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64
Entries, 8 Tournaments, 37 Players, £1168 Prize Fund,
Paul Lamford wins Jackpot and
nobody wins
the Quiz.
It was a drizzling wet night in London Town and Chelsea were playing
Barcelona at the Nou Camp Stadium in The Champions League - I wasn't
expecting a large turnout of players this month.
12 Players put their names down for the Maximum 8 Player, 7 Pointer,
Minimum £25 Jackpot Tournament so, as it the way we do things, I gathered
those players around at precisely 7.00 pm and started bidding the entry
fee up until we had only 8 Players willing to pay whatever the entry fee
went up to - let market forces apply.
£30 and they were still all
in. £35 and 1 Player dropped out. £40 (it's strictly cash only
entry I reminded Players) and 11 still in. £45 and still all in.
£50 (makes a £400 Prize Fund, 100% Return) and all still in. £55 and
2 Players dropped out. £60, 9 Players interested and not one of them
has even flinched so I skipped £65 and went straight to £70 - all still
in. Ok it's £75 now (makes a Prize Fund of £600, cash entry only) and still not
a hint of a flinch. £80, £80, it's £80 now - are you still all in?
1 Player dropped out so we had found our 8 Players. Prize Fund £640.
Monies paid, draw done and off they went to play.
Next up a 16 Player, 5 Pointer, £10 Pool Tournament. The players
just kept coming and coming. I knew there were more than 16 but I kept on
taking their entry fees. When they had stopped coming I asked a chap in
the bar to do the draw. The 16 Player Tournament filled up and I put the
remaining registered Players into an 8 Player, 5 Pointer £10 Entry
Tournament. Over the next 10 minutes yet another 5 Players arrived
so Tournament 4 was up and running and within a few minutes we had 3
players knocked out of Ts1 & 3 who re-entered so T4 was full. It's 7.30 pm
and 37 players are involved in matches. Eat your heart out Jose Mourinho - there's a New Camp in London Town !
With everybody playing nearly all the available tables were in use. There
was only 1 table being used by non backgammoners and I had to split a
couple of joined up 2 seater tables to make enough tables. So in truth we
really are fine with 40 players in this venue. Come the spring / summer
(not far away now) we can have more matches on the outside balcony so we
could go up to 30 matches (60 players.) So it's only April that we might
have a problem with enough tables. I was glad to see enough boards around
and even a couple not in use at peak period.
At 8.15 pm I started to have more players knocked out and asked what they
would like to play. 5 Pointer, £10 Entry Tournaments seemed to be what
people wanted so that's what T5 was. We had a couple of Players that
wanted to play for £5 so we had an 8 Player, 5 pointer £5 Optional Entry
too. Shortly after I had a couple of players interested in playing a 7
Pointer £20 4 Player Tournament. I held them back for about 20 minutes
until another 2 Players were interesting in this and off the 4 of them
went to play. Does the rolling / I'll run what you want format work? Yup,
it certainly does.
Many Players (about 70%) ate during the evening. This is a higher
percentage than I expected would want to do so. While that's fine, it is
after all pretty normal to want to eat of an evening when out, it did put
pressure on both the kitchen, the tables and the completion of the
tournaments. 1 or 2 Players waited a long time for their meals and the
barmen were running between the bar, the kitchen and tables. The kitchen
closes at 9.00 pm. So as of next month I think we need another pair
of serving hands in the Lockside Lounge and possibly another pair of hands
in the kitchen. The kitchen closing at 9.30 pm should also help. I'll talk
to the Landlord. This should prevent the non eating players having
to wait for the eating players which in one case this month was a very
long time.
The Prize Fund for each tournament is 100% return to the winner. However I
do give the Prize Fund envelope to the two Finalists before they start
their match. In this way it's up to them if they do a deal or not. Most do
do a deal. Backgammon has an element of luck. The better player is not
guaranteed a win. So having won though to the final most players find it makes sense to
hedge ones bet. Something like a 70%/30% is a normal split but given that
the cash is in bank notes most players agree to the nearest £5. So, for
example, an £80
Prize Fund is usually split £55 to the Winner £25 to the Loser.
