|
92
Entries, 12 Tournaments, 60 Players, £1390 Prize Fund,
Peter Bennet wins the Jackpot
and Jon Samuel wins the Quiz.
No it's not a typo - 60 players turned up to Bg in Camden. That thrashes
the previous record of 47.
2 Jackpot tournaments this evening - a £65 entry and a £30 entry. 6 x £10
entries, 1 x £25 entry and 3 x £5 Optional Pool entries. All but the £25
entry tournament were 8 player affairs, Jackpots & £25 entry tournaments
were 7 pointers, the rest all 5 pointers. 19 new to Bg in Camden players.
At 6.15 the place had a handful of players in, at 6.30 it looked a little
bit promising, at 6.45 the place started to look busy, at 7.00 it was
buzzing, at 7.15 16 players were playing, at 7.30 48 players were playing.
Even more turned up later to make a total of 60 players.
So without further ado onto to who did what:
Peter Bennet, in his first appearance at Bg in Camden, won the Jackpot.
Mourad had another good evening and won the 2nd Jackpot. Mick V, in the
last tournament to complete, won T3. Alan, a regular, took T4. Lawrence,
in his first time at Camden, won T5. Ian T, another regular, won T6.
Michael H, who has been coming for 8 months, at last came came good and
won T7 but is now moving to Hong Kong. In T8, returned from Aus' for a few
weeks, Zoe won but hadn't entered to Optional Pool so Parvine, who had,
was delighted. George M broke his duck and won T9. Geoff C racked up
another win in T10. Ray K, in his second visit, won T11. And in T12
another first time Bg in Camden Tim won.
All charts here.
The Quiz,
which can be viewed here, was won by Jon Samuel.
Could the venue and Mike handle 60 players? Yes. The only person to be
left short was a player who had come along to learn the game but he'll be
send some sites to learn the game by and hopefully he'll come back again.
Did I have enough time to plug
Backgammon Live in London 2006 which will happen in November? No. Next
month I'll have somebody along to take registrations.
|
|
Summary:
Backgammon in
Camden is now 1 year old.
Time then to look at what we have achieved. 161 different Players have
taken part, 478 people's evenings have been enjoyed, 105 Tournaments have
been played, 820 Tournament entries have happened and £11,522 has been
played for and won.
Ok - those are the stats but what does that mean in comparison (not that I
like to do comparisons but in the interest of how London backgammon is
progressing it's a relevant question) to what there was available before?
As far as I know no other London Club has come in the past or present anywhere
near achieving these sort of stats. I've also done a search on the
internet and I can't find any club in the world that has the sort of
turnout that we are getting. If the general theory that backgammon
is coming into another heyday is true (one which I subscribe to) then Bg in
London is a reflection of that, or maybe it's a part of that - which - I
don't suppose that's for me to decide.
I put the success of Bg in Camden down to the a number of reasons. A) That
the internet has made the game more accessible and popular B) That many
players, having played online, want to play live. C) The venue is pretty
close to Central London, on reasonably good tube and bus routes and that
nearby parking is available. D) The Lockside Lounge is a decent size bar
with decent size tables suitable for backgammon and that the management of
the bar actually want us there and are themselves players of bg. E) That
the format is suitable for a wide range of players from world class
players to novices. F) That the players that attend are behaving in a
social manner towards all other players. G) That there is a monthly quiz
which projects to players that we are all on a learning curve no matter
how good we are when we walk in the door. H) That the bloke who runs the
thing does so because he wants to, now has a reasonable knowledge of how
to do it and is not there just to cream money off the players that attend.
So where do we go from here? Having sussed out a format that works for a
large number of players there is no reason to suppose that it could not be
developed further. Londoners are often "Have Become Londoners" because
they want to be close to the bright lights where there's lots of action .
However having moved and settled in London they often feel that London
should come to them and that they should not have to travel from one side
of the city to another. So "Have Become Settled Londoners" live in their
quarter of London and won't budge to another quarter - even if their hobby
is happening over there.
Bg in Camden is only a monthly event. There have been a number of people
who have said I should increase to fortnightly or even weekly. I'm not
convinced. I think monthly is good because players think along the lines
"If I don't turn up next Tuesday it'll be another 5 weeks until I'll get
some live bg action - so I'll make sure I can make it this month." Hence
I'm running on a less is more theory. I'd prefer to have about 40 players
monthly than a lamer 16 players weekly.
But what is good for the goose is good for the gander. So for those that
will not travel to another part of Town the obvious increase would be to
continue to run monthly in Camden and add similar weekly events in other
parts of Town. Hence provide local live bg around London. Fulham or
Battersea and The City are obvious locations, the West End would be good
too but would slightly duplicate The City. If those other venues
are, like Camden, along tube and bus line and have parking then the
players that wish to play weekly or fortnightly can easily do so.
So why have I not gone ahead and set these up? A) Because I'm off on a
walkabout in Jan '07. It seems crazy to me to set up things, get them
ticking and then for me to push off for upwards of 6 months. I'd rather wait until
I'm back. B) It wouldn't pay me to do so. My take from 1 year of running Bg in Camden has been less than £1000.
Most of that money has been
ploughed back into the running of Backpacker Backgammon. Ok - I could be
charging more than I do presently and I'm pretty sure the players wouldn't
grumble. But to commit myself to running a event every week somewhere in
London is quite different to doing a once per month bash that is
reasonably close to my home or work. I'd either have to increase my
charge to players or pull in a sponsor who has a vested interest in seeing
more bg played. The latter is I think the way to go.
|