer and hence won a free
drink.
Talking of Mr Simon Gasquione (in attendance at Bg in Camden for the first
time) it was he who won Tournament 1.
Jo Curl won T2 (for the second
month running - very impressive Jo.)
T3 was won by Sue K (who didn't
do well at Zoe and Seans Tournament and had been walking around saying she
was giving up backgammon,,,, umm hum.)
T4 saw Reading Football Club (who
were playing in the FA Cup) fan Simon Morecroft win - good decision Simon -
Reading lost, you won.
T5 saw Paul Lamford win a reduced from 5
pointer to a 1 pointer to win.
T6 saw another first time BG in
Camden player - Eric - win.
In T7 Michael Flesch maintained the
Flesch family tradition of winning a Bg in Camden tournament every single
month - bravo.
So another good month - 33 tournament players (6 first time Bg in Camden)
players, 5 casual players and the Prize Fund raised slightly. I expect Bg
in Camden to settle down to between 30 - 40 players per month. Hence I
think there is no need to go fortnightly which would be my plan if we
increase to 50 players per month.
Now onto a subject I had hoped I wouldn't have to mention......
As many of you know it is The Lockside Lounge that pay me something to run
the evening. Please note the word something - it's not a fortune. It was
always my plan that players would not pay to play. Hence I had hoped that
Camden Lock Ltd would pay me as well which would make running the evening
financially viable. However I'm sorry to report that this is now not going
to happen. Also The Lockside Lounge cannot increase their contribution.
There are various costs involved in running Bg in Camden - my website,
paper and printing, having enough boards to ensure there are enough boards
available and other sundry costs. While I'm keen to promote live
backgammon I'm not in a position of doing so at my own cost.
So, much as I
didn't want to do this, I'm sorry to say that as on March 2006 there will
be a charge of £1 per player per evening. Please note this will be charged
on your 1st Tournament entry only - not every tournament you enter. I've
canvassed most players and I've not had 1 player say they will stop
attending - in fact most players have said they would be more than happy
to pay.
This does cause some minor problems. To satisfy current gaming laws this
means that all those who play in a tournament need to be members of a
Club.
Therefore I hereby create the club called: BACKGAMMON IN CAMDEN. You will be given a Club membership number and I need a method of
contacting all members. This can be an email address, telephone number or
snail mail address.
The law also states that a club membership fee is to be charged.
Therefore the 1st Tournament you enter you will actually be charged
99p and 1p for membership of Backgammon in Camden Club.
Thereafter 1st Tournament entry fee per evening will be £1.
New players are the life blood of backgammon -
as such new players attending a workshop only will not be charged.
As before those that turn up to play in Chouettes only or
head to head matches only will be charged £5.
Play in just 1 Tournament and this charge will not apply.
So in short it's gonna cost most of you £1 per evening / month.
Compare that to say Poker where I gather it's traditional for the winning
players to donate about 10% of their win to the Croupier / Master of
Ceremonies whatever his/her title is and you are still on a good deal. All
I'm asking is for a little recompense for the time and effort it takes to
make Bg in Camden the most active and best deal Backgammon event in London
Town.
Of course Player feedback is vital, so if you have any
comments of questions please do not hesitate to email or
phone me:
MikeMadMonk@backpacker-backgammon.com
07985-941729
That said it'll be impossible to email every would be
Player on an individual basis so if you are not already on
it please join my
mailing list.