The first tournament to complete was T3 with first time Bg in Camden
player John H taking the honours; excellent performance John and I'm sure
you'll be back again! Somehow it was T6 that was the next to finish and
was won by Helen H-S. This might have been her first evening at BG in
Camden but to those that know her this win came as no surprise; she knows
what she's doing and usually does it very well. I'm hoping we'll see more
of her and her friends and partner. T7 (a 4 Player, 1 Pointer) only took
30 minutes and was won by Simon G. T1 completed at 11 pm with Paul
Lamford taking the honours and, though he had been willing to do a deal,
100% of the Prize Fund. The Pauls were having a good evening and it
was Paul W who won T4. The Simons were also in good form as Simon M won
the 16 Player T2 at 11.15 pm. T6 (the 4 Player, 7 Pointer, £20 Entry) was
won again this month by Eric - on for a hattrick next month Eric? And
finally T5 was won by "I'm giving up backgammon" Sue K which also puts Sue
chasing a hat-trick next month.
The last checker was played at midnight. Umm, that's really too late and
the barman wasn't the happiest bunny around though did, thank you, manage
to keep his cool. Apart from increasing the staffing levels I'm still
trying to work out what to do about this. Suggestions welcome.
The quiz was only entered by 6 people. This number is to my mind very low
and despite my trying to find time to get players to taking part seems
about the norm. I've no wish to cajole players into doing something they
don't want to do but I'm sure more would if it was made a little easier
for them to do. So next month, instead of having the quiz posted on the
wall I'll hand them out as questions with tick boxes on sheets which
players can fill in while sitting down in comfort. Nobody got the quiz
right this month so I save giving out a drink - that or I owe our Quiz
Master Phil Simborg one. Yup, that sounds pretty fair to me - Phil when
are you coming to London ?
ZOE AND SEAN IN AUSTRALIA
As the regulars amongst you will know we have lost Zoe and Sean to
Sydney, Australia for a year or two. But that is not to say they are out
of contact and not playing backgammon. They have a blog - a personal
website that they can update and let others know what they are up to:
http://zoeandsean.blogspot.com/
They have also made their way to the
Sydney Backgammon Club in the Mill Hill area near Bondi Beach.
It is a well spoken of Club.
Via that
website we here in London Town can keep a track of Zoe and Seans'
results - click on the
current ladder page. I won't spoil the suspense of how they are doing
here on this page - let your mouse do the clicking on the links provided.
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Summary:
There was a total of 37 Players - only 1 less than last month but
given what else was happening this evening I was more than pleased. An important element
id this was that we had 12 "new to Bg in Camden" players
join us this evening. The word is spreading; some coming with others who
have been before, some coming having heard about from others and some
coming from having heard about it via the internet. A very big welcome to
all those new players - some of you walked out with more than you walked
in with so I suppose you had a good evening. I tried to find time to speak
to you all though I know I missed out on chatting to at least a couple of
you but yous were mostly heads down playing all evening and given that is
what you probably came for I expect you got what you wanted. If not, shout
up please.
We're now up to having had 98 different people play at Bg in Camden.
That's excellent. On
the downside that means that 61 people who have played were not here this
month. So why's that? Ok - football and rotten weather took their tool
(say 10) but what else? To be reasonable I can't expect everybody to turn
up every time so let's suppose that knocks out about 20 or so. But that
leaves approx. 30. Sean and Zoe have gone off to Australia and because of their charismatic nature they pulled in a
fair few so let's call that (with Z & S) 10. So approx. 20 people are
probably not going to come again. So a 20% failure to come again rate. I'm
not a marketing man so I've no real way of knowing it that's good, bad or
indifferent but to my mind that seems a little high. I'm not saying I want
or expect everybody to come back time and time again but I'm a firm
believer that if people don't come back then something about whatever it
was they attended was wrong for them. The idea of BG in Camden is that it
should be inclusive and provide people with what they want. Unless people
tell me what was wrong for them then I'll probably not know what I'm not
making happen for them. So, if by chance you happen to be one of
those people, please do yourself and me a favour and
let me know. Ta.
This was the first month I charged tournament players £1
for their evening. There was not a whisper of discontent. Thank you for
that; all those £1 coins make the running of Bg in Camden feasible.
Because I'm now charging Players (1st entry per evening
only) to play in Tournaments BG in Camden is now a Club. I handed out a
number of membership cards this month but I've still a lot to hand out. If
you didn't get yours please ask me next month or whenever you next attend.
